The World has Moved On

The world has moved on. It’s a phrase that resonates with me. I would say it’s just another sign that I am getting old but the truth is that when I heard it for the first time when I was 11 it struck a chord. The world is always changing and that change just keeps getting exponentially faster every year. In many ways that change is a positive force, in others it’s a cause for alarm. We can reach out to those on the other side of the planet as easily as those living down the street, yet many seem to be so lost in their digital world that they have lost the ability to connect to those standing next to them. We can get news up to the minute from anywhere on Earth but it seems to have only brought the violence into our homes and in our face. The murder rate per capita has been steadily declining for the last 40 years but anyone with a mobile device will tell you that the world has become a much more violent place. A great writer once wrote that when JFK was killed, America saw the passing of the worlds last gunslinger. He wasn’t talking about a wild west killer when he said it. He referred to a man who moved with dignity, spoke with authority, who always tried diplomacy but was willing to fight to protect what mattered. Teddy Roosevelt was known as the man who walked softly but carried a big stick. He represented the American ideal of a man who could overcome any obstacle and who wouldn’t start a fight but would certainly end it. Perhaps it is only the rose colored glasses that come with looking at the past, but the Oval Office was once a place that represented integrity and was meant to house a first amount equals. How then did we change so much that fake news became a common concept? When did it become okay for the leader of the free world to be a bully who shouted down his opposition and whose idea of truth was mailable rather than fixed? When did we become a nation who preferred tweets and sound bites to fireside chats and inspirational speeches? I am grateful beyond words for technology and the progress it has brought to us, but I worry for the direction we are going in and the world that my children and grandchildren will live in...

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