Here’s another installment of the Great American Syndicate newsletter - a newsletter that makes your inbox Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

Here’s what we have for you today:

• Have Americans Lost Their Compassion

• Banning Federal Mask Mandates on Airplanes

• Joe Rogan shares three things that an individual should do to become a better contributing member of society…

Have Americans Lost Their Compassion?

A 54-year-old man was found deceased in his hot tub last week.

For his family and others who personally knew and loved him, it was a tragic day. They are now struggling to grasp their pain and address the sudden void in their lives.

For people across the world who never met him, the effect was different.

This particular man happened to be a celebrity.

His character was loved by millions, so he was loved by millions.

Millions of his fans felt a stab of sadness and shock at his death. Even though they didn’t personally know him, he felt familiar. Maybe they followed him on social media and felt an even stronger connection.

Maybe they admired him for sharing his deeply personal and painful struggles with addiction.

Or… they followed him on social media and felt a stab of disgust, because of their own feelings about his addiction struggles, his celebrity status, and the whole pandemic thing.

The memes were immediate.

They were ruthless.

As in, within hours of the news breaking, social media lit up with the memes. They were without mercy, without respect for human life just lost, and devoid of compassion for the people who loved him, who will now experience millions of people laughing about his death. This link has a pic of his stepfather arriving at the scene- look how devastated he is. It’s a good pic to use to emphasize this point

“Too soon,” the witty memer would ask?

And that person’s social media followers would gleefully assure them that no- it’s perfectly acceptable.

“Sad,” one commenter opined, “but I’m sure he led a better life than most peeps in the world… we all die sometime.”

What has happened to the hearts and souls of people, who can dehumanize a person like this? A person whom they may or may not have agreed with, whose views may have annoyed them, but still a person? What has happened to the hearts and minds of millions of Americans who love their own families, love their friends, and who go out of their way to help their neighbors, who may serve our country or our communities - what is the tipping point for them, where this life holds so little value to them? What is the formula for determining which tragedies to mock, and which to mourn?

Are Americans just struggling with a morale level so low, that we have lost our compassion?

Have we been told so often that we are monsters ourselves, because we push back against open borders, endless funding of other countries, and illegals pouring into our own country, that we have begun to believe our accusers?

Have we become so comfortable behind our keyboards or phone screens that we feel entitled to be so cruel?

Would we crack the same jokes that are spelled out in the memes, in the presence of Matthew Perry’s family or friends? Have we lost the ability to realize that behind every headline is a human being?

Would we understand or laugh at memes mocking the death of our own family member?

Americans have needed more courage in this decade than we have before. We will need even more in the years to come. But what good is the courage to overcome all the adversity we face, if that courage costs us our compassion?

GREAT AMERICAN MEMES 😆

Was it as good for you as it was for us? Make sure you tell all your friends so they don’t miss out next week! 🇺🇸

Barb Allen & Dave Brown
www.greatamericansyndicate.com