It’s hard to keep a positive attitude if you follow the news about what’s happening here in the US with our political dramas and the economic problems compounding almost daily and then look beyond our shores to the crises swirling abroad. Everywhere you turn there’s another looming situation that’s like a flashing warning sign that major system failures are moving closer and inevitably going to impact all of us.
Yesterday I saw this report from Ukraine that made me think about the importance of carrying on, as best you can, no matter how terrible a situation you find yourself in:
None of the decisions I have made with personal preparedness come anywhere close to Ukrainian farmers making a decision to plant crops in a war zone. At 1:27 in this video the sound of a military jet flying overhead catches the farmer and reporter’s attention and they both look up at the sky, neither knowing if it’s a Ukrainian or Russian jet. That moment made me think how small my problems are compared to millions of other people in the world.
It feels surreal that we’re now seeing world leaders talking about nuclear war, looming global food and gas shortages, inflation climbing daily, talk of major economic collapses, oh, and warnings of likely major cyberattacks too, in the news these days. While things seem very likely to get much worse and chaotic in ways none of us ever thought possible in America, at the same time I believe there are millions of Americans, in communities all over our great country, who will show every bit as much courage, determination, resourcefulness, and resiliency as the Ukrainians have mustered with their country being invaded by Russia. I have a lot of faith in the American spirit.
However, I wonder where our leaders are in America, where both political parties flit from one media sideshow to the next and none of them seem focused on coming up with real solutions for any of the looming crises that keep hitting the news. It’s rather bizarre that nowhere in America are leaders standing up and offering leadership, advice or offering any coherent direction for any of these problems. It’s all talking points and gimmicks (usually more grandstanding pushing pointless legislation & government spending that doesn’t address the problems).
The government of Ukraine is urging their farmers to stay and plant their crops this spring. Where is our government on figuring out solutions for the sky-rocketing cost of fertilizer and looming fertilizer shortages? Do our states and federal government have food reserves to feed America in a crisis? What’s the state of government fuel and food reserves? What about the escalating inflation, the growing shortage problems, the gas prices?
Less than 8% of Americans are on Twitter, but I can guarantee you most of our American political leaders, the journalists and political pundits who try to rile up people in the news are on Twitter every single day – trying to outdo each other with the clever hot takes and driving spin cycles. President Biden likely doesn’t tweet, but he has a Twitter account where someone posts tweets and former President Trump has spent the past 14 months fuming that he’s not on Twitter and trying to come up with a social media platform that can compete with Twitter. That’s what our leaders are concerned about – owning spin cycles.
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