OPINON: America has changed

I’m trying to stay calm - if not for myself, at least for my family - but with all the turmoil happening in our country, it’s not easy. My kids and grandkids are upset by much of what’s going on in Washington, and genuinely worried about what life is going to be like for them in the future.

My kids are old enough to worry about their retirement. They were counting on Social Security being there for them. They can’t help but resent those retired folks currently enjoying their own retirement benefits who support harsh political decisions that threaten the future of those still working.

My grandkids are dismayed at the attitudes of older folks who are all for cutting regulations intended to protect future generations and the environment in which they’ll live. They’re worried about America siding with the dictator who invaded his neighboring country. They believe America should be supporting the country Putin invaded, not him.

America has changed, and I am worried.

As a child of the 1950s and a young adult of the 60s, I developed a deep pride in America - not just based on our success at winning wars, compiling wealth and combatting disease. I was proud of America’s character.

I experienced our decades-long struggle for civil rights. I lived during the time the majority of Americans began to favor making things fair for everyone. I saw Americans embrace and include people of different cultures, different faiths and different socioeconomic backgrounds. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs really helped to bring about change, but it’s now been destroyed by a total misinterpretation of what it meant – misinterpretation on purpose.

During my lifetime I’ve seen women, minorities and gay Americans gain equal status and equal opportunities. Government actually worked for all the people, many churches changed from institutions of condemnation to tolerance and acceptance and the American people grew more tolerant and accepting as a society.

We’re not that America anymore.

I grew up going to church and sunday school where I learned about the compassionate teachings of Jesus. As a teenager, I really took his philosophy to heart. Today, I don’t see much of that philosophy in the Christianity professed by those running our government, nor in the people who support them. They talk a lot about Jesus, but I see little of the Jesus I learned about as a child.

Years ago, I began to notice how some organized religions were distorting the teachings of Jesus. Those mega churches that have grown wealthy and powerful on the backs of their disciples. They show very little of the love Jesus had for his followers, supporting politicians who break every tenet of the Christian faith. As they look the other way, their hypocrisy is shameful!

And then, there are the churches who condemn anyone who doesn’t follow their narrow rules on morality. They seem to have completely forgotten the forgiving nature of Jesus - the Jesus I learned about who loved everybody. He would never have condemned anyone made different by skin color, born of a different culture or faith, struggling with gender identity or disability.

Jesus would have opened his arms to immigrants. I’m not talking about criminals and the drug cartel. I’m talking about children and their mothers, and men who want to work to support their families. Jesus would never have sent them back to lives of poverty and violence.

Nor would Jesus have spent every waking hour plotting revenge on anyone who ever crossed him or disagreed with him - not the Jesus I learned about in sunday school.

I was proud when we were a nation who welcomed immigrants, proud of our will to make our justice system better, proud that we were a people committed to protecting our environment and ensuring a healthy life for our families long after we’re gone.

I was proud that America was viewed as a generous and compassionate nation of people who truly wanted to feed the hungry in underdeveloped nations and sought to eradicate disease, pain and suffering around the world.

That’s not America today. We are no longer the nation others can depend on to look out for them. America is now viewed as self-serving, unforgiving, intolerant and no longer interested in improving the lives of our fellow man.

America has changed and I am very sad.