The six things wrong with the America I love

Published 9:52 pm Thursday, August 6, 2015

There is a line in the movie “Revenge of the Nerds” where ginger-haired Poindexter, lacking small talk, asks his Omega Mu sorority date, “Would you rather live in the ascension of a civilization or its decline?”

I love America. But I fear it has tipped toward decline — far too early for this young, clever experiment in democracy.

I am a first-generation, legal immigrant who joined a white-collar tide from the mother ship in 1980, seeking escape after a year of grim reality, aka Margaret Thatcher.

Instead, I endured first the failed celluloid unreality of Ronald Reagan then the consistently disappointing leadership that followed.

Thirty-five years after I stepped off that Pan-American plane, I have paid my dues. I’ve stayed silent for years, maintaining that awkward persona of an impartial observer, a guest tolerating his host’s foibles.

I cannot do so any longer. As we Britons say, America is going to the dogs. It needs rescuing.

So, as nothing gets read these days unless it promises a list, here’s mine.

The six things wrong about the America I love.

No 1. Civility

First is the lack of civility. I realize my background, as a white privileged Englishman, gives me a reputation for avoiding rudeness. We are a polite tribe, even with our bayonets. Am I alone in thinking that this shrill cacophony of abuse in modern America is simply sickening? The people who raise their voices the loudest and are the rudest are not necessarily those who should be heard or heeded. When will this nation realize that civility is not a form of weakness? In my view, it is a sign of a tolerance we seem to be lacking. People laughed at Drew Herzig when he made this point before joining the Astoria City Council. Who is laughing now?

No. 2. Violence

There have been 239 documented school and college campus shootings since I emigrated.

We all know why. But no one wants to do anything about it.

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The Second Amendment could not be clearer.

• Does anyone really believe that the two teenagers who massacred kids at Columbine High School hoarded guns so they could drill daily to be “a well-regulated militia.”

• How about the racist who massacred nine Americans in church in Charleston, S.C.?

• Or, how about the jihadist who just massacred the U.S. Marines at Chattanooga, Tenn.?

The kerfuffle over the Confederate flag that followed the Charleston deaths was asking the wrong question. The over-riding question shouldn’t be about an historical piece of colored cloth. The First Amendment quite properly gives that a free pass, just as it does the abhorrent Nazi swastika, and the Union Jack, which once ruled over Eastern Standard Time. The people who greeted President Barack Obama waving the stars and bars have a constitutionally guaranteed right to do so. Just like the people who cheer him or any other president.

The more relevant question is the one the rest of the world asks after every one of those shootings. With all these avoidable tragedies, why do we allow improper people such unbridled access to lethal weapons?

There is one firearm for every person in the United States of America. Based on this proclivity, I am inclined to wonder, is this nation home to the best-regulated militia in the world? It certainly ought to be. Yet, when it was truly needed for its peacetime mission during Hurricane Katrina, much of our true, well-regulated militia was away killing brown foreigners in places most Americans couldn’t find on a map. And all based on a lie.

No. 3. Leadership

How has politician become a dirty word? I wonder, was it always? I look around at people like Deb Boone, diligently serving our community in the Oregon Legislature with few rewards and even fewer pats-on-the-back, and wonder why on Earth she does it. Certainly not for the $23,000 a year. And don’t tell me she works “part time,” because that’s a crock of you-know-what. She seems exceptional.

Nationally, I look at the burgeoning field of Democratic and Republican suits wanting to lead us into the next disaster, and I see little difference between them. Just about all have sold out to monied special interests. It is not an original thought, but I agree they should be required to wear sponsor logos on their suits just like NASCAR drivers. And don’t get me started on Donald Trump. His comedic excesses make some of the GOP candidates appear halfway civilized.

No. 4. Taxes

America loves winning. Our national psyche says we must be No. 1. We are. We are topping league tables in poverty, hunger and homelessness. The same country that put a man on the moon has citizens living in their cars and on its streets. Yet this is the most affluent, advanced, supposedly civilized country in the world.

And too few people are standing up and saying what needs to be said. This truth hurts. If we are going to create and maintain a truly supportive society, one that helps our most vulnerable neighbors, we need to cut spending on guns and bombs. And we need to gather more tax revenue to pay for important services — like mental health — that are not properly funded. That means more people paying their fair share of taxes. Yes, that might mean more taxes for everyone.

It has always puzzled me that IRS agents are demonized. Doesn’t everyone believe their neighbor should pay at least as much tax as they do? That means fewer loopholes and more IRS agents to pursue the people who don’t pay.

No. 5. Religion

It is way past time to restore government, as those revered Founding Fathers intended it, back into a religion-free zone. How many more needless deaths will the Religion(s) of Love cause? When we talk about “Christian values,” are we talking about the Klan or Westboro Baptist Church? No, you say, but …

“Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding,” by Steven K. Green from Willamette University in Salem, should be required reading in grade schools, an antidote to the myth preservers.

Let’s let religion be a matter of personal choice or conscience, not an area where one zealot and his brainwashed followers’ biases become public policy. There is only One True Religion and that is mine. Except for yours, and the bloke down the street. How about we agree to disagree — and move ahead?

No. 6. Protest

There is far too much civil obedience in this country. Too many are silent. Americans have swallowed the bread and circuses they are fed. Even demonstrators, who show enough cajones to put their feet on the pavement, are voluntarily allowing themselves to be penned behind police lines. The Occupy movement offered a timely message, but was hijacked by anarchists. However, it said the unsaid: the class war is alive and well.

Speaking of police, I think we are lucky on the North Coast to have dedicated officers who take their “serve-and-protect” oath seriously.

Bu we read almost daily of cops around the nation shooting unarmed black men who are minding their own business. It’s bad enough that they do it. But most seem to get away with it, with little or no sanction. Am I alone in thinking this has to stop?

It is time to stand up, America.

Today’s wonderful rainbow of poorly rewarded veterans, gay Lutherans, agnostic Seahawks fans, long-suffering soccer moms, and even “old hung-up, Mr. Normal” from “Tommy,” needs to say one word.

Enough!

This is our country.

We must take it back and reshape it. Properly.

Venceremos!

North Coast writer Patrick Webb is former managing editor of The Daily Astorian.

‘This shrill cacophony of abuse in modern America is simply sickening.’