At what point in my 60 years should I have thought the United States wasn't depraved?
We live in a country that when we were under the age of ten, over 58,000 soldiers lost their lives in a "conflict" that never made sense from its origins back in the mid-1950's.
In our teens, we watched the highest level of our government betray us with the Watergate scandal and we got to read about National Guard troops and State Police shooting, in 11 days, college students - six of them fatally.
In the 1980s, we saw the Greatest Country in the World turn a blind eye to the AIDS epidemic, while another leader of our Government at first "couldn't remember" but then admitted that yes, he'd authorized an illegal arms for hostages scheme.
In the 1990s, genocides in both Rwanda and Bosnia outraged some but for the most part, the American people said, "not my problem."
In the 2000s, we had 9/11 which then led to a mind-bending over-reach of our Federal Government into our private lives, all in the name of protecting us, plus we invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, blew the shit out of it, and last I looked we're still tangled up there. Also, we failed to take care of the first responder's medical expenses and it took prolonged pressure from a comedian (Jon Stewart) before we gave the benefits they deserved.
In the 2010's - we've seen the 30+ year percolation of far right-wing disinformation, that exposed our general lack of critical thinking skills, give us a heightened sense of political division in our country that then gave us Trump and the current woefully inept group of elected officials...
Looking back before some of us born, in the late 1930s, the United States of America refused a passenger ship with Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe to allow them to disembark and take refuge in the greatest country on Earth.
In the 1940s, for better or worse, that same country would become the only country to date to ever detonate an atomic weapon in the course of war. We did it twice, killing almost 250,00 people in the process.
The Tulsa Massacre, our horrific racial injustices in our prison systems, generations of prejudice, crime, cruelty, and greed, our meddling in other countries affairs, the lack of a coherent health care system, etc, etc, etc.
Some folks think Cardi B and "the left-wing media" are perverted and pushing depravity.
We've ALWAYS been depraved.
Remember how offended some of you were when a black quarterback dared to kneel - quietly - during the national anthem to silently protest police violence against blacks in this country? I do. People lost their minds, especially on the right. It was unacceptable you said. You had no problem when the NFL canceled Kaepernick. Same thing with the Dixie Chicks a decade earlier when they went against President Bush. Remember Sinead O'Conner and her SNL performance where she tore a picture of the Pope in half? Same thing...back then, canceling was just a patriotic duty.
Now, fast forward to January 6th of this year.
Too many STILL support Trump and are awfully quiet about the abuse that members of our law enforcement had to endure that day. For being vocal about supporting law enforcement, the events of 1/6 really put you in an uncomfortable place.
That was depraved. That was obscene. That was perverted.
Make no mistake, our country is knee-deep in all of it right now. When facts no longer matter, when lies that support your personal narratives replace truths and any impulses to critically think your way through the contradictions, what else can you call it?
Collectively, we are sick in the US. Not just from the Covid-19 pandemic. That will, in time, no longer remain the threat it has been and which has taken almost 550,000 of our Mothers, Fathers, siblings, friends, and children. That's also depraved and obscene in its own way but the bigger pandemic in our country is the virus of ignorance laced with a virulent component of pride.
There's no vaccine for that coming anytime soon. A mask for this condition is useless.
That's depraved and obscene, of course. Right now, elected officials are trying to diminish voting rights in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan to name a few locations. Now, if you're white, you probably don't have to worry too much. If you're black and you've enjoyed the "Souls to the Polls" on that Sunday before election day every four years, well, conservative legislatures would basically tell you, "too bad."
I'm 60. While the country surely has seen amazing technological advances since my birth, the progress of how we treat each other, how our tolerance for those different than we are, etc. doesn't seem that much better in some places than it was in the year of my birth.
We were supposed to leave our kids a slightly "more perfect union."
Are we?
We have much bigger things to worry about than Cardi B's WAP...
