Feeling Unsafe

The Temperature of the Country

We are in the dog days of summer, continual heat and humidity shortening tempers, even threatening lives with heat stroke or dehydration, and the emotional temperature of the country has expanded from low simmer to boil. That it is a presidential election year is no coincidence, though I suspect the high emotions are not only because of voter dissatisfaction. Shooting massacres are on the rise, everyone has a story to share about their experiences with road rage, and sound bites on the internet compete to see which one can be the most vicious.

Despite the fact that most have recouped their retirement-fund losses since 2008 and unemployment is down, pessimism about the country’s overall financial well-being remains. We cannot help but be affected by the world’s unrest—political assassinations and coups, financial upheavals, and unending deaths by terrorist attacks. Some recommend pulling in and concentrating on our own country. The world no longer runs that way. What affects one major country generally affects the rest. It is not possible to be an island unto ourselves.

Safety—a Basic Need

Safety is one of our basic human needs along with food, water, and shelter. The simplified version of all our unrest is that we do not feel safe. We have more and more recalls of fresh and packaged foods for possible life-threatening contaminants. How can so many slip by the watch dogs of our food supply. Is anyone watching?

Go anywhere in the country and study overpasses and bridges. Will it take a death, several deaths, before repair becomes a priority rather than one more expense the town/city/state budget cannot absorb? Raging fires and drought further destabilize our food resources and our very survival. First oxygen and then water are the top two necessities for supporting life. Simply put, our planet cannot sustain the number of people likely to inhabit it in the near future.

Hopelessness

So, in a word, we do not feel safe and have reached a point of compassion fatigue—too many disasters, too many hurts we cannot make right. A callous develops on the skin when it is too often abraded, as it also develops on the spirit. We begin to choose what we will bleed over lest we hemorrhage, and hopelessness creeps in, the weary belief that nothing will ever be set right. Hopelessness engenders fear for our safety, for our survival. And fear engenders anger. The split nature of our current politics offers us no hope of finding solutions and encourages us instead to lash out at each other.

I will not pretend to any expertise that qualifies me to offer solutions. I do know, however, that targeting a group of people or a particular cause on whom to vent our frustrations accomplishes nothing. I have never cared much for the idea of our country being a melting pot. When you melt things together, each part loses its distinctive character and becomes part of a muddy sludge. I like the idea of a colorful salad, each ingredient distinct and with a flavor all its own that becomes enhanced rather than lessened when joined together by the dressing—perhaps in this analogy, the laws by which we agree to be governed.

Now, we have to agree on these laws or at least, since it is impossible for everyone to get what they want every time, be reasonable and agree to disagree from time to time.