Lauren Elizabeth, thoughtful article.

In America, we have terrible misunderstandings of strength and weakness. Our position on guns (we are an outlier from all rich world countries) is presented as a strength when it is clearly a weakness. Tens of thousands of people every year would be living if we did not have guns.

The right for individuals to choose to wear a mask or take a vaccine is championed as a strength when statistics proved, unquestionably the reverse is true. If an excess of half a million U.S. COVID deaths represents strength, I have no idea what death count would represent weakness (America had 10 times the death rate of Australia with comparable demographics).

Joe Biden was praised recently by NYT columnist, Thomas Friedman, for not having lost any American soldiers in Ukraine. Why haven't we? If this is not also OUR war? If not then why are we spending billions on it? Are we just too cowardly to place our own lives at risk?

Like in Uvalde Texas, where big, strong, armed policemen sacrificed children's lives to protect their own. Was this strength and weakness confusion, or what?

Many thanks. Best to you.