A Trip Through The Heartland
I’ve just returned from a week-long road trip through Virginia and North Carolina. Getting out of the Northeast for a few days was like surfacing after holding my breath under water. People in the Shenandoah Valley, in the mountains of western North Carolina and the Outer Banks were, in a word, NORMAL. They were friendly, focused on their jobs, families and communities, and with rare exception, vocally angry about what the Left is attempting to do to our country.
I’d estimate people were split 50-50 on wearing masks indoors. Outdoors, few people wore them.
In bars and restaurants, behind hotel lobby counters, hardworking managers and staff were scrambling to meet the needs of patrons. Universally, the latter were patient and understanding.
Spring had sprung. The farms on each side of the highways were green, calves nuzzled their mothers, corn and other fields were plowed ready for planting. We had great weather and the open, blue skies, the clean air, cool mornings and evenings and warm days were a balm.
As we drove, we kept tabs on the news on SiriusXM. Same old, same old. The (expletive deleted) Left continued to pursue their utopian dream of permanent power, the politicians preened for the cameras and microphones proving, once again, that “all the world’s a stage”, and the media, ALL media, in unison jawboned about whatever was bleeding at the moment (“if it bleeds, it leads”). We frequently turned it off after hearing the “headlines”, so jarring was the contrast between the idyllic countryside through our windshield and the drivel emanating from Washington, New York and other major cities.
I couldn’t help sighing to myself, “What will become of this wonderful country?” I thought of my children and grandchildren…what their lives have been like over the last year, and what they might become like in the future. I spent a good deal of time thinking about one topic in particular…the effect “tech” has and will have on our lives.
Remember when word processing was supposed to make life better? And email? Ask yourself, “Has it really done so?”
What about the Internet in general? Has it really brought the world’s knowledge to our fingertips and made life better for all, or has it done more harm than good?
Again I ask, “Has tech improved society and the world, or made it worse?”
It depends, of course, on what we value. If we value instant gratification, search engines and overnight delivery have certainly changed things for the better. But if we value faith and family and the rewards of applying the Golden Rule, tech has, in my humble opinion (IMHO, .sic) been tremendously deleterious.
As I drove, I alternated between hope and despair. There is a war on, similar in some ways but different in others from any that has been fought before. It is, IMHO, an existential fight for the soul of western civilization. As I have suggested many times over the years, the United States, and by extension, the western democracies who follow the Judeo-Christian ethics and traditions are either going to follow the path to extinction that other great civilizations have followed or arrest the rapid decline we are witnessing and restore sanity and reliance on the immutable principles and traditions that have brought the greatest good to mankind through all generations.
You may scoff at such a sweeping and draconian encapsulation of our times, but when one is driving for hours and hours a day one has time to step back and view the environment differently than one does when faced with the daily grind.
The fight is exhausting. I’d like nothing more than to put on some classical music, wade into my library, curl up in my easy chair, and escape. Even as I write this, I’d rather be pursuing some of my many hobbies.
But I must continue to speak out, warning and goading and cajoling in hopes that others with youth and greater energy can and will take up arms in this fight and turn back this onslaught of Leftist cancer… by supporting those who are on our side, by leaving our comfort zones and entering the political arena (such as running for school boards), by speaking not in hushed tones but boldly against the garbage spewing forth from corrupt politicians, corrupt media and brainwashed sheep, by countering the misinformation and outright lies being taught to our children (Critical Race Theory, 1619 Project, transgenderism, etc.) with family sit-downs in which parents demonstrate to their children that they, in fact, know far more than their teachers do about the real world and instruct them accordingly.
Sit back and let this tsunami of Leftist rot wash over and consume us and our civilization will indeed be destroyed and displaced by other intending hegemons (e.g. China). Fight now, each and every day, and we can turn back the tide and restore it to one which will allow our posterity to thrive in peace.
