A Glimmer of Hope

The days of the United States appearing like a third world country are, I hope, coming to an end.

Think about it. This country, once the envy of the world and the greatest, most powerful country on earth, is now a third world country that was on the verge of becoming an autocracy.

Our hospitals, overflowing with Covid patients, have few or no available beds in the intensive care units. Our healthcare workers lack sufficient protective equipment. There are so many dead bodies in El Paso that first prisoners, and then the National Guard, were brought in to move them into portable refrigerated trucks. Grocery shelves are empty or nearly so (not all items, but many). There are long lines outside grocery stores of people waiting to get inside for shopping. There are lines of vehicles that go on for several miles with people waiting to get a box of food from a food bank. The outgoing president* finally accepted defeat and allowed the transition to the incoming administration to begin. (We learned that the transition will finally begin, more than 2 weeks after the election was decided). The outgoing president* called Michigan officials to the White House to try to pressure them into opposing certification of the election, which Joe Biden won by more than 154.000 votes. He continues to insist that he won the election.

These are the markings of a third world country. What the outgoing administration has done to this country, its reputation and its citizens is criminal. And I hope the administration officials responsible will be held accountable. Already we are told that the attorney general of the state of New York has 67 criminal complaints ready to be unsealed on Jan. 21, 2021, when the Biden administration takes over. And those convicted of any of those state charges cannot be pardoned.

Let us hope that justice will be served and that the criminals who ran the American government for the past 4 years, who personally benefited from their corrupt actions and who used the power of the American government to enrich and reward themselves and their relatives, will be brought to justice. This group of criminals gave massive tax breaks to the most wealthy Americans. It gave money meant to help struggling businesses and individuals to huge corporations and billionaires. It wanted to take healthcare away from 20 million people ... in the middle of a pandemic. It wanted to, and planned to, destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, programs on which millions rely and into which workers are forced to pay from every paycheck. This administration has gutted environmental protection measures, opened sensitive areas in the Arctic to oil drilling, allowed the shooting of mother bears and their cubs and wolves and their pups, in their dens, and again allowed the polluting of our air and water.

Already leaders of other countries are calling to congratulate the incoming president. Already the prime minister of New Zealand -- a country that has done an outstanding job of keeping deaths and infections from the coronavirus at a very low level -- has called to offer her country's support. Already the incoming president has named capable, experienced, qualified individuals to his cabinet. Already cabinet nominees represent the diversity of America, rather than being yet more old, white men.

Biden and Harris and the entire administration will have a lot of work to do to start repairing the damage inflicted on this country during the past 4 years. The country remains deeply divided. But for the first time in 4 years, I and many others are hopeful. We can breathe a sigh of relief. We can look forward to, as one pundit said, 4 years of boredom.