COUNTRY GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

I have spent a lot of time over the last year or two trying to understand what people mean when they say our country is going in the wrong direction.  The problem is that the term is too generic.  What I mean is that I think that wealth is being concentrated into a small fraction of the American populace.

Early in the election process, one heard a lot about this but lately you don’t hear of others concerned about it.  The closest people come is when they say they worry that their children won’t have a better life than they do.  I’m sure that , if their children are ambitious and motivated, they will do just fine.

That some people get left out of work in trade deals is well recognized.  There is even a Federal Program to deal with this problem called the Trade Assistance Program (TAA) in the Department of Labor.  The Trade Act Fact Sheet says, “The TAA program seeks to provide these trade-affected workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, resources, and support they need to become reemployed.”  They claim to help about half of those left out of work due to trade.  Perhaps their work could be expanded somehow to cover more workers..

What I am afraid of is that what is quietly meant is that they want minorities kept in line and in their view stop being favored.  Some may bemoan women having so many opportunities.  And of course then there are the Gays in general and Gay marriage in particular.

It seems strange to me is that, in addtion to prayer in schools, having In God We Trust on our coinage really means a lot to many people (It was added in 1861 during the Civil War), though I can take it or leave it alone.  Along with this is the phrase “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance, only added only in 1954.  It means a lot to many people to have some sort of prayer said before sports games and other social gatherings, for reasons unknown to me.

Lastly is the emotional tie to the Star Spangled Banner that really was only adopted as the National Anthem in 1931. In my youth, it was sung before seeing a movie or symphonic concert but now before American sports events and many other social gatherings.  I would prefer a song less militaristic and easier to sing like America The Beautiful that has a reference to God in each verse (e.g. “America! America! God shed His grace on thee” in the first stanza), or even  God Bless America that is very short with only 12 lines and usually sung twice.