Enough

When crazy, horrific events happen, the media stokes the flames of quick, panacea-seeking answers from the right and from the left. Politicians use these tragedies to rally their base for their pet crusades-- gun control, mental healthcare. Have we lost our ability to come together as a nation?

Have we lost our desire to solve the problems we face as a nation? We are not the generation that used its collective will, resources, intellectual trusts, and American ingenuity to win the space race. And yet,  I believe that potential is within us nonetheless. I have to. I'm a teacher who teaches the next generation with hope for tomorrow.

But, to be honest, I am disappointed in us as a nation. We would rather fight on extremes of every position rather than admit that each of the many issues we face: fossil fuel dependency, funding public education, climate change,  terrorism, health care, social justice, immigration, even the fiscal cliff, are complex problems with no simple answers, but with a collective will to solve them (rather than self-serving attacks to win a debates) we can. I refuse to believe that the progeny of the generation that put the first man on the moon is incapable of summoning its collective will to solve the problems of our nation.