I Worry About the Health of America

I worry about the world my children are inheriting.

I am really worried about the serious lack of basic education exhibited by too many of my fellow Americans.

The voices in my head say all kinds of things. "Don't worry, be happy, mon!" "Damn bastards, you goddamn bastards." "Faith, what is it and where is mine?" "The hell with it." "So what?" "Lord, have mercy."

It's so easy to just escape, forget about all the vile things that people seem to do. Sometimes it's hard to even imagine that people can be as cruel as they are. We torture people. How can one sleep at night? How can you look in the eyes of someone and be so cruel to them? Even more, how can we hold on to the knowledge that our fellow man can be so cruel, and reconcile it somehow?

Poignant: Someone chopped down a whole orchard of olive trees near an Israeli settlement. The aged Palestinian farmer who had planted and tended and harvested that orchard for decades was crushed. Devastated. Anguished. Whoever did it just killed that farmer, even though they didn't hack him with an axe personally.

The little things we can do to brighten, help, give back... I don't think we can make up for this kind of brutality.

Maybe it's time for another great flood.