So Much Evil

Why is there so much evil in this world? 

Are humans inherently evil, or is there something that makes many become evil? 

And more to the point, why is there so much evil in the United States these days?

If, as some believe, humans are born with both good and evil tendencies, why is it that the evil ones seem much more common?

What prompted me to think about this was a three-part National Geographic television series about the Oklahoma City bombing of April 1995, which took the lives of 168 people, including 19 children. Countless others were injured. Add in the increasing number of acts of evil being perpetrated by the current regime in power in the White House and in the halls of Congress, and it seems that evil is taking over. Evil is winning 

If it isn't evil, what is causing the government, our government, to slash education, to slash programs that research deadly diseases, that provide food to those in need, not just in the US, but around the world? Programs that provide assistance to victims of natural disaster and that provide warnings of impending life-threatening weather events have been canceled. 

Evil is evident in the rejection of vaccines that have been proven to safely prevent deadly diseases such as covid. Even measles, declared not a danger in the US some 20 years ago, is once again sickening both children and adults, and taking at least one life. Evil is removing safeguards that protect our food supply. Evil is removing regulations that protect our air and water from industrial pollution. Evil is celebrating the murder of two people in Minnesota and the wounding of two others simply because they were Democrats. Evil is sending National Guard troops to take over the nations capital. Evil is asking the Supreme Court to ban gay marriage. Evil is snatching people off the streets of America and sending them off to some godforsaken place in another country simply because their skin is brown.

Evil has always existed in the world. Adolf Hitler and his followers are the epitome of evil. So were Josef Stalin and this followers. The history books are filled with stories of evil people, nearly always men. 

Now the United States is home to great evil. Homegrown eveil is the worst. But this time much of that evil is cloaked in Christian nationalism. How these so-called Christians can call themselves followers of Jesus Crist while at the same time condoning murder, while taking rights from women and demanding that women subjugate themselves to men, while removing equal rights from members of the LGBTQ community, while snatching people off the streets simply because of the color of their skin, is incomprehensible.

I find it particularly distressing to watch a country known for its support of the downtrodden turn into a country that celebrates cruelty for the sake of cruelty. Of course, there still are many Americans who retain their goodness and willingness to stand up for those being oppressed. But it is unfathomable that so many Americans voted to elect members of a party that is openly racist and sexist, and that support pedophiles.  

It's also distressing that so many people are totally lacking in the ability to see through the constant lies. I have seen interviews of voters who are finally seeing what that party actually stands for and explain in dismay "that's not what I voted for."  Yes, this is precisely what you voted for. The candidates' own words told you, and their actions showed you, what you would get if you voted for those people. 

Racism and sexism are not new to America. But that our government wholeheartedly embraces these things, and tries to rewrite history, is appalling. Just yesterday the president demanded that the Smithsonian change some of its exhibits because, according to him, they point out the horrors of slaverly. Spoken like true racist indeed.

I can only hope that those or us who are resisting the rush to fascism and the country's embrace of evil will prevail. May America defeat the evil that has taken over our federal executive, legislative and judicial systems before it is too late.