Some pretty strange things going on in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave right now... and we’re not thinking about COVID-19 or anything remotely associated with that deadly curse.

In addition to having to deal with the disease, some presumably prominent and provably electable political figures are working hard to practice what no one should do once they have the reins of a big city or even an entire state. If at any time between 1955 and 1995, Hollywood had produced movies about how these folks are acting in real life today, the backers of those flicks would have gone bankrupt for lack of an audience.

A few short years after the birth of the new century, everything started to change. Cynics attributed that development to the introduction of the web and the invention of cellphones. In the United States, you can add a Congress that was so inept and downright stupid that it deliberately failed to place this new method of communication under the same libel and slander laws that had governed what appeared in newspapers and on radio and television over the best part of half a millennium. But thanks to Congress, you’re free to go ahead now. Post whatever you want to. Lie about the family down the street. It’s your right to lie and slander. Congress said so and Congress is full of smart folks and on and on and on.

Yeah. Believe that last part ... if you can.

So what do we have now? Francis Scott Key would be aghast. He spent a night on a British warship in the Baltimore harbor during the War of 1812 and strained to make certain the American flag was still flying. When he was certain, he penned classic new words to the tune of a 1773 British ditty called “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The original version featured lyrics grandma would never have confessed hearing, much less understanding. Still in 1931, the Francis Scott Key version became the anthem of the United States of America. Even as the Great Depression was close to its depth, Americans were hailing the fact that the Star-Spangled banner was still waving “o’er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.”

Today in selected parts of the United States ... gratefully excluding most if not all of Oklahoma ... today’s citizens don’t appear to be nearly as grateful as their ancestors. By the time you are able to read this, Portland, Ore., should be closing in on its 60th consecutive night of “protests.” If anyone had done that not too many years ago, they likely would have seen the inside of the nearest jail for a night or two ... or perhaps a great deal longer. Now, not only in Portland but also in Seattle and some other locales stretching all the way to Chicago and New York City, what most Oklahomans would regard as a sure ticket to the hoosegow is being avoided for reasons we frankly fail to understand.

The following report appeared Monday in The Oregonian, Portland’s Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper:

“Hours before what is expected to be the 53rd straight nights of protests in the city, the head of the Portland Police Union said the community has ‘had enough.’

“Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner, surrounded by 20 faith leaders, business owners, police officers and neighborhood residents, held a news conference in front of the union’s officers in North Portland. On Saturday, protesters broke in and lit a fire inside. The building itself was covered with graffiti.”

OK. If you were upset to the point that you rounded up a few hundred friends and wandered into Downtown Shawnee or Downtown Tecumseh to paint graffiti onto, oh say the Pottawatomie County Courthouse in Shawnee and/or the Tecumseh City Hall (or both) for the 50th or 60th night. Then you light a fire inside those buildings ... and what would you expect? A day or two in the pokey? How about a couple of years ... and probably longer ... possibly much, much, much longer.

And to make the Portland experience more realistic, the federal government — led, of course, by the most “uncaring” of presidents, none other than Donald Trump himself — has been tampering with the psyche of upset Portland residents by actually sending agents over in an attempt to protect that city’s Federal Building. How dare he do such a thing? My, goodness! Are Oregonians capable of coping with such raw interference? What do you think?

Portland is far from the only place people are trying to let some things just slide along. In the wake of the terrible and sadly unnecessary death of George Floyd in Minneapolis (1,730 miles to the east of Portland), a lot of people in a lot of places were very upset ... and rightfully so. But there has to be a limit even to outrage. In New York City, babies are being shot and people who attack innocents are having their hands slapped. Furthermore, the NYC mayor himself went out and helped paint “Black Lives Matter” in front of ... guess what ... that’s right ... Trump Tower. Furthermore and possibly worse, in Chicago, people keep acting like they’re in Chicago. What else is new?

A lot of things ought to be “new” by now.... assuming the word “new” can be applied to reasonable behavior and common sense. It’s time for a lot of people in a lot of places make that kind of “new” start.