Just a little . . .

 

Language is a funny thing.  It admits for all sorts of sins.  At the same time, it offers lush alternatives when making and rationalizing important decisions.  Naturally, we like to hedge our bets, walk a fine line.

We always cover our asses. 

At the same time . . .

Can you be just a little married?
Can you be just a little pregnant?
Can you be just a little upside-down?
Can you be just a little vaporized?
Can you be just a little raped?
Can you be just a little castrated?
Can you be just a little dead?
Can you be just a little extinct?
Can black be just a little black?  If so, what's the rest?  Still black but not black?
Can white be just a little white?  Is the part that's just a little white still white?
Can a 'yes' be both 'yes' but just a little 'no'?
Can a 'no' be both 'no' but just a little 'yes'?

Despite the headache you might now be experiencing, often there's more at stake.  Every game is a thing but not everything is a game.

In these instances we need to be a little more precise . . .

s war inevitable?
Is war good or bad?
Does might make right?
Are all humans created equal?
Is good health a basic human right?
Are food and water basic human rights?
Does a woman have the same rights as a man?
Can an individual be owned by another individual?
Do property rights take precedence over human rights?
Can any man claim life or death authority over another man?
Does the law of a higher power take precedence over human law?
When a person surrenders autonomy to the state, can he take it back?
Is freedom a natural and absolute fact or an artificial and relative artifact?
Are citizens answerable to governments or governments answerable to citizens?

How about this? . . .

Can humankind survive if there's a limited nuclear war?

Assuming we're in favor of the survival of the human species . . .

How much nuclear war is just the right amount?

Humans are very smart creatures.  We know this from telling it to ourselves all the time.

 

So to figure out how much nuclear war the "good guys" should inflict on the "bad guys", factoring in the carnage that will inevitably be experienced by a number of people who don't precisely fit in either the 'good guy' camp or the 'bad guy' camp -- these indeterminate types are sometimes called 'collateral damage' or more descriptively 'innocent victims' -- using cost/benefit analysis and predictive models, we can fairly accurately determine exactly what level of nuclear war, rationally looking at the big picture, is most efficacious and productive.

You know . . . the right balance.

Fine tune it.  Don't go overboard.

Just a little . . . nuclear war.

Is my sarcasm showing?

 

It's easy to scoff at my asking questions like these, then commending them as some sort of pseudo-philosophical exploration.  You might judge this as a thinly-disguised exercise in self-promotion, an attempt to portray myself as some deep thinker.  You might feel my frustration and empathize with my isolation and relative impotence, yet still dismiss all of this as the nonsensical ruminations of a confused and deluded faux-intellectual -- a Jean Paul Sartre wannabe.

You might have decided that this whole business of blogging is an unflattering display of infantile neediness, that the urgent, aching lust for attention, which has lingered on from early childhood, being unflattering and obnoxious even back then, but now nauseating at best and infuriating at worst -- I'm not sure I can put up much of a defense against any of these insinuations -- is both pathetic and pathological, in spite of being a common feature of our selfie-driven, self-obsessed times.

Or more innocently . . .

You may think that I have way too much time on my hands.

Frankly, I think time is running out.

Granted, some of the above are mental exercises.

But others are arguably very important questions.

Existential questions!

Am I so off-base?


We need answers!

Do you have the time?

Just a little?




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



Just a little . . .

Ship of State

Our ship of state cannot find a new, better direction by rearranging the deck
chairs, hiring a new trumpet player for the band in the Captain's
Lounge, or repainting the life boats.


It really comes down to setting an entirely new course, even turning the ship 180º
around if it's heading entirely in the wrong direction. Nothing less will get the job done.


Yet, our often bitter national conversation __ sometimes a shrill shouting match
__ is always focused on the tiniest details, irrelevant details which
serves both to distract us and obscure the larger issues which are the
real source of our national conundrum and chronic paralysis. Whether
this is intentional or not, it has poisoned all of the air in the room
and killed progress on the many critical __ as in life-or-death __
challenges confronting us.


