The State of the DisUnion

I’m deeply disturbed by what is happening in America today. The anger, the rhetoric, the unwillingness to listen to the other side of the argument. It seems to be the norm to just shout down the other person. Reason doesn’t enter into the discussion anymore. Simply volume. I see it all around from sports to politics to local issues. What happened to the middle ground? It seems it can only be one way or the other, my way or the highway. How did we come to this? Where can we lay the blame? I can only see one answer. US. You and me. We no longer respect authority figures. Look at what has happened to youth sports. Parents yelling at the referees and coaches, coaches yelling at the referees. Pressure to win at all costs. Then turn to pro-sports and these multi-million dollar premadonna’s throwing temper tantrums when calls don’t go their way. More recently members of Congress yelling out at the President when addressing that body of legislatures. Is there no sense of decency left in this country? With the new media, it so easy to pander to the basic elements of society and whip them into a frenzy. How did we let people like Beck, Limbaugh, Palin become spokesmen for America? Who is are these reality star people? I’d certainly not choose to associate with them in real life, why would I want to waste my precious time watching them on television. Is their so called life better than mine? I don’t think so. I feel sorry for them if anything. This rhetoric around the Ground Zero Mosque, which isn’t really at Ground Zero and really isn’t a Mosque, can’t we just sit down and take a good look at it. Wouldn’t it be a good thing having a mainstream religious organization there sharing and information people on the real values of Islam? Something to begin countering the lies and distortions of the extremists? We can’t bury our heads in the sand when it comes to Islam. I’ve never seen so many emails containing half truths and out right lies as I have seen lateley dealing with Islam. Yes we fear it and are scared of it because nobody outside of that faith really understands it. And whose fault is that? It lies on both sides. I blame the moderate Imen’s for not speaking out against the extremists and I blame the Christian leaders for not condemning the Christian radicals spreading the lies about Islam. All I know is that if the we keep ratcheting up the hatred and rhetoric in this country, we are going to be in deep trouble. Hey, at 300 years old, we are still the new kid on the block in world affairs. This experiment in Democracy can still fail and we simply became a footnote in history.