Dear Harry,
We're looking for refuge, Ellie and I. They say to switch it all off, to stop listening to the news, stop watching television. Disconnect from the Internet. But that's hard. You raised me with a sense of responsibility to know about the world and to do what I could to make changes where I saw them to be needed. Even at my age, I feel that tug of conscience: I can't just let it happen.
But there it is. It's happening, and we feel powerless to stop it. They also say that old people always look back to their younger days when things were so much better. But they were. Even with war raging, when I was a child, there was a common commitment to the survival/restoration of a society governed by mutual welfare, justice, fairness. There was some common agreement on what was factually true, and what was not. There were conservatives, yes, and socialists, and profound disagreements on the best course to take. But those disagreements were open to rational discussion and could be settled by compromise on either side.
Those days are gone, Harry, at least here in America and increasingly throughout the world. There are so many human beings, some greedily consuming what they can while they can get it, millions of others just desperate for the basic food and water they need to survive. We are destroying the planet with our obsessive concern only for ourselves and our own needs. Here in America, the remaining voices of reason are shouted down by widespread anger and resentment and those eager to exploit it. Talk of violence proliferates, as does the sale of guns. We are manipulated by invisible overlords who steal our very lives for their own profit.
But where to go? Even if we found a place of refuge in some remote, disconnected part of the planet, we have family ties that we would never want to break. We feel stuck. I hate feeling like this, Harry. But that's how it is.
Sorry to disturb you in your place of eternal rest!
With love, Peter
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