A Message Of Hope

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

A Message Of Hope (posted with permission from http://www.saneramblings.com)

Bad news surrounds us. Consumed by fear and led by a fanatical President, the U.S. is sinking into endless wars, bringing death, destruction and despair on others and moral degradation on itself.

Meanwhile Congress not only does not listen to the American people, it ignores its Constitutional responsibility to be a check and balance to the President, Instead it is fully funding his actions, as the U.S. government marches off on a path to bankruptcy.

In addition, through campaign contributions, the lobbyists buy what they want and for pennies on the dollar. What they receive is paid for by the taxpayers or by borrowed money the taxpayers will have to pay back. This means in the future there will either be much higher taxes or the U.S. dollar will become a worthless currency.

Is it too late for America? Is its fate cast as a once great nation that threw its future away on wars, weapons and gross financial irresponsibility?

No! This does not have to be America's destiny. The U.S. government is of its people and yet the American people are so much more. Most Americans in recent generations arrived as immigrants seeking freedom and a better life for themselves.

Many escaped tyranny and poverty and worked hard to have a comfortable home, plenty of good food on the table, education for their children and to feel secure, living in a system of freedom in which no-one was above the law and the government answered to the people.

Nearly a century ago, my grandfather fled Russia, and its ruler the Czar, its grinding poverty and its anti-semitism. He arrived at Ellis Island filled with optimism but an empty wallet.

He worked hard to live a nice life and took good care of his family. During the Great Depression his wife, my grandmother fed large numbers of hungry people, a godsend to them. And over the years since, our family has thrived here.

In the 1990's, Edgar came from Mexico with little more than the clothes on his back. He soon had a wife and two babies to support and he worked two minimum wage jobs very long hours to do it.

Determined for his family to live the American Dream and not in poverty, he learned English and out worked everyone around him. With time he earned promotions in one job and quit the other.

Today he is restaurant General Manager, owns a lovely home and provides very well for his wife and three children and each of those children receives his encouragement and a fine education.

Whether it's my grandfather, Edgar or many millions more people like them, they are America's backbone and America's future. As an immigrant nation, America has compassion for others, a strong work ethic, and a vision for a better world and the skills to deliver on that vision.

But the system is broken, terribly broken. However the good news is: together we can fix it.

To believe the two party monopoly that broke it will fix it is fallacy. Our President and Congress will act at our direction only if we unite and speak in a thunderous voice even they will hear.

Here are some of the things we need to do:

1) Set electoral campaigns to 30 days, replacing the two year travesties we have now. And as in many other parts of the world, voting will take place at the convenience of the people.

2) Publicly finance the campaigns, and tightly cap the the money spent on them. With short campaigns it won't be hard to control costs and lobbyists will be shown the door. End of story.

3) Hold politicians accountable. If they lie to or spy on the people, commit murder, war crimes or other evil acts, they will be put on trial. There will be no such thing as "Impeachment is off the table," at a politician's whim.

4) For greater accountability, I suggest America adopt a Parliamentary form of government as most democracies have done, in which it takes only "a vote of no confidence" and the leader is out. This approach also gives power to several political parties and not just two.

5) Take government spending away from Congress. Their spending is fiscal lunacy and they have no incentive to control it. We must create an elective office for someone to manage our money and account for it with financial statements to us. We must also make it illegal to spend money we don't have, for we are now deeply in debt with no idea how we will ever pay it back and those we owe it to WILL come to collect it.

If you are an American, you can help restore the Dream. Don't lazily hang your hat on the election of one politician versus another, or waste your time on the insults politicians exchange.

It's time for action. You must find the courage to act on your principles for you can make a real difference. You are special and at this critical time in history, we Americans look to you, your conscience calls on you and the many millions of victims of our nation plead to you, get involved!

Dick

Continued here - http://saneramblings.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=268&sid=8ab150ae9887bfa4a3f7f11cfd916893

[midnight]

1. Thank you for the encouragement.