Roe v. Wade is about to die. You let it happen.

It’s your fault.

Don’t blame the impending loss of abortion rights on arch-conservatives or religious fundamentalists. You let the barbarians through the gates, and now women in backward states will die for your failures.

It was clear as day that it was likely to happen when the U.S. Senate majority refused to even entertain the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. But you didn’t go crazy to ensure a madman and his cohort weren’t elected later that year.

And now it’s too late to fix it. Maybe someday the Court will breathe life back into stare decisis – the rule of precedent – but you, the members of my generation, will likely be dead before that happens. 

The dismemberment of the rule of law is already afoot and will continue apace.

Shut up about the things you accomplished in your lives, the inching forward of progress in justice that you fostered. If you had been half as successful in protecting your nation and way of life for your children as you were in shoring up their generational wealth, they wouldn’t have to worry so much about the future.

You may have managed to acquire a house to leave to some of your kids, but will they be alive to use it?

Just as it’s too late to rescue Roe v. Wade, it’s probably too late to save the planet from global warming. If not, it’s certainly close to too late.

Maybe there will be big-time scrambling to try to make up for lost time on that front and the others so woefully neglected, now that the Supreme Court has smacked all of you in the puss, waking you up. Maybe you’ll be able to soften some of the tremendous harm that’s on the way.

Maybe not. A long time has passed since atomic bombs were invented, but we’re scared as ever that they’ll be flung here and there, ending life on Earth as we know it. We were scared decades ago, but apparently not enough. It seems that 76 years wasn’t enough time to crack the nuclear disarmament nut. 

And other nations still wage insane conventional wars on each other. Heck, so does the U.S.

People are still homeless in the allegedly richest nation on the planet. Lots of them. There are many more people dying because they can’t afford medical care. 

Your fault. 

No?

Whose fault is it, then? You don’t live in a monarchy or dictatorship. You live in a representative democracy where you get to fight for whatever you want. You have political freedom, but it seems wasted, if current conditions are considered.

Many of you have lived far more comfortable lives than any of your forbears. Yet you’re living in a nation – and on a planet – in decline. If you couldn’t be bothered to fix things, who could?

On April 19, I wrote here that the previous month, I had so seriously taken my own lackluster ride on a planet spinning into oblivion that I had momentarily considered quitting the trip and the charade of being part of the solution. At least twice, I made the point that the rest of you have been as bad at solving the world’s problems as I was. If you weren’t, we would be in better shape.

About half of you missed that point or disagreed. You seem to think like the drunks at AA who pray, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

Here’s a little wisdom for you: there are probably no do-overs when it comes to national decline and planetary collapse.

Everybody seems to be standing aside and waiting for somebody else to step up. When they do, they’re the bad guys. 

If you have any participation trophies at home, throw them away. You’re in a real ballgame, and it’s the bottom of the ninth. 

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