In America,
the people have just been subjected to yet another “partial” shutdown to our
federal government. Starting today this partisan action will affect many
important aspects of our lives from employment and paying our armed forces to
closing of our National Parks. It was a completely avoidable action but for the
stubbornness of our elected officials in Washington, D.C.
I have just
finished reading a recently published (2012) book called, “America The
Beautiful.” This well written book could very well fit the description of a
biographical, historical or autobiographical volume. The book was written by a
medical doctor named Ben Carson. Dr. Carson is an accomplished Neurosurgeon
living on the east coast.
He and his
brother grew up in poverty in Detroit and Boston with their mother. There was
no father around to help provide for anything. This was an African American
family living this kind of life, a life all too familiar in America today.
Dr. Carson
has become a familiar presence on TV talk shows, in particular, language of the people( Americans in this case). He is a great speaker and as did Galileo, uses common American
language to which anybody can relate, minus the profanity. He covers many
aspects of different governments such as socialism and capitalism and spends a
great deal of time examining the pros a cons of different types of governments.
As for the U.S.A., it is here that he concentrates on the history of the
development, evolution and also the devolution of our American system to where
our country is today. Before going on, please read again my first paragraph.
It took a
great deal of intelligence to develop the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution but more important, it took respect for one another for all
involved and the willingness to discuss and compromise before coming up with
the finished product. This is something that our mainstream media have shown to
be completely lacking in our “competing” governing bodies today. Near the end
of the book Dr. Carson writes, “ When the party [line] becomes more important
than principle, we are in dire straits, for it reveals that our leaders are
incapable or unwilling to think critically for themselves.”
If you
examine what is going on in our governments, federal, state and local I believe
you’ll agree that this is exactly where we as American citizens find ourselves
today.
Lou
Salvio
Lou, it sounds like you are blaming your own party for the shutdown when it is the stubbornness of Reid & Obama trying to force us all to become socialists that has forced this shutdown.
ReplyDeleteTo Commenter of 12:43 P.M.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment but I must say, I am blaming nobody, actually I'm ciding both partied for their inability to compromise.
In my second to the last paragraph, I've asked readers, I've asked readers to review what I wrote in my first paragraph. Comparing these two paragraphs will show that I feel the problem is more than blame, it is ratherthe fact that Dr. Carson's remarks in the quote I mentioned, pont out how current politicians in general do not listen much to the original framers of the constitution.
Lou, I think it's very well said (although I did get a kick out of the Galileo reference! :) ) and although your point is right on the mark, I feel the issue is that not enough American Citizens are paying attention to politics and supporting the individual candidates regardless of party. If The People would wake up and vote for the person and not the party - we would have much better representation than we do today. Today, we mostly have a bunch of partisan hacks who have made politics their careers - quite the opposite from what our grass roots form of government is intended to be.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the blame lies squarely at the feet of The People for our current state of affairs.
Our government has done massive disservice to this country through promoting illegal immigration and tremendous legal immigration, rapidly changing the landscape of America. So many millions of the people who have come here, do not appreciate nor understand what being American really means. Many of them come from socialist (or worse) backgrounds, and don't understand American culture, our "can do" attitude, our individualism, our culture of personal responsibility, and are used to having things provided to them by the government. They tend to vote for expansive roles, far beyond the traditional scope of American government, as a result.
We also see the effects of decades of the Welfare Plantation taking a massive toll on American society. Many millions of people who have lost the desire to even be part of American society - or worse, so many millions who actually despise it due to a victimhood mentality which has been promoted by the democrat race hustlers like Al Sharpton - who history WILL remember for having done more to hold back the black community more than any single influence ever has.
We have major issues in America today. The real issue here however, is that what you're describing here Lou is really only a symptom of these serious underlying diseases.
We The People, need to stand up, take back our love of country, our dignity, our greatness, and push back against the constant degradation of American values being promoted by the likes of Barack Obama, Bloomberg, Pelosi, Reid, Hollywood, et al.
We need to place the blame for personal failures where it belongs - with those who are making poor life choices and then not owning up to the ramifications of them. We need to promote our freedoms, and also the responsibilities that comes along WITH those freedoms! We cannot have a prosperous, free and rewarding society WITHOUT having the responsibility and the expectation that we will participate in making it great each and every day.
I believe we can do this not be forcing people to do things they don't want to do, or forcing people to buy things they don't want to buy, or taking from one to give to another a la Marxism, "Liberalism", Socialism or Communism. But rather through holding The People accountable for their own actions. By not rewarding negative behavior, by not allowing people to abuse the generosity of our social programs and allowing The People to make excuses and place blame.
Unfortunately, this is a major shift from where we are today. But I don't believe this is a lost cause, simply because I have seen how much and how quickly American society has devolved in the last 30 years. We CAN correct our course, we CAN make American society absolutely cherished around the world again - but We The People must take back control of the narrative and begin making real changes.
Before it really is too late.
The first step is in paying attention to our political system,and even getting involved as you are doing Lou. Once again, part of the greatness of American society is our grass roots political system. Becoming a leader is theoretically accessible to us all, if we get involved. But even if some of us personally do not want to be involved, the responsibility to elect leadership who is truly representative of US, THE PEOPLE, is our first, and most important one.
The only thing I know about Dr. Carson is that like most other physicians he has been saying for a long time that Obamacare is a disaster that will destroy healthcare in this once great nation.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans in Congress are doing what their constituents elected them to do, stopping Obama from forcing government run healthcare down their throats. Each and every one of them was elected on the promise that they would do whatever it takes to stop Obamacare.
ReplyDeleteLou, maybe you should call Harry Reid and tell him to knock off his obstructionism and let the Republicans open the government back up with no Obamacare?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Obama the American people overwhelmingly voted for Obamacare by re-electing him, so you should just shut up and accept your health care costs skyrocketing and be happy when you have to wait 18 months and drive 50 miles to a doctor's appointment. This is what you demanded.
ReplyDelete