Is America Ready?

New Year’s Day in America saw three disturbing incidences take place on the homeland; Matthew Livelsberger drove a Tesla Cyber Truck laden with explosives to the the outside of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas before somehow simultaneously shooting himself and detonating the explosives, Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a rented Ford F150 truck into a crowd of celebrators in New Orleans French Quarter, and finally, Brent Sharrai attempted to hide a bomb inside a train in Idaho. With three incidents designed to evoke fear all occurring on the same day, many Americans are left to wonder if there will be more attacks and if so, are we prepared for them?

While the incidents that occurred on New Year’s Day were conducted by American citizens, recently released data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports; “Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sex offenses and homicide convictions could be loose on the streets.”

ICE data reveals among those illegals not currently in custody are, “62,231 convicted of assault, 14,301 convicted of burglary, 56,533 with drug convictions and 13,099 convicted of homicide. An additional 2,521 have kidnapping convictions and 15,811 have sexual assault convictions.”

Throughout this past election season, Americans heard their leaders give many embarrassing responses in interviews to basic questions like; just how many illegal immigrants are there? How many people are coming into our country daily? Weekly? Monthly?

Given our officials have admitted they have no real clue how many immigrants have entered our country in recent years, or from where they have come, citizens should really be asking; are all these people coming here to fulfill their own version of our American Dream? If some of these immigrants are here with bad intentions, will our already overwhelmed police forces across the nation be ready to meet any future attacks?

What if they were to occur simultaneously such as Israel experienced October 7, 2023?

Israel’s attackers came up from tunnels in the ground and paraglided in, whereas America’s enemies may already be here living amongst us on the taxpayers dime.

No one can predict how 2025 will unfold, but one thing life has taught me is the belief it won’t happen to you is always your first mistake. After all, Americans watched how quickly rioters set fire to police precincts and created an autonomous zone, aka CHAZ or CHOP, in Portland, Oregon over the summer of 2020. The NY Times reports in just Portland alone over 60 legitimate calls into 911 went unanswered during the riots.

Police departments across the country are going into the new year as they did the last few; short staffed and struggling to entice new recruits. Even small town America, such as in Wadesboro, have felt the pinch of officer resignations.

Our military is also struggling to recruit and the nation’s weapons stockpile has been depleted in numerous foreign wars along with funding cuts.

Are our enemies aware?

Many may disagree, but it is my humble opinion that Americans worry too much about issues designed to divide us, and not enough worrying about making it together as a country.

We are not the same America that muscled through the Great Depression or Pearl Harbor. We are not even the same America that watched the towers fall on 9/11.

Thinking similar events, or worse, won’t happen again, is just silly. Should America ever suffer an October 7 style attack on our homeland, who do you think will come to our aid?

History always repeats itself and when it does, I want to know my fellow Americans are not more worried about my ethnicity or preferred pronouns than having my back.

Is America really ready?