Hedonism and beheading: Two worlds collide

The murder of American photojournalist James Foley by hooded thugs in the Islamic State ought to unite our country in a passion for justice, but it won’t.

Our country no longer strives for justice. Otherwise the death of James Foley would never have happened. The terrorists who now control nearly half of Iraq and a good portion of Syria would have been exterminated long ago like the pestilent plague they are.

It’s not just our failure to wage war against evil overseas either that reveals our decline as a great nation. You only have to look to the disaster in Ferguson, Missouri, where the evidence seems to suggest that a policeman shot a criminal in defense of his own life, but where the governor says the state is going to pursue a “vigorous prosecution” against the policeman.

What’s wrong with us? Are we so depraved that we think the color of the cop’s skin deprives him of the right to self-defense? Do we really think the fact that the man he shot was black justifies weeks of rioting and looting by people who had nothing to do with either the cop or the suspect?

Justice? What a healthy respect for justice would have called for is the state of Missouri and the president of the United States doing everything in their power to arrest looters, shut down the mobs, and ensure that anyone who tries to take the law into their own hands spends time in jail. Sure, you would investigate the shooting, too, and then when the facts were all known, you would announce who was in the right and who was in the wrong. In other words, if you respect justice, you follow the law — and enforce it.

Of course that could never happen because we have a president who has thumbed his nose at the duly constituted laws of the United States, even laws he himself has signed into law such as the Affordable Care Act.

Why should a black teenager in Ferguson care about the law when the president doesn’t?

But maybe the president is us. We elected him, and maybe he speaks for us in ways we don’t even want to acknowledge. Remember when the president took a famous selfie with him and British Prime Minister David Cameron all giggles as they squeezed in on Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt? Could have been a funny moment except for the fact that it happened at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. Remember the mortified look on the face of Michele Obama, who was forced to be the grownup at the party and kick her husband to try to bring him back to reality?

Well, in the America that we have built (or torn down?) there are very few grownups left at the party. Grownups, it turns out, don’t want legal marijuana; they don’t want to spend money they don’t have; they don’t think they are entitled to anything; and they don’t think anyone owes them anything. They know that sometimes the party has to be shut down for serious business. I have to give Mrs. Obama credit for knowing that there is a time for laughter and a time for silence, but I’m not sure the rest of the country is on board with her on that one.

Eat, drink and be merry. That’s the hedonistic order of the day. Sure, we feel bad when James Foley has his head removed from his body, but not enough to demand action, not enough to make sacrifices.

The president got it half right when he said that “the entire world is appalled by the brutal murder of Jim Foley by the terrorist group ISIL,” and being half right in this case is like saying you are glad you only have one foot in the grave. Yep, half the world IS entirely appalled, but the other half is secretly or not-so-secretly cheering. Turns out the good guys have enemies. The president knows that, but he apparently doesn’t know that those enemies are determined, hardened, ruthless.

In his speech, President Obama declared of the Islamic State murderers that “people like this ultimately fail.” No, they don’t, Mr. President; they are defeated. Without the conscience and sacrifice of the United States, Hitler would not have failed. Good people have to stand up and speak out and they have to make sacrifices in order to defeat evil.

The president may know that, but he may not care. He is after all an American who grew up when life was easy. Maybe he just doesn’t know what sacrifice is. Maybe he isn’t willing to ask Americans to give up some of their guilty pleasures in order to fight a great enemy.

When he spoke somberly to the nation Wednesday, he said “we will do everything we can to protect our people and the timeless values that we stand for.”

Then he turned away from the cameras at Martha’s Vineyard, put on his selfie smile and promptly shot a round of golf. No, that doesn’t mean he is a bad man; it just means that he is a bad president.

But he may be the president we deserve.