I have been a student of history and politics for most of my life. Never has this country been so disconnected. It’s been a slow march to where there is more disagreement than agreement. When I was young the country had a common core. We were a proud country trying to build a more perfect union. A system of government that was the envy of the world.

In what started as a drip is now a flood. Children are not taught the exceptionalism of the country. A government with three equal branches that keep each other in check has been crucial to the progress of the world. The Republican-led Congress has reneged their responsibility to provide counterbalance to the executive branch and the Supreme Court unilaterally dictating the conservative direction of the court. The foundation of this country we have learned is no longer sustained by a populist that respects and honors those foundations. Few are aware of the damage that they are causing.

Social media has destroyed the adherence to those foundations. This destruction has been fueled by lies and misinformation. Sadly, these lies are acknowledged but yet perpetuated. Honesty in our public discourse has been lost and discarded as a casualty.

The younger generation sees nothing wrong with this paradigm shift. Like a communist country, the people accept the “comfort” of the new order as long as they are not too inconvenienced. We are a country of zombies that will keep their heads down as long as their paycheck comes regularly.

We need a resurrection of the values that made this nation. Values that are worth fighting for and worth losing your job for. We have been shown a living example of this with the war in Ukraine. The people are standing up and dying to be a free Ukraine and we are turning our back on them and siding with their invader. May the stain of that shame live with us forever!

— Michael Bozman, Baltimore