The shape we are in

LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson

America was once like a fine athlete: lean, trim, muscular, quick, and confident.

We could take on anything and win, or, at least, be proud of our effort.

We aren’t that way anymore. It is like we fell down on the final turn and can’t get up.

I am approaching 65, and, I have to say, I have never seen this country in this bad of shape, not even during the Jimmy Carter tenure, the so-called age of malaise.

I’m not just pointing to our economic tribulations, which are obvious and deep; I am referring more to the decline of our sense of self.

It is a sad and disturbing thing to witness. Many Americans are now growing into maturity without a clear idea of a once national greatness driven by a collective sense of responsibility, pride, and a kind of glowing confidence that we could fix whatever was wrong.

What are we now?

Well, the country isn’t that fine athlete anymore.

America is becoming the flabby spectator sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to deliver the popcorn and giant Coke.

And some want their treats for free. They have bought into the mentality that achievement is too much trouble. Hand it over, and don’t you dare point out that it isn’t fair that you had to work your butt off to get what you have, while others drop out, shuffle off to Colorado, and get stoned.

Don’t be judgmental, America. Don’t you know those who have less than you are victims? And don’t you know you contributed to that simply because you may not be obsessed with what others haven’t done?

Indeed, if one expresses discontent with the attitudinal projections of the politically correct elite, then one is instantly a hater, a racist, a hopeless cave dweller lost to the enlightenment of this golden age of Leftist dogma.

Did you know that heroin use among adults in America reportedly has doubled in the last decade?

Compare that to the pervasive attitude now that drug abuse isn’t a bad thing, that it is victimless, that addiction is somehow a disease instead of a self-inflicted wound.

Coincide that report with our now general acceptance of open, legal sale of marijuana in some states. By the by, the push is on again in Missouri to legalize pot. Of course medical marijuana is the cover, but unfettered recreational use is the goal.

What a fine ambition.

Can you picture a marijuana business on a corner of downtown Maryville, real, real close to the university?

I can, because citizens don‘t challenge what they’ve been told. It is like the fight has gone out of us. We can’t resist stupidity, even at the risk of our children.

Or worse, people just don’t care.

Just so you know, drugs are not okay simply because our president and his liberal associates see no harm.

Drug overdoses kill more Americans than guns.

Drugs drive crime, lassitude, social dependency. And they ruin health, cause unemployment, and wreck families.

One can pretend otherwise, I suppose. That’s what we do now.

Donald Trump has had the audacity to suggest that border insecurity is a dangerous thing for America. There isn’t room here to list all the names he has been called by the tolerant Left, but bigot is at the top of the list.

Isn’t it always?

Border security isn’t about bigotry and never was. It is about national security in another age of insecurity. It is about what is best for the country, about making intelligent decisions, and having control of the country‘s direction. It is about maturity and leadership and responsibility.

Did you know that most heroin and meth is trafficked into this country from Mexico?

Did you know there is great tolerance on the part of our leadership for this type of international commerce? What kind of leaders don’t care enough about dangerous drugs entering the country to put a stop to it with something as easy as a barrier?

I’ll keep saying this: Our southern border is a sieve because our leadership — Obama, Hillary Clinton, and their supporters — must build a new demographic to stay in power. Therefore, it doesn’t bother them one bit that the country spends billions year after year to send people home so they can turn around and come back.

Of course liberal leadership has others to blame for the crime, the employment issues, the pressure put on our health and educational systems.

It isn’t them. It’s everyone else. It’s you and I for not thinking as they do.

And that’s why we’re in the shape we’re in.

Or at least I’ve put a scratch on the surface.

Larry W. Anderson’s novel, I, Eugenius, is available at The Daily Forum.