There are many things this country needs more of. But this post is just about two. We need more quiet and more atheists. We need quiet because everywhere you go there is piped in music, generally strident,  loud, repetitive, lowbrow music supposedly designed to make life more pleasant, when in fact it has the opposite effect. Companies like Musak have convinced their customers that these irritating soundtracks are what people want and they believe it. Recently a local restaurant's sound system was broken down for two weeks. I asked the owner if anyone complained about not having music. He said no one did. They didn't even notice. Most such systems do not provide music, so much as noise, which creates tension. People need silence to read, to think, to consider, to converse. Now about atheism. There are millions of closet atheists. They are logical enough to realize there is no god who watches out for everything, answers prayers, and gives a damn about your morals. If more of those people would admit to being atheists we would have a larger army to fight all the zealots who are trying to run our lives based on ancient storybooks, eternally unproven superstitions, far too many tax-evading charlatans, and
the need for so many factions to violently prove that their invisible god is the true one. Ah, the joy of living in a quiet world where Franklin Graham can't sell his snake oil.