It Is A Shame — Here We Are Again!
June 11, 2023 by agutting@reviewjournal.com
Filed under Highlights
BY LOUIE OVERSTREET
I f not for time periods, this could be today’s headline: “The Greek lantern-carrying philosopher, Diogenes, quits and returns to his homeland!” It appears that he got tired of walking the streets of D.C., looking for an honest politician.
Before lying politicians can succeed in “whitewashing” our past, let me record here that history teaches us that oppression, isolationism, foreign interventionism, profit maximization strategies, and the two-party political system, with religious influence, have been with us for centuries.
Oppression has been a fact of American life in the forms of genocide and enslavement from the very beginning. A civil war ended the latter condition. Lynchings and Jim Crow laws undermined the results of the civil war. It took 88 years to forbid these conditions with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — but sadly in 2023, here we are again!
Division over isolationism v. interventionism caused our late entry into two world wars, which cost us dearly in lives and treasure. This hesitancy did not teach us a thing — so here we are again, on the verge of a third world war, with no possible winner.
Until recently, America was the beneficiary of the global economy. Shipping industries overseas, to increase profits, was good for business. This thoughtless pursuit has now placed our country at the mercy of other nations. The Covid-19 crisis, just three years ago, taught us nothing — so here we are again, dependent on other nations for supplying disease remedies and vital products like computer chips.
Our two-party system was previously benignly incapable of governing our nation due to fights over who gets the pork. However, here we are again — unable to govern ourselves because of the influence of religion. The separation of church and state has lost all relevancy.
Given these realities, canceling our history cannot be the answer. Trying to do so is only going to result in “here we are again” in the future!