Ain't this America?

Here we are on the downside of 2022, essentially at the speartip of all human knowledge and progress to this very moment in time and space, and yet, I can't believe in this country:

• That we are still talking about banning books. According to PEN America, 1,145 titles – an historic high – have been banned by school districts across the nation between July 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. I'm guessing you can add several more books to the list since March.

But in a country that likes to pride itself in the First Amendment and the expression of free thought, the very idea of banning any book for any reason should be anathema. It reeks of Nazism and fascism. It brings to mind those old newsreel clips of Hitler's Nuremberg torchlight parades of the 1930s that culminated in fevered book burnings.

When you start banning books, it becomes easier to ban anything.

• That vaccinations are a point of contention. History should be all the proof you need that vaccinations are essential to the general welfare of the public. George Washington, fighting for this country's very independence and personal freedoms, demanded that his troops be vaccinated against smallpox. This wasn't a needle – it required offering a live culture to an open wound. So who's afraid of needles now?

Even current history offers us an example. Vaccinations for Covid-19 clearly offered protection from the disease as those people requiring ventilators declined. But Covid became a pandemic of the unvaccinated as many people who refused to get a shot became sick. Many died, often while trying to stubbornly take a deadly political stance.

Don't tread on me, indeed.

• That guns permeate our society like never before. Just what in the hell are we afraid of? Do we distrust our neighbors so much that we have to arm ourselves to the teeth with military style weapons? This is when I like to pull out that quaint evangelical nugget, "What Would Jesus Do?" I'm pretty sure he wouldn't shoot you.

• That we can lose a Constitutional right after 50 years of settled law.

• That white grievance seems to be the subtext for just about anything in this country. The current outrage for many Republicans is the forgiveness of student debt from oppressive federal loans (even though I bet many Republicans have taken out student loans). Granted, the issue is complicated and complex, but then the fairness issue crops up. Fair to whom? Minorities, who statistically have the greatest debt, might benefit the most from this forgiveness.

One argument is that those not going to college will be paying the debt by shifting tax responsibility. That may be true, but then, what's fair? Kim and I don't have children, yet we've been paying school taxes for as long as I can remember. What's fair about that? Not much, I guess, but we understand the investment we make in our country's future by paying school taxes.

• That we are still talking about voting rights. Why is the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act so difficult to pass? Who doesn't want to expand voting rights? We pride ourselves in our democracy, yet we can't find it within ourselves to make sure everybody has equal access to the polls. And don't get me started on gerrymandering districts.

But, hey, ain't this America?