I was born in Chicago in 1960, and I’ve lived in the same region all my life. But I find myself wondering every day now, “Where the hell am I? Is this really America?”

It seems to me that the United States of America—including its government, its big corporations, and even its population—has purposefully set out to alienate me, by transforming itself into a strange, alien land that bears no resemblance to the country in which I grew up during the 1960s and 1970s. I’ve been observing this twisted transformation with dismay since at least the 1990s, but the evidence has become abundantly obvious during the past few years that this modern-day America does not want me to be part of it, and, conversely, I don’t want to be part of this America.

About the only time I can still see things that seem like my America is when I’m watching Gunsmoke reruns from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s! That’s pretty sad!