Looking Back, to Look Forward

[Roland99]

Today, of course, was the 7th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks (in case anyone missed every channel showing some tribute or repeat of the footage of that day - actually, History Channel had a decent one-hour documentary on it.)

I sometimes wonder how much Americans were reminded each year on Pearl Harbor Day, even after WWII ended. BTW, our involvement in WWII (on two major fronts) lasted about 3 1/2 years. We've been stuck in Iraq now for 5 1/2.

Anyway...

We're constantly bombarded with the meme "Never Forget". I don't see how anyone could ever forget, even if the media and the political parties didn't trot out their wares constantly.

But, we do have to look back in order to look and move forward.

This country survived, quite well in fact. Victims' families have moved on, some have probably re-married, the markets took a hit but recovered quickly. We now look to a new election that offers two choices: one being essentially the same as the last 8 years (despite pleas and claims to the contrary); the other offering the potential to enact a form of change in direction but how successful that ends up being remains to be seen as it will be handicapped with the massive global financial crisis that is just now really hitting the fan and will affect the enactment of any new social programs or tax cuts.

There are bright spots of innovation facing us: new forms of energy and the infrastructure to deliver that to cars and homes; medical advancements; exploring further into space; greater involvement of Americans in community and national volunteer service (as tonight's political forum at Columbia University covered with the two Presidential candidates - both offering very similar agendas).

But what must change is the bitter divisiveness that's permeated American politics more and more the last several years. Gone are the days of actually basing one's votes on where each candidate stood on various issues. In its place is how well a candidate looks and how well they deliver the party's talking points in stump speech after stump speech. For example, tonight was Sarah Palin's first real interview with a news organization and she blew it completely! She was clueless as to what the Bush Doctrine is; showed her ignorance of Iran's political structure and thinks Ahmadinejad has any control of its military and incorrectly implied that Iran had nuclear weapons; thinks foreign policy experience is being Governor for a brief time of a state that one can see Russia from (Umm...if you're standing on a barren island) But, millions of her supporters will say she did an admirable job and is more than ready to be Vice President and even President (despite the fact that she can't learn these basic bits of information after 10 days of intense briefing) because those supporters suspend all sense of rational and logical thought merely to follow their party's candidate.

While I don't have any direct evidence, I'm sure on the other side that there are some supporters of Obama that will vote for him purely because of his race, no matter what his stances are on any of the issues.

That's a fine way to pick a favorite sports team or develop a liking of a particular car manufacturer but it's certainly not any way to decide on voting for President of the United States!

Both candidates tonight, though, raised the point that following 9/11 we shouldn't have been encouraged to "go shopping" as Bush elicited but, rather, engaged in community and national service, especially since the entire nation (and the rest of the world) was united with a vigorously renewed sense of patriotism. Another grand opportunity squandered by the forever-campaigning, never-governing Bush administration.

We cannot move forward until we learn from mistakes in the past and also shed the mass consumer and gotta-have mentality. Too many people live way beyond their means, living on borrowed money and borrowed time; cocooning into their little microcosms of America, scarfing down pizza delivery and going brain-dead in front of the tube watching the latest episode of American Idol or the latest CGI-laden action film on DVD. I, myself, have certainly been guilty of this to a large extent but have made changes in my life to kick the consuming habit, gadget-collecting desires, etc.

We also need the corporate elite and the oligarchs to stop treating corporations and America's resources as their own personal wealth-gathering instruments. Not since the Great Depression has the gap between rich and poor been this wide. Our government is engaging in massive amounts of welfare to financial institutions to stave off their complete failure which would hurt, mostly, those at the upper echelons with the greatest investment holdings. Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae, and now Lehman. This will make the Savings and Loan bailout look like a church raffle donation. (By the way, might be a good time to point out that Neil Bush and John McCain were majorly involved in the corruption around the Savings and Loan Scandal. Oh, and McCain's son just resigned in July from posts on two banks that failed just days after he resigned. Guess the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. See how soon history repeats itself?)


What I'm getting at is that the United States of Apathetica needs a major attitude adjustment and it needs it now.

[eshfemme]

1. We need a reboot.

:kick:

[Darkhawk32]

2. About 3 in 10 people I've talked to at work say they won't vote at all....

That's sad that a single week of voting on American Idol garners more interest than the most important position in the world.

I used to be a Republican (long time ago) but realized how corrupted and obtuse their positions truly are. I also learned about other cultures (college) and got to learn about other countries and how they view the world. I went out of my way to befriend those of other nationalities. It's depressing to think that so many young people don't have the same epiphany I had and that they just don't get over their own sense of entitlement to their own selfishness and their own blind bigotry.

[Roland99]

3. Groupthink.

:(