America Is Making Me Feel Like Sarah Connor

Lately I’ve been thinking about Sarah Connor and motherhood. She’s the Los Angeles waitress in the “Terminator” film series who, upon learning that her as-yet-unborn son must survive in a dystopic future and save humanity from destruction by artificial intelligence, dedicates herself to preparing him for the terrifying role.

As a natural-born citizen of what I believed to be a largely benign and prosperous democracy, I have prepared my three sons for nothing of the sort. I’m beginning to wonder whether I should reconsider.