The proverbial final straw: Having lived day-to-day “out there” in the great big world for over 22 years, I like to look over the news every morning, especially to see what’s afoot in the Middle East. That is, if I can find any news. Increasingly, it seems, what I do find is celebrity pap that is so insipid, so inconsequential that I can’t understand why anyone would take interest in it.
Some time ago, the Herald ran a letter from a contributor who took umbrage at any criticism urged against what he feels to be our “great nation.” That sentiment stopped me cold. It forced me to ask: What nation is he referring to? Ours? The United States? In turn, I had to ask: I wonder why he feels that, these days, we’re such a great nation? What’s his basis? Mythology? Fantasy?
Fact is, this, our “great” country, has the most rotted-to-the-core culture in the world. If that impresses as extreme, consider this, what was to me the final straw, the one that exceeded my tolerance to the point where I want to leave this farcical country.
Recently, I ventured onto Yahoo News to read about the deal with Iran. First headline that confronted me: “Kourtney Kardashian waters plants in a sexy, tasseled minidress.” Why, I had to ask, would anyone, as in anyone at all, even bother to read about what Ms. Kardashian wears when she waters her flowers?
That’s it, I concluded, for Yahoo News! And that’s it for this so-called great nation. There is nothing any longer about us that is great. The sooner we embrace that disquieting truth, the sooner we can start rebuilding. It’s a huge job that will take a long time.
Tom Wright
Aztec
