A Broke Country Calling Itself Rich
Before last week, the clearest, loudest proof to me that America is broke was the war on drugs. Proof that this dunya is sick. Watching generations get destroyed intentionally, communities poisoned strategically, and prisons filled on purpose all while people continue on like none of it means anything.
What’s aching me today in 2026 is something so simple it almost sounds stupid when you say it out loud: miss a water bill and they shut your water off. Miss the electricity bill and now your kids sit in heat, or cold, or darkness. And everybody acts like that’s normal. Subhanallah this dunya. We live in a time where people will openly say, “Yeah, paying for water is insane,” and somehow that realization alone is considered deep awareness. Like congratulations, you noticed the madness. Meanwhile the machine that created the madness keeps running untouched. The same people aware enough to know charging humans for water is absurd still participate in a system that lets predators rule, lets babies suffer, lets families drown spiritually and financially while calling it civilization.
And water… that’s what gets me. Water itself arrives freely. Allah sends it down freely. Rain falls without invoice. Rivers move without subscription plans. Water cleanses us freely, nourishes us freely, grows life freely. The earth was already functioning before humans came and monetized survival itself. But humanity got distracted for so many years— not even present enough to stop and ask: wait… why the actual fuck am I paying for water?
I live in London now. Been here five years. Before that, my whole life was in Louisiana. And last week I came into the awareness that people here will go months, sometimes years, without paying rent, water, electricity. Not without consequences, no. The system still comes eventually. But the shocking part to me was that the lights usually stay on first. The water still runs first. Especially if children are in the home. To shut those things off immediately could become a legal issue. That information genuinely stunned me. Because instantly I thought about 19 year old me in Louisiana charging my phone in my car because my electricity had already been cut off over not having enough money the exact day it was due. I remember the darkness not even bothering me that much. What bothered me was the Louisiana heat. The air conditioning gone. The heaviness of hot still air sitting inside the house. And yes, eventually I’d get the money. Eventually things would come back on. Alhamdulillah. But that’s not really the point. The point is they did it at all. Now as a mother of two sons, my brain is wired differently. Missing a water bill feels terrifying because my children deserve water. They deserve electricity. They deserve comfort and dignity without it hinging on whether money arrived before some arbitrary deadline created by people profiting off survival.
Because we don’t live next to rivers in the middle of the city. We rely on systems. Filtration systems. Pipes. Infrastructure. And somehow those necessities became leverage. And that realization made me sit there like… wow. America is so fucking broke. Not just financially. Spiritually broke. Morally broke. Humanly broke. Yes, selfish. Yes, evil. Yes, ignorant. Yes, illusion filled. Yes, one giant 3D tel-a-vision distracting people from what’s real. But also deeply, embarrassingly broke. Because imagine ruling over stolen wealth, stolen labor, stolen resources, endless taxation, endless war money… and still being unable or unwilling to guarantee children water, electricity, cooling, warmth, basic peace. Even though our Creator already provided an earth overflowing with more than enough.
Heavy sigh.