Rusted flagpole at USA school kills girl
Sometimes it takes a random, horrible event to symbolize a larger, more complex problem. If illustration of such an event were called a cheap shot, it mistakes my intention. The flagpole could have been anywhere, so the event in itself does not prove anything. And replacing all the flagpoles in America won’t address the underlying problem. All the same, I find this story about a rusted-out flagpole falling and killing a child at her primary school a potent symbol of the inside-out, slow, but entirely visible destruction of a great country, threatening not to end its supremacy with the bang now being so strenuously, and justly, if not efficiently, prevented, but with the whimper at the end of a downward spiral. Citizens of America, please join me in my call– to politicians, neighbors, and friends– to take a new look at all that threatens the country; and to give solutions– even the non-sexy, non-spectacular solutions– their proper due. Ending with a whimper is just as much an end as ending with a bang. Let’s prevent both.
