I hear and read scary opinion. I imagine some writers are just trying for a dramatic headline, an attention-getting slant. But despite environmental and social problems, I do see signs of movement toward greater peace and wiser living.
If you read Fear Itself by Ira Katznelson, you can get some idea of the burden African Americans have borne,even in the 1900's. It wasn't fair and it isn't now but we seem to be getting there. Barack Obama did the US plenty of good. Michelle Obama's book Becoming has been on the bestseller list for months. And consider this:
This year marks the first year that the winners of Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and now Miss Universe are all black women.
One of the areas that Americans could improve is patience. It is difficult for a young nation and for young people to take a long view. Between our history, our love of achievement and successful business, we have traditionally looked at short periods of time. I am glad to see the book list I mentioned in Monday's post https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-good-list-of-books-of-decade.html
is an attempt to look at longer periods of time. The ending of the year 2019 is a very good time to consider not the previous year but the previous decade. Books, careers, legislation, health trends over a ten year span can be more meaningful and more indicative that simple one year trends.
We are living in a worldwide movement toward recognition of and advancement of women. We still depend on women for our next generation and producing that generation is a very big job. Still, we are finding ways, all over the world, to use women's brains, women's intuitions and tendencies and tastes and philosophies in our affairs. Citizenship, voting, science, administration of all kinds needs all human intelligence and we seem to be finding ways to recognize and use women's abilities.
