The United States is an amazingly complex nation. With a population of 326,400,000, and an annual nominal Gross Domestic Product of $19.3 trillion (that’s $19,300,000,000,000) we are a populous, and apparently prosperous nation as well. (*0)
We have high standards of medical care, a highly advanced volunteer military, our music and movies are exported around the world, spreading the highlights of our culture for all to see and emulate. We are the epitome of the glory and glitz of a capitalist nation showing the world what it can aspire to be, if only it will adopt our lifestyle and our values.
As a citizen of the United States, though, I’m just not sure what our values actually are. Oh, I know what our stated values are, we like to pop them off when we get into a discussion with someone from another country. ANY other country.
Now, understand that I’m aware no nation is perfect. There isn’t a perfect system out there, and definitely not one we would have come up with, not now anyway, but the United States seems to be a sugar pill with an especially bitter center.
We talk about being the most free, the richest, the most powerful nation. Yet beneath the sugary, sparkly surface of glittering commercials and cheery slogans offering you the opportunity to purchase the latest trend, live the homeless, the starving, the abused, the forgotten, and the ignored.
* 549,000+ long term homeless people (1 year or longer). (*1)
* 7 million+ people in extreme poverty
* 1 in 5 children go hungry every day (*2)
* 1 in 2 people suffer from some form of depression and anxiety, while…
* 1 in 17 citizens experience severe mental illness of which…
* 1 in 6 live at or below the poverty line with the key issue that…
* 300,000 mentally ill persons are currently in jails and prisons. (*3)
* Our police force has a reputation for brutality, for shooting people of color, the mentally ill, the poor, and the disadvantaged without just cause, with 385 occurring in 2015, of which…
* 98% of police officers involved in those shootings being found not guilty. (*4)
* A court system which rewards convictions due to the enrichment of private prisons, which operate on a for-profit system. The more prisoners they have, the more money they make. In the process, prisoners lack proper healthcare, nutrition, and a safe environment. Speaking of… (*5)
* The U.S. has the highest prison population in the world at 716 per 100,000 people. Which means…
* The United States prison population is 22% of the world prison population. (*6)
Our culture is changing. Where we were once a genuine, kind, open nation, we have become more secretive, more stingy, less compassionate. A large part of this is undoubtedly due to the events of 9/11, which drastically altered the course of the United States. Where we’re heading, I’m not certain, but we seem to be all the worse for it.
According to Scientific American, the current crop of U.S. citizens now graduating from college are less empathetic than previous generations. We’re becoming more insular, less likely to bond with others, and as a result, our outlook and thereby our culture are changing. I believe the internet is a part of that, as it allows us to judge and condemn others from afar, rather than having to learn something about them. We see them as entertainment, as less than human whose lives are ours to toy with until we get bored and move on. (*7)
Of course, it’s not just the younger generation. The older groups are also cashing in on the need to stop caring for those less advantaged than themselves. This ties in, at least for me, the notion that we are becoming more selfish, more greedy, and that in the process we’re willing to sell off our humanity if it means getting a bigger piece of the pie. (*8)
This isn’t something exclusive to the United States, but since I am a citizen, I speak of this nation because it’s the one I’ve grown up in for the past 37 years. I have watched it go from a generally good hearted country to a nation of angry, enraged misers who would step on someone’s face and throw them in jail rather than help them get their lives back in order.
It is this veneer of civilization that makes it so deceptively hard to detect, though. When I watch the news, I see the concerned looks on the faces of the news anchors, delivering the terrible misdeeds of another, but if you watch, you’ll see them fluidly slide from the story about 30 dead children in a bus accident, to lighten up as they make a joke about the weather, handing it off to the brightly smiling visage of a person standing in front of a green screen to talk about the great football weather.
It’s almost psychotic in how the switch takes place. If I did that in real life, people would doubt my sanity, but because they see it from representatives of our news system, of our media, the supposed watchdogs of all things important, it’s perfectly normal.
