I don’t watch normal television any more, because the political commercials scare me, so I either watch NetFlix or YouTube. Today I was watching a crafty video and in the videos that are featured as “Up Next” was a video about what we should start hoarding before the election. I’d never seen anything like this video, so decided to watch it. That was a HUGE mistake. The name of the channel wasn’t related to “Prepper,” but as soon as the woman started her list, I started to sweat. Her number one was a generator. Number two water filtration system, number three, a homemade toilet, etc.. Let’s just stop right there…I thought we were going to talk more about toilet paper or hand sanitizer. Apparently, this woman thinks the election is going to be the end of the world as we know it. She prefaced by saying whichever party wins, mayhem will ensue. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my worst fear is a zombie apocalypse, and my second is Civil War. Apparently, in this woman’s opinion, Civil War is just a few short weeks away.

Most of you might not remember this, but Henny Penny predicted mayhem when the calendar flipped from 1999 to 2000. It was called Y2K, and the problem that the world was consumed with, was computers at that time, only calculated to 12/31/99, and had no 2000 in their databases. So airplanes were predicted to fall out of the skies, based on loss of computer function, and banks were supposed to fail, because computers…you get the point. I was managing retail bank branches at that time, and spent a lot of time, reassuring customers that the banks were prepared for 2000…but a lot of people didn’t trust that this problem would be solved in time, so they hoarded…and bought crazy things like unprocessed wheat. We knew a man who bought a train car full of unprocessed wheat and sold it to friends/family in preparation for Y2K. Apparently he knew how to make it into flour and other usable products and I hope, in the last twenty years, he’s found a way to use it. I seriously doubt that he did. When the calendar clicked over to the year 2000, all computers worked, and everything that was hoarded was for naught, which was the outcome everyone hoped for…Can we be sure that the same will be true of this election?

I don’t need the media to tell me that this year has been a terrible one. From Covid to wild fires, hurricanes, and rioting, it’s been a scary time for all of us. I’ve never seen this country so divided, or people treating each other with such disdain. What happened to the “United” States of America. Where has our unity gone? When we watched the World Trade Centers fall in 2001, we could not have been more proud of our police, who were running in when everyone else was running out. Fast forward to 2020, when we are defunding our police departments because of the actions of a few bad police. Who will we turn to when someone is breaking down our doors, raping women, or murdering people, if there are no police?

I’m 60 years old and afraid for our future as a country. It seems we no longer respect each other and that’s sad. I’ll refer back to the media. Can’t we ever see the good in anyone? Couldn’t we provide HOPE instead of promoting hate. I’m too old to make my own toilet and sanitize my water, and quite frankly, I don’t want to poop in a bucket. Wouldn’t it be easier to treat others as we would like to be treated? Or, is that asking too much?

• Uncategorized