The hopes and dreams of the greatest nation on earth will be tested this week. Are we a land of peace and harmony or a country of jealousy, rage and hate?

We used to have discussions and converse regularly about the lack of interest among the people concerning politics and the welfare of the nation. What we would give for a few of those good old days.

Social media has changed the world forever by making it so much easier to spread hate and discord. The alt-left and alt-right can share equally in the success of causing the people who relate best to their views to become insanely devoted to whatever sentiment the leaders of their line of thinking spread as gospel. There was a time when it was hard for our generation to understand that an issue, even one as extreme as slavery, could turn brother against brother so strongly as to make them take up arms against each other and to kill each other.

This isn’t Saturday morning cartoons we are dealing with here. The coyote doesn’t get to snap back into shape after he is physically destroyed in pursuit of the roadrunner. With the inauguration of Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States taking place this week, there should be excitement and nervous energy on display in our nation’s capital.

Instead, there are armed forces preparing to stand guard and to use deadly force if necessary to defend the very land, buildings, people and Constitution we all claim to love. Have we all gone mad? Is this the way we solve disputes?

How high will the death toll need to be by the end of this week before we feel our side of this argument has been heard and enough blood has been shed to satisfy our thirst for revenge and domination?

Our churches should have been full yesterday with all these self-proclaimed patriots from both sides seeking grace, forgiveness and blessings. Instead, our places of worship were more empty than full and hardly a prayer was being offered publically to encourage peace. Only God seems impartial over the political debates raging in the United States, and Democrats and Republicans alike have tried mightily to drag him into it, but only as to declare their side righteous and deserving of all earthly power.

Words will no longer be enough to solve the problems of our selfish lives. We fear the days ahead will bring about much loss of life and also bring more suffering to the less fortunate of our neighbors. The behavior of the political powers during the past 10 months has been embarrassing and disgusting. If it continues, the United States of America will be easy prey for any other powerful nation with less internal strife to do us harm. We will be too busy making sure the opposite political party is not succeeding to worry about cyberattacks, spying or even nuclear threats.

We have truly opened ourselves up to world criticism and loss of military control. But each of you gets to sit back this morning and take measure of whether your side is winning or losing.

Here is a headline for you: We are all losing based on our lack of respect for others, our disrespect for history and our failure to put others first. As is appropriate and traditional for our elected officials to profess on such occasions: May God bless America

This year we need to add: May God bless America, because we sure need it.

And please wear your mask.

— RV