This is not normal. It’s not normal. We segregate, and subdivide other human beings into easily categorized compartments. Criminals are all evil, and deserve the horrible things that happen to them in prison (next time someone says they hope Bubba “takes care of him,” realize that they’re telling you they believe it’s okay to rape someone as long as they don’t like them). The poor are all lazy, and if they really wanted to work, there are millions of jobs. The hungry and homeless are hungry and homeless because they abuse drugs. As for drug users, they’re drains on society who can’t be trusted.
At the same time, there are venerated politicians who have committed crimes which have resulted in thousands, even millions, of people, including children, becoming homeless, helpless, and hopeless. They’ll call for harsher sentences if you’re poor and unable to defend yourself in court, regardless of guilt or innocence, but it’s different for themselves. They didn’t commit a crime, they made an error in judgment, you see. Too bad we can’t offer that level of compassion and empathy to the poor who sit in a prison cell because they didn’t have the money to defend their rights. Only the rich have earned this “right.”
There are poor men and women who work two, even three jobs to feed their families. They are ignored because they contribute nothing of major importance to the super wealthy besides their hearts and souls, and since hearts and souls are only legitimate if memorialized on a greeting card or commercial holiday, it is of no consequence.
The hungry and homeless have no voting power, and are thus the least to be concerned about in the grand scheme of things.
Smoke marijuana, and you’re a drughead. Drink a beer, smoke a cigarette, you’re just a hard working American enjoying a small vice that harms no one, really. That politician who does cocaine in his private office? He contributes to our great society.
Folks, I get upset because we’re selling off our humanity, bit by bit, piece by piece. Here is what I want in order for us to recapture our collective souls again:
I want a United States that feeds all of its citizens. From child to adult, every citizen (and non-citizen living within its borders) has access to nutritious food every day.
I want a United States that makes certain every person, regardless of income, to have access to proper medical care without the debilitating price tag to crush them.
I want a United States that rehabilitates its criminals, rather than abuses them, tosses them in a jail cell, or attaches a record to them that follows them around for life. Along those lines, I want the death penalty abolished.
I want us to be kinder, gentler, more compassionate. I want us to stop destroying lives, to stop hating and judging, to quit bullying those who are different, who are mentally ill, who are poor. There is no excuse for any of us to partake in cruelty. Our first directive, as a nation, should be to love the stranger, to comfort the downhearted, to feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked and needy. We must do these things if we ever hope to be a civilized nation, let along the “shining city on a hill” we like to boast about.
I will leave this with a passage from Matthew, chapter 25, verses 31 to 40:
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'”
(Matt. 25:31-40)
With all of my love,
Amaris
Sources:
(0) https://www.census.gov/popclock/
(1) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/16/homeless-count-population-america-shelters-people
https://projecthome.org/about/facts-homelessness
(2) https://www.nokidhungry.org/problem/hunger-facts
http://abcnews.go.com/US/hunger_at_home/hunger-home-american-children-malnourished/story?id=14367230
(3) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-neglect-of-mental-illness/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mentally-ill-in-jails-neglected/
(4) https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=84
https://mic.com/articles/129981/10-police-brutality-statistics-that-are-absolutely-shocking#.RCwzQXFxT
(5) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/us/politics/justice-department-private-prisons.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/how-for-profit-prisons-have-become-the-biggest-lobby-no-one-is-talking-about/
https://www.nacdl.org/criminaldefense.aspx?id=19574
(6) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/04/30/does-the-united-states-really-have-five-percent-of-worlds-population-and-one-quarter-of-the-worlds-prisoners/
(7) http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/08/25/humans-are-far-less-empathetic-than-they-used-to-be/
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/15/social-media-making-millennials-less-social-study.html
(8) http://nymag.com/news/features/money-brain-2012-7/
http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2012/07/10/27336/does-money-make-people-less-compassionate/