Unless you live under a rock, you have no doubt been subject to the continuously bad news streaming out of the media. Police shootings, Russia invading the Ukraine, ISIL beheading children, public schools running out of funding, Ebola spreading, people fighting on airplanes, cats and dogs sleeping together, and the president in a ill-fitting beige suit -- the world is just a mess right now.
For many people around the world, the United States always seems to be considered as the default handyman -- fixing problems around the house, large and small. But today America feels like a champion boxer who is strangely up against the ropes, being pummeled by a smaller opponent. Have we stretched our country's resources so thin, that we can't even keep up with all the world's problems, as well as our own here at home?
The United States is arguably the biggest kid on the worldwide block. We've got money, we've got power and lots of smart people -- heck, we've got Google headquarters. Who else has Google headquarters? We have all sorts of great things going for us.
But today, the narrative is tainted. We also have racism, which is alive and well. We have police shooting up our citizens like the wild west. We have politicians who all-out hate a black man in the presidency, and we have politicians who divert funding away from our schools and libraries, to pay for their $1.2 billion stadiums instead.
Man, are we screwed up right now.
It feels like the world around us sees us losing our collective balance. Some countries like Russia are taking advantage of our stumbles by invading neighboring countries. Other countries like North Korea and China are taunting us militarily, like scrawny kids making fun of their former bully who's stuck in detention, flipping him off through the window in Ms. Matthews classroom. America feels out of balance, and we all feel the effects.
Hopefully the cycle will come around, and we will find some semblance of balance again. But I'm not holding my breath. Who knows how long it will take, and more importantly, who knows what it will take for America to get back on it's feet and back in the fight.
Like any good boxer, America will find itself having to switch from defense to offense if it hopes to get off the ropes. It's the fear of using that offense that worries Americans for now.
At least we can say that we've still got Google headquarters... who else has got Google headquarters?