It's time to rise up from your easy chair and stop shouting at the TV every time you hear words like gender equity, CRT, election deniers, climate change and extremist ultra MAGAns. You had better face and accept some critical facts before you blow a gasket and end up last in line (after all the illegal immigrants) at the ER. But most of all, you had better get used to the idea that maybe you made a mistake by moving here.
Our schools are sub-standard and our children are failing in massive numbers. Many can’t even speak English let alone read and are being 'socially promoted' so they can fail at a higher grade level. Crime is through the roof and we molly-coddle criminals instead of putting them away where they belong. We tolerate drunken driving and happily promote more marijuana use. Doctors are AWOL, but if you do find one you won't get an appointment for six months. We are a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants and pregnant women seeking abortions.
We don’t have enough private sector jobs because we don’t offer the right incentives. Businesses are overburdened with taxes, reporting and unnecessary regulations. We say we're a cultural 'melting pot,' but few in those cultures have little interaction with one another. We talk a good game about racism, poverty, inclusion, transparency and accountability, but when it comes time to stand up and actually DO something, we pass the buck to the other guy and (re)elect him/her to represent us.
We're like ticks. We burrow into the flesh of state, county and municipal government jobs and then spend the next 20 or more years, retiring-in-place while we work to get all our cousins on the payroll alongside us while the cost for all these workers falls onto the shoulders of others. Compromise? Nope. We won't because we're afraid of losing an inch of that niche we've carved out for ourselves. We don’t trust anybody from out-of-state and we suffer from a terminal case of neighbor envy when it comes to Texans. We're patron-dependent (on government) and seem to like it that way. We don’t trust foreigners but fawn over Hollywood by putting up statues of fictitious criminals while we tear down monuments to actual historical heroes.
Worst of all we keep electing the same sub-standard politicians and we put them in charge of our finances and then let them make public policy for us. In short, we keep making the same mistakes over and over again and keep expecting different results. Those of us who chose to come here expected better, but we're rapidly losing our patience with the New Mexican brand of hypocrisy like opposing the death penalty for murderers but protecting the rights of women to abort a fetus during the final, critical weeks of its development.
Even though the nation is falling apart, we can do something, locally. We have resources that we can use to shape our future, but we will fail unless we shake off the cobwebs of complacency and laziness. Our elections give us that chance, and the next one's around the corner. If you aren’t registered to vote, register now. If you don’t know who the candidates are, do some research and then vote for the one you think might actually improve our state.
Lewis Carroll put his finger on the importance of having direction in life in a simple exchange between Alice and the Cheshire cat in "Alice in Wonderland." Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Alice: “I don’t much care where.” Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
The bottom line is simple. We can change direction if we know where we want to go, but we need to be prepared to live with our choices. Anger is a natural human emotion, but unbridled anger can be destructive. That said, there are times when anger can be a catalyst for action and progress, but we must want both badly enough. Do you?
Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of twelve books, six of which are on American politics and has written over 1,200 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He operates a political news story aggregator website, www.projectpushback.com. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com
