Permission to be Terrified
The sky is not falling. There are suddenly plausible ballistic missile warnings in Hawaii (not a drill, just a shift change). The President of the United States is devoid of any kind of restraint which up until now has defined the modern presidency. A massive looting of the US treasury was just perpetrated by the wealthiest Americans through their purchased representatives. The inequality gap is rising. Student debt burdens are becoming untenable. Health care remains a national weakness and what small efforts implemented to change it are under constant assault.
Perhaps if Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson had a Twitter during the forced removal of Native Americans and the Trail of Tears, things would not seem so unprecedented as they do now. President Trump is probably not our most racist, jingoistic, bombastic, and uncouth president. However, as our country has matured, it is reasonable to decry this presidency as completely unacceptable and throwback to a darker time in our history. Our country has ostensibly matured, and with it, the US presidency has matured and evolved. It was never meant to be as powerful as it is today; indeed if the powers of the presidency had not been allowed to evolve during the last two centuries, Trump would be altogether less concerning. Instead, we would be much more concerned with the craven Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan.
Things might be as bad as they seem. A national case of anxiety makes sleep fitful for millions of Americans. Mounting personal debts, health struggles, and a feeling that any glimmer once seen as hope has turned out to be a mirage. Dreams of retirement are reserved for the self-absorbed Baby Boomers; a generation which will be remembered for picking the pockets of its grandchildren while fighting every effort to improve the lot of future Americans or address existential threats to civilization such as climate change. It is a wonder that any of us get out of bed in the morning only to be greeted with a never ending covfefe of unpresidented tweets, and yet we go on to face our stagnated jobs. And yet we cannot blame all of our troubles on our current president, although he is making his best effort to ensure the we abandon any semblance of hope which we might still irrationally retain. National suicide rates steadily increased 24% from 1999-2014, well before the abdication American Democracy in favor of tribalism in 2016. Interestingly, the groups hit hardest were females 10-14 years old, and middle aged men 45-64 years old. The pressures faced by these groups are obviously different, but the erosion of hope takes it toll on all groups.
Suffice to say that things are bad and appear set to go to worse. We place our faith increasingly in the cold, uncaring universe to generate a random event which corrects our course. We are now waiting for the "Wild Card" event which unites us back toward some common dream and goal. I myself feel completely powerless and burdened in a way which I never have felt before. Permission to be terrified is granted. And yet I hold out my irrational piece of hope that somehow things will get better, and I hope that tonight, the anxiety lets me get just a little more sleep so that I may begin considering how to repair my own life and situation, and then, just maybe I can start figuring out if there is anything I can do to reclaim this dream.
Photo from Pixabay