I am 70 years old and have been politically interested most of my life.

I was 8 years old when President John F. Kennedy said the U.S. “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

Now, if that wouldn’t grab the interest of an 8-year-old, what could? I mean, if our country could do that, we could do anything, right?

Well, the short answer is yes, we could.

We sent men to the moon using a computer that cost $3.5 million and was the size of a car. Your single smartphone has enough computing power to land 120 million spacecraft on the moon at the same time! To say we have come far since that July 24, 1969 touchdown, when Neil Armstrong uttered the famous words, “a small step for man, a giant leap for mankind,” would be the understatement of the century.

America was on top of its game in the 60s. Other major successes included the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. I remember the pride I had and the patriotism my family had back then. It seemed the sky was the limit.

Yes, we had our challenges, as we always will, especially the Vietnam War, the escalation of the Cold War, and advancement of communism. Yes, we had protests in the streets, as we always will, because that is our right to peacefully protest when we think the government has not gone far enough or in some cases gone too far.

But today I am asking myself, “What went wrong?”

The young people in the 60s were all about peace and love. Today, many of them are now running our country and all I see coming out of Washington is as far away from peace and love as the moon seemed in 1969. Now, it’s all political warfare and hate.

The promise of America seemed limitless. Fast-forward to today, when polls show 71% of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. I guess I am one of them, as I find myself exhausted, frustrated, and disappointed with where we are now.

We can’t seem to agree on anything. There doesn’t seem to be any vision or goals we can all unite around. The Republicans are investigating Democrats and the Democrats are investigating the Republicans. Congress borrows a million dollars a minute from my grandchildren with no end in sight. We are $32 trillion in debt and our nation’s credit rating was lowered this past week. Interest rates and inflation continue to rise, putting even more pressure on the taxpayers who have to pay billions in interest every year on our debt.

Crime is increasing, as well, and, in San Francisco, shoplifters aren’t locked up, but the merchandise is, forcing stores to abandon a once great city. Every week in Chicago, about 50 people are shot. We can’t make a dent in the mass shootings, which, as reported by Forbes, number more than 300 in the first half of this year alone. We have a critical shortage of police officers and have reduced their funding in some areas of the country.

We still argue about race and, now, gender. We can’t even define who can participate in women’s sports, which, in my mind, if we can’t solve that issue, we have completely lost our way. We spend billions on a European war while news accounts say our own military is lacking ammunition. We can’t even meet our military’s recruitment numbers.

We have an education system that is not keeping pace with the world and, depending on which report you look at, we have slipped to about 25th in the world.

We have a national media that is abusing their First Amendment rights by choosing sides and openly showing bias, making it very hard to find the truth, while adding fuel to the great societal divide. For a democratic republic to survive, we must have a well-informed society.

“A house divided cannot stand.”

That is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln’s speech about slavery, but history shows examples of the saying dating back to biblical times.

What is it about that that we can’t get our heads around?

Can’t we see we are on a path of destruction if We The People don’t get this turned around?

And if we don’t do it, who will? It’s obvious Congress can’t or won’t.

And, yet, here we are, facing yet another election, with two leading presidential candidates polls show somewhere between 60% and 70% of the people want neither. In 2020, we reelected 95% of the House incumbents, and 100% of the Senate incumbents despite Congress’s approval rating of only 20%, yet we are marching toward a similar outcome while expecting things to change.

Folks, that isn’t going to happen, unless we change.

Are we as a nation headed in the right direction? If not, what are WE going to do about it?

Please share your thoughts with me at gregawtry@awtry.com.

Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake. Greg can be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.