What is missing from American life in the 21st century may have been best summarized by Ted Kennedy more than 43 years ago.
At the funeral of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Ted Kennedy said , "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."
People don't seem to care about being good and decent anymore. Wrong is often rewarded, rather than corrected. Suffering is largely ignored, and the American government remains at war, both on foreign soil and against her own people.
There are more people suffering in America today than there have been in decades. The foreclosure crisis has left millions homeless. Yet the banks that caused the crisis were allowed to walk away, not only their homes, but with record profits made possible by the largest taxpayer funded government handout in history.
The very nature of the word 'human' implies more than a species. It implies a state of mind and essence that holds compassion for the weak, the poor and the sick. Helping others while expecting nothing in return is an extinct concept in American society today.
It's hard to say exactly where America went wrong. But it is surely no longer a land where the wealthy would echo Ted Kennedy's words, "Through no virtues and accomplishments of our own, we have been fortunate enough to be born in the United States under the most comfortable conditions. We, therefore, have a responsibility to others who are less well off."
