What Ails Us and the Medicine We Need

Agreeably I take a long time between posts. I often think long and hard, looking at all sides before I form an opinion. I have now come to this conclusion about the state of our country. As a nation, I believe we are strong and our individualism is intact, however, the fundamental basics of our society have become skewed to a point of breaking.

I say this with hesitancy as I would expect many readers to stop here, but, I implore you to read on.

We have unemployment that is improving on the spreadsheets but do not consider the people who have just given up.

We have a health care program that, by nature of our constitution, is only mildly viable in the states that choose to take advantage of it and in other states it is irrelevant.

We have soldiers returning from active duty that either choose not to receive counseling or cannot receive it and we have the majority of the country living in an untenable, day to day, week to week fear that just one small failure can drive them to bankruptcy or homelessness.

These are all things that,when proper thought is given, are well known facts, but, what we have not achieved is answers to these ailments of our nation. Here lies the body of my thoughts.

In the preceding paragraphs I repeatedly used the word we, and there is good reason. It is entirely likely if you are reading this post you fall into one or more of the groups mentioned. So what to do?

There is no quick fix to what ails the United States, but, there is a cure. Dialogue between parties and understanding. Additionally one more thing that carries more weight than the preceding two, compassion.

Currently we have a Congress in a never ending wrestling match that inevitably ends up as a draw, over and over again. That does not create progress nor does it allow the legislative body to achieve its constitutional goal of legislating. The cost of this lack of progress has a majority of the country paying a heavy price.

Austerity thinking, as little as has occurred here, has brought about many unforeseen and certainly unwanted results. Crime rates of the theft variety are increasing, children are going hungry and receiving sub-par education, the elderly and infirm suffer for lack of medicine and medical care and the extremely wealthy enjoy tax breaks and conspicuous consumption, a phrase used in the first gilded age that was the fore bearer to the end of it.

What to do one might ask, to alleviate these issues? The act of change is simple. It requires little work for some and a lot of work for others and for the people who it requires much work, it is our responsibility to aid them in the simplest of acts. Vote.

It is easy to say it won’t help. They are all crooks and owned, and largely that sentiment would be close to the mark, however there are good, honest and decent people who run for office and do not have the backing of rich donors or great name recognition. Ordinary people who want to see positive changes and are willing to fight for their constituents.

I do not mean to fight in a way to insure jobs projects in their states or districts,but, rather jobs and projects for all states and all people. Men and women who are willing to demand pharmaceutical companies do not over charge for needed medications, oil companies do not get subsidies and the list goes on.

Our country is at a moment in time where it is akin to a tinder box and a mere spark could start a fire that could ruin the nation for decades, if not complete destruction. The people who can prevent this are the ordinary people.

If we, as a nation, can put political ideology and religious ideology aside, even just for a while, we can become what we once were, the leader of the world and a beacon of freedom and prosperity. If we continue the path we are on we will become what we are becoming, a very large island of a few wealthy people and roughly 310 million servants.

The choice is ultimately up to the individual.

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

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

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”

 

Who Won?

I have waited until the election was over and the pundits were basically done with the post election analysis to pen another post. Much to my surprise the punditry goes on and on and on. I occasionally wonder if we need to begin riding horses again so the expression about beating a dead horse would actually have some meaning again.

Now, we have secession petitions in all 50 states. I am not surprised as often, after an election, there are always people who are dismayed with the results. Generally life goes on, people calm down and the usual disagreements with the government go along as before. This time, again, it is different.

Recently this writer has felt compelled on Facebook, my usual form of interaction with my friends, to attempt to explain how government works. Apparently some have come to the conclusion that bills magically appear on the Presidents desk in the night like some form of bill fairy places them there while he is sleeping. As wonderful it would be if there was indeed such a fairy that placed well thought out legislation in the Oval Office at night, that is not how it works.

Unfortunately, part of this post will be boring to some and I will attempt to keep this part as brief as possible.

The President of the United States does not write proposals, submit bills, debate them or vote on them. Congress does that. The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate does those tedious jobs and then, and more aptly put, if they create a piece of legislation, then it goes to the President who either signs it or vetoes it. I am hoping that covers enough of that process for us to go on.

The preceding election campaigns seem to have been long on personal attacks and short on substance. The debates were poorly moderated, questions were framed as softly as pillows and our wars were basically not even discussed.

What was discussed, not by the Presidential candidates but by Congressional hopefuls was far more disturbing to me, personally and on a societal level. Womens rights.

The fact that womens rights were a campaign issue was disturbing to this writer simply because this matter has two clear parts. First, women are people with minds, and intelligence and capable of making their own decisions and attempting to legislate women and how they care for themselves and how they do it, and the means they do it is up to them.

Secondly, the majority of people who wanted to ban abortions, force doctors to lie to their patients and force women to bear unspeakable humiliation and degradation in the doctors office, were men.

The impetus behind every single attack on abortion and birth control, planned parenthood et al is religion. Not one instance on this topic cannot be tied, with little to no research, on the opponents beliefs in God and as such the interpretation of the Bible they read.

This my fellow reader is not government in action or legislation for the good of all, it is the very clear decision by a group of people that their will be done. It has nothing to do with what is right, or fair or best for the country but simply what ones religious beliefs are. I choose not to use moral because morals and religion are not necessarily companions.

Governments set rules and laws for the benefit of all its constituents, not to set ones mind at ease that ones God will be appeased.

This recent election clearly showed one thing to this writer. The future of this nation will not be in the hands of the preachers or the religious zealots, but in the hands of rational people who choose rights over religion, sensibility over zeal and the good of country over good of personal beliefs.

Although this quote is lifted from an old episode of Star Trek, perhaps it is a fictional line that bears tremendous truth and meaning and should be repeated as part of the oath Representatives, Senators, Judges and Presidents take. “ The good of the many outweigh the good of the few”