We are to Blame and We are the ones to Fix it

 

Daily we see more frequent allegations of misdeeds by our politicians. Now, agreeably we should and do expect a higher standard of conduct than that of others but currently the news media is going to extremes to discredit or defame candidates and politicians. The lengths that news organizations will go is astounding. I read today on one reasonable respected news site that a GOP politician wrote something in 1997 that was defamatory towards women.

 

Now my point here is not to defend anyone for being disrespectful, hateful or racist, but, to make the point that the world has changed dramatically over the last 16 years. In fact it is changing dramatically almost daily and what was considered acceptable eight years ago is not any longer much, less sixteen years ago.

 

The country is in a shambles. This is something I believe we all can agree on regardless of what political view you hold and to what area you look. The question is why?

 

The typical answers point like an arrow towards Washington D.C and Congress, the President and the Supreme Court. I challenge you, the reader to look beyond that for a moment and consider this from a different view.

 

As I mentioned we see the media attacking relentlessly politicians and candidates. This is the media doing the attacking, not typical mudslinging from one politician to another, although the amount of mud slung in our nation’s capitol is epic. News organizations, the very places we rely on for accurate, unbiased information on domestic and world information are applying their own personal views into the news. This is not news, this is editorializing. In the past we knew the difference. A news anchor would state clearly he/she was speaking in an editorial fashion,but, no longer is that the practice. Now one must determine what is journalism and what is not. For many that is a task that is difficult and foreign and as such, all news and editorials are assumed to be accurate and true and unbiased.

 

As we move down the ladder as opposed to up we find that we, you and I allow this to occur. Why? Because it is what we are fed, much as children are told to eat your spinach, our major news organizations are force feeding us unhealthy amounts of garbage that are causing us to become intellectually bloated with disinformation, preventing us to think clearly and critically. Remember though, we allow and accept this.

 

So down one more step on the ladder and as we look we can now see the problem. The ladder is unstable and no one is holding the ladder. This instability and shakiness that is creating the problem further up the ladder is the most worrisome part. We are the ones who are the problem.

 

Yes, you and I,most if not all of us are the problem. You may ask how or why and the answer is simple. The issues in this country we allow. We choose to listen to all this garbage and eat it up like a five star meal. We allow a few to alter our views of events as opposed to us drawing our conclusions based on our own knowledge and beliefs. We may not, as an example, really believe on our own that President Obama is a Muslim from Kenya,but, if we listen long enough that he is, like anything else, it begins to invade or common sense structure until we do.

 

Now, the question is, how do we change this? That answer is equally as simple and can be done in an instant. Stop believing in everything you are told and hear from pundits and the press. Stop and think hard and draw your own conclusions based on what you truly in your heart believe. Think, does it really make sense that the people we elect go to Washington arrive and suddenly change their minds on important subjects or have they been paid to change their minds? Do we really believe that everyone who is on welfare or on food stamps is a lazy bum when most of us know a friend or family member who may be using the very same programs? Is your neighbor of 15 years who has worked his whole life and was the guy who helped you shovel your driveway last year now a bum because he lost his job and his family needs help?

 

You see, in the end, we still call the shots in our country. Every two years we have the ability to change things in our governments and we have the choice whether we listen to the news that is biased or not. Watching MSNBC or Fox News eliminates our need to think because they, with great gusto, will tell you in no uncertain terms how to think, who to vote for what to eat and where to buy it.

 

What we need to do as a country is to stop letting others do our thinking for us and do it ourselves. Cast off the labels conservative or liberal and instead be ourselves.

 

Finally, every time you enter a voting booth and you are alone, vote not for a political party but vote for who you think will do the best job for the country and you.

 

These are the answers to our nations ills and until we accept that we created them we will not get better. We are the doctors and the cure to our troubles and as such “Physician, heal thyself”