Failures

We watched the movie “Fallout” that follows a survivor after her school is shot up.

An uncomfortable watch, to say the least.

And it got me thinking about failure.

I’m not an old man yet, but I’m certainly not young anymore. 

Thing is, I feel a little let down about the state of the country.

Way too many failures.

1). We can’t stop mass shootings in this country. The narrative has slowed lately because there hasn’t been one (that’s captured the media’s attention) in a little while, but make no mistake, there will be another.

Just abject failure.

Kids are practicing what to do and where to hide and the collective we pretends thats good enough.

That’s shameful.

2). The pandemic ate us alive. At the onset of it all, there were projections about how many Americans would lose their lives. No one believed that the number would be over a million, but it will.

And people are not horrified by it.

When people in their 50’s and 60’s are dying the response shouldn’t be:

“Did he have underlying conditions?”

Yeah. Maybe. But they weren’t killing him!

The entire response has been a total failure. From way before the virus even arrived until now.

Colossal failure.

3). The Poor. College. Our Kids.

We shame ourselves to watch people struggling. We can’t help those who truly need help.

Student loans demolished a generation. 

College costs are like a tax on the middle class.

Employers offer healthcare that is garbage. It costs a fortune.

Want to retire?

How are you going to pay for healthcare?

Meanwhile, a billionaire owner needs a billion for a new stadium. 

Where do we send the check?

The defense budget nears a trillion.

We have the money for that!

The system has a whole bunch of failures right there.

And I got all of that out of the movie as I watched the main character, who was just a kid, suffer.

The adults had no answers.

And there’s a scene in the movie where the father and daughter scream at the sun.

“Life sucks!”

“Life isn’t fair!!”

“Life is confusing!!”

I had a sinking feeling because when I was young and idealistic and so naive…

…I thought that as a nation we would try to do the right thing for the most people possible.

But we have most certainly failed.

And I don’t know the way out.

It’s just sad.

Right?

.