(Host)
Contraindications are all those negative symptoms and side effects of
diseases or drugs that are either in print too small to read or narrated
too fast to understand. Hinesburg writer and commentator, Bill
Schubart, has imagined America as an ailing patient and assesses our
contraindications… slowly.
(Schubart)
We have two criminal justice systems. One under-incarcerates white,
wealthy males and sports heroes who steal, cheat or take drugs. Some are
never arraigned, nor convicted, or spend easy time in Allentown. The
other over-incarcerates the poor and uneducated accused of property and
addiction crimes, exacerbating the sense of futility among those
struggling to make a go of it and lowering the ceiling on their belief
in the American dream. Jailing the powerless only diverts resources from
education and economic development initiatives that might help prevent
more economic and addiction crimes.
And if indeed we are a white,
Christian nation, as a loud minority insists, then how is it that we
are one of the few civilized countries left that still contravenes the
Biblical injunction against killing, especially when we occasionally do
it in error?
According to the US Census, the distance between a
poor man and a rich man is now the greatest it’s been in our history and
double what it was in 1968. More tragically, education, always
considered the ticket out of poverty, is now being hit hard by this
rising income disparity. The gap in standardized test scores between
wealthy and poor students has grown 40% since the 60’s.
Congress
is paralyzed by apparent narcissists who have no sense of civil
discourse or compromise. The dignified family man currently holding the
Office of President is the butt of demeaning racist jokes and threats
that go unrepudiated by the leaders of the opposition party. Those who
tolerate this demean us all as citizens.
Business, an intrinsic
social good, is now deified the way it was before Republican "trust
buster" Teddy Roosevelt reasserted the rule of law. It has castrated
regulation, not just bought itself free speech, but some say judges,
congressmen, and senators as well. In the upcoming election, big
business will now try to buy a president.
We remain one of the
last civilized countries in the world with no comprehensive healthcare
system, leaving a large portion of our children and elderly to cope with
illness on their own. There are those who still believe that the free,
unregulated market solves all social and economic ills even though that
tired axiom has long since been disproved in education, healthcare and
the environment.
America is undergoing changes… some good, some
bad. And when those with the most to lose dance to the fiddles of those
with the most to gain at their expense, there’s reason for concern.
It’s
said that working-class Americans respond better to the moral nostrums
intoned by the right than to the policy-based frameworks of the left. So
conservatives need only talk in broad terms about "personal freedom,"
"responsibility," "morality," and "self-determination" without ever
acknowledging the underlying conditions that make these possible, like
equal justice and opportunity, and addressing the well-being of people
and communities.
Perhaps liberalism’s failure is its focus on
policy and process rather than painting the landscape its principles
might produce. People of good will on all sides have much work to do.