I'm sure millions of other Americans share my relief that 2020 is about to come to an end. What lies ahead in 2021 cannot possibly be worse..... Or CAN IT? Let's hope not.
The suffering and hundreds of thousands of deaths due to Coronavirus are the main reason 2020 was a sad, devastating year. But it goes way beyond the mortality rate and the hospitalizations. Millions of people have been isolated during lockdowns (especially senior citizens in nursing homes). Millions have seen their livelihoods destroyed, their savings wiped out, and their hopes for a prosperous future shattered. Divorce, suicides and overdoses have risen steadily.
My wife and I are among the blessed. We still have jobs, benefits, and a roof over our heads. The mortgage is current, and there's no shortage of food on hand. Ditto for my son and daughter-in-law, who are both working, saving and building their future. But I never stop thinking about those who are hurting. I pray for them daily, and have given to many charities both local and national to do my part to alleviate the suffering.
But 2020 brought far more bad news than the Wuhan Virus. The anarchy, rioting and insane policies of liberal and progressive cities from coast to coast brought about a shocking assault on the rule of law. While there's no question there are bad cops out there, most of them are good people who try to do their best. But after years of demonization of police by politicians, demagogues such as Al Sharpton, and leftist university professors, literally millions of young Americans have a distorted, hateful attitude toward law enforcement.
The looting, vandalism and arson taking place in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and dozens of other cities has destroyed small businesses just as much as COVID-19 lockdowns.
What is thoroughly disheartening about 2020 is not just COVID-19, the riots, the tearing down of statues and monuments and the hatred of police; it is the supine, obsequious acceptance of this horrid state of affairs by millions of "woke" leftists and spineless politicians at the local, state and federal level. (By the way, where did that stupid word "Woke" originate in this context? From some Ivy League communist?)
For a couple months last summer, a chunk of downtown Seattle was taken over by thugs from Antifa and Black Lives Matter. A few days after the riff-raff took over a portion of the city ("CHAZ" - Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), the city's supposed "leader," airhead Mayor Jenny Durkan, flippantly declared that, hey, maybe 2020 would be a "Summer of Love." She was using a term from 1967, when pot-smoking and LSD-using hippies tripped out to Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district.
But I've gotta hand it to the Woodstock generation: All they wanted to do was get stoned & drunk, have sex, and crank out the rock-n-roll. They weren't interested in vandalizing businesses, assaulting police officers, tearing down statues or defunding police. Ah, for the good old days... It turns out, homicides, robberies, assaults, rapes and other crimes proliferated in CHAZ.
What it boils down to is that several decades of leftist domination of K-12 and academia have produced tens of millions of young adults who have limited knowledge of history, the U.S. constitution, natural law, the benefits and solid track record of capitalism, and the importance of spirituality. They are, however, thoroughly inculcated with secular-progressive "values" such as identity politics, "green" jobs, collectivism, anti-capitalism, and contempt for America's Founding Fathers.
It's an uphill struggle for baby boomers such as myself to educate young voters (I wouldn't waste a second trying to persuade liberals of my own generation -- they're a lost cause). But when it comes to younger people, perhaps there's no need to bring out the 'heavy artillery" (the British Enlightenment, Federalist Papers, or Milton Friedman's words of capitalist wisdom)
Maybe we just need to take this one small step at a time. By pointing out that government micromanaging in the form of mask mandates, restaurant shutdowns and over-the-top lockdowns harshly restrict individual liberty. Overbearing government demoralizes and depresses people, cuts off income, eliminates jobs, fosters hopelessness and destroys families.
Maybe it's a question of challenging young people with current "conditions on the ground" (to use a military term) and pushing back against vapid leftist philosophies with which they were indoctrinated during college.
Recall the famous Groucho Marx line, "Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?"
This is a battle for the future of our country, and by extension, for liberty throughout the world. We must not back down; we must not be timid; we must not lack confidence. It all hangs in the balance.
May 2021 be a much better year. I hope and I pray that it will be.
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