BY RUSSELL TURNER
SNOW SLEDDING AND SUDDEN STOPS
With all of the snow and ice that we have experienced this year it has brought back memories from my childhood. I can remember taking an old piece of cardboard and climbing to the top of a hill and using it to sled to the bottom. While sledding can be fun it can also be dangerous, if the snow is packed down and the hill is too steep the sudden stop at the bottom can be very painful. I have noticed that once you break over the hill it is next to impossible to slow down or to stop midway on the hill. The fast pace of descent on a snow covered hill reminds me how countries can descend when its people lose their common sense.
Throughout history many nations have risen and fell. Once a nation reaches a tipping point, the descent can be much quicker than anyone could have imagined. Just because the United States has been a super power for a long time doesn’t mean that it will always be that way. Throughout history other great powers declined at an alarming rate; 17 years for the British Empire, 11 years for the Ottomans’ 8 years for France, 2 years for the Soviet Union. In every case ... the people ignored the writing on the wall, thinking it couldn't happen to them. In every case ... these governments told their citizens that everything was being taken care of and there was no need to worry about anything. In every case ... the majority failed to prepare for what was coming.
We Americas have become accustomed to a standard of living that our parents and grandparents worked and sacrificed for. Sadly we have become complacent and we feel that we're immune and it can't happen in America. The frightening reality is that 102 million working-age Americans are now unemployed — a 36 percent increase since the year 2000. According to the U.S. Census Bureau 46.5 million Americans — or 15 percent of the U.S. population — are now living in poverty. Today 48 million Americans are now on food stamps — the highest number since the program began in 1969. Median household income has declined five years in a row; homeownership has declined eight years in a row. These factors are why hundreds of once great American cities are becoming decaying hellholes.
We Americans need to wake up and start getting serious about saving our nation. The experience of European nations shows the blinding speed at which a country can deteriorate once it passes the point of no return. The analogy about going too fast on an ice-covered hill fits our nation’s scenario to a tee. There will come a time when the delusions of the people — and the travesties of its government — can no longer mask the truth, and destiny slips in the back door. Let us hope that enough people will come to their senses before we go crashing down the hill.
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