What’s Ailing America?

It’s not just one thing

What will history say about the America of 2020? I doubt it will show the country as a shining light on the path of leadership by the supposed most powerful nation in the world. To me, it is more likely that historians will say that America was a sad failure. That seems to be all that the current government and its leadership can accomplish – failure.

At a time when there is a world pandemic striking hard at countries worldwide, a pandemic here in America that has caused over 140,000 deaths, a pandemic that caused millions to become unemployed due to the necessary shutdowns in states in order to try to mitigate the spread of the virus, a pandemic that has not stopped national outrage and protests against police brutality and systemic racism, and a pandemic with no national leadership, who do Americans turn to for help?

Political Ailments

President Donald Trump is responsible for so many dying. He has consistently undermined the steps being taken by states to contain the virus. Worse, Donald Trump feels no guilt, like every sociopath, and takes no responsibility for anything even remotely considered a negative, like coronavirus testing.

Lets be clear, President Donald J. Trump has built his administration up as being the most ineffective and inept administration in the history of America. I’ll show you why I say this.

He is a science denier when talking about climate change or the coronavirus, insisting that he knows better. As results show, quite clearly, Donald Trump doesn’t know better. Plus, I doubt he even cares.

He has shown his disregard for children of immigrants, called illegal immigrants by Trump, and locked them up in “detention centers” under horrible overcrowding and health conditions. “Detention camps” are not the words I would use to describe these facilities. They are concentration camps, defined as “a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy.” It seems this is no longer a newsworthy issue, its been overshadowed.

On May 25th of this year Minneapolis police arrested and murdered George Floyd, a Black American suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a store. Ex-officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, eventually killing Mr Floyd.

The murder of Mr Floyd evoked nationwide protests across America over his death and the systemic racism in America. The vandalism and rioting in some of the protests has resulted in further police brutality and excessive use of force. Trump has called the protestors “thugs.” The protests have been led by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) group, with White Americans supporting BLM, rather than leading, as it should be.

President Donald Trump, “attacked the Black Lives Matter movement, calling the rallying cry a ‘symbol of hate.'” Contrast this with the fact that while Trump has condemned the extreme right at times, he panders to his base by continuing his racist statements and beliefs (on the Confederate battle flag, Confederate statues, and Confederate names of military bases as examples).

Will Donald Trump be elected to a second term? Only time will tell. But, Donald Trump isn’t wasting any time in setting up his straw man should he lose to Joe Biden. He’s back to putting out, without any supporting evidence, his claim’s that voting by mail is ripe for fraud and will rig the election.

So, what is Donald Trump’s goal? Simply put, Trump is setting the stage to deny his loss to Joe Biden and illegally attempt to hold on to power. Now, if all the government officials live up to their oath to the US Constitution, Donald Trump will be forcibly removed from the White House. Joe Biden would be President and life will go on in America. Or will it?

We’ll back up just a touch to the ongoing protests in America. George Floyd’s murder was the straw that broke the camel’s back, resulting in the wide spread protests led by BLM. Black people (and other people of color) are tired of the lack of equality and are fighting for a new America. There is violence occurring at these protests not only from protestors, but from police as well.

The ongoing protests by the “thugs,” as they are labelled by Donald Trump, have brought Trump to the point where he announced that he would send in federal agencies to quell the ongoing rioting and protests. He kept his word, sending in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies to Portland, OR. The U.S. Marshal’s Special Operations Group and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol Tactical Unit in Portland are wearing military style camouflage uniforms that have no agency identifiers or name tags visible. All that can be seen are patches on their tactical vests of the word “Police.” These federal agents have been recorded driving up in unmarked minivans, jumping out and taking individuals into custody without stating the person is under arrest. The “suspect” is handcuffed and hustled over to the minivan and driven away from the scene of their kidnapping.

