| By Ed Rabel
Once, after traveling over all the world, I thought I lived in the greatest country on earth. I was wrong. I realize now that I live in a country that is dying from the very same diseases I thought we were well on the way to conquering â racism, bigotry, hatred, and fear. My hope was we were prevailing in our struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
John F. Kennedy pledged this: âTo those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required â not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.â
I joined Kennedyâs Peace Corps to share abroad Americaâs aspirations and values, only to realize most of the people I served do not believe in the greatness of America anymore.
Why should they? Instead of a beacon of hope, we have become the bastion of resentment and desperation. Who can believe that a once wise and brave America now has the temerity to ignore Kennedyâs admonition that â... those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.â
Kennedyâs warning then was to all our power-mad adversaries overseas. His reproach is just as valid today, not only for Putin and Pyongyang, but for the power-hungry autocrat who illegally occupies the White House.
And now we are besieged by a great pandemic that tests our very existence. Gone are the days when America could answer the clarion call from friend and foe alike to help solve and salve life-threatening sicknesses that claimed so many abroad.
Despite our fantastic medical infrastructure, we have no immediate answers. What is more, we are humiliated by our lack of discipline to control the deadly virus because we do not wear masks and keep our distance. While other countries are managing to reduce their caseload and deaths to near zero by disciplining themselves, we are burning up with the coronavirus fever.
The main reason for that discrepancy is simple, historians say: Americans do not like being told what to do. We want to be protected from infectious diseases and dirty water and bad food and crazed gunmen. But not in a way that undermines our freedom. Put another way, we are selfish beyond belief.
Here in my home state of West Virginia, we are no different. Reports say the state has the highest rate of transmission of COVID-19 in the country. âThe virus is spreading faster person-to-person in West Virginia right now than any other state in the country,â according to health officials. And why is that?
Maybe the answer is we take our official motto âMountaineers Are Always Freeâ too far. It does not mean we are free not to wear masks nor to keep our distance.
It does not mean we are free to rub shoulder-to-shoulder in bars and public eateries. And it does not mean we should pay allegiance to a president who demands we send our kids back to school with no clear path to know whether they will be safe from a deadly disease.
- A native of Charleston, Ed Rabel is an Emmy Award-winning TV journalist, author and former Peace Corps Volunteer.
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