Good morning and welcome to the Daily Article Podcast. Today is Wednesday, July 5th,

2023. I'm Chris Elkins with the Denison Forum, narrating today's article written by Dr. Jim

Denison. Here's a story to begin your post-holiday morning. Eight roller coaster riders

were stuck hanging upside down for nearly three

hours at a festival in Wisconsin last Sunday. No matter what happens to you today, you can remind

yourself that you weren't one of them. Such stories remind us that we don't know what we don't know.

If we knew the roller coaster was going to shut down in the middle of a ride,

we wouldn't ride on it. If we knew the plane would crash or the road ahead would shut down

because of a wreck, we wouldn't travel on it. Sometimes we get lucky. For example, a man spotted a crack

in a support beam on a roller coaster in North Carolina and alerted authorities who then shut down the ride.

Now, I'm wondering how many other roller coasters around the country have cracks that no one has

yet discovered. I'm not alone in worrying about the unknown future. According to a new Fox News

survey, only 43% of Americans think our best days as a nation are ahead of us.

This is a nine-point drop from two years ago and a 19-point decrease since 2017.

In similar news, Gallup reports that only 31% of us have confidence in the U.S. government,

a decline of 25 points since 2006.

As we continue our Independence Day focus on America, let's ask, what explains our nation's loss of hope?

What can we do about it?

In a profound USA, writer C.D. Cunningham reports that a new religion is emerging in our day. In his

words, it, quote, blends elements of modern and postmodern philosophies to form a belief system

focused on identity, equity, and societal critique. It encourages self-discovery, introspective growth,

and activism for systematic change.

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