"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
Albert Einstein
Can you feel it? I can. It is as discomforting as it is unsettling. It consumes my daytime musings and then disturbs my nighttime rest. When thinking about it too long or too deeply, it causes a queasiness in my stomach. A unnatural tingling in my skin. I sense it is close. It is on the horizon, and soon will be upon us. Maybe it is already here. When it comes there will be no place to go, there will be no place to hide. What is coming is evil. Not the personification of evil, but evil itself.
I have borrowed the idea for this title from the Ray Bradbury book Something Wicked This Way Comes. I felt this would set the tone like no other phrase could. The evil that approaches has nothing to do with the season of Halloween, nothing to do with the growing darkness of evening. The evil which approaches has turned love to hatred, interest to apathy, brother against brother. It is truly could be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
We are vulnerable to this evil. Our great and pluralistic Republic has become fractured and bifurcated. We are split between winners and losers, red and blue, rich and poor, makers and takers. Our tax code has become a weapon for legalized theft as the wealthy are now eschewed by those who are not. Jealousy has replaced admiration. Greed is replacing generosity. In short, we are a mess.
The evil coming this way will take advantage of our confusion. It will take advantage on how some have clouded our perspective, muddied our history. Values which made our country great are now being replaced with selfish entitlements to things to which there is no claim. Hard work is being slowly and irreversible replaced with dependency.
Our great history and the facts which surround it are becoming ignored or interpretive. Numbers which describe our dire financial condition have become meaningless. Yes, evil is coming, and it is looking for fertile ground in which to dwell.
Years ago, when the Cold War was young, Nikita Khrushchev told us the Soviets would bury us. Even though spoken over fifty years ago, Khrushchev was describing the dwelling place evil always looks for. He was not describing nuclear war between our countries. He implied our system, our economy, our society would implode. When that happened, America would be finished and the Soviets would have won.
Today as compared to decades ago, our country is vulnerable and weakened. The evil which approaches from other shores now has a face. What is coming will not be a Cold War. It will not be a shooting war between nations. It will not be a Viet Nam type asymmetrical war. No, this evil will drag us into a new type of war. It will a war pitting fanatics and zealots of a religion against all who do not believe. Against all who are perceived to be corrupt. It will be the final act of a conflict which not only goes back centuries, but millennium. Some even say to the beginning. To Isaac and Ishmael. The zealots who want us dead are bloodthirsty killers. The are not afraid to die - in fact, they welcome it.
Yes, evil is upon us. It knocks at our door. This evil can only be defeated with resolute hearts. The same hearts which allowed us to forge this great country by practicing out of many, one. To forget that, to reject that in favor of tribal rivalry, makes us no different than countries fraught with sectarian violence. To defeat this coming evil we must be united and strong. We must be able to recognize this evil and call it out by name.
We owe our forefathers better, we owe our children better, and we owe ourselves better.
We are vulnerable to this evil. Our great and pluralistic Republic has become fractured and bifurcated. We are split between winners and losers, red and blue, rich and poor, makers and takers. Our tax code has become a weapon for legalized theft as the wealthy are now eschewed by those who are not. Jealousy has replaced admiration. Greed is replacing generosity. In short, we are a mess.
The evil coming this way will take advantage of our confusion. It will take advantage on how some have clouded our perspective, muddied our history. Values which made our country great are now being replaced with selfish entitlements to things to which there is no claim. Hard work is being slowly and irreversible replaced with dependency.
Our great history and the facts which surround it are becoming ignored or interpretive. Numbers which describe our dire financial condition have become meaningless. Yes, evil is coming, and it is looking for fertile ground in which to dwell.
Years ago, when the Cold War was young, Nikita Khrushchev told us the Soviets would bury us. Even though spoken over fifty years ago, Khrushchev was describing the dwelling place evil always looks for. He was not describing nuclear war between our countries. He implied our system, our economy, our society would implode. When that happened, America would be finished and the Soviets would have won.
Today as compared to decades ago, our country is vulnerable and weakened. The evil which approaches from other shores now has a face. What is coming will not be a Cold War. It will not be a shooting war between nations. It will not be a Viet Nam type asymmetrical war. No, this evil will drag us into a new type of war. It will a war pitting fanatics and zealots of a religion against all who do not believe. Against all who are perceived to be corrupt. It will be the final act of a conflict which not only goes back centuries, but millennium. Some even say to the beginning. To Isaac and Ishmael. The zealots who want us dead are bloodthirsty killers. The are not afraid to die - in fact, they welcome it.
Yes, evil is upon us. It knocks at our door. This evil can only be defeated with resolute hearts. The same hearts which allowed us to forge this great country by practicing out of many, one. To forget that, to reject that in favor of tribal rivalry, makes us no different than countries fraught with sectarian violence. To defeat this coming evil we must be united and strong. We must be able to recognize this evil and call it out by name.
We owe our forefathers better, we owe our children better, and we owe ourselves better.
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