I never thought I would see the day that the United States of America would be so weak, so willfully blind to falsehood, and so cowed by ignorance. And yet that is where we are.
The consequences of our poor decisions as a people are everywhere.
The "Sexual Revolution" was supposed to liberate women. Instead, it has produced an increase in divorce rates and in the number of children living without a father in the home, a dramatic decrease in marriage rates, and an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases, especially in young people. Hardly a week goes by without an article discussing the problems American men (and boys) are facing in society today: loneliness, aimlessness, lack of purpose and identity, and for Black males in particular, poverty.
Our educational system, once the envy of the world, now seems preoccupied with sexuality and gender confusion and produces children who score remarkably poorly, especially in math and science, relative to other developed nations.
Homelessness has dramatically increased in the U.S. -- up almost 40% in the past year alone. The downtowns of many of our largest cities look like episodes of "The Walking Dead"; people suffering from untreated mental illness and/or addiction slump, stagger, and sleep in trash-filled streets pockmarked with puddles of urine and piles of feces.
Crime is also up in our major cities; not only violent crime, but property crime like retail theft and shoplifting, which cost stores nearly $100 billion last year. San Francisco has seen nearly 50% of its downtown retailers leave the city.
Somewhere between 6 million and 7 million immigrants have been permitted to cross the southern border illegally since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, putting enormous strain on the country's educational, medical, housing, and law enforcement resources.
And then there is the weaponization of government and the two-tiered system of "justice." The Justice Department and the FBI are doggedly trying to destroy former President Donald Trump with specious indictments. At the same time, the same conduct by Biden (alleged possession of classified documents) or worse (influence peddling and bribery) barely warrants an investigation.
These disastrous circumstances are the direct results of horrible policies. Americans should be up in arms and running those responsible out of town on a rail. And yet, when we are told to ignore these consequences or even to celebrate them as evidence of some kind of cultural progress as a civilization, we have done precisely that for the most part.
Our government and other important cultural institutions (schools, churches, entertainment, sports) now behave as if the most important duty they have is to make everyone feel good about themselves, to validate every choice, and to make no judgments about behaviors, notwithstanding how damaging they are to individuals or society at large.
This is folly on a massive scale, and it is long past time that Americans stand up and push back -- hard.
What does "standing up" look like? It looks like what we are -- finally -- starting to see percolate up in cities and towns across the country.
It means making responsible adult decisions: getting married before we have children and staying married after we have them, making every effort to provide a stable, secure, and loving home life for our families.
It means having the courage to tell the younger generations that -- notwithstanding what popular culture and Planned Parenthood promote -- sex is not just frivolous recreation but a vital part of human civilization that belongs in the committed relationship of marriage.
It means defending our ideals in conversations with family members and friends instead of remaining silent to avoid making people "uncomfortable."
It means taking control of our schools and insisting that pornography is removed from school libraries and that content with racial hatred and revisionist history is removed from curricula. It means removing teachers who think that their responsibilities include fostering sexual exploration and gender confusion. It means replacing intransigent school boards with those who listen to parents and families. And it means removing our children from any public or private school that tries to drive a wedge between students and their parents.
It means holding city and county governments accountable and refusing to tolerate riots and other violent disruptions. It means protecting private property and punishing crimes, including shoplifting and vandalism. It means demanding clean streets and the removal of homeless encampments. It means pressuring state and federal lawmakers to allocate taxpayer dollars to treatment for Americans dealing with mental illness and substance abuse instead of sending billions abroad to support foreign wars and fatten the wallets of warmongering defense contractors.
It means demanding enforcement of our immigration laws and stopping the flood of millions of the world's poor into this country to be placed on welfare programs at American taxpayer expense, driving up housing costs and driving down wages.
It means insisting upon national sovereignty and refusing to submit to the globalists who would hold everyone hostage to the whims of an unelected few.
It means voting out all politicians who are in office for their own personal aggrandizement and those whose policies are destructive to American society, whether by intention or ignorance.
It means defending and preserving our Constitution, one of the most magnificent documents of liberty and self-governance ever written in the history of human civilization.
Above and beyond our personal integrity, the preservation of our freedom, our independence, our prosperity, and our system of government depends upon election integrity. And that means state and local policies and balloting practices that prevent fraud and manipulation. Without election integrity, the most ignorant, destructive, or corrupt politicians will be able to flout our laws with impunity.
The hour is late. We cannot afford to be apathetic, complacent or resigned. Our country is groaning under the weight of decades of poor leadership. But collapse is not inevitable. We the People, can do better.
And we must.
To find out more about Laura Hollis and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member