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Friedman: Can you believe this is happening in America?

Photo composite from NASA/JPL-Caltech via The Associated Press / This combination of images from video made available by NASA shows steps in the descent of the Mars Perseverance rover as it approaches the surface of the planet on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
Photo composite from NASA/JPL-Caltech via The Associated Press / This combination of images from video made available by NASA shows steps in the descent of the Mars Perseverance rover as it approaches the surface of the planet on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. Photo composite from NASA/JPL-Caltech via The Associated Press / This combination of images from video made available by NASA shows steps in the descent of the Mars Perseverance rover as it approaches the surface of the planet on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.

By Thomas L. Friedman / The New York Times 7 min read

In the last six months I’ve heard one phrase more often than I had in my previous 66 years: “Can you believe this is happening in America?”

As in: “I spent the whole day hunting online for a drugstore to get a COVID vaccination. Can you believe this is happening in America?”

“Fellow Americans ransacked our Capitol and tried to overturn an election. Can you believe this is happening in America?”

“People in Texas are burning their furniture for heat, boiling water to drink and melting snow to flush their toilets. Can you believe this is happening in America?”

But, hey, all the news is not bad. We just sent a high-tech buggy named Perseverance loaded with cameras and scientific gear 292 million miles into space and landed it on the exact dot we were aiming for on Mars! Only in America!