It has taken a long time for our country to deteriorate to the current level. Setting aside the inflammatory outgrowth of many people’s vitriolic opinion of President Donald Trump, it’s time to take steps that truly get to the root of our various problems. One huge problem — if not the biggest — is the pride of race or ethnicity or gender over the pride of being a citizen of the United States of America. The view that we aren’t simply “Americans” is toxic.
Closely related to the identity issue is the language barrier, which is being strengthened, rather than removed. The number of languages included for various government programs continues to grow. The 2020 Census includes 59 languages in addition to English.
My suggestion is to start by enforcing English as the only language used by the government. At the same time, we can work toward eliminating many classifications of the American people. Can you see that If citizens of this country cannot view themselves first and foremost as Americans, then it is inevitable segregation will be maintained and even strengthened?
For many years, our policies and programs have been encouraging division and entitlements. Now it is time to eliminate the race/ethnic/gender classification from as many government programs as possible and cut back on the monumental data collections of these times. We desperately need programs to function better and for some (many?) to be eliminated. Let us shift course toward rewarding responsible citizenry rather than propping up programs which continue to nurture the victim mentality within our society.
Congress has created program upon program, which has placed our governance on trajectories spiraling out of control. They are expensive, complicated, largely unproductive and worse. Some sacrifices on everyone’s part will be required, but the effort to promote “E Pluribus Unum” is worth it.
Valerie Haney
Anchorage
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