On February 3, 2021

Welcome to trashy America

Dear Editor,

America has become a trashy nation. We are embroiled in trashy politics. We have trashy law enforcement and trashy criminal justice, where the rich and white get better treatment.

Our education systems have become trashy, lacking in civics education and focused as they are on low-bar academics.

Religion has become trashy because it has reduced its original rich doctrines to lightweight dictums like “love” and “forgiveness.”

Business advertising has become trashy with all its false or exaggerated claims.

Consumers have become trashy not just because of all the trash they foul the earth with, but because they are excessively stylish. They show off their elite labels next to people who live in impoverished hovels or on the streets amid their own refuse.

For entertainment, we watch trashy reality TV game shows, quiz shows, and talk shows and act like 13-year-old girls when we win a prize.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross, Utah

Do you want to submit feedback to the editor?

Send Us An Email!

Related Posts

Homeless legislation encounters Sturm and Drang

May 7, 2025
A cohort of Vermont’s social service providers has embarked on an editorial campaign challenging the House’s recent legislation that would disrupt the status quo of homeless services funding administration. Angus Chaney, executive director of Rutland’s Homeless Prevention Center (HPC), appears to be the author of the editorial and is joined by about a dozen fellow…

From incarceration to community care: Reinvest in health, justice, common good

May 7, 2025
By Brian Cina Editor’s note: Brian Cina is a VermontState Representative for Chittenden-15. Cina is a clinical social worker with a full-time therapy practice and is a part-time crisis clinician. State-sanctioned punishment and violence perpetuate harm under the guise of accountability, justice, and public safety. Since 2017, Governor Phil Scott has pushed for new prisons…

Tech, nature are out of synch

May 7, 2025
Dear Editor, I have been thinking since Earth Day about modern technology and our environment and how much they are out of touch with each other.  Last summer, my wife and I traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska, for a wedding. While there, we went to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. It…

Under one roof: Vermont or bust!

May 7, 2025
Dear Editor, We’re heading north and so excited. We’re moving full time to Vermont! For decades we’ve been snow birds, like my parents, spending half the year in Bradenton, Florida. But now our Florida house is up for sale — a 1929 Spanish Mediterranean brimming with beauty and charm. A young family we hope will…