The media echo chamber is clamoring that the new variant of COVID should have us all shaking in fear. Yet many people in our area have commented to me how distrustful they are of the news media. One reason why I believe that is true is because of the way government of cials or media sources misuse words for e ect. (See recent article on “War on Words.”) Early on, COVID was seen as a “crisis.”  e word “crisis” is defined as “a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger.” Compare this to the word “problem.” A “problem” is definned as “a matter or situation as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.” To those wanting to get attention, crises are headlines; problems are subtitles. COVID became a political hot potato as it evolved in the early months of 2020, leapfrogging straight from ‘concern’ to ‘crisis’ — missing the ‘problem’ stage altogether. And unfortunately, now, in the middle of 2021, our government and its media cheerleaders are still focusing on this virus as if it were a crisis. I would suggest that there are far greater problems facing our nation today, but because COVID is sucking all the oxygen in the room, these issues are hardly even mentioned in public discourse. Here is just a sample of those problems in our society.

By the standard of COVID, they could certainly fall into the category of crisis as they impact our lives much more than we realize: Inflation: Inflation is right now at a 13 year high. I have noted this in previous articles, but I passionately fear inflation in our economy. There is a vicious feedback loop when prices for goods and services go up, employees demand wage increases to compensate, which causes goods and services to go higher again, etc. Those who lived through the inflation-crazy days brought about by the Middle East oil embargo in the 1970s know what I am talking about. We were fortunate. World history in
the 20th century showed that inflation destroyed governments and was a major reason for the start of World War II. We need to lock up inflation and throw away the key.

Tort system: No one talks about this, but the threat of being sued controls so much of what we do and how we act. It was curious that during the highly hyped Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) legislation deliberations, the high cost of health care was looked at from every perspective except tort laws. Yes, medical malpractice certainly exists, but how many expensive, unnecessary tests are run simply to cover the doctor or institution in case that one in a zillion chance of whatever should pop up? Protection for the consumer is necessary, but when it runs up to $429 billion (2.3 percent of the ENTIRE U.S. gross domestic product), something is not right. Every industry and business I know must constantly look over their shoulders due to these laws. Do they protect the citizenry as much as they provide a steady income for the legal community?

Fatherless families: Political correctness demands allegiance to the dismemberment of the family by its original design; a marriage between a man and a woman raising their children together in one home. Yes, there are many bad fathers, and there are homes where two women are married and raise children, but these do not deny the foundational truth that families without fathers are missing an essential ingredient. I have anecdotal evidence in my many years of interviewing. The vast majority of successful leaders will attribute a good portion of their success to the upbringing by their parents. Inmates in prison for serious crimes will note that they got into trouble early in life, contributing to the lack of parenthood, especially fathers. The government’s own statistics show that 90 percent of males in prison grew up in a fatherless home. The public costs for this are astronomical. There are many, many more ‘crisis’ issues on my list. These would include obesity (major cause of health problems, mental issues, and higher mortality
rates); student debt (truly a crisis, running around $1.5 trillion right now); illegal immigration (if you enter the country without proper documentation, that is illegal. Out of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country right now, 820,000, 7.5 percent, are considered to be “removable criminal aliens” by the Department of Homeland Security. I would call this more than a problem); crime (need I say more?); illegal drug use (again, this is so obvious, to doubt it is to be living in a cave somewhere); and the list goes on and on.

What is the greatest problem facing the United States today? There are lots of candidates, but we need to be talking about more than COVID variants and other hot media buttons like climate change, petulant Olympic athletes, and racial training curriculum.