We argue about capping student loan percentages and whether bankruptcy 
should be allowed for individuals who can't pay for their student loans. 
Public funding for advanced education has been coming up short both at 
the national and local level. Public universities facing insolvency are
either depending more on private __ as in corporate __ funding, or being
completely privatized. Tuition is shooting through the roof. To assure
profitability, institutions of learning are becoming more beholden to
private industry. The disturbing upshot of these trends is that higher
education is becoming unaffordable for the majority of young people, 
at a time when employers are demanding even more education of their
prospective employees. Nevertheless, all we seem capable of doing is
nitpicking away about the burgeoning student debt problem.


The real question is what kind of country doesn't educate its population?
Conservatives say the money isn't there. Yet we spend in the upwards of
$1 trillion a year __ that's trillion with a 't' __ on our military. We
really need to ask: Books or bombs?


We argue about the upsides and downsides of Obamacare, wrangle over
the exemptions and loopholes in the program, condemn governors who
are opting out certain aspects of the Affordable Healthcare Act. These 
are certainly genuine issues but not the problem.


The real problem is twofold: There is nothing keeping the cost of health care
under control __ we spend 17.7% of our GDP on health care, next closest
are Holland at 11.9%, France at 11.6%, Germany at 11.3%, Canada at
11.2%,  __ and much of what we spend on services is turned into
corporate profits. You get sick, corporations make money. The sicker you
get, the more money they make. Am I off here but isn't there something
bizarre or even cruel about turning human misery into an ATM machine?


So forget the details of this sub-clause and that policy rider. We need to 
address a very fundamental question about what kind of society we want. 
Is America a country where the proper care and health of its citizens is a
fundamental and integral part of "the general welfare" __ is a basic
right __ or is it a service commodity like getting your car tuned or
your house painted? There is no other modern industrialized nation 
which does not lean toward seeing health care as a right, like voting, free
speech, freedom of religion, and so on. America distinguishes itself by
ignoring this most fundamental aspect of life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. Only in America will you be left to die just because your
insurance doesn't cover your problem or like 40 million others you have
no health insurance.


We talk about whether we should go to war with Syria or Iran, whether 
we should continue to use drones, what we can do about North Korea. 
Yes, this is a dangerous world. But we ignore a simple fact. We are the 
ones making the world a more dangerous place. We are now viewed by 
the rest of the world as the greatest threat to peace and stability on the planet. 
With maybe a few obvious exceptions, we are the problem, not those we are 
constantly demonizing. We are becoming a pariah in the world community.


Because of the wholesale takeover by the military-industrial complex of our
foreign policy apparatus, meaning wholesale embracing of a 
neocon imperialistic world view, we don't even consider peace as an option. 
We don't work for peace. We don't think about peace. We rarely mention peace. 
The military option, from targeted drone bombing to full-scale war is apparently 
the only option. We have a one-size-fits-all strategy: Bomb, kill, destroy.


The real question is:  Do most American citizens want America to rule the
world by force?  Do the imperial ambitions and delusions of global hegemony
of our leaders truly reflect the values of the majority of our citizens?
What insanity is Washington DC championing here on our behalf?


Who's version of America arms the world __ we are the biggest arms supplier
on the planet __ antagonizes every other world power, bullies its friends and foes 
alike, never takes 'yes' for an answer unless it's a 'yes' for armed confrontation, 
and expects to survive?


This is a survival issue. Because if any significant number of the countries
becoming increasingly fed up with America's my-way-or-the-highway
tactics unite, no amount of bombs and bullets will rescue us. Think
about this: America hasn't won a war since WWII. Oh right . . . forgot. 
There was Grenada. A country of with less than 1/4 million people with 
no standing army. We trounced them.


Then as we spend about as much on the rest of the world combined on our 
vast military machine, we scream and yell __ perhaps rightfully so __ about
our national debt, about both our personal and public indebtedness,
about home mortgages, foreclosures, credit card debt, of course, again
student loan debt, how much we owe China and Japan, etc. Sure these are
important matters. But they are only the dirty wine glasses on the
Titanic.


Because the real question is:  Why doesn't the nation we pay our hard-earned
taxes to have control of its own currency? Why don't we as Americans
have any say whatever in the way the money of the richest country in the
world is handled by its central banking institution, the Federal Reserve? 
The Federal Reserve is not federal __ meaning a part of the federal 
government __ any more than Federal Express. It is a privately
owned-and-operated corporation! Our currency is not issued by Uncle
Sam. It's issued by Uncle Ben, as in Ben Bernanke! How can we get our
budget priorities in line when we don't have any control over the very
currency we use? This sounds on the surface like some abstract question
but it is fundamental to creating a sound economic system. He who
controls the purse strings controls the world.


