Guess what? The United States is not on this list. New Zealand, Iceland, U.K., Australia and Ireland are the five. I heard an interview on NPR just this morning regarding the health care system here. One in five nurses has quit and 30% are thinking about it. They all have ptsd. Healthcare in this country has been a disaster for years. But the pandemic tipped it over the edge. The nurse interviewed told the story of being suicidal, crying every single day. Once our nurses are gone what will happen?

I hate to say this, but I want to see the precarious systems that have been teetering bite the dust. Because only then can we redo, rebuild or whatever you want to call it. This country needs a major overhaul and we all know (unless we belong to the Trump camp) that if Republicans get in things will only get worse. I try to visualize what this will look like. All I can see is a dystopian landscape where people are homeless, hungry and dying in the streets. I haven’t been to India but from what I’ve heard and read, perhaps it will look like one of their massive cities. The problem is that here, begging is looked down on, and the homeless are considered vermin who are there because they’re lazy.

We are in an upheaval right now, with chaos and violence even in the halls of our congress. There is no common courtesy, no discussion between parties. Instead we hear blatant hatred, and blatant lies about facts in evidence. We have duly elected officials who still don’t believe that Biden won the election. Our country was very nearly overtaken by Trump’s insurrection — a coup. Will Trump be held responsible for what he did or will he run again as though nothing ever happened? And what happens in the midterm election once their gerrymandering is complete? More and more people believe that our elections are no longer free and fair—a reason for Republicans to put in partisans to oversee things and to crack down on voting rights? What happens when the blacks and browns are kept from the polls, when too many districts are red and red alone? Will the Justice Dept. step in? The Supremes? State’s rights prevail so the only way forward through this morass is to stand up and be counted. Will we as a country be able to rise to the challenge that awaits us?

My generation is getting blamed for what’s going on. But my generation are the ones who stopped a war, got rid of tricky Dick and pushed for civil rights and women’s rights. Now it’s as though none of that ever happened. We’ve come full circle. But this time we may just go under. And maybe going under is the only way out.