What’s Believable?

I was raised in a home of facts. Dad was an engineer. Mom was a Minnesota farm girl. They were married in Minnesota, moved immediately to Chicago for a new job, then a few years later moved to California for yet another new career opportunity. Still engineering for Dad.

World War II happened. My brother was born in Chicago before being moved to Pasadena. Carol and I were born a few years later so we are native Californians.

We experienced ocean beaches, mountain vistas, car rides throughout southern California and later moved to the Mojave Desert. Dad’s engineering work called him to many places. Naturally we accompanied him.

College was a constant background in our life. Both our parents experienced higher education. Our grandparents, too, on my father’s side. Mostly Congregational ministers; for many generations. Thus fact-based discussions were the norm. disciplined speech and conclusions were highly valued.

College followed my high school graduation, and then two more stints at the graduate level. Worked for the University of Illinois, too. Education. Logic. Facts. Research. Defining problems. Seeking solutions and alternatives to those problems. Working in teams of people who wanted problems solved.

So, it is no surprise that I avidly consume public information and news developments. I also came to write news, expository articles, too, explaining why things happen. Physics and the immutable facts of the world. Logic.

Imagine my frustration reading today’s news! Very little is factual. Mostly opinion. Problems ignored. Problems defined out of existence. Focus instead on nonsense topics. All the while the actual problems continue their journey toward unknown disasters. Disasters await; we just don’t know their dimensions. Logic informs us. Logic demands our attention. But the powers in high places do not respond to these calls for action. They are deaf, dumb and blind.

That leaves who in charge?

In a society such as ours, a democracy, I think we the people are in charge. But who takes up the leader’s baton at such times? How do we escape anarchy or tyranny?

Normally, the democratic method follows vigorous debate, selection of the fittest people, and an election schedule is filled with ballots for candidates legally included in the process. The election occurs and those winning election take the reins of our government.

This did not happen correctly in 2015 and 2016. Ever since then things have gone even more awry. This is not sour grapes. This is logic, fact, and informed people making sense of what is wrong.

A lot is wrong. A lot needs attention. Many of us have researched, written and spoken of these things. still nothing is done to repair what is broken.

What has happened to the American Idea? Was it so weak, so fragile, that ignored for a little while it disappeared? What will restore it? Can it be restored?

All hard questions to ask; even more difficult to answer. But they must. Be answered.

Maybe the cold weather has gotten to me. I feel hope slipping away. Tell me this isn’t so!

February 1, 2019