We are at  a point in our time when, as it often happens, one needs to reiterate a message, or in this case, a warning, regarding the current state of affairs in our country.

We have been down a rough time of  it of late and that proverbial ship of state has been tossed by high and rough seas.

We have been through the turmoil of the sixties and early seventies and we survived. We have been through the early two thousands with its incredible financial chaos  but we survived. We have been through the mid two thousands and , in spite of a wave of pure ignorance and fighting against reason and logic, we survived one of the most critical medical catastrophes in our history.

But Now – well now is a quite different story. We are witness to systemic failure beyond  reckoning, the likes of which we have never seen in our entire history.

A systemic failure that has allowed for one sitting in the oval office to be a convicted felon, guilty of bank fraud , found guilty of defamation of character and sexual assault, fined over eighty-eight million dollars – only a small portion of which has ben paid.  His regime has pulled this country out of numerous Agreements with disastrous consequences, including hundreds of deaths , with no accountability.  

A systemic failure which has found a congress ,  one third of the separate branches of government ,  that has totally abdicated its responsibility and failed miserably to actually govern. Rather, is has caved to the whims of an out of control White House drunk on power. This wing of the apparatus of checks and balances has disappeared.

A systemic failure which has found the courts taking not weeks but months from indictment dates to trial dates, then issuing rulings and doing nothing when the convicted defendant ignores the ruling. Another issue that should be plain to the public is the blatant bias in favor of certain defendants. Note, for instance, the case in Florida when, in the face of clear and compelling evidence, complete with an array of photographs, the court dismissed the case based on a highly questionable procedural call. Or, again, and this is most disconcerting, the Supreme Court – the highest court in the land, ruled, in essence,  that the current occupant of the oval office is above the law.

And finally, there is the failure of executive agencies to abide by not only court rulings but the constitution itself.  Evidence that Department of Justice was given a date in December of 2025 to hand over the entirety of the Epstein files. We found ourselves in July of 2026 and still non compliance and, to add insult to injury, the court that issued that ruling has done nothing to enforce it, only to continue to allow the DOJ to delay and delay, clearly succumbing to the cover up measures of the White House.

One could continue citing example after example but suffice it to say, our institutions and the systems in which they once operated have been so seriously damaged ,  it will take a major rescue  mission to repair all the damage inflicted . The chaos and havoc precipitated by one person and his cadre of blind loyalists in their striving to end our democracy is astounding and the restoration , to quote the late Senator John McCain, to regular order, will be an immense task. However, one must understand, it cannot be done by being a bystander and the task of finding new leadership – competent and dedicated to the constitution  – falls to us, the public. While there are several paths to getting engaged in this task of recovery, few are as important as turnout in elections.

The fight, if you will, is the fight for democracy and the power of the vote is central to that effort. It is the choice between a democratic Republic and an authoritarian regime, the beginnings of which we are indeed  seeing today. As the venerable Doctor Franklin advised,,” if you can keep it “…..we now must all stand to keep it.