ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

“Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.” — George Carlin

“I’m mad as Hell, and I’m not going to take it any more.” — Howard Beale in the movie “Network.”

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for all good men to do nothing.” — John F. Kennedy quoting Sir Edmund Burke, though it’s not clear he actually said it.

We as a country are pretty good at doing nothing while our house figuratively is on fire. We have a history of sitting on our hands and permitting foul deeds to be committed in our midst.

The most recent and closest incident that comes to my mind is when members of the Wayland City Planning Commission sat passively and observed like deer in the headlights while the chairman of the commission was removed. None of the commissioners said they were displeased with the chairman, they just let it happen.

All it took for such an indignity to occur was the audacity of someone to propose it.

Further from home, to this day, I am astonished that so many Americans lack outrage over the realizations we were all lied to about the pretense for attacking and invading Iraq, costing the lives of more than 4,500 of our young people and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who did nothing to deserve their violent deaths.

I remain alarmed that so many Americans don’t have much to say about rich financial institutions getting bailed out after the Great Recession of 2008-09 came on the scene. It was so bad that after the Coronvirus crisis visited, we collectively have yawned after learning the richest among us have been taken care of during the economic crisis while the common, everyday working stiffs have been given just $1200 apiece. Furthermore, we’re being told to get back to work at the risk of dying.

Now comes the news that President Donald Trump and his new director of the postal service will deliberately slow down mail delivery, by his own admission, to discourage voting by mail.

To be sure, the Prez has insisted that mail-in voting is fraught with fraud, a contention that has been debunked thoroughly in the press and even by some Republicans. Indeed there is anecdotal evidence of such voter fraud, but the incidence reported in every study is very low, but not nonexistent.

This latest disturbing development is nothing short of an attempt to rig the election in Trump’s favor. And it flies in the face of people who don’t want to physically go to the polls because of very real fears of contracting a virus that has killed nearly 170,000 people in this country.

Protestations that we can stand in line at Wal-Mart or at grocery stores insult our intelligence. I won’t stand in line at Wal-Mart and at least the grocery store is open for business six or seven days a week about 12 hours each day. The election polls will be open only for 13 hours on one day only, Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Don’t pee on my shoes and tell me it’s raining.

The real question is reserved for us. It feels like Trump and his toadies are saying to us, “Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?”

Will we stand up to this country’s most famous bully, and declare, “I’m mad as Hell, and I’m not going to take it any more?”