How to Survive This? Look Local.

It’s a terrifying time. The little things are the only way out.

Much of America has spent this week with its collective hair on fire. It was impossible not to be touched by it in one way or another. Friends whose children have special medical needs anguished whether money for expensive medical procedures and life-saving drugs would still be available. Non-profits and charitable organizations, people whose sole calling is to help people in need, called emergency meetings to figure out how to survive a sudden evaporation of vital federal funding. We suffered our first fatal commercial plane crash in more than 15 years, a horrific tragedy that killed 67 people, and when we turned to our government for answers, or at least some sort of solace, we got incompetence, cruelty and downright wickedness. My father, who like most people has tried to take a break from politics and the news but quite reasonably turned on his television Thursday afternoon to find out why the plane fell out of the sky, was so haunted by the official response — ”you want me to go swimming?” — that he could barely speak. It sure looks like a drug addict has orchestrated a governmental takeover, with the goal seemingly a fundamental teardown of the American financial system. It’s absolutely terrifying out there. We all had our fears. But it’s happening very quickly.