Choices and Consequences

 In life, as an individual moves through time the choices made lead to consequences both planned and unintended. It is the concatenation of these choices and their subsequent consequences that contributes to the direction that life takes. What is true for the individual is also true for the greater society.

The United States will soon be celebrating its 250th anniversary as an independent nation. Any reasoned assessment of the progress that has been made over two and one half centuries must take into account the substantive choices that have been made and their resulting influences.

From this nation’s very beginnings the deliberate choice to embrace the enslavement of an entire people as an acceptable means to advance economically was a grievous error that had profound implications for the nation’s future that still impedes our ability to fashion an equitable social order. Likewise, early in the history of our nation’s independence, the choice was made as we expanded westward to literally rip the native peoples from their land with brutal forethought and savage intention. This strategy has left its stigma embedded in our distorted perceptions to the point that even to this day we pay insipid homage to those natives who are left behind without any real intention of paying reparations for the collective grief we have imposed upon them.

These two particular choices the nation implemented in its beginnings has left unmistakable reverberations throughout its history in regard to the decidedly unequal treatment imposed upon immigrants, especially those peoples of color, who came to this nation in the hope of finding a better life for themselves and their descendants.

To this day in the twenty-first century, we still seem to cling to this bankrupt notion that the United States is not a wondrous conglomeration of people from around the world who have emigrated to our shores and contributed greatly to human progress but rather a land that belongs to whites only where all others are essentially unwelcome. The savage display of this notion is apparent through the current mobilization of a domestic force embodied in ICE whose reason for being is to literally cast out those people of color determined to be unworthy. We are currently paying the price for this crazed notion by the imposition of uncertainty and instability upon all of us and that is helping to make this nation a pariah among nations - that will impact us far into the future.

Like many other empires both current and ancient, the American Empire has been built upon blood and death forged by reckless intention as described above. This story has continued through the post-World War II era to the current time.

Over the span of eighty years during the post-World War II era, many wars have been fought against small nations that were quite unable to defend themselves from the onslaught that was engineered mostly to be delivered by bombs and incendiary devices from the sky designed to cripple the infrastructure that is such an integral aspect of modern society. Along with this tactic invariably came the concurrent death and grievous injuries of tens of thousands of innocent victims. The underlying goal of this strategy was to undermine the sense of security required for any community of humans, create an atmosphere of uninterrupted chaos and to effectively terrorize entire populations. The list of national sovereignties assaulted in this way during this era include – Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama and now Iran.

Not one of these nations ever posed a real threat to the United States and its people. The total lives lost in these wars add up to tens of millions of human beings. All this supposedly done in the name of democracy and freedom but actually motivated by the unquenchable desire to impose an economic hegemony on a global scale.

The clear evidence of the consequences of the totality of these choices is the current state of civilian life within the United States (circa 2026). Twice in recent history including the present, tens of millions of American individuals purposefully voted for Donald Trump.

This choice was made to elect a national and world leader who clearly showed himself to have a marked proclivity towards autocratic leaders in the likes of Vladimir Putin of Russia Viktor Orban, the former Prime Minister of Hungary and Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea.

This choice was made to elect a national and world leader who demonstrates no real comprehension of the Constitution and the essential responsibility of any President to protect and defend the provisions set forth in this document.

This choice was made to elect a national and world leader who repeatedly displays a level of incompetence and inability to comprehend any complex idea or issue.

This choice was made to elect a national and world leader that fails to make a distinction between what is patently true and what is a lie.

The choice was made to elect a national and world leader who unabashedly shows a clear and unvarnished hatred of anyone who opposes him or who is a person of color, or who is an immigrant from a nation of people of color.

The choice was made to elect a national world leader who is dramatically opposed to science and the progress that naturally flows from its application.

The choice was made to elect a national and world leader who is clearly mentally ill and emotionally unstable.

Anyone of the above criteria would be enough of a reason to reject such a candidate in the first place. The consequences that come from this kind of mindless, irrational, undemocratic, and autocratic leadership have become abundantly clear.

For this nation to progress successfully as a people, we must recognize with honesty and resolve where we have failed and have been misguided if we are to forge the kind of future that is viable, sustainable and true to our better instincts.