Some of those snatched off the streets, Gestapo style, have been charged with offenses and some have not. Those not charged were eventually released. This behavior by federal agents is as unconstitutional as you can get. So, one shouldn’t overlook these incidents. This is one reason why the founders of the US wrote the Second Amendment! Please don’t think this is an isolated series of incidents. Donald Trump has ordered 150 agents of DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations agents to Chicago in the near future.

Hopefully everyone knows what doing this is called? I can tell you it isn’t democracy in any form. It’s fascism. A person could surmise that this is Trump’s way of testing to see what he can get away with should he lose the election this November. Will America sit still, or will there be hell to pay.

These intrusions into American cities by federal agents won’t silence the protests. If anything, they will act as gasoline and ignite more violence and rioting. Donald Trump has made a tactical error it would seem. There is more that will open your eyes wider.

Those protestors are strong groups of primarily Millennials and Gen Zers. Their support for Black Lives Matter is clear. They will not bow down any longer to the repressive governments run by the Republicans or the Democrats. They know that the two parties of different sides of the same coin. Both have the same end goal, but have different paths to get there. These young people, of the extreme far left, see the Democrat Party as being centrist, at best, but generally right of center and not representing them and their goals. In fact, calling them socialist or communist would gain their immediate agreement. Is this truly a bad thing?

I’ve had the opportunity to speak with a Gen Z ardent activist of the extreme left political faction. This individual shall remain anonymous for their own protection. I’ll call this person “Activist Z.” Activist Z explained the ideals and goals of the movement itself.

When we observe the current political landscape of both the right and left, we see the same old battle going on. While the ideas of how to move America along may see incremental change to our way of life, it’s not good enough according to Activist Z. Bringing on those changes at a faster rate is also too slow.

Societal Ailments

When Activist Z and the others in the movement look at what America should be, they start with societal fairness, known as equality. To their belief system, whatever is needed to sustain a healthy life for all comes with certain basics. Those basics being housing for all, healthcare for all, equal education in the K-12 schooling system, food and water to comfortably sustain life, and no overblown government or capitalist organization.

Homelessness

Now, I’ll be taking these one issue at a time, starting with housing for all. In the richest nation on Earth (so we are told) there are over 560,000 people who experience homelessness every night. Over 200,000 of the homeless spend each night unsheltered (living outdoors in places not meant for human habitation). Now, don’t just see numbers, see them. These are people, human beings and they have no place to call home, like the rest of us do. Activist Z states that this would not be the case in their views. But, it’s not just the homeless. We must look to the to those living in substandard housing. Substandard housing is defined as “any condition which exists to an extent that it endangers the life, limb, property, safety or welfare of the occupants or general public.” There are about six million homes in America that are substandard. So think hard and visualize people living in those homes.

Still with me? Yes, okay. Now, according to 247wallst.com there are over 17 million vacant homes in America in 2018. Remember those 560,000 plus homeless? They could fill those homes over 30 times. Those six million substandard homes? They could be replaced 2.83 times from the vacant homes.

Activist Z shows that we have more than enough decent homes to house all of the population of America. No one should be living on the streets or in substandard housing. I have to say Activist Z has a point.

Healthcare

Now we know, without any argument, that every person in the country can be provided healthcare. No insurance necessary either. The only reason there is not healthcare for all is politics. There were 30.4 million people with no health insurance in 2018, with millions more with inadequate health insurance. If there was a national healthcare system (including dental and vision care), without any reduction of the level of services provided, then couldn’t we expect Americans to be healthier overall? We won’t know until we tried, though I don’t hesitate to say that with the current government (Democratic or Republican) it won’t get implemented equally for all Americans.

Food Security

Every member of any society should never have to suffer food insecurity, but it happens every day all around the world. With the coronavirus ravaging America there are more than 54 million people facing food insecurity, a total that includes 18 million children.

Consider that the world’s food production is sufficient to feed 10 billion people. Why then do we have so many people in America facing food insecurity? From the same article linked to in this paragraph, globally 30% to 40% of our food production is wasted every year. There should be no hunger in America, or the rest of the world for that matter.

