Un-American

Election years rumble like earthquakes, growling, rippling, and unsettling everything.

The economy slows, and markets shudder while everyone holds their breath, unsure of what actions to bet on.

Yet, as soon as a new king is chosen, it doesn’t matter who takes office; watch the layoffs come in waves.

The financial world holds its breath, uncertain and weary, while finger-pointing fills the silence where solutions should be.

During an election year, rational minds divide into factions.

Good people stoop to behaviors they normally would reject, ready to pounce on anything alien to them.

Express a view, any view, at your own peril.

Politics: the modern religion used to excuse the crucifixion of our fellow man.

In the bluster, real needs go unmet.

Budgets stall, and veterans suffer as leaders posture and play the same hollow games.

Keep your eyes on the bouncing red ball while you can’t see what my other hand is up to.

Politicians make decisions about medicine and technology that they know nothing about.

As my rocket scientist friend says in exasperation, “They’re breaking things they don’t even understand.”

Breaking futures they haven’t the education or eyes to see, blocking research and cures.

Growing pains of a technically advancing but unequally yoked society.

You can be an expert in medicine or politics, not both.

In an astounding time of access to overwhelming amounts of good and bad data, the knowledge gaps yawn wide.

Ignorance and information warfare win.

The bickering, though—always simmering, whispering—waits for its next righteous excuse to erupt.

Election years are necessary, and they pass, but the cost lingers.