Dogpatch

On a long and lonesome highway
East of Omaha
--Turn the Page, Bob Seger

I rolled on as the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down to make some time
There's something good waiting down this road
I'm picking up whatever is mine
--Running Down a Dream, Tom Petty

Is it tomorrow or just the end of time
--Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix
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Our homeland is resembling Dog Patch more by the week. Is anybody in authority aware of this fact?

Example: U.S. Federal Highway 77 in Ohio, specifically from Akron to Cleveland, is in reprehensible condition -- full of potholes, cracks and shoddily-repaired areas. The rest areas are closed. What does this mean?

We see these things repeatedly throughout our daily lives, but they do not register. Highway 77's degraded condition was obvious to me because I'm an outsider.

Aside from the crumbling infrastructure, there are myriad other indications large and small that the U.S. is experiencing a comedown:

In some municipalities, government offices closed on Fridays; niceties like time and temperature services are closed; grocers are leaving items on the shelf past due dates; restaurants are substituting margarine for butter, artificial "creamer" for cream. Wait times for phone assistance are extended, and when halp arrives, it is often less-than-capable.

Things are a little less nice all 'round. If you live in a gated world, you may be immune to these changes, but for the rest of us they are unmistakable.

We are a nation-building nation yet we're falling apart at the seams. Does this make any sense?

Do our Federal overseers ever ever travel these highways and byways of a once-proud nation? If so, it is from behind shrouded glass and done by a chauffeur.