The soul of America is sick and divided in Daydreaming on the Porch

I just texted a friend who lives in a more civilized part of the country — Seattle — as compared to this backward, racist state where I live — South Carolina— home of Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, the biggest hypocrite in Congress, who was disgracefully re-elected. Here’s what we
discussed.

I told him these past 24 hours have utterly blown my mind. What’s so shocking is how 65 million people could vote for a totally immoral/amoral/immoralist criminal, and the most dangerous and destructive type of narcissist one can imagine. That’s an objectively true description. It’s as if people have lost not only their souls, but their minds as well. We’ve had four years of that creature from some malevolent swamp, actively assisting in destroying our health and healthcare during a pandemic; engaging in every manner of corruption and lies possible; demolishing efforts to control global warming and climate change and rein in pollution; destroying our federal government agencies and departments, as well as our democratic institutions; and promulgating a de-facto racist, authoritarian state. I don’t even pretend to know this country anymore.

It’s terrifying. Mass stupidity and ignorance is much worse that I ever could have imagined. The consequences of a lack of education are abundantly clear. It’s like a mindless cult has infested the country. This election should have been an utter route and landslide. Instead, were biting our nails and hoping and praying it isn’t Trump for four more years because I don’t see how the country survives it. Yes, of course, it’s been a long time coming, but with Trump everything wrong with this country blew up in our faces, and has forced us into a long overdue reckoning

The writer Marianne Williamson said that basically our country’s soul is sick.

She wrote, To say our nation’s soul needs healing is absolutely true, but it’s not going to happen without a deeper understanding of what it means. The reason our nation’s soul is sick is because it hasn’t been healthy for a while. America doesn’t just have a pandemic, a broken economy or a tyrannical president to deal with. We have a collective mental health issue that is hiding in plain sight....

Only when we decide as a society to actively align our policies with the tenets of a healthy soul—putting kindness, love, mercy and compassion over cutthroat attitudes that put glorification of self over a commitment to the love that binds us as one, not only in our private behavior but in our political and economic behavior as well—will our wounded soul begin to heal itself…

Healing will take a long long time. I think the younger generations are the best hope for that process because they clearly see the kind of world older generations have left for them to mop up. I will continue to support organizations that fight for environmental and social justice, as I have for many years. And it will be my hope that the Biden administration will be the catalyst for positive change, and a return to decency in government and in our national discourse.

Last updated November 05, 2020