Skip navigation

Daily Archives: July 16th, 2012

Where Did We Go Astray?


In the formative years of the U.S. our founders wrestled with problems similar to what we are experiencing now but on a smaller scale. The difference is , even though these men had issues with one another’s views and perhaps lifestyles, they managed to put aside  those issues not related to Governing and setting up a Government and got the work done.  Despite their differences these men saw the importance of working for the (new) nation instead of against one another.  This is something that either died or gone into hibernation these days.I am wondering what is wrong with our “modern” day Congress? Our elected officials have allowed their personal interests and opinions to muddy the waters to a point of distraction. No one of us will ever completely approve of one another but most of us find ways to work around or with the issue to get the work done. It seems that the “learned ” Legislators , “Scamocrats and Dupublicans” seem to have forgotten what they were elected to do. The title of this writing is “where did we go wrong?” We went wrong when stopped paying attention to what our representatives were doing or not doing. We have allowed ourselves to be side tracked by Race, culture and religion all of which have nothing to do with good Governing. We can’t seem to get reasonable governing in spite of ourselves. An understanding of how this happened emerges from the fact that England outlawed slavery in 1777 and we made that slide step almost 200 years later and still not completely. The current occupiers of the legislature have apparently forgotten why they are in that building. We have had many years of discord in the Congress and almost always to the disadvantage of the voters. The idea that the melting pot has lost its heat indicates how far away we have moved from the tenets of  the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It is my belief that voters need to hold those 500 plus representatives accountable by asking hard questions and demanding true answers rather than lip service.

My Opinion


“Readers are leaders”,  as quoted by a national printed material circulation company. Apparently this is lost on many people as many would rather access the continuing flow of TV ads, talk shows and web based information rather than read what is written and compare it to what is being said. Recently I was reading the different takes on the Health care act and its effect, I quickly realized that even the soon to be administrators of this program have not bothered to get the facts and how it would affect their state. If the public continues the trend of not reading everything related to an issue then we are pretty much lost in the shuffle of misinformation and innuendo. The NRA took a segment of time on Sunday to push the same message of fear not unlike the fears of “People of Color”and  other ethnic groups moving  into neighborhoods and work places. I am not against firearm ownership (being one myself) but I am against using scare tactics on issues instead of facts. I am against using the same tactics of misinformation for political gain while the truth goes unspoken. I use the NRA as an example because I was once a member but dissolved that contact when I realized the effect of their disturbing messages reached the level of the gun shows I attend  occasionally. President Obama has been blamed for everything from ammunition shortage to firearms shortage and neither is true. What really happened is the demand for these items exploded when the rumors that the President would take away our firearms when he was running for election, that made the shortage not the then soon to be President. The end game here should be that we all need to expand our sources of information and have a balanced idea of what happening around us. There are hundreds and possibly thousands of organizations, companies and powerful individuals  working to alter our opinions and thinking (remember “1984”?) and we can stop them by giving heed to what is being said and verifying it with information from other sources. Do not allow yourselves to “conned” into poor decisions or inaction. Read!