America doesn’t feel like home anymore

Boarded up businesses, urban wastelands filled with poor people suffering in the streets with nowhere to go… and it is not solely due to the pandemic

Photo by Jonathan Rados on Unsplash

I spent a couple months worth of driving through California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon in the past year.

Some of what I saw was vast empty spaces without trees, urban decay, vacant lots filled with abandoned vehicles, unaffordable urban sprawl, endless houseless encampments under freeway overpasses, boarded up strip malls, small towns that seemed dilapidated and uninhabited, and strong evidence of poverty everywhere.

I also saw a few beautiful places, amazing National Parks, mighty rivers, and awesome wildlife.

But between the points of interest we’re long stretches of sobering reality. Remnants of a time when mom and pop shops dotted small towns across America — now ghost towns and abandoned neighborhoods where the only inhabitants can’t afford to leave.

I suppose my knowing what’s happening to cause the decline of this country perhaps makes it worse. For me it’s heartbreaking. My home town, although twice as populated, seems a lifeless shell of what it once was.

This town used to be filled with growth, opportunity, and a sense of community. Today, like the rest of the country, it seems disconnected and somber. Now everyone is deep in debt and struggling to survive paycheck to paycheck. And it shows on the frowns and sad faces everywhere.

The pandemic has made matters worse for everyone. Businesses, communities and families struggle. And now big corporations are using the excuse of inflation to drain more profits from and already broke public.

It’s very gloomy when you pause and consider the facts. Meanwhile the pundits, politicians and parties are pretending everything is fine. The government propaganda machine is pushing their agenda to fool the public into believing everything is getting better.