Time for a Upgrade: USA 2.0

November 30, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Perhaps because it’s been on my mind, this past weekend I took a deep dive into the US Declaration of Independence of 1776. (If you haven’t done so in a while, or ever, you can read the full text here).

As it turns out, the complaints listed against King George over his governance of the US Colonies are not unlike the complaints of Americans today over what the US Government has become. Regardless of how one has voted in the past, it seems most would agree that what we have today is not the Representative Democracy we were once promised. Instead of “by the people for the people,” we have a corrupt system by the increasingly wealthy for the purpose of even greater wealth – all this on the backs of “the people,” where the people are left suffering.

Unless you are among the 1% of the 1%, I think you will agree that this corrupt system of governance is not ok, and that you are likely suffering the consequences of this corruption (too numerous to list here!). The good news is that as the current system imploded upon itself, there’s not a single thing we need to do to hasten its collapse. The government is doing it to itself. Quickly and irreparably.

While the system is busy destroying itself, what we can do is start dreaming, envisioning, and planning for what USA 2.0 might one day be. We won’t have to think too hard as we already know what we want. The original Declaration of Independence, as it turns out, said it quite well (with a few updates reflecting modern sentiments):

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all human beings are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among humankind, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Let me highlight one phrase: “from the consent of the governed.”

This seems like a good place to start! What is it that the governed want? I cannot speak for others, but I can speak for myself. Here is a list off the top of my head of what I would hope for in the creation of USA 2.0:

That all human beings be treated as equal and that diversity (race, religion, gender, etc. etc.) be honored and celebrated.
That all Americans have access to quality, affordable education. This includes pre-school through a 2 year or 4 year post-secondary education or vocational training.
That all Americans have access to quality, affordable healthcare.
That all Americans have access to safe, adequate, and affordable housing, and that provisions be made for the poor and the vulnerably housed or unhoused. No one should have to live on the street.
The same should be said for access to safe and affordable food and water. Water should not be privatized. People should not suffer from hunger.
That our environment be protected, National Parks maintained, and mega-corporate ownership of private homes be curtailed.
That neither war nor debt be the foundation of our economy.
Income and TAX REFORM! No one needs to be, nor should they be a billion or trillionaire. (I have always liked Jesse Ventura’s flat tax idea!)
That every eligible voter’s vote counts. (It might be time to dispense with the Electoral College – and it is long past time to eliminate lobbyists, special interest money, and to come up with a just system for election financing.)
That the system of checks and balances envisioned by our forefathers and foremothers be restored and safeguards put in place to prevent the unchecked Executive Branch that we are witnessing today.

This is just off the top of my head. What is on top of yours? Let’s work together to envision something new. (PS feel free to email me privately: lauri@lauriannlumby.com if you don’t want to make your list public).

The Walls are Tumbling Down

November 29, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

To quote the immortal words of John Mellencamp:

When the walls come tumblin’ down
When the walls come crumblin’ crumblin’
When the walls come tumblin’ tumblin’ down

It may not appear like that to some. One certainly wouldn’t know it by looking only at the surface of things. In fact, at first glance, it may appear as if the United States has lost its damn mind or fallen into an abyss out of which we will never return.

I do not, however, believe this is the case. Every single day we get closer to the final collapse when the shifting sands upon which the “American Dream” was planted opens and swallows the dream, revealing it to have been a lie all along.

When our “great” nation was established 250 years ago, it was made to benefit only a certain few. The idea that all people would be guaranteed “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” has always been a lie. But we bought into it hook line and sinker.

Over the course of the last 250 years, we have little by little seen the intentional obstacles in the system that prevent certain populations from enjoying the benefits of the promised liberties and freedoms. Those of compassion and a sense of justice have pointed out these obstacles and doggedly worked to eliminate them so that more might be free. But with every course correction, the “men in charge” have worked to create more and more limitations to freedom.

A nation divided against itself, as these men intend, cannot stand. Further, a system built out of fear and propped up by gluttony and greed is simply not sustainable. It will eventually fall.

Which is where we find ourselves today. Every single day we are met with a new deception attempting to hold up the system. Some choose to ignore these deceptions and symptoms of corruption, but for those with eyes that can see, we are watching the increasingly rapid tearing away of every lie behind which those in power hide.

It’s exhausting. And yet, as much as it pains anyone with a conscience to see the pure evil that runs our nation and likely our world, we cannot eliminate an evil that cannot be seen. And boy are we seeing it – so much so that on some days I feel like my eyeballs are on fire from all that we are being made to see.

More and more people are beginning to see. People on both sides of the illusionary divide are seeing the evil that has been hiding behind the mask of “democracy” for 250 years. We are no longer living in a Representative Democracy – if we ever truly were. Instead, we are living in a lie where we have been told that our “votes count” and that our elected officials are making decisions on our behalf. Bullshit! Instead, corporations are choosing our “representatives” and paying them to make policy decisions on their behalf.

Corporations now rule our nation. They are the ones making decisions that benefit them – their CEO’s and stockholders. To these corporations, the only thing that matters is how much money they have in their pockets.

But guess what, there are more of us than there are of them. For years, regular Americans have been pitted against each other, made to believe that the cause of our pain is “the other” (people of color, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, Evangelical Christians, independent women, liberals, conservatives, etc. etc. etc. ). The truth many are beginning to see is that we are not each other’s enemy, and we never were. Instead, the enemy is one we have in common: CORPORATE GREED and the corrupt system that has been built to support that greed.

People are disgusted. People are angry. People are beginning to set down the illusion of separation, tentatively joining hands across the aisle toward a common cause. This common cause is the desire for the system to crumble under the weight of its corruption so that something more fair and just can rise up to take its place – something that more closely resembles the “American Dream” we have chosen to believe in – this time with a firm foundation and a solid framework to insure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not just for the very few, but for the all:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. – The Declaration of Independent, July 4, 1776

A Day of Mourning

July 4, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / 9 Comments

Today, we are supposed to be celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the birth of our nation and the freedoms granted by the Constitution of the United States. Today, this all feels like a joke. What can we possibly celebrate as millions of Americans are poised to lose the very services that allow them to be free, and millions have already lost those freedoms?

Today I will not be celebrating. Instead, I have set aside the day for grieving and prayer.

I know all of this is part of the death of the empire. I also hold on to the hope that this death will be clearing a way for something more just, compassionate, and free. Today, however, I just don’t see it. Those in power seem to be hell-bent on making America a home for the grotesquely wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

Instead of rambling on about all my heart of heart hopes this to be, please feel free to peruse my past writings about this death, or join me, as together we grieve the death of what we were told this nation could be.

I am with you in your grieving.

With love,