Torricelli: 'This Christmas I pray for America'

It's hard to not be concerned these days. We've all witnessed frustration with our institutions before but I never remember anything of this scale.

Perhaps the events of the last few years are too much to grasp. Just consider the last few days. Wall Street executives fight for bonuses as their employees and investors face devastation. Senators from states without auto assembly plants fight government assistance. Auto executives demand assistance but fail for a month to deliver a rescue plan. Labor leaders refuse to concede a dollar of contract wages. The entire debate is worthy of a second rate high school. 

A pillar of the investment community defrauds friends, charities and neighbors of billions.  The Governor of Illinois appears to have put the US Senate on an auction block. The Republican Party responds with advertisements that gleefully attempt to damage the new President. President Bush makes every effort to push every problem into the new Administration.

Now every newscast begins with someone throwing a shoe at the President. No issue is too grave for the media to distort, confuse or simplify. The public responds with a rising tide of anger and ignorance (see comments to follow).

I blame no one. I blame everyone. America has been given every opportunity and missed every chance. Our energy problems have been known for decades. Excessive consumption and dismal savings have been endemic. Declining educational standards have been the talk of cocktail parties.

The fault is with no one in particular.  A generation of leadership in every institution has let America down.

This Christmas I pray for America.