In my 78 years living through our nation’s high times and hard times, I cannot recall hearing so many people ask the same rhetorical question: What’s happening to our country?

Evidently, it’s not just the folks I happen to bump into. National opinion polls before and after last November’s midterm elections consistently report public dissatisfaction with our country’s direction.

But what, specifically, is bothering us? There are probably as many answers to that question as there are American citizens. But, for what it’s worth, here’s my own list of the things that I think we should be seriously worried about, along with a shorter list of the ones not worth the effort.

The top two:

1.) Diminishing world stability, with the very real possibility of slipping into nuclear war. The ever-present specter of nuclear war is the one true existential crisis facing our planet and all who inhabit it. Half a century ago, with the U.S. and USSR locked in the so-called Cold War, we feared nuclear holocaust. With huge effort we managed to avoid it; but today, with more nuclear weapons than ever before, many in the hands of less dependable world leaders, the threat is greater than ever. (Remarkably, this one rarely makes the top of the list in public concerns, but it scares me to my boots.)

2.) Our porous U.S. southern border. In the past two years, there have been about five million illegal entries detected, along with untold numbers of undetected entries. About 1.5 million asylum hearings are now scheduled, stretching years into the future. Our open border is an avenue for illegal drugs, feeding an epidemic of lethal overdoses. It’s a humanitarian crisis both for the illegal entrants and for our own citizens.

And right behind them:

• Education. Academic performance in America’s public schools is declining across the board. Teachers unions have huge political clout — they fight school choice, and they wield enormous control over the education, values, and thinking of our next generation.

• The economy. Every trip to the supermarket triggers new sticker shock. The 40-year-high inflation is a bone-crushing tax that hurts everyone, the poor most of all.

• Crime. Crime rates are up sharply in American cities; subways are unsafe; mass shootings occur regularly; violent anger erupts in all settings — at work, at home, on the roads, on cruise ships, even on Disney World lines.

• Energy. The chaotic, premature rush to green energy, here and worldwide, is having direct adverse effects on energy cost, supply, and reliability — with little corresponding benefit.

• Woke culture. We’ve lurched way past the principle of mutual respect for differing views, and into the never-neverland of mandated compliance with patent nonsense. Exhibit A: Today’s transgender mythology can tell us that our son is a daughter; that failure to use preferred pronouns (even the nutty ones) is not only impolite, it may be illegal; and that gender-affirming surgery (i.e., mutilation) is compatible with a medical doctor’s Hippocratic oath to do no harm.

On the other hand, I’d suggest that you not lose much sleep over the following hot topics:

• Climate change. It’s inevitable. Like fauna and flora since the earth’s beginning, mankind must adapt to climate change, not pretend that we can control it.

• Abortion. The issue is where it belongs, and where it should have been all along: in the hands of voters.

• COVID. Let’s stop using the pandemic as the universal excuse to do whatever we choose (like “forgiving” student loans). Although COVID is still around, death rates have been consistently low for the better part of a year. The disease is endemic — we’ll be wrestling with it forever — but for now the public health crisis is over.

• Trump. The former president injected himself into the midterms and the outcome was not pretty. The January 6 riot was two years ago. Move on — both are old news.

OK, listing things to worry about is the easy part. What to do about them? A few thoughts:

Democrats, step up. Please stop sweeping our problems under the rug. Our border crisis persists because the administration consciously looks the other way. Redefining the word “recession” doesn’t make the economy better. To fix problems, we must face up to them.

GOP, step up. Be the adults in the room. Voting in favor of a 4,000-page omnibus bill that will cost almost $2 trillion is legislative malpractice. Stop spending money we don’t have.

American public: Remember that we’re all in this together.