Dear Editor,
Snow globes are popular and soothing. What’s not to like about a glass globe with a pleasant scene inside, with snow gently falling whenever you shake the globe? But what if those falling flakes are actually bits of greed, corruption, violence and ignorance?
That’s how America seems to me now: a carefully crafted scene of democracy and equality fastened to the public image, while the slightest disturbance of the globe unleashes a storm that is anything but pure snow.
We are a nation that proclaims itself a model democracy yet cannot govern itself or even agree on what is real. One which elected a lifelong con man to its highest office and may well reelect him despite his efforts to steal the presidency.
A nation which has more guns than people and is unable to even begin addressing an epidemic of school shootings that leaves many children dead and far more traumatized for life.
A rich nation with horrendous poverty in the lower strata, which refuses to fund even the infrastructure needed to keep roads and bridges from collapsing. A rich nation where millions struggle to find and afford medical care, driven into debt and bankruptcy by medical bills.
A nation in which racism, other bigotries, and book banning are growing like weeds while more and more people treat history as an enemy rather than a lesson.
That corrosive snowfall will eventually eat through the base until the globe is completely empty.
Lee Russ, Bennington
