We are destroying ourselves
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Editor,
America may well be in the brink of destroying itself. These words from Abraham Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
A related quote from Robert Reich, our Secretary of Labor under Clinton from 1993-97 and presently a professor at the University of California, Berkeley: “Charles and David Koch should not be blamed for having more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans put together. Nor should they be condemned for their petrochemical empire. As far as I know, they’ve played by the rules and obeyed the laws. They’re also entitled to their own right-wing political views. It’s a free country. But in using their vast wealth to change those rules and laws in order to fit their political views, the Koch brothers are undermining our democracy. That’s a betrayal of the most precious thing Americans share.”
Between Lincoln and Reich, have we learned much about building democracy and America? How about the Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations are people? Destruction from within.
Destroying ourselves is a most classic maneuver. Any good psychological counselor will tell us that, generally, people create their own misery. This is true with individuals, with couples, and with families. And we can take it right on up to the federal level and into our world as well.
We don’t like to look within for the source of problem. It can be painful. It takes time. It definitely requires changes. It is simpler to continue blaming others and ignoring the underlying source.
In my way of thinking there is a serious concern as to whether we continue destroying America or start reviving America by looking within our presently evolved system and taking the actions necessary to heal the disease of greed, fear and anger.
This last thought is for me and I’ll share it with you. Within me is the power to make of my life either a heaven or a hell.
Bob McClellan
Polson
