Why are we allowing others to think for us.? Where is our accountability for our own part in this mess?

 

 

I wonder what planet I inhabit, what has happened to us here in the U.S., as I watched the debates, and heard the inane manipulative dissections put forth by our puppetmasters: the media. It is a most embarrassing disgusting display of our reliance on the medias opinions. Have we become so used to being force fed thoughts and positions by quasi- intelligent pundits, we can no longer think for ourselves?



Who cares who twitched, grimaced or made errors during these debates? How is this relevant to the critical issues facing us as a country? What is relevant is the respective voting records of the candidates. But.. we are so narcotized in this country, we can no longer discern reality. Narcotized by food, a bigger home, car , toy, or just getting something to validate an otherwise useless existence.

And our insatiable appetites for bigger, better, more costly "things" is proving the ruination of our country. Most especially our children. We blame politicians for poor educational reforms, lack of adequate daycare facilities, the high cost of consumer goods, gas and housing. Tell me who drove the prices up? The politicians??? No, we did.

Silicon Valley is a perfect micro-example of the dynamics of American greed. Here, in the birthplace of the silicone revolution, programmers, developers and chip jockeys of all persuasions were paid enormously inflated salaries, plus stock options and more. They immediately began driving up property values in the valley by over 200%. The result? The average wage earner in that area was priced out of their own local housing market. Forced to seek more affordable housing, they moved northwards into more rural areas of Northern California, where the same forces came into play: the local long-term residents themselves had to move away to more remote smaller communities. The only politics in play here were at the local level, employed by greedy city councils, in bed with land developers.

Educational reform is based primarily, or used to be, at the local and state levels, not Washington DC, save for major initiatives like Head Start. And this is where they need to remain. The reality is we have too many working parents utilising the educational and day care facilities as substitutes for parenting. The reality is we have many parents working who have no need to work, but are so avaricious and self indulgent, they sacrifice their children's well being and development for a buck. They expect the schools to be a dumping ground for their spoilt, dysfunctional children, and then cry foul when they are inconvenienced by a call concerning their behaviors. Politics has nothing to do with poor parenting, lack of character or discipline in our homes.

We buy mindlessly and without thought to the consequences of our own actions. WE drive the prices up, when we must have 4 T.V."s, all the newest gaming systems, clothes and cars. This used to be a country where people cared about each other, and the consequences of our individual actions. It used to be. When we don't collectively put our feet down and say: "No, we will not pay the prices for these items, no we will not buy a bigger thirstier car" we as a people fail ourselves. Not only ourselves though, we fail to understand we hurt the rest of the people on this planet by our careless indifference.

The political pundits ask endlessly, over and over what about the economy. John Kerry/Edwards use it to try and pander to the working poor, once known as the middle classes. What about it? In case you've forgotten, we had a small incident: September 11th, which cost us billions of dollars in aid monies, overtime, investigations and more. Oh, I forgot, I'm speaking to people who still think Iraq attacked us on that day.

We gave President Bush the mandate, along with Senators Kerry /Edwards and the majority of Congress, to root out terrorism wherever it lives. WE went to the UN Security Council and asked for support for going after Saddam Hussein. And what happened? After months of complaints by UN weapons inspectors over Iraq's continued intransigence in allowing them unfettered access, we told the Security Council we needed to go in and remove Hussein from power. And for weeks the UN stalled, giving Hussein and his henchmen adequate time to remove most evidence into Iran. Duh. Talk about an early warning system. By the time we were fully mobilised, most of the major damage had been cleaned up. Even given the lack of evidence of WMD's, we still had huge graves filled with the dead Iraqi's Hussein murdered. WE still had the man responsible for most of the car bombings worldwide, in Iraq, where he still is today. We had reason, we had given this administration permission, but now.. we want to sit there listening to a pair of clowns with the most abysmal congressional voting records, promise to make everything all better.

Where are they going to get the funds to solve a trillion dollar deficit?? Where are they going to get the funds to enact more pork barrel spending? Bottom line.. they aren't. What we as a nation need to look at is consistency, leadership, and the intestinal fortitude to make unpopular decisions, based on best information. And to stand by it, no matter what some jackal pundit opines. And finally, we need to stop placing blame on a system, when it's the heart and soul that is ill. We are morally bankrupt in America. I pray we can find our moral center and return to the old-fashioned values that exemplify what being an American truly is.