We’ve been through a lot. And it’s about to get worse before it gets better.

We’re about to inaugurate a new president and on the precipice from a long, strange four years with someone none of us truly imagined would inhabit the White House. We’ve seen images in the news and cried inside and out, “This is not the America I know!” with a crushing sense that yes, indeed, it is what we have become.

We’re Broken

We knew we were broken when our last president was elected, and I do believe some good, smart people thought bringing in an “outside” voice would help. What has transpired has been in-fighting and out-fighting, conflict, riots, lots of death, and distrust.

We’ve come a long way from “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Photo by Jing Xi Lau on Unsplash

Even if we arrived at those ideals in imperfect ways, those wholesome truths were foundational for our union, and at our best, what we aim for in our self-governance. When the country has been as completely broken as it is, with gaslighting, fake news, super-pacs and social media driven coups, we know someone (or someones) have stolen and broken the light we once had, the shining “city upon a hill” with “the eyes of all people…upon us.”