Are We All Crazy?

Increasingly I am starting to think the US (and maybe several other countries) have lost their collective minds. Society must change and grow - I get that and support it. Lately we are seeing shifts that are not societal growth or even expanded awareness but outright stupidity. For now I will focus on the US issues only and pick on the world in another blog.

I am to the point today where watching the news is painful. The things we focus on and argue about are surprising and show a total lack of worldly intelligence. Here are few I have noticed recently:

1. This Russia issue. Stop already! Trump won the election and we should be trying to find ways to work with his administration to fix important things in the US. This absolute fixation on Russian colusion is ridiculous. Okay Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer who lied about having dirt on Clinton. Jr. just wanted to help Dad win and the meeting was a bust. Its not illegal and it is not treason. Get over it. Did the Russians interfere in our national election? Maybe they did but we have no hard evidence yet, we have a special council reviewing it and even if we find they did we can't prosecute a foreign country. Hilary lost lets move on please.
2. Health Care Reform. Neither party has the stones to do what is necessary to fix the US healthcare system so lets stop wasting time. The Democrats are totally clueless about the mechanics of healthcare and continue to be manipulated by the three big healthcare lobby's. The Republicans are also hopeless. They can't replace or repeal Obamacare. They like the Dems don't have the political will to make the changes needed and they can't agree on anything. Both their House and Senate bill miss the mark completely. This is such an utter embarrassment for our country. Bring on National Healthcare because like it or not that's where we are headed.
3. Trump Bashing. I don't like the guy either but he won the Presidency and he has work to do. He is an egotistical fellow who cannot refrain from responding to any and all criticisms (on Twitter). The Dems know this and are successfully distracting him from the work that needs to be done. We are failing to make critical changes and in the meantime America is hurting. The Republicans are correct he is being attacked more than any President since Nixon. I am not sure he can do a lot but lets allow him the chance to try. After all we did with Obama who in my opinion was a weak President.

Now here are a few we should be focused on as they are real and impact our country regardless of politics:

1. North Korea. This is a real threat by a maniac. We should not dismiss this as more rhetoric. Kim Gung In is not afraid to comitt suicide and he has ICBM's and now a miniaturized nuke. Guam, Japan and even the west Coast of the US are in the path of attack. We need to show a united country as all these foreign leaders love to play on our public, childish, bickering to show the US is weak and divided. 
2. Opioid Epidemic. This too is real. We are seeing an alarming amount of people dying from these drugs. Fentanyl is a extremely powerful and dangerous drug that should be confined to inpatient use only. Oxy and others are part of this group. Nearly 40,000 people have died from this epidemic and its growing. We again need a united country to fight this battle. Send a message to Congress and the President - this has gone too far and must be stopped.
3. Healthcare Change. We must change our cost of care or we will quickly tumble into National Government healthcare. Here is why. We are spending way too much for results that are mediocre at best. We are the highest spending country in the world but still rank 27th in the results we achieve. We spend 17% of our GDP on healthcare and this is growing. We cannot sustain this so the government will be forced to step in. Here is the irony. If we voluntarily cut the cost of care while maintaining quality we could remain a two party system (part government and part private sector). If we don't National healthcare will do just this and more. Just price all care at Medicaid levels and we will solve most of the problem. (I know it will cause a rampant restructuring of delivery and cut margins and for a time we will see a drop in quality). 
4. Education. We are falling behind the world in our K-12 education. We have to get serious about this or the country will fight a losing battle. Put another way - with a world economy our workforce has to be well educated. We cannot compete with the Commonwealth countries for K-12 education. They beat us at every measure (except sports). So when we all arrive at college Americans have to play catch up. We do a good job at it but the gap is often so big we lose. And by lose I mean the best jobs and pay. Look at our industries. Medicine - at least half if not more of the top docs in the US are foreign born. Tech is the same way with so many key roles being held by kids who went to high school in another country. We have accepted mediocre long enough lets fix this now.

Can we stop all the fighting and just agree to disagree. America is a melting pot and as such we have many cultures and beliefs. We will always have differing view on most issues but this juxtaposition is what makes us strong and the envy of the world. We need to embrace our differences but always work on compromise. The vitriol that I am seeing today is the worst in modern US history. The violence is totally unacceptable and must be condemned by all. Nothing warrants violence like we have seen in the last 8 years. Race and sexual orientation are not as important as we are making them. We can be productive peaceful thoughtful citizens without bring either into the conversation. Discrimination is on the rise because we are enabling it. We can stop this and we must. ENOUGH!

Just because we can communicate with the world 24/7 does not mean we should. Young folks just because you have a thought or farted does not mean you need to share it. Less talk and more action. Considerably less opinions would help us move forward. Remember opinions are like butts everyone has one! For the most part you keep your butts covered perhaps a bit more of this with regard to opinions would be productive. I am not trying to stifle free speech - quite the opposite I am trying to make it meaningful and less inflammatory. Our President could take note here. 

And there is the "media". I am not sure about "fake news" but I am darn sure about "biased news". My favorite new sport is to turn on the TV and flick between Fox and CNN to see the biased reporting on the same story. It is so palpable and obvious yet we allow it. Are we that insecure that we need constant affirmation of our beliefs from a biased news media outlet? The media and journalist need to fix this. Report the news - who, what, when and where. Period!. We do not need talking heads and commentary - leave that to the idiot late night hosts. At least they add some humor. Your job as journalists is not to assert your opinions or beliefs it is to report the facts and let people decide on their own. By doing media the way we are today we are dumbing down America and limiting our ability to compromise and progress as a society. 

So lets focus on the real issues, stop attacking each other, find compromises, post less and love one another because we have a whole world out there who has enough hate already. We can debate without attacking. We can be from different political parties and still be friends. We can disagree on an issue but still work on a compromise. Respect one another and remember we all put our pants on one leg at a time and bleed Red not Black, White, Gay or Hetro. Peace!