But, when we review the topic we find that over 13.6 million children receive free breakfast and lunch meals at school. Now, no one wants to see any child go hungry, at least I hope they don’t. That’s helps children receive nutritious meals every day, however there are still children in schools that have yet to participate in the federally subsidized breakfast and lunch program. Plus, millions of children and adults don’t get three meals a day. Many parents (and other adults) don’t have enough of a paycheck to cover all their living needs, so they all go without.

Can you imagine sending your children to bed without supper because there’s no money left to buy enough food? I can’t and luckily never had to. When you wrap your head around the food insecurity issue, you can see why food security is a right, not a privilege. Every man, woman, and child should have enough nutritious food to feed themselves every single day.

Education

We all know that it is important to have children receive an education. In 2019, 58.6 million children attended elementary and secondary schools. But, do all these children receive equal education opportunity in America? Sadly, they do not. When looking at why this inequality is we see that resources is not the problem, it’s how the resources are distributed, that was reported in an article from American University in Washington D.C. in 2018. Okay, so we need to demand the inequality gap be closed, something our elected local, state, and federal leaders have failed to do in decade after decade.

If we don’t fairly educate our children in elementary and secondary school education, we then handicap them for their future, either in college or the workforce. The high school graduation rate in 2016 was 84.1%, leaving the rest as dropouts or late graduation for whatever reason.

For all the graduates of high school there are many paths they can decide to follow, such as college, vocational-technical training, and internships in many fields of endeavor. Those who enrolled in college for the Fall Semester of 2019 stood at about 18.2 million students for all 2 year and 4 year colleges and universities. Now, we have to work out a path choice for all the high school dropouts.

High school dropouts have difficulty obtaining high skilled employment. So, we find them flipping hamburgers at a fast food joint, or working in a field focused on manual labor, such as landscaping. It’s no hard to learn how to mow grass, edge lawns, and trim bushes. Most people can be taught these skills fairly fast, but the level of pay won’t come close to what college graduates make.

How do I know this? It’s because I dropped out of high school and worked menial jobs with poor pay. You look for a way out, but without a high school diploma you’re pretty much limited to a low wage “career.”

The education system needs to be set to offer an equal quality education, to include four years of college or university education. Plus, it should be free. Education beyond a four year degree can be paid for by the well educated student, using their learned skills to enter the workforce if necessary to pay for the advanced educational degree. The system must work with struggling students in high schools to get these children to not drop out of school.

What’s Left to Do

I tell you that is a great deal left to do. I’ve barely scratched the surface. There are all types of issues that will have to be worked out in the America envisioned by Activist Z and the other far left radicals (those socialist or communists that haunt our sleep). They are ready to tear down and rebuild a new America where equality will truly exist in their thinking. So much to do, but there is a part of Generation Z ready to change the nation.

Conclusion

The United States of America has stood for 244 years. Look at the mess we made. The system was rigged from the start and year after year generations of Americans have left it better off when the torch is passed to the next generation.

The political landscape in 2020 looks dismal. We have a President, along with his cabal, pretty much doing anything he wants. Laws, morals, and ethics mean nothing to Donald Trump. He’s just interested in pleasing his personal whims and having his ego stroked by his cult of followers.

There have been peaceful revolutions that changed the structure of a nation, take the old Soviet Union’s collapse as an example. Yet, history teaches us that violence and force are needed to change a nation, like the French Revolution and our own Revolution. A change in the national structure of American may end up breaking up America in to multiple nations. If the change can be done peacefully, or if it takes violent overthrow, the extreme left of Gen Z are willing to use either method. We already have 244 years of failure, so maybe Gen Z has ideas that we should accept and try.

There is no guarantee of a tomorrow in life, guarantee of a tomorrow in a nation that you knew yesterday.

I asked in the title, What’s Ailing America? I can tell you what’s ailing America, America is ailing America and her people.

Until next time