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The Long Hard Truth of the Matter
10-12-08
You and I are our own worse enemies as we have forsaken Lincoln’s proclamation that a house divided cannot endure. The fractures run through cultural and social communities, are spread as a living virus throughout the entire religious and economic strata of America and visibly exists in the political factions. Compromise is no longer a word of honor and now means abject surrender, and is to be avoided and feared, for if one gives ground, power is lost.
There are those who believe that power is a physical commodity in finite terms. That when a opponent loses power, there is gain to be made in their own commodity. As in all material pursuits, human behavior is often guided by greed, and power as a commodity lives and breaths as a living reminder of that fact.
The failure to reach out and compromise, to understand the needs of others, to give comfort and compassion, all long held American values, no longer exist. In their place, lies, distrust, and disrespect have taken not only deep root, but are flourishing.
As a People, we are deeply divided. As People, we are not bad nor cruel of heart with deceiving intentions. In our daily lives, most desire nothing more than to live their lives, to work hard, to be secure and to be free. Yet, as a people we hold responsibility and accountability for the divisions among us for we have left the moral ground that our forefathers established. Each of us, in our refusal to put our Nation before our personal desires have turned our back on our fathers and mothers who struggled daily amid constant and continuing hardship and agony, to make this Nation great.
We have come to a time and a place, that in a way, is unrecognizable to our founding fathers. Unrecognizable in the sense that their Nation, a Government of, by and for the People, no longer exists. In it’s place exists a Nation not of People, but a nation of Government! A Government that holds contempt for the welfare of it’s People and praise for those who hold power and undistributed wealth. A Government that has traveled far in it’s ability to spread division.
A Government that propagates unresolvable moral and ethical issues. A Government that actively participates and insures separation of economic classes. A Government that bases it’s decisions not on what is best for it’s People, but what is best for it’s own sustained lust for wealth and power. A Government that believes the wealthy, the strong and the powerful will take care of the needs of those who are less fortunate when in fact, they have stole our rights and our freedoms. A Government that distorts facts and offers opinion as fact in total disregard for the intellect of the People. A government that will not speak of issues, of problems and possible solutions, yet will speak often and loudly to thrust upon the People, a dismal and foreboding sense of fear and distrust. That sense of fear and distrust is meant not only for those who live outside our borders, but those within who seek change, who seek answers. Truth has become a tangled nightmare to never end, forever to haunt our lives.
A truth that no one speaks, that you and I are accountable. It is the best kept secret in America that we all know and never mention. From local Government to County Government to State Government to Federal Government, all are influenced not by what is right for the people they represent, but they are influenced by a belief that what is good for the City, for the County, for the State, for the Federal Government, is good for the people they represent.
At heart, it is an easy belief system to grasp a hold of, to invest ones dreams in. Yet it is a system that can only work when all levels of Government listen to it’s constituents on an equal footing as they listen to the voices of the local contractors. All levels of Government must balance the needs of the Community as a whole with the needs of the People.
Our economic troubles began at the local level, this too is a unspeakable truth that we do not hear. Our troubles began with City Governments allowing vast tracts of land to be developed without asking who will buy these houses and instead looked at Tax revenue and plunged those numbers in their annual budgets. When local citizens asked, ‘Who will buy these houses?’, they were ignored. When no one came to buy, local banks found a way out by offering up dreams to those who were in no financial position to dream. Just as it is true in the housing market, so is it true of other issues. Much of the cost of Health Care can be attributed to what is known as the Medical Arms Race at the local level. Look around your community and count the number of medical facilities and services. In many Communities, we have isolated the poor into apartment complexes clustered in a specific part of town, turning that section into a virtual prison for the poor, with no hope of redemption, no hope of escape and many of us have the despicable gall to blame the poor and yet, the poor too, are accountable for their lives.
We are a people who have turned the corner in that we desire to be entertained as opposed to being informed, who accept opinion and speculation as fact as long as those opinions and speculations agree with individual beliefs. We have become a people that allow a black American running for President to be called a traitor, a terrorist, an Arab, along with calls for his lynching and murder. And if such a terrible thing were to happen, who would be accountable? Those who purposefully spread such hate for political gain, those who repeat such hate or those who remain silent in it’s presence.
We are a good and honest people. We are hard working, inventive, innovative and I believe we actually care about our neighbors. The truth is simple in that we all have much more in common than we have differences. The commonalities of desired equality and security, of earned respect, and the right to prove that I can work as hard as the next person, to have house and home within means, to have access to my medical needs as my neighbor, to have a financial future, to see my children admitted to college, are not bad things and remain a common thread among all People. Yet our refusal to understand the way to these obtainable goals is through compromise, through the sacrifice of individual desires and even long held morals for the benefit of all People, divides us on all levels and in all aspects of our lives.
There is blame enough to go around but it is, essentially, you and I who hold the solutions to the trials and tribulations this Great Nation is enduring. It is time for each American to ask what is more important, my beliefs, my desires, my wants, my needs, ...or my Nation? Not that we need to give these dear and precious things up on an individual basis. Never!
But it is time to ask what you can sacrifice to unite our Nation. And that needs to start with people speaking out and participating at the local level all the way to the state and federal Level.
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