America has a problem, and it appears to be us.

One step forward, two steps back.

That's right.

One step forward, two steps back.

The problem that America has did not arrive with the election of the current President.

No.

There has been a sickness at the center of the American heart that we, as a people, have ignored generation after generation.

Just like our physical health, the mental health of America is not what it can be.

There is obviously something broken in our will.

There is obviously something overheated in our choices.

There is obviously something falling apart at the center of our idea of Justice, of fairness, of the common good.

At least half of the population of our nation live in a world without hope.

I don't mean they can't live day by day but to tell you the truth that's just what I mean.

If all you are doing each day is just getting by, just living, lust living because you have lost hope for your future, you are living in a purgatory.

You are working hard each day but getting nowhere.

You feel your head slipping under the surface of the waters of life.

You are choking on the words of promises not kept by those entrusted with your vote.

On the other hand…

The condition of America's mental health is not held solely contingent upon the actions of others, we the people are also responsible for letting our conscious get distorted.

Loss of income, loss of job opportunities are a part of life.

They always have been.

Life ain't easy then you die…

There have been places and times in the past where economic opportunity failed the people of the world and created a fertile ground in which political opportunists and tyrants ransacked and destroyed nations.

They plunged their populations into wars, blaming others for their own financial and moral circumstance.

It's easy to say the devil made me do it, then it is to take personal responsibility for your own failing.

Your own demons.

Yet here in America we the people have always understood that the good of the many is extended to the few and to the one.

Our great American experiment is about a nation of many living together through thick and thin.

That our strength is we leave no one behind.

The rich, the poor, the healthy, the sick, the old, the young and all the colors of humanity working together to make a better nation, a better world, a better life for each other.

So here we are at this time and this place in America.

The times they are a changing yet again.

Today instantly, people can unite or divide over a single Tweet.

Words matter.

Words can make people swallow hate or words can lift them out of fear and give them hope.

Each of us has that responsibility to the nation and to each other.

We need to give each other hope.

What can hope be?

Hope can be if you become sick you can't lose your home.

Hope can come from not being afraid your child will be killed in their classroom.

Hope can be working hard and earning a living to pay your bills with a little extra left in your pocket.

Hope can be coming out of the shadows of racism, misogyny, sexual bias, and contributing without fear of economic and social retribution.

Hope can be an educational safety net that if your career opportunities change your new education is free.

None of these ideas to bring hope are new.

No, they are not.

They have been there since the foundations of this Republic.

We the People of the United States, in Order, to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

All that means is we believe that hope belongs to everyone.

The more Justice, the more peace, the more security, the more universal good, the blessing of love and hope will be had by this generation and the generations to come.

Who doesn't want that?

Who would work against that?

Those that profit that feeds off of fear that's who.

Fear is power, and for those who either want control or want to retain it fear is the thing that is fed.

Fear can do a lot.

It can build walls.

It can start wars.

It can starve people.

It can stop dreams.

It can destroy compassion.

It can throw down honor.

It can drown duty.

Fear is the enemy of hope.

More than a feeling, hope is the foundation of America.

After all this time, after all the people who have fought for, died for and have stood for what this nation stands for, we are not the generation to turn its back.

No.

Let us each one of us ask of ourselves and of our neighbors to do better.

Not just for ourselves, but for all those generations yet to come.

Let us each in our way drop hate and lift up hope for all.

Peace

DFrey