There is a silent call that drags our hearts and our minds toward something that is beyond out control. What we do control is our answer to that call.

I’ve been watching the world closer than I have ever in my life. I’ve never been one for being a newsmonger or celebrity obsessed (or even mildly interested). The world’s goings-ons have always been there and if I hear about the ‘it’ of the time or not, I didn’t spend much time dwelling on ‘it.’ This has been quite a feat as I have lived through some interesting times.

In my youth, the 1970s, the biggest political upheaval was going on in the name of Watergate. To this day, I only have a vague idea of what it involved, and actually have a bit of sympathy for Richard Nixon as he probably did what others in his type of position of power have been doing for millennia (or more). The 70s ushered in the ‘need to know everything’ generation, and Watergate is part of that fallout.

True, this was hot on the heels of a cold war and the country was embroiled in the Vietnam war that opened a lot of minds to the questionability of the leaders of the free world.

Free world…

Nothing is free in the world.

Not only was Watergate infuriating the American youth, and Vietnam chewing up and spitting out the youth, there was a hostage situation in the middle east which, of course, impacted the gas situation in the United States, and drove up inflation.

Man, doesn’t this sound a lot like the state of the free world today?

So, these are the vague memories I have about being a child of the “Me Generation,” and supported by the embellished memories of Forest Gump.

The 80s and 90s are virtually world event vortexes. Reagan was president and everyone was feeling good about the economy. Changing from dungarees to informal formal daily wear and moving from home as humble abode to Town and Country opulence, and even if you couldn’t afford it, you strove for the yuppiedom that was gentrifying mass swaths of city life.

I, too, was focused on the upward mobility fueled by Reaganomics.

Then, the new millennia threated to have planes falling out of the sky, and banks purging monies to the detriment of their owners due to the computers thinking it was 1900 instead of 2000. While people hoarded food, delayed travel, and believed the assurances that the FDIC would watchdog their life savings.

I was also watching.

Little did we know that once Chicken Little’s cries were unfounded, we would find that truly the sky was going to fall down – or something would fall from the sky and life would be forever changed.

As we know, 9/11 changed the world.

The events that took place on September 11, 2001, shook up a complacent nation – a complacent world. As the, then, infallible world of the United States of America,  it was an event that seemed impossible to occur. Why that is so, is the sheer fact that the American public believes it is beyond the reach (or should be) of the things that make life ugly, and this illusion has been shared by many other ideologically similar nations.

I was one of them. Aghast at the sights that were taking place before my eyes, I couldn’t stop watching. To this day, I can see those images and stop whatever I’m doing and watch, despite the fact that the images are indelibly etched in my minds-eye.

We were a changed nation.

This is when we, as people, changed.

I have noticed.

At first, we were unified in our horror. New York became America’s orphans, with the nations embrace coddling a broken city. The world watched and wondered; how could this happen? Our leadership had to respond. We could not take it sitting down; retaliation and retribution were necessary to feel balm to the gaping wound of betrayal.

Since that fateful period, I have tried to limit my engagement in the chaos of the world. I am a rather staunch believer in giving little emotional and mental space to situations that I lack passion for or feel it is outside my capacity to affect. Such as the political and governmental control of our space in the western hemisphere.

But I have watched the people watch the world.

It’s the people of the world that scare me. It’s the media’s control of the people that scare me. It’s how few people notice the crackled glass that is poised to shatter once the heat is too high. It’s the inability to repair the crackled glass globe once it has shattered that scares me.

Just like in the 1970s, we are seeing political turmoil. Leadership has lost the trust of its constituents and is now scrambling to keep their hands on their ‘deserved’ slice of pie. The American public screams ‘Justice!’ and is looking for someone to crucify.

Reagan was that answer in the 1980s. I wonder who will be the answer in the 2020s.

Or will we implode? Will we kill each other? Or will we just destroy what was once the greatest country of modern times?

It’s hard to say. Historically, we have seen great civilizations come and go. They have risen to great heights and then sunk below sea-level. The great nations of Egypt, China, Britain, and Rome were all once the ‘world power’ but lost their way, and have never fully recovered (yet). What makes America think it is immune to the fall of another great nation?

It is said that a house divided cannot stand, and that is where I see the United States presently. She is standing on the precipice, with crumbling gaps ready to swallow up those in its wake. We will watch those fall into the holes, pointing fingers at each other, saying this is your fault because, again, we seek retaliation and retribution to fill a gaping wound of.

Ultimately, what will the faultfinding achieve? I’m afraid we will find a whole lot of self-righteous justifications in the midst of a new country called the Divided States of America – land of the destitute and depraved.

And yes, God willing, I will be watching.