Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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8 UCW DECEMBER 27, 2023 -JANUARY 2, 2024 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM e week between Christmas and New Year's always feels peaceful to me. e frantic rush leading up to December 25th has passed, the decorations cry out to be put away, and when they are, home feels fresh and clean again. It is a time both to look back at the year that is fading and ahead at the one now staring down at us. It is hard not to be frightened. As a Baby Boomer, I have lived through some of our nation's most trying and pivotal times. I watched my generation of young men drafted into a conflict that tore our nation apart. I watched African Americans and women fight for and ultimately gain civil rights unavailable for most of United States history. I watched an American President mired in scandal resign as the leader of the free world and fly off into self-imposed exile in California. I watched New York's Twin Towers fall from Washington, DC where I was attending a conference next door to the US Capitol while our only daughter was in New York City. ese were all challenges for our nation, and sometimes I was sad and sometimes I was mad. Never, though, have I been as concerned about our future as a nation as I am as I write this. e United States, like several other nations, appears to be loosening its hereto-firm grip on democracy and sliding toward a more authoritarian form of government. Former Con- gresswoman Liz Cheney, a Repub- lican, calls this "sleepwalking into dictatorship." Populism and nationalism have been woven into our national fabric since the beginning of our nation, stronger at some times than at others. Today, they are surging, pitting us against each other, turning Americans into "us" and "them." People on both the right and the left are deeply suspi- cious of each other and the values each side holds. e left talks about pluralism and the right talks about traditional values, and each side ap- pears to have lost both the will and the ability to communicate with the other. Each appears willing to reside within its own echo chamber of be- liefs without listening to the other. As we move into the election season of 2024, Americans of all political stripes need to be very clear about our situation and the imminent dangers we face and vote accordingly at all levels. Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College, minces no words with her clear and stark assessment of the far-right forces cur- rently at work in our nation. She wrote this earlier this month. "In the United States, that under- current has created a movement of people who are willing to overthrow democracy if it means reinforcing their traditional vision. Christian nationalists believe that the secular values of democracy are destroying Christianity and traditional values. ey want to get rid of LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, immigration, and the public schools they believe teach such values. And if that means handing power to a dictator who promises to restore their vision of a traditional society, they're in. "It is an astonishing rejection of ev- erything the United States has always stood for." Some readers of this column will disagree with Richardson's assess- ment, perhaps even be offended by it. I urge readers to ponder her words between now and the moment we cast our ballots. ere is nothing to lose by considering her educated conclusion, but there is everything to lose by not heeding it. We stand to lose the United States of America as we have known it. What lies ahead by MARGARET DICKSON OPINION 15% ALC YOUR LOCAL Beer-Seltzer-Ciders-Wine Distributor 355ml Bottle 10 pack 50ml Bottle 50ml Bottle Malt NOW AVAILABLE in most Convenience Stores MARGARET DICKSON, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910- 484-6200.