It’s Flag Day and I awoke this morning to Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” on my favorite radio station. I’ve heard the old gal sing it many times before and better than anyone else who ever sang it I must say. It used to bring chills to my spine and a patriotic fervor to my heart when I heard it, but not so much anymore. You see somewhere along the way I’ve lost the way I used to feel about my country. Oh the mountains’ are still there and the prairies and the oceans white with foam, still lap upon our shorelines. But they exist in many places on this earth and they rarely change. The difference is only in the people who inhabit them.

If you go back to the failed civilizations of old, in most cases greed and a breakdown in the values of the people in those countries had a lot to do with their demise. Greed, like rich Wall Street bankers who want bailouts, but refuse to bail any body else out. Greed, like drug companies and oil companies who won’t lower their prices despite record profits. Greed, in our politicians who see not what’s good for their country but only what’s good for their party.

Our government is on the verge of collapse but the political process is spent wasting time arguing about gay marriage and ballparks for billionaires. We invade and blow up countries and destroy their infrastructure and then spend billions fixing what we blew up. Meanwhile our own infrastructure is falling down around us. Go figure.

Yes we are badly misguided and I guess not even Kate Smith can rally me anymore. How about you?

Mike Holst

Crosslake