Richard Pryor on one of his comedy albums made the statement”Tell me a good lie so I don’t have to think about the truth” I have always remembered that statement about the realities of modern life. When we hear information that contradicts our worldview social psychologists call the resulting insecurity of cognitive dissonance. We are now living in the world of 1984 where big brother is everywhere. Every movement of our daily lives is recorded either on video or cell phone usage. All the data that is collected is never deleted. We in the United States are being told by the government that a wall on our southern border along with stepped-up deportations of those caught up in the anti-immigrant policies of president Trump. These actions are supposed to us feel safer.

Those who remember 9/11 which was our modern version of the attack on Pearl Harbor. America has because of that day tried to take care of threats by going to war in the middle east. The department of homeland security is now in overdrive to arrest and deport those who are not citizens. DACA is on hold and no one it seems is in charge in Washington. We as a country are in a state of denial. Our sense of what this country has stood for in the past is being challenged by the times we now live in. The citizens of this country cannot afford to mentally shut down and become an isolationist nation as we were in the past. There are solutions. We just need to find them in a timely manner. Our survival as a nation depends on it.