Facts, and Other Ugly Things

I posted on social media the other day about the devastation in Puerto Rico. I added a picture of the damage, just to illustrate my point.

One of the first responses I got, from a nice, educated, middle-class white woman, was, "I don't believe it."

I looked at the response in confusion. I read it again.

"I don't believe it."

I took a few moments and flipped silently through the hundreds of pictures of the destruction. I read through the CNN and New York Times and even the Huffington Post articles about the loss of the power grid.

I went back and double checked the multiple articles about the hospitals without power, the loss of every patient in an ICU, the deaths due to dehydration.

"I don't believe it."

In four words, the madness which has swallowed our country. Not a mental illness, but an uncaring, willful and wild disconnect from actuality for which we have no other word.

Over the past ten years a growing segment of our population has decided that they have not only the right to their own opinions, but their own facts.That they have a right to look at reality, unfolding before them, in living color and often accompanied by screams, and to say, "I don't believe it."

And the rest of us have allowed it to happen, in the name of peace, and tolerance, and conflict avoidance, and family harmony.

I am not a Democrat, and I am not a Republican, but in the words of Little Steven Van Zandt, "I am a patriot, and I love my country."

So, let me give you some facts. Facts that are verified as far as it is possible to verify them under our given system of scientific law, and our current understanding of the nature of reality.

• The earth is a globe. It is not flat. It is about 4.54 billion years old.
• Climate change and global warming are real. Surveys of the peer-reviewed scientific literature and the opinions of experts consistently show a 97–98% consensus among scientists (across the global community) that humans are causing global warming.
• 57% of Americans do not have a gun in the home, and the US is less than 5% of the world's population, but the US makes up a THIRD of the WORLD'S mass shooting incidents
• The United States, with less than 5% of the world’s population, has about 35-50 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns
• In 2016 in the US there were: 58,782 gun incidents. 15,080 people died of gunshot wounds. 30,616 people were injured. 671 children under 12 were killed or hurt. 3,125 teens were killed or hurt. There were 383 mass shootings. Police officers shot or killed 1,908 people. People shot or killed 325 police officers. There were 2,200 accidental shootings- the rest were deliberate firings, even if not at the actual victim
• White people have been considered the default "normal" since our country was founded and receive privilege because of this
• Black people are more likely than white people to be shot by a police officer
• The US ranks #1 in the world in prisoners held.
• The US ranks 38th out of 71 nations for math and science
• The US ranks 44th out of 51 countries for health care efficiency
• The US ranks 2nd (out of 14 developed countries) for general ignorance about social statistics
• We rank 101st out of 162 countries for peace
• We rank 23rd in gender equality
• 46th in freedom of the press
• 26th out of 29 developed countries for child well being
• 24th out of 65 for literacy
• 27th out of 36 for leisure and personal care time
• The richest 0.1% in America now control wealth than the bottom 90%
• Read that again- 160,000 families with net assets over $20 million each, control more wealth than 90% of our country together
• Our military budget is larger than every other military budget on earth, combined
• The US was intentionally and specifically NOT founded as a Christian nation
• Every version and translation of the Christian Bible spells out the following commands: Love your neighbor. Feed the hungry. Comfort and care for the sick and the dying. Care for the children, widows, and orphans. Free the prisoners. Give generously
• Freedom to PRACTICE your religion is guaranteed in the US. Freedom to impose your religion on others is not.
• Freedom to protest peaceably is guaranteed in the US
• Freedom of the press is guaranteed in the US 
• Working for 40 hours at minimum wage does not allow a person to obtain food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare
• Undocumented people are providing essential labor that no one else wants to do

What does all of this mean?

It means we are undereducated, and over-worked. It means our children are not cared for. It means that when these same children turn to crime they are drawn into the gaping mouth of a for-profit prison industrial system and sold as commodities. It means that undereducated young people who cannot find jobs are fodder for the military-industrial complex.

It means that our country is owned by the rich, and controlled by corporate conglomerates in their names. It means that our people are dying from lack of affordable healthcare. It means that our people are dying for lack of food.

It means our planet is warming up; our polar ice is melting. It means if we don't do something, very soon, we will reach a point of no return.

It means that you cannot be a Christian if you are working and voting to keep food and medical care from people. It means you cannot be a Christian if you are working or voting to harm your neighbor.

It means that not only are we not #1 we are not in the top 5 and we are falling.

It means that if we, we the people, don't do something, now, we risk losing our ability to do anything ever again.

What should we do? We should fight.

We should fight now.

For opt-out rather than opt-in voter registration
For universal healthcare
For a livable minimum wage
For CEO salary caps and wage ratios
For House and Congressional term limitations
For educational funding
For gun control laws and the disbanding of the gun lobby
For pharmaceutical reform, and the disbanding of the for profit drug industry
For the lives of people of color
For the lives of people with disabilities
For the right to be free of the imposition of religious practices or laws

For all of us.

Believe it.