I try really hard not to preach at people! I think about so many things all the time, and I know that everybody has their own way of thinking about things, and truthfully, nothing frustrates me more than someone else trying to make up my mind for me before I have had a chance to think things through. That said, there are some thoughts that I feel I must share....
I think it is really narrow minded to blame all the trouble with our economy on the mentally ill, the homeless, illegal aliens and families who require public assistance. These people are the result of our nations skewed values, NOT the cause of all of our problems.
It is time to to place the blame for our economic difficulties squarely on the shoulders of those who have the power to affect change, yet refuse to do so because it cuts into profit margins. They outsource our jobs and then call us lazy when we cannot find work. It is time to to point our fingers at our government officials; those few elected BY us- to protect OUR interests, who somehow manage to forget where they came from and happily line their pocket books while they bankrupt our future and that of our children.
Although our social security has little to no chance of actually paying retirement benefits to our generation, our "public servants" continue to vote in pay raises, will be paid for life...even once they are out of office, and vote in legislation that benefit the companies that they own. They have ensured that THEY will in fact never be hungry, or homeless, or lacking in medical care when they are sick....AT OUR EXPENSE!
Our fame addled nation pays millions of dollars to people who play games and "make believe" and yet our teachers and childcare givers and nurses and longterm care-givers and the people who build and maintain our public buildings and roads don't make enough to buy their own homes, or pay for medical care, or send their children to college or retire at a reasonable age without fear of starvation.
We claim to be a nation of "family values", yet we criticize and marginalize any family that doesn't fit into our very narrow view of family; single parents, blended families, multi-ethnic families, gay and lesbian parents, multi-generational households etc. We judge mothers who work outside the home as not being real mothers, yet mothers who stay at home are lazy. We think we have a right to determine how many children a family can have if they require public assistance of any kind, but any woman who dares to have an abortion is damned to the deepest pits of hell, regardless of the reasons (rape, incest, severely damaged fetus, disease). We claim to be pro-life, but we think it is okay to bomb clinics that may or may not offer abortions; as if the lives of the people in the clinic have less value than the unborn.
We claim to be a nation of religious freedom, but we are hateful to anyone who is not white, protestant and comfortably middleclass. We think that the Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Pagans, Buddhists, Hindu, Atheists and Shamanistic Religions just haven't really heard the "good news" yet, and so, instead of religious tolerence, we try to beat them to death with whichever dogma we are personally enamored with at the moment.
I do not pretend to have all the answers. In fact, I have ALOT of questions. But I do know that it is time for ALL of us to close our mouths, open our eyes, lower our pointing fingers and see if we can't find real solutions to the problems that face us all. It is not as simple as shooting desperate people at our borders, or "making" all those "lazy people" on welfare get jobs, or making everyone believe in God the way we do.... it is going to take REAL work, REAL tolerence, and REAL talk. We need to stop worrying about birth certificates and pedigrees and "tea parties" and Liberal or Conservative and start to focus on the real issues at hand.
If we are to remain the "Greatest Nation" we have to pull our heads out of our asses and breath the fresh air of social change. We need to agree to disagree about the small stuff so that we can fix the glaring problems facing us, not only as a nation, but as part of a global community. We need to stop being the laughingstock of the world and take our rightful place as leaders of our planet.
Enough said! Lecture over! Soap-box put away..... for now!
