Jack Kerouac infamously wrote: ‘There was no end to the American sadness and the American madness’.
I am a great believer in American exceptionalism and think the great experiment that is the United States of America has created the greatest country in the history of the world.
I believe in our ideals, I believe in our freedom, I even believe that despite the past five years of strife, division and - yes - violence, there is still no other place I would rather be and no other time I would rather live in.
Having said that, 2020’s notorious summer of madness certainly tested my optimism.
During that that summer of Covid lockdowns, the murder of George Floyd, the subsequent burning down of American cities, small businesses and abject violence, wat was up felt down and what was down felt up.
Journalists would stand in front of burning buildings and call it ‘mostly peaceful protesting’.
Many businesses were seen boarded up in the Wisconsin town this week in fear of possible damage and rioting
Protesters argued outside the Kenosha County Courthouse Tuesday ahead of the verdict, which would come later in the week
Protesters took to the streets Friday after Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of murder
We were told Covid was a clear and imminent danger to all our health - unless you were protesting systemic racism, in which case the virus apparently gave righteous marchers a pass.
Speech was considered violence and violence was not. Rioters who destroyed innocent people's property and business were given money to be bailed out of jail by woke celebrities while the owners and employees of wrecked businesses got nothing.
Statues were torn down and no part of our history was considered anything to be celebrated.
Police stopped going into crime-ridden neighborhoods because they were not confident they would be supported by the people, their cities or, in some cases, their own craven commanders.
Defunding the police with the suggestion that social workers be sent instead to people when they dial 9-1-1 was a serious proposition discussed on television networks and in liberal elite publications.
It was the summer of complete and total madness. It was the summer I no longer had faith I could live in New York City with my soon-to-be-born baby. It was the summer I feared there was almost nothing left that progressives and I could come together on. It was the summer I my husband and I promised each other we would never pay taxes in a state where we couldn’t legally keep guns in our home.
It remains a the historical marker that exemplifies a generational and cultural divide I don't believe can be bridged in the immediate future.
Today, even if many of us have moved on in different ways it is hard not to be reminded of what that summer has done to our country.
This month we relived some of the darkest and most macabre moments of that summer during Kyle
