I keep hearing it on the radio and in the press that America is:

• More Polarized
• More Violent
• More Destructive
• More Polluted

… then ever before

I have to roll my eyes, just because it’s such a myopic view of history,and the place we are as a society. It ignores the dramatic progress we’ve made in recent years at addressing the real problems of the past, and presents the world of today in a much more negative light then really should be presented.

One of my hobbies is reading about the 1950s and 1960s, as they were so seminal in creating the world of today. Despite what sometimes commentators of the news claim today, it certainly was not an era of unity or smooth action in Washington DC or at the State Capitols.

It was an incredibly violent era in American history, one of intense division on issues of culture, segregation, civil rights, and the role of the federal government. Policies of the past 100 years came crashing down in that decade, and many people 50 years later are still pretty bitter about what happened during that time period.