I was sad and weary to wake up this morning to the news that we are invading yet another country, finding new and innovative ways to hide the real reasons, and squabling with people who think it’s excellent – look at our latest tools to threaten and kill – while so many Americans are struggling to get by and buy their homes and eat their food in confidence and comfort.
Another American tragedy is unfolding right before us. I am so weary of it. It has never worked. It can never work. Once again, our military gets to show off its newest toys that we finance. Once again, the flags fly, the Generals beam.
I’m heading towards my 8th decade and can’t even tally all the times I’ve awakened to this story, for years on the front page of a newspaper, and now on a cell phone or computer, or the newest bs, the influencer. It has never failed to end badly.
The new Mayor of New York, deeply attached to his faith and beliefs, was in a Bronx apartment house last night trying to help residents of a rat-infested, rotting apartment complex that people have been complaining about for years.
It was shocking to see a politician actually visiting people in need and promising to help them. How come I’m not weary of that? Because I’ve hardly ever seen it in my country. Of course, the billionaires will hate him for it.
Is there anyone with any sense who doesn’t know this non-war is not about justice, but oil?
New York’s new mayor has the right idea. Bless him.
The outrage is not that he is going to help people, but that hardly anyone else is. The tragedy is that no one else is doing it.
We have so many resources in our country – we are crawling in wealth and billionaires – and almost none of them are actually going to help the people who work for a living. That money is being stolen upwards. It costs a lot of money to invade a country without sacrificing a soldier. Why not?
I am no extremist left or right, and no socialist for that matter. Working with a food Pantry these past few years, I have a keen understanding of the sickness infecting our country, of the poverty and struggle.
That’s the war I ought to be waking up to—a war on suffering. Right here, and we don’t need aircraft carriers or jet bombers to get there.
We love the stories of our country’s soldiers, spending billions of dollars to find all kinds of ways to impose our values, such as they are, on a distant country.
How has this worked out? It never has.
How many countries have we really saved? How much freedom have we really protected?
This new non/ear is not in my national interest.
Do the war masters car?
The real sickness, to me, is that we don’t yet understand that the best thing we can do is take care of our own people and help them live secure, meaningful lives. It’s the same story. We are going to run this country, then that, we fail again and again, and in the process, forget about running our own.
Today’s “necessary” war could have purchased child care for half the country overnight, or given the money back to those food pantries that are actually helping people and not just by bombing them.
I think of Vietnam. I think of Libya, I think of South America, I think of Iraq. I think of Afghanistan. I think of Iran. I can now add Venezuela to the list. When will we ever learn?
I think of the politicians waving their flags, no longer willing or able to do their work. I think of the American Constitution, the wonder of the world, and how it is being chipped apart and ignored by the people who have sworn to uphold it. I’m not writing this as a woke or asleep person. I am not a blue or red person. I am writing this as a sad and weary American person.
We are fighting the wrong people and for the wrong reasons, and bit by bit making the world a sadder, uglier, and angrier place to live in. And I am helping to pay for this outrage. I’m not talking about Venezuela. I’m talking about one of the cruelest and most miserable countries in the world—my country.
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Sorry for injecting reality into our pretty flowers and loving animals. I couldn’t sleep again if I didn’t do it.
Nothing else to add except you’re spot on.
You are sincerely writing from the gut in a truly beautiful and impactful way. Well said. Have the billionaires done irreversible damage? All we can do is put our faith in whatever good people are left in government, help to represent them and volunteer for good in our own communities, and hope that our next leader can clean up the mess before the entire world hates and turns away from us.
I hope everyone VOTES in all elections, especially in the upcoming midterms. People need to participate more than ever. Your words, Jon, prove that the pen is mightier than the sword.
Thank you, Jon, for getting to the heart of this cruel insanity.
I appreciate the pastoral photos and Monday morning videos, and the balance to the wider world, but do appreciate you acknowledging sometimes the frustrating, wider world insanity as well. If anything , it makes the pastoral times even sweeter…..and is a good reminder….thanks.
Thanks Kay, we all have to live in the real world, but it’s nice to get away once in awhile..I appreciate your kind and thoughtful words..
Thank you Jon. Your writing helps me more than you may know.
well written piece, Jon. I, too, was beyond sad, angry (to the minimal degree I allow myself to be) and disheartened to wake up to my brief and minimal news reading this morning. Not happy at all…. just utterly sad. I could go on….but I won’t. You pretty much echoed what I’m feeling and thinking
Susan M
Jon, the reality is that both things exist at the same time, and each of us gets to decide on which one we focus. If we look back through history all over the world, the weak have been victimized by those in power in millions of different and cruel ways since the dawn of time. There have always been those who have opposed this and have tried to find solutions. If there is some great being or beings, and this world is their experiment, then this 2,000 year-long experiment with humans should be enough empirical proof that there will always be two sides, and that this is just human nature. There will always be hatred and tyranny; it’s wired into our human brains. Suffering galvanizes those who suffer, those who wish to alleviate the suffering and those who are causing it. This human ability to purposely cause pain to another human without pity or mercy, is a virus. There is no vaccination for it. Each of us chooses which side we are on, and our lives are built around that choice. Having said this, I know which side I choose. I choose to be a part of the solution. I have also been part of the problem, and still can be, if I am not mindful and aware of my own shitty human nature. Thank you Jon, for taking the risk to talk about reality.
Thank you, Jon, for speaking from your heart and telling it like it is.