We Must Be Crazy — By John Reed

We Must Be Crazy
If it seems to you things are out of whack, don’t worry, it’s not you. People are definitely acting stranger than usual, which is saying something. I’m not sure of the clinical difference between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but I’m sure O Dependable One can set me obdurately straight.
We have an entire political party and its adherents who are loudly against the death penalty…and yet have no problem with government-sanctioned murder of unborn children. Another party frees uncounted numbers of unjustly imprisoned minorities, achieves historically high minority employment numbers, and yet is called racist.
A protest movement gains traction over the deaths of people of color at the hands of the police…yet say nothing about the thousands of their own killed by criminals of all races year after year. A system of colleges and universities set up specifically for only one race is not only allowed to exist, but receives massive federal support…while another is sued because it let in TOO MANY of one minority at the expense of another.
Schools are massively disrupted by efforts to protect kids and teachers safe and sanitary…yet the national religion of football continues with players in their usual close-knit huddles and piled-deep tackles. And the same folks worried about facemasks at Walmart cram into the stadium, open-faced, to watch it all. Some restaurants are filled to the brim every day, others still make you go through the drive-through.
All these inconsistencies are really just part and parcel of what American society has been all along. Colonists came here for freedom of religion and then worked hard to kill those of other faiths. Freedom and liberty were proclaimed by slaveowners. Westward expansion came at the expense of those who already lived there.
It’s a head-scratching enigma for sure. Folks in other countries really don’t know what to make of us, and more often than not like to make fun of us. And plenty of our own citizens seem pleased to point out all our negatives…even as millions of hopeful immigrants see only the positives.
To some, it’s a terrible place to live, and from their perspective they might be right…until they tried to live somewhere else. Tried to buy a Big Mac. Tried to buy a car or get gas for it. Tried to demonstrate against the authorities. Tried to be an independent, employed woman. Or minority.
So yes, we may be crazy. We have our faults, be we also have our strengths. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.