The world is picking up the bad habits of the United States

To take note of any event — political, local or personal — is to be reminded of just how foolish we have become. Rudeness and mockery prevail. Unhealthy and destructive behavior is encouraged, assisted in unashamed manner by the almost daily announcements of new wineries, breweries and distilleries. Let’s all get a little tipsy at 2 in the afternoon. Or “burn one” before we pick up the kids from school. We are a generational disgrace, setting the bar (no pun intended) at an all-time modeling low.

Smoke, for which there is no excuse, is pervasive — a truly unfortunate detour into the polluted excesses of the past. We have smoke-house this and smoke-infused that, with entire communities smothered in the process. When did smoke become the new air? Are we willfully courting disease?

Thomas Friedman recently pointed out that China is going forward and that we are going backward. With a world population increasing, and picking up the unhealthy habits of the United States, Friedman predicts that “we’ll eat up, burn up, smoke up and choke the planet.”

It can’t be ignorance, so by default, it must be a kind of savage disrespect.

This story was originally published April 30, 2017 at 8:38 PM with the headline "The world is picking up the bad habits of the United States."