We are a country that has lost its faith. When I was young, we were a nation of great faith, and that faith is what made us great. It was our unwavering faith that helped put a man on the moon. It was our unwavering faith that conquered polio. It was our unwavering faith that men could still dream. It was our unwavering faith in our fellow man that made us feel there was nothing we couldn’t overcome if we worked hard enough together.

We have lost our faith in science. When I was a teenager, we put a man on the moon. When I was six, I remember standing in line as we conquered polio. We conquered the Chicken Pox, Measles, and the Mumps. Medical scientific research is now under attack. Today, we turn our backs on the medical research that can save people's lives. Today, we are cutting much-needed research that in the future could save millions of lives. I remember when the only way we could talk to someone on the phone was by using a hard-wired device that was in our homes. Today, everyone I know has a cell phone from which they can access the internet, allowing them to stay connected anywhere they go. Those same devices allow a person to explore the world without even leaving their home. Today, we deny the “Science of Climate Change”. The data is there, but we choose to ignore it. The oceans are warming. Storms are getting worse. Extreme weather is getting worse. People are dying because of the extreme weather. Yet we eliminate the jobs of the very people who are supposed to warn us of the impending disasters. We are stopping the research that would help us understand why Climate Change is happening. In Florida, where I live, the government is not even supposed to talk about climate change. Eliminating something from your vocabulary does not make it go away. I have witnessed the destruction of extreme weather, and if we don’t learn more about the causes, more people are going to die just like they have died in Texas.

We have lost our faith in the vision that was our founding fathers. They were men who wanted self-government. We are supposed to have three equal branches of Government. The Executive Branch approves the law. The Legislative Branch writes the law. And the Judicial Branch that interprets the law. Today, we are told that the Government is bad. Reagan said, “The scariest words you can hear are ‘I am from the Government’”. What are people hearing? People are hearing that the system that our forefathers created is no longer relevant. What we have now is a power grab by the executive branch like we have never seen before. We no longer have government by checks and balances. We have government by executive order, which is the very system that we rebelled against in the first place. Our President is not a king. Our government, because of that, is the most corrupt that we have seen in our lifetime. Because of that, we are actually on the Democracy Watchlist. Our Supreme Court, in my opinion, may be the most corrupt branch of our government that accepts gifts and gives favors, though they deny it.  A billionaire doesn’t give a Justice hundreds of thousands of dollars and not expect anything in return.

We have lost faith in our fellow man. Today, we judge people more by the color of their skin more than at any time in my lifetime. We are racial profiling people like never before in my lifetime. We are putting brown people in concentration camps without due process and call them all criminals and rapist. We have troops of men who are like Hitler's Gestapo, whose sole purpose is to put people in those concentration camps.  We are denying people our help because of the color of their skin. Our Felon President has not attempted to unify our country. He is the first President in my lifetime to ignore half of the nation. Our Felon President has stated that he hates all Democrats. He has demonized all who oppose him. He is responsible for the division that we have, which has led us to distrust all of our neighbors. Our felon President has pardoned thousands who physically attacked our Capitol Police. Our Felon President has rejected education for the more easily controlled ignorant.

We are a nation that has lost its faith in the words of Jesus. I wonder why this has happened. Is it because we have replaced the teachings of Jesus with hatred, greed, and power? Jesus was a man who wanted us to turn away from greed and care for our neighbors. As I have mentioned thousands of times, Jesus was a man who wanted us to welcome and embrace strangers. He wanted us to embrace all as brothers and sisters. What are we doing? We are building detention camps that, in reality, are more like concentration camps in the middle of the Everglades. We are then applauding ourselves for the fact that if they escape, they will be eaten by alligators and pythons. I remember how the Romans fed Christians to the Lions for entertainment. We are entertained by the thought of immigrants being eaten by large reptiles. I am pretty sure that Jesus would be helping those people who have traveled so far for a better life here in the United States, and I think that he would be expecting us to do that too. Today, we seem to be worshiping money and not the words that we are supposed to live by. We have Evangelical ministers who have made themselves rich while preaching about a man who lived like a pauper. Kenneth Copeland’s net worth is 760 million, and he lives with his wife in a 6-million-dollar mansion. Pat Robertson’s who is the founder of the 700 Club, is worth 100 million, and there are many more who are filthy rich. It was in the book of Luke that said that a man could not serve two masters, God and money.

Yes, we are now a nation that has lost all faith. Faith in Science and Education. Faith in our Founding Fathers and the government that they founded. We have lost faith in our fellow man to do what is right instead of what is easy. We have also lost our faith in religion. Is Trump the reason that we have lost our faith? No, he is just the result of us as a nation losing our faith. How do we get that faith back? It starts by believing in the Constitution and the vision that was our Founding Fathers. It is about respecting and embracing our fellow man. It is about embracing the science that will lead us into a more prosperous future for all. It is about embracing the words of love and compassion that used to be the teachings of the Church.  It is about healing this country and eliminating the Bigotry, Racism, and Hatred that have spread like wildfire though our communities.