America | What now?

I’m sitting in a McDs this morning, with coffee, contemplating yesterday’s election in the USA.

Just think what it means that in the face of the increasing signs of bad effects from climate change, pollution, overpopulation and militarization of the world, America has re-elected the man who denies that any of this is a problem.

Just think what it means that Ukraine’s president Zelensky has pointed out that if the Ukraine is forced to accept a truce that allows Russia to keep what they have taken so far by invasion, they will be forced to develop nuclear weapons of their own, to be able to resist when the Russians come back for more.

If America really is going to withdraw from being the world’s policeman, just think what it will be like when it’s “every man for himself” again. Not only Ukraine, but Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran of course, and other countries may decide it’s necessary to have their own nuclear weapons. If Europe is going to become the hope of peace-loving nations, as some of us hope, they will have to increase the meager nuclear arsenal they have in France and the UK, not to mention drastically rebuilding their conventional armed forces.

Just think that if Ukraine is forced into a truce, all those children stolen by the Russians, the reason for the world court’s charges against Putin, may never see their homes again.

Just think what it means if Trump takes America out of Nato, as Vladimir Putin wants him to do. Once the Russian army has been rebuilt, it’s not hard to imagine them doing a test invasion of one of the small Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, to see if Europe is prepared to fight for them.

There have been rumours that at high levels in the Kremlin there are discussions ongoing whether Khazakhstan should be next. It’s a giant country, geographically important, with many valuable resources, somewhat like my Canada in a way. Who will help them fight? Russia, apparently, is going to be allowed to grow larger and more powerful through warfare, something that was supposed to have been gone from the world.

I could go on and on about what may be coming, but I’ve had enough for this morning.

What is clear is that a demon has taken over America, somewhat in the way one took over Germany in the elections of 1932/1933. I suspect that the only way out of this is for them to go forward with their reckless experiment, follow it to the end. That’s what happened in Germany. The German experiment ended in disaster, with more or less 60 million people dead around the world and many cities destroyed, but look at Germany today. Though they have a restive right-wing element, it’s hard to imagine them doing that again, at least in the lifetime of anyone alive today. And though Hitler put an end to elections in Germany, democracy came back after he was gone. Democracy is alive and well in Germany today.

So, in the long run, maybe it’s necessary that America do what it’s doing, to get whatever is ailing them out of their system. Though this will unfortunately affect everyone in the world  doesn’t seem to matter.

Fasten your seat-belts.

But I have to add this. I love America. When I was young, during the Vietnam war, I road Greyhound buses back and forth through Michigan, down the Mississippi valley, through Oklahoma and Texas, on my way to Mexico City, always enjoying the view outside and the debates over the war inside the bus.

When late in her life my wife, who always loved New York City, went there to work for five years, with one of our daughters who went to CUNY/Hunter College at the same time, I made countless road trips through New York State and Pennsylvania to Brooklyn where they lived. I’ve fished in Brooklyn’s Jamaica Bay, where they say there are families of seals on some of the many islands; I’ve surf-fished on the south side of Long Island, and explored the area as far as Montauk Point, where great white sharks sometimes appear off shore.

MY wife’s years in New York were, I believe, the happiest in her life, and I quickly saw why. I still go there to see my daughter and little grand-daughter, who will one day vote in US elections, as long as the country remains a democracy.

I’ve gone to Phoenix Arizona twice, where I’ve explored the city’s South Mountain Park, at 16,000 wilderness acres with three mountain ranges, one of the largest municipal parks in the world, as well as beautiful Saguaro National Park near Tucson, and the haunting Chiricahua Apache wilderness on the border with New Mexico, where jaguars from northern Mexico are rumoured to occasionally appear.

There is so much more to America than its politics. Because of that, I wish them well in this strange venture they’ve embarked on. I hope they return soon to being the America I’ve known until now.