Here are a few things facing our country and how we, the Citizens, can attempt to escape the dire consequences of business as usual.

Two party system, labels, and pay-per-gov: We've been conditioned for a long time. You're not Democrat. Republican. Communist. Tea Party. Liberal. Conservative. Shell. Walmart. Lockheed Martin. Bank of America. Or whatever combination. If you are in the US, you are a citizen first and everything else second. Citizens should vote for what's best for everyone. Not what's best for the people that agree with how you view things. This takes trust among the Citizens that the politicians have worked to destroy. We, the Citizens, have to vote for people who will pass these laws and make it possible to change things so that corporations aren't in control of everyone. We, the Citizens, must stop voting for people because we're afraid the other party will get the vote. Too many vote for those they don't know or care about, instead of someone they have interest in, because we've been conditioned to believe this party or that party can do something the others can't. None of them can. They all take money from the same corporations. The people matter, not the party. Change enough people and the party will change or go away. Be informed. Take the chance. Vote for who you think is right rather than against the person you're being told shouldn't win. It won't take one election. Or two. It took a while to become this conditioned, so it's going to take a while to undo it. But it's just manufactured divisions to make us, the populace, more manageable. It has no power to sway your thought process once you realize that.

The Mexican border: I look at things in very common sense way. It's really expensive to ship illegals back to where they came from. So, let them stay, work, and become integrated. It's what made this country. However, when a ship is sinking, and everyone jumps into one lifeboat, they all get ate by sharks. The southern border must be shut down for the good of everyone. Life boats sink when no one has the balls to kick people back into the water. I'm not cruel, nor are others who say the border needs shut down. We're realists. Letting things continue as they are won't solve the problem, only keep causing more. The current economic situation must be stabilized, and that means putting those already here to work first. Shut it down for a year, five, or forever, but for as long as it takes.

War on drugs: This is what has led to the problem with the Mexican border. People don't like being shot, especially by those with a millions of dollars on the line and reasons not to be caught. Treating drugs as a criminal issue made it a criminal issue. It's a social problem. Treatment is always more effective than putting someone in jail, and then spending billions to try to kill the person that made the junk in the first place. This conditioning is being broken, but not to the extent it needs to be. It won't be until everyone's first reaction to a drug charge is 'How much rehab did you get?' instead of 'How much time did you get?'. Turn it around. How many would be locked up if hoarding money were illegal? How many would be locked up if lying were illegal? If you're not going to lock up one person for a personality defect, why would you lock up another one? Again, voting is key. If you want real change, you must vote for people who will make that happen, instead of those who throw money into a bottomless pit.

Warmongering and manufactured fear: The United States has essentially admitted to the world community that we support ISIL/ISIS/Daesh. Actions speak louder than words. Laugh for an answer when asked if Palmyra should be liberated? Urgh...the things wrong with that are an essay itself. We must also take responsibility for the deaths caused by Israel, Kiev, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some others, because part of their ammo is paid for by our taxes. This is after many civilian deaths caused by the US led invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan, including several hospitals hit. When you don't speak up about something, it implies that you approve of the actions. The question then becomes, do you, Citizens, approve of paying for overwhelming military force that results in endless civilian deaths while people are starving and homeless here? I'm no a pacifist, but traveling to the other side of the world to fight is the opposite of defense. Fear is manufactured to get Citizens to agree to massive military spending, so money can be funneled to politically favored industries. The failure called the F-35 is a perfect example. All this money spent and we have yet to technically win a war since the first Gulf War. We go home as things descended into insurgences, leaving 'advisers' behind. The old guard political figures are leading us into WW3. How many more scandals are there to be revealed? How many more terrorists will we fund? Do any of you Citizens really believe that Russia and China will back down from our provocative stance? When you underestimate someone, you give them the advantage. And we've given Russia and China a very large advantage.

Infrastructure: Our entire economy runs on fuel. Everyone is worried about fuel. Well, fuel is about to be the least of our issues. There are thousands of bridges across the country at the end of their operational lifespan, including nuclear power plants that are leaking. While we spend billions to build roads, railways, waterlines, and bridges to blow up, we're letting our own infrastructure rot. It's only a matter of time before catastrophic failures become commonplace. Before different versions of Flint happen over and over. Not only is money spent on endless wars without a clear goal, we're not addressing issues that will affect our ability to supply our own basic needs in the not too distant future future. We have to stop giving away money, that technically is borrowed and doesn't exist, and fix our own stuff. It's all well and good to help people, but that's a point that 'helping' turns into 'being a sucker' and we've been suckers for a while now, Citizens. Our taxes aren't to fund terrorists, murder kids, or to rebuild peoples' infrastructure that we blew up, it's to rebuild, maintain, and make efficient our own infrastructure. To rebuild our dilapidated schools. To spend on the Citizens' futures, not to throw into a bureaucratic black hole of military over budgeting, corruption, and dubious recipients.

Climate change: The funny thing about climate change is that it seems to have happened while we argued about whether or not it was going to happen. The Greenland ice sheet has rivers of water running through it. Huge methane releases are taking place from the Arctic sea. Miami floods some during high tide, yet property values are still going up. It was supposed to be decades to a century away before the methane hydrate started melting, but it's happening now and is considered by many, including myself, to be the point of no return. Who and what did the damage is irrelevant. We only need to worry about what we'll do in response to the changes taking place. There's not any room in government for people who don't acknowledge this issue facing the human race. What we pump into the atmosphere doesn't really matter now. We're on damage control at this point, not prevention. We missed our window to prevent it and probably didn't even know. Truth be told, it's possible we passed that point before anyone began discussion about the situation decades ago. We've certainly passed it now.

Unemployment and the economy: The unemployment and growth numbers pushed by news agencies and the government are completely divorced from the reality on the ground. Companies are announcing layoffs, mergers, and bankruptcies nearly everyday. Common sense says the numbers should be taken with a serious grain of salt in regards to what they have to do with reality. The money spent on war machines and sent to other governments would be much better used on massive infrastructure projects similar to those after WW2. These projects would redirect this massive loss of capital back into the country, into peoples' pockets, get them off their butts, and off government handouts while providing something we need. That's the real 'American Way'.

What needs to be done is pretty simple. Stop fear voting. Be informed. Support what benefits the whole, not the subgroup. Vote for people who stand for issues that matter, instead of because they're against someone you're told not to like. But also talk about it with people. Civilly. Every debate isn't an argument, even if it gets a bit loud. However, simple things can be the hardest. Politics have became something dirty in this country and it only furthers the control. People are expected to listen to rhetoric, and then go vote for whichever person the party has already picked for them. No thinking. No talking. No communication. So worried about saying something people don't agree with that they don't say anything at all. But now we need politicians who will do something other than spew propaganda, can take action instead of talk, and that requires getting past the finger pointing and labels and working together as Citizens of the United States first and everything else second. The politicians have successfully splintered everyone into groups too small to have any real effect. Even the two largest parties in the country can barely get anything done due to the effectiveness of their division. They have convinced everyone to forget that they are part of the largest group in this country: the Citizens. It can be remembered.