Jack Engelhard
Jack EngelhardJack Engelhard

As the world teeters on the verge of nuclear war, meanwhile, back in the USA, people are upset because at “Wheel of Fortune,” host Pat Sajak was rude to a contestant.

Gevalt!

America, the land of “silken worries,” as my mother used to say.

Or, “America is a picnic, only the Americans don’t know it,” as I used to say…and if you think March madness is about Ukraine, and what’s going on there, yes, but the official March Madness happens in America every year, from March into April, when day after day the best college basketball teams vie for the national championship.

So it’s tip-off time again.

Millions will be watching. Millions will be wagering…and the real world will just have to wait. We have other business to attend.

Gone fishing.

Then there’s college spring break, and then baseball, and then Ukraine…which will be available on the evening news for 15 minutes.

For the networks, and for jaded viewers, this is “good television.” How much longer will Ukraine still be Top Story, Breaking News, or even News?

Paradoxically, we care. We give generously. But life goes on.

Maybe this is for the best. Our love of sport and frivolity is what keeps us from wallowing in despair even during the worst of times. The Israelis have the talent for this, too.

Despair is forbidden, said the Rebbe. Gloom is not our way.

We trifle along obsessed on race and gender; the Left stay up nights worrying about transgender people, who are 0. 06 percent of the population.
We can’t go on; we will go on, to borrow from the Irish writer.

We’re not like the rest of world. They do Wagner. We do Elvis.

During World War Two, the jitterbug was all the craze,

At the height of the Cold War, America rocked and rolled and twirled the hula hoop, as readers learned from the 60s classic “The Days of the Bitter End.”

That is power. That is the might of saying nothing can bring us down, nothing can stop us. We are special.

Take your best shot. Try us. Go ahead, make our day.

On the other hand, too much silliness, and we are doomed.

As the world burns, we fiddle.

We trifle along obsessed on race and gender; the Left stay up nights worrying about transgender people, who are 0. 06 percent of the population.

Gender…you’d think that was figured out between Adam and Eve. Not good enough, and on race, it will never be good enough.

Given what’s going on, you’d think we’d be worried about our military preparedness, now especially when there’s talk of a nuclear showdown.

Are we up to speed? Leaderless, even the Taliban had us on the run.

Most of them who make the news are worried about Whiteness and white supremacy. As if that’s got anything to do with the price of potatoes, bread, milk and gas.

Elsewhere, they don’t have time for such trivia. There, the game is life or death.

Only in America do we have the luxury to pursue lightness of being.

Are we grateful?

Or are we really spoiled rotten from over-abundance? Tyrants and criminals re-arm; we defund the police.

Too big, too rich, too much time on our hands to consider the consequences, we elect morons to lead us…up a creek without a paddle.

You wanted Biden. You got Biden…with Kamala into the bargain, and as more evidence that we are a nation in decline, decay and disarray.

John Kerry…you think we’re rid of him? He’s back like a recurring nightmare; this time serving Biden as Climate Czar. What’s his worry?

The climate, of course, and he has a message for Putin, to please stop dropping bombs…it’s hurting the climate.

In the real world, like China, they rank number one on math. We rank 37th.

Batter up. Play ball.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.

He wrote the worldwide book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal,” the authoritative newsroom epic, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” followed by his coming-of-age classics, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” and, the Holocaust-to-Montreal memoir, “Escape from Mount Moriah.” For that and his 1960s epic “The Days of the Bitter End,” contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com

Engelhard books
Engelhard booksJ.Engelhard