I’m troubled.

I trust Americans with my heart and soul; but I’m not sure I trust America anymore.

I love the Country born under the Declaration of Independence, raised under the Constitution and brought to full-blown maturity under the principles of Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness and the willingness for each individual to submerge his- or herself’s  needs and desires for the good of all, while remembering that the good of the Individual is from where that power derives.

I love the Country that brought much of the world, kicking and screaming and fighting it every step of the way, into the realization that the potential of the PEOPLE is mankind’s best and brightest hope and not the collective subjugation of that potential to the avarice and, often, cowardice of a single or small group of rulers.

I love the Nation that, made up of millions of people working to meet their INDIVIDUAL goals and potentials, collected into thousands of counties and gathered into dozens of States can STILL be the SINGLE most dynamic force the world has EVER seen. I am awed by the fact that, for more than two centuries, we have completely changed our governing body repeatedly and regularly and – most important – PEACEFULLY, while continuing an unparalleled explosion of vigor economically, scientifically, socially and militarily.

All those things fill me with pride…and anguish. Pride in what we have BEEN; and anguish over what we have become.

We now have allowed our “leaders” to become hyenas tearing at the carcass of a still-living cash cow, more intensely devoted to their own gains and their own power than to the preservation and glorification of the system of INDIVIDUAL achievement that brought into being that wealth and power in the first place.

We have allowed minority groups to become the drivers of our culture…a culture that was built on the knowledge that ALL power in this country comes from each minority of ONE – the individual citizen. We have allowed demagogues to usurp the education of our young to the point where “education” is a misnomer and is becoming more of a farce with every succeeding day.

We have allowed the once transcendent scientific stature of America’s knowledge base to be undermined, under-funded, under-utilized to such an extent that, ultimately, we are made to pay taxi fare to our rivals to reach what WE originally claimed as our domain.

We allow other, weaker countries to circle us, mocking and snarling like jackals around a dying lion, because our “LEADERS” don’t want to offend their religious sensibilities. We allow OUR people to be attacked, tortured and slain while we sit idly by, for unknown but undoubtedly cowardly motives, when we COULD have saved them, SHOULD have saved them and knew we OUGHT to have saved them.  And then our “watchdogs” of the Press and of the Congress allow those leaders to answer to NO ONE as to WHY.

THEN, at the apex of that embarrassment, we RE-ELECT the very people who have been the chief architects of much of our shame.

I am a relatively old man. I have lived from the end of the Second World War, through the Korean War, through the Vietnam War, through the Cold War, through the Gulf Wars. And been so proud because – in EACH case – we fought, not for conquest, but for ideals worth more than treasure or territory. And I’ve seen our military weakened at every turn by those who fear its courage and adherence to an honor they do not and CAN not understand.

I have seen us as the strongest nation on Earth rebuilding all those countries and peoples destroyed after EACH of those conflicts, only to be chastised and derided by those we have helped.

I have seen us rise from a human race bound to this planet to one which could claim options on reaching for the stars. And then throw it away.

I have seen us go from a people rejoicing in EACH of our abilities to climb as far as WE could or wanted to go to one that, now, holds us ALL back because there is more “power” for the elite in determining OUTCOME  for a few, rather than guaranteeing OPPORTUNITY to ALL.

As I said, I love and trust Americans – those in whose hearts and souls the words and dreams of our Founders still finds a home. But I no longer trust America because, while most of its people still know the vision, the Country has lost its way.

And that angers me, deeply, with such a passion and fire that I have no way of expressing. Something that was beautiful has been smeared with dung. Something perfect has been defaced. Something of sublime goodness has been defiled.

In these last years of a life for which I have always thanked God, I find myself doubting that my sons and their families will ever see the shining dream coming true as I did.

And that troubles me….mightily.