"Stop the world - I want to get off"

"To move forward as a country, we don't necessarily have to be on the same page, but for sure in the same chapter. If you feel differently than this, then you are invited to stop the world and get off. We don't want, nor need your help."

"Stop the world - I want to get off" is a Broadway Musical (also a movie) from the late sixties. I did not see it, but have heard the musical score. In my book? Anthony Newley could have done better. In any event, I thought about that title the other day. Just like that, in the young year of 2020, our nation is going bonkers. It is like many of our citizens have hit the overload button with a combination of the pandemic, the social unrest, the history revisionists, the everything abnormal. In other words, this world as it exists right now, is too tough, to weird, to live in. "Stop the world - I want to get off!"

This pandemic will eventually run its course. Not only our country, but also the world. Even though the United States has been hit particularly hard hit by this virus, we are getting smarter on how to treat this thing every day. New medical treatments, new ways to treat the very sick, progress on new vaccines, and so forth. In Minnesota, our daily death toll has only hit double digits twice in the past month - and those two days the count was 10 and 13. 

But I am not nearly as concerned about this pandemic as I am about what is happening to social fabric of our country. Politics has eclipsed all forms of common sense. How so? Many big blue city mayors would rather have their cities burn, than have help from a Republican President. In fact, they look at the infusion of federal troops to help protect federal buildings as  more of a threat than the misfits and mutts who are torching and looting everything. Meanwhile, in Chicago yesterday, 15 people were shot while attending a funeral. At least 60 shots were fired. Shocked? Not in Chicago. In that town having 15 people shot, is called a Monday.

Now I am going to say something which will sound like a huge "Duh". The majority of us are fine. We may not like this pandemic, but we are finding ways to navigate through it. We are not in the cities demonstrating, rioting, looting, and burning. We are not toppling statues and spray painting graffiti. We are the vast majority in this country. But the loud and obnoxious minority, along with the apathetic voters who elected nitwits to be mayors and city leaders, have made parts of our country look and act unlivable. We need to fix that, and fast.

Earlier this year, before the our nation "went into the ditch", I penned more than one article about the wonderful things which are coming this decade. How great the new "roaring twenties" are going to be. We are on the cusp of some truly amazing things. Life was good, and getting better all the time. Looking back from today, that seems like decades ago, rather than mere months. 

Bottom line? I don't want the world to stop. I don't want to get off. I still believe great things are coming. I want to keep working on making our nation a more perfect union. I want to see the prosperity of this nation be the tide which "lifts all ships" worldwide. I am proud of the fact, we feed so many hungry people worldwide. I love the fact to so many in the world still see America as the "shining city on the hill". I want that to continue.

I don't want to destroy our history, I want to learn from it. I want an end to this social entropy, before it blots our country in the same manner the Civil War did. What am I saying? Those who hate this country, are invited to leave. Those who love this country, are encouraged to stay.

We have toughed out difficult and bleak times before. We can do it again. But we can't do it if we are constantly at each other's throats. To move forward as a country, we don't necessarily have to be on the same page, but for sure in the same chapter. If you feel differently than this, then you are invited to stop the world and get off. We don't want, nor need your help.