Alcohol sales are through the roof, especially when considering most bars and restaurants—which make up about 22 percent of total alcohol sales—are closed or severely limited. Marijuana sales—where it is legal, and probably where it isn’t—are also off the charts. One would have to guess all illicit drugs are experiencing similar sales explosions.
Gun and ammo sales are setting unheard of records. Suicides are way up and the mental health of children seems to be at a record low.
Trust in almost any institution is at historic lows—with governmental institutions generally residing in the cellar. The country is split on many issues and rational people talk of an upcoming armed civil war. In many ways it seems there are a lot of people itching for a fight.
The very fabric of our country is at risk of being torn—in such a way that it may never again resemble the glory of what it once was.
Does any sane person—one who hopes for the health, healing, and prosperity of our country and her citizens—believe now is the time for our political leaders to take bold partisan action?
Or is now the time to not rock the boat? Is now the time to go slowly and to take no big steps in any direction? Is now the time to make only small moves that have broad, bipartisan support?
If one cares for the future of the country the choice is self-evident. Those alcohol, weed, and gun sales alone suggest that now is not a good time to introduce more conflict or angst—unless, of course, conflict and chaos are one’s true, ulterior motive. Mending is what is required. Not bold action, not transformation, not pushing things through because you temporarily have the power to do so.
This is especially the case if one has taken a sacred oath which reads:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
Government at all levels needs to pause and make no sudden moves so the country can heal and come together. There needs to be far more time spent on explanation and convincing.
And government should not be the one trying to do the convincing, that is not its role. Based on the fundamental design of our country, the government’s role is that of servant and representative of the people—all of us. It shouldn’t have a side. It shouldn’t have an opinion.
Perhaps this is one of the things which has led the country to the precipice—the change from government representing the people in a handful of constitutionally approved areas, to the government “leading” the people in whatever direction the current occupants think it should go.
We, the people, never approved of this change. We, the people, never expressed our desire for this. Rather it has happened as governments at all levels simply grabbed the role—and power—for themselves.
And look at the results. Government leadership is what is ripping this country apart. A true lover of this country can easily see that now is not the time for bold this or transformative that. Now is time for healing. Now is the time to put the clutch in for a while. Now is the time to let things settle.
Will politicians and government bureaucrats listen to the wails, fears, and pain of the country and respond accordingly? Or will they see opportunity in this pain and push for major, partisan action? If they do, one can only surmise they desire the tearing and shredding of the fabric of the country for their own short-term political gains. Let us hope we have elected and hired better than that. The very future of the country hangs in the balance.