I don't feel I did enough justice to the Fourth of July holiday. I love patriotism and when we own our own home I plan to fly a flag out front every day. I really do love this country, problems and all.
One thing I do not like, however, is politics. Lately I've been musing about how both of our political parties are somewhat right when it comes to moral issues, but it's divided between them. Neither party has it all right. So how can I in good conscience decide who to vote for? Republicans are against abortion, Democrats are against capital punishment. Republicans have religion and marriage, Democrats have health care and the environment. As my husband the scientist pointed out, this way nobody ends up winning. Everyone just ends up fighting and not wanting to give in at all because they believe they're in the moral right (which is partially true). And because they're fighting so hard, the proponents end up turning into (or at least sounding like) radicals and just get tuned out. Then the issues get ignored, or perhaps more often ridiculed, nothing changes, and we continue down a dangerous road.
I really am an optimist and love our country and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. But in the past year or so I've really started to worry about our society. I know the question "how are we going to explain this to our children?" is cliche. But I'm not so worried about explaining it to our children as to raising our children in this environment, and teaching them the rights and wrongs that may be ridiculed by seemingly everyone else. And not just our imaginary future children. What about when we see our friends and family and neighbors and even strangers succumbing to social norms that few people recognize are detrimental? Sometimes it's an overwhelming thought. Am I the only one scared about this? Do you worry about anything in particular, or nothing at all?