Up to our eyeballs, and the answer? Faith, in action

People are just plain scared.

And perhaps, they should be.

We seemed -- in no small part due to the blinders those in my own profession stubbornly/naively refused to remove –to believe the presidential election was the most important thing going for this nation over the past few months.

In terms of choosing to stay the admitted sluggish economic course, it was. In terms of refusing to elect the alternative, who promised economic recovery without providing specifics, it was.

But now, here we are, same old, same old. The "fiscal cliff" beckons, with both sides now admitting taxes WILL go up, and for all of us. The idea of letting the Bush era tax cuts expire, though, was never really an issue, was it?

Of course they should, and will, expire. That's a fairness issue. But to believe letting the rich pay at rates approach income tax levels the rest of us pay will solve the budgetary problems we face, that is ludicrous.

I'd even say it was a massive "red herring," except that it nonetheless is the right thing, the fair thing, to do.

But so is extensive tax, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security reform. There is corruption, there is waste, perhaps even the $800 billion worth Republicans have argued exists, even as they try to prevent the top 2 percent of Americans from paying the rates they once paid under President Clinton.

All these things are important. But they pale next to the challenges we face that literally threaten to plunge the world, let alone our nation, into turmoil. 

 

Climate change, along with more severe weather patterns, drought, and rising sea levels, poses economic as well as "natural" disaster risks.

The Middle East mess, for which both our initial good intentions and our current loss of leadership and vision are at least partially responsible, could trigger regional and perhaps world warfare that makes Book of Revelation-style doom a reality.

Chemical weapons stockpiles in Syra and terrorists with access to those. Iranian nuclear weapons, and the same old hatred of Israel that threatens yet another war of genocide against the Jews in a new century. 

 

And in the middle, Palestinians now generations into their unwanted role of hot potato being tossed between Arabic power brokers, Israel and the nations supporting both sides.

Famine grows in Africa. Drought threatens even America's bread basket. Energy costs soar, leading to rising prices amid static, even retreating incomes that are eroding the Middle Class.

There is also, perhaps more important than all these things in the long run, a moral and cultural erosion that seems only to be accelerating.

We don't need to argue specifics of the rights for gays, minorities and the unborn to agree that broken families and fatherless families are turning out troubled kids, many of whom seem devoid of morals or respect for life and property.

Like our economy, foreign policy and morals, the family unit that is the cornerstone of any civilization seems bankrupt.

Bottom line: It is ALL unsustainable. 

 

So, pretty bleak, yes? Beyond our abilities to solve, probably.

That's why there's faith. And with faith, in God and each other, we can address each and every one of our challenges. One at a time.

It starts with knowing that, and acting on that. It can start with a smile, a hand up, a prayer and decisions that are based on treating the Other as we would like to be treated.

Pass it on.

It is our only hope.