Increasingly, I feel like a passenger on a plane watching a pilot flirting with a flight attendant during a thunderstorm. My surgeon seems more concerned about her tee time on the golf course. Half of the drivers around me incessantly talk on their cell phones.

I feel this incredible impatience with all the critical problems we face that will require serious attention and, simultaneously, this fear that we are fundamentally distracted. That distraction has already produced catastrophic consequences.

We have corrupt institutions that have also lost focus. They lack their independence, just at a time when that independence is most critically needed, to guide themselves and serve the public effectively. Outrageously, these corruptions have been primed by the most privileged in our society. Who is to blame in this? Who is responsible?

We, the most privileged in this society who could fix these systemic problems, have recoiled in passivity for years.

Now we must move from distraction to responsibility.

(Full English or Spanish text available in the PDF files.)