Purple Mountains Majesty

I'll be There Because

Every Day in America...

3 children die from abuse or neglect.

6 children commit suicide

13 children are homicide victims

15 children are killed by firearms.

95 babies die

790 babies are born at a low birth weight.

2,660 babies are born into poverty.

3,398 babies are born to unwed mothers.

6,042 children are arrested.

8,493 children are reported abused or neglected.

1,407 babies are born to teen mothers

Despite the impact the above flyer has had on me as a social worker, I forget how exactly it came to be hanging in my office for the last decade. Its corners are folding inward, a wrinkled coincidental concealment of the content. My eyes often glance up to read what my stomach cannot digest. I lean on its message as a social work credo. The information has inspired me to be a conduit of change while the humbling statistics have also conversely served to derail my spirit from time to time. I look at life from both sides now.

Whenever I witness the breathtaking beauty of Fourth of July fireworks, it causes me to reflect about our country's history and future. Over fifty years ago, former Russian statesman Khrushchev boldly predicted America will destroy itself without anyone raising a single bullet against her. That day may be approaching if we do not right its course. There is a rampant decline of the nuclear family. The cycle of drugs and violence are undermining America. We are raising bullets against ourselves. The middle class is shrinking; creating a great rift between the upper and lower classes. I admire this country, democracy, and the personal freedoms it stands for. However, I am a fatalist when it comes to the long-range future of our species. I do not think the rest of the world is any more equipped than America to avoid self-destruction. Our sun has a three billion year burn cycle but I doubt humans will be around to see the damning dooming fade to eternal black. I worry that America has started a slow decay like a mighty oak rotting from within, looking proud until the day of the fall.

There is no shortage of work at my job, just a shortage of workers handling a multitude of social ill. It will take a miraculous coming together of a nation to prove Khrushchev wrong, to not yell "Timber" as the mighty oak falls on an unsuspecting populous while an American bald eagle, an endangered species herself, circles above the sun-driven sky. The world watches and waits. For purple mountains majesty from sea to shinning sea.