What kind of society have we become?

My God.  If you aren't as soul weary as I am after the past two years, I don't know why not.  Not only are Americans insulting and bullying one another online over national politics, they are leaving behind any semblance of civility on the local level.  I feel like I'm living in one of those perpetually turbulent countries.  Maybe I am.  Maybe this is the way it's going to be from now on.  If so, I want off the merry-go-round.

Earlier today, one of my co-workers took the brunt of someone's vitriol because she works for a man who happens to serve as a county commissioner in addition to his day job.  Our community and a neighboring bedroom community (people work here, but they sleep there), are at odds over our local hospital and a potential hospital the bedroom community is pushing to be built.  There are lots of complaints about our local hospital -- ranging from care to cost.  On the flip side of that, there are lots of people who have been pleased with the care they received there, and it is the major employer in our region, not just county.  As they say around here, I don't have a dog in that fight.  Mainly, because I've decided if I get sick, that I'm just going to lie down and die if God sees fit to put me out of this misery.  Even though I am neutral on the hospital issue, I'm not neutral on verbal abuse directed towards the easiest target.  Take it from me, an assistant doesn't get paid enough money to put up with foul language and shouting from a caller who isn't lucky enough to call when the intended subject is in the office.  Before today, I thought that people would not act in real life in the same way they behave online  OBNOXIOUSLY.  I was wrong.  We have truly degraded ourselves as a society.  We think nothing of eviscerating the very companies that sustain our communities and we have ceased to be civil to our closest neighbors, which is beyond sad.  My neighbor around the corner was beaten unconscious and robbed two weeks ago by seven or more African American males, because he had the audacity to ask them and their friends to break up a party that was being held in a small neighborhood park well past midnight.  My neighbor's house along with others sit on a circle around that park, and there are posted laws forbidding use of any city park after dusk.  The police had repeatedly been called about the ongoing disturbance, but didn't show up until my neighbor was being loaded in an ambulance.  

Is this truly the greatest country in the world?  Maybe it once was, but we no longer expect greatness from ourselves. 

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