George Packer has valuable insights in his article in the forthcoming June 2020 issue of The Atlantic. He has looked deeply into where we have been as a country, where we are today, and where we can go if we choose. Packer's article is titled and subtitled, We Are Living in a Failed State / The coronavirus didn't break America. It revealed what was already broken.
Here are excerpts:
It turns out that everything has a cost, and years of attacking government, squeezing it dry and draining its morale, inflict a heavy cost that the public has to pay in lives. All the programs defunded, stockpiles depleted, and plans scrapped meant that we had become a second-rate nation. Then came the virus and this strange defeat.
The fight to overcome the pandemic must also be a fight to recover the health of our country, and build it anew, or the hardship and grief we're now enduring will never be redeemed. Under our current leadership nothing will change.... But putting an end to this regime, so necessary and deserved, is only the beginning.
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We can learn from these dreadful days that stupidity and injustice are lethal; that, in a democracy, being a citizen is essential work; that the alternative to solidarity is death. After we've come out of hiding and taken off our masks, we should not forget what it was like to be alone.
Please read the disclaimer. This blog article ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
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