What Do We Want???

To a friend: "I know from experience that we, as the U.S., have a horrible and declining reputation outside our borders. I don't think that the majority, especially our young adults, have ANY clue as to the horror of the situation. Why are Americans wearing Canadian flags when travelling abroad? It must be because of the desire to insulate against the very common perception of our country as an overbearing imperial state whose internal affairs are rotting.

"In the face of all this, I really have no desire to cry "woe is me; woe is us." I think that we are getting what we ask for by way of accepting our own ignorance and choosing comfort. As I often say, the consequences reveal the rules. Perhaps the consequences in due time will be rather horrible.

"I ask myself what I can do in the face of all the stuff I hear about the shenanigans around me. I don't know. I don't even feel that I can escape. Even in your situation up there, you are living the horror by association. You know them as intimately as I do. If things go very very wrong with our infrastructure, then you will be perhaps insulated from that for a while, as distinct from folks in cities who will have three days and then chaos.

"I maintain, adamantly, that we have everything to make this world a Paradise. yet we have not the will to take the world from the hands of its destructors. Was Walt kelly right? His cartoon character, Pogo, exclaimed as an all too accurate misquote: "We have met the enemy, and he is US!" How is THAT to be turned around? What do I do, I, ME, to make a difference in vectoring this ship away from the reef its bottom is already scrapping? What do you think? how would you advise me on this? I would really like to know. And most importantly, I would like to know it from a standpoint of having a constructive attitude in the face of it all. That is what I would like to know. How do we precipitate an actual civilization from what we have as a public picture. Is there anything even equal to a grain of sand that you can give me in that direction?

"Thanks for hearing me out. Even if the whole shebang goes to hell, I want to know that as far as I could, I tried to put my hand on the wheel and turn the right way."