Eyes Shut Tight

It won’t be too much longer before the light shines so brightly that we won’t be able to ignore it any longer. No matter how tightly we shut our eyes.

The rabid right has made me doubt my faith in America

”What troubles me about the US today in ways I never expected to witness in my lifetime is not Obama's failure to solve all its urgent problems in a year, or even four.

It is the scale of the irrational, emotional and, dare I add, ignorant, reaction his presidency has unleashed on the American right, some of it understandable in a fast-changing and confusing world, much of it ugly and increasingly violent in tone. “

Since I retired, I’ve found it enlightening to see how the rest of the world sees us Americans. I have the time to do it and the internet makes it easy. How the world sees us matters. If for no other reason than we want to borrow their money.

You might want to follow the link in the article to this article too.

UN meets homeless victims of American property dream

”There were not many people packed in to the Los Angeles "town hall" meeting who had heard of the foreign woman with the unfamiliar title who had come to listen to their tales of plight. But many took it as a good sign that she had worried the last American government enough for it to keep her out of the country.

Deanne Weakly was among the first to the microphone. The 51-year-old estate agent told how a couple of years ago she was pulling in $80,000 (£48,000) a year from commissions selling homes in LA's booming property market.

When the bottom fell out of the business with the foreclosure crisis, she lost her own house and ended up living on the streets in a city with more homeless than any other in America. She was sexually assaulted, harassed by the police and in despair. “

I’m not sure which we should fear the most -- the opinion of the rest of the world or the wrath of our own citizens. The gulf between the bailed-out billionaires and the unemployed sleeping on the sidewalk is grotesque -- considering we’re the richest country in the world. Don’t be surprised if the rest of the world is horrified. Don’t be surprised if our own citizens are revolted -- or revolt.

Don Brown
November 27, 2009