This country prides itself on its democratic society. But as the Black Lives Matter movement has revealed, the United States is still class-splintered, weakening democracy.

Class divisions are not just by inequality, but by convenience to survive. Our social comfort zones are getting smaller as our lives get more difficult by pressures from outside events beyond our control. The butterfly effect works in social patterns, just as it does in weather patterns.

The Constitution guarantees everyone an equal opportunity. But that has as many interpretations as there are people, with your status quo as the reference. That is normal in any society that allows independent thinking by its citizens: solved by tolerance.

But do the citizens of the United States think independently any more? Our political parties want to do the thinking for us. This leads to tyranny. How many citizens are comfortable to think for themselves? How many citizens are able to think for themselves? It is not taught in our schools.

Letting others do your thinking for you leads to divisions and class inequities. This is what we are approaching in the United States today. And it’s not good for democracy.

Being rejected by those stronger than you leads to social exploitation, which is abuse.

Most people are made homeless by no fault of their own. But society will reject and ignore those people because society wants to ignore its own shortcomings that are causing homelessness.

We cannot ignore reality forever; our extinction would come quickly.

Donald A. Newell Jr.

Chippewa Falls