As I read the news and some Facebook posts, I feel more and more disconnected to this country, the United States of America. From the House giving sacred Apache lands away to a mining company to ruin, to Duke Energy polluting numerous streams in North Carolina (which would cost $8 billion to clean up but they aren't going to be cleaned up), to CIA interrogation techniques on a par with Hitler's SS, to a friend being stopped by police while literally walking across the street from work to home (he looked like someone they were looking for [not]), to the average CEO earning 331 times of the pay of the average worker, I don't recognize this country any more.
I vote in virtually every election but my vote simply doesn't count. Many people are swayed by hundreds of television ads encouraging them to vote against their own interests. We have troops fighting for our freedoms, we're told, but are they really fighting for the freedom of celebrities to drug and rape young women without punishment?
We lament what happened to the slaves and indigenous people in a previous century but are blind to the atrocities being committed every day in this century. To quote LeBron James, "I can't breathe."
Soon, I'm going to a Christmas concert with live singers (no "live" television with lip-synching) and try to get the cynicism out of my system. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas, everyone.
Updated Dec. 10: Corrected LeBron's name. How embarrassing!
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