And now is the really big one, which spawns all of the others. This is the 
big daddy sitting at the top of this shit pile of self-deception causing all
of the yelling, blather, incoherence, gridlock, confusion, frustration,
helplessness __ the ultimate bargain with the Devil.


We argue about Republican vs. Democrat, conservative vs. liberal, we 
have our standing jokes about Libertarians and spoiler candidates from 
the Green Party, and we point at the ultimate lepers of our time, socialists!


But the simple truth is that it's not about Democrat vs. Republican. It's about
tyranny. The tyranny we have invited by our apathy and our self-invoked
declaration of surrender. The tyranny that marches in when hope is
replaced by hopelessness and toughness traded out for submission and 
compliance. It's the tyranny of the power elite that fills the vacuum of 
citizen engagement and self-rule. It's the tyranny of rule by a tiny core 
of elite oligarchs when voting becomes an exercise in futility, if not a 
complete joke.


All of this contentiousness, bickering, in-fighting, out-fighting,
cage-fighting is irrelevant. Because we don't have representative
government anymore.


DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA IS DEAD!


Now that's the real issue.


And until we address that issue, nothing else will get done. Politics will be
a board game, about as relevant to governing our nation as Monopoly is to
the real economy.


The evidence for this is clear.


No matter who is in power, Democrat or Republican, most everything 
just gets worse.


Ralph Nader made the controversial claim in his 2000 campaign for 
president that the two parties were Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum. That 
was both perceptive and prescient. Now in the coming mid-term and 2016 
elections, it is even more the case than ever. Real choice within the two-party
system is an illusion. Third party and other independent candidates are
almost totally shut out, shouted down, or mocked by those who benefit
from having a two-party system beholden to the corporate aristocracy.


So the questions we need to address here are not the hot issues of the day. 
The questions are practically never what is being discussed in the 24/7/365
tsunami of scandal, rumor, manufactured crisis, and drama queen reporting
that passes for news these days.


The most important question is whether we can become a functioning 
democracy again.


Whether a Democrat or a Republican supports gay marriage or gun control
or legalization of marijuana may seem like life-or-death issues. This is
what we constantly hear from both media pundits and politicians alike.
But these issues __ these "details" __ pale against the real question,
the big question.


Do these men and women in suits __ Democrats and Republicans __ 
support America?


Do they support America, or is their true loyalty to the huge transnational
corporations which are looting our treasury via corporate welfare and
off-shoring their profits, turning our country in a big wasteland devoid
of real opportunities for real Americans, trashing the environment, and
bankrupting our political system by buying our elected representatives?


So what's the point of all of this?


It's very simple . . .


We can wring our hands, fret and ponder about the minutiae. But until we 
fix the big problems, nothing will get resolved. Our educational system is
rigged. Our health care system is rigged. Our foreign policy is rigged.
Our tax system is rigged. Our monetary system is rigged. Our democracy 
is rigged. So . . .


We can sweat the small stuff but all we will end up doing is standing in a puddle
of sweat.


I talked about this problem of scale __ the big fundamental systemic issues vs.
the narrow typically charged and highly divisive ones __ quite some time
ago in a previous blog called "You Don't Use A Microscope To Find The Cow
You Don't Use A Microscope To Find The Cow That Left The Barn".
I also discussed the epic levels of exaggeration which issues from our
government institutions supported by the talking puppets in the media,
essentially propaganda designed to convince the public that the dysfunctional 
blowhards we elect to public office are actually getting something done. 
That blog was called "Differences That Don't Make A Difference".


Back then __ respectively April and March 2011 __ neither seemed to make 
much of an impression. But considering it's been almost three years now and 
things are just getting worse, maybe this would be a good time to revisit them.


As to the important business of steering the ship of state . . .


Maybe it's time for a mutiny.





[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

National Values 103

My previous blog was on air. So far the rich and powerful have not figured out a way to sell us the air we breathe. That's not to say it isn't coming. I can easily picture a future where the air is so foul and toxic, that we all are toting around behind us on little wheels, mobile tanks of breathable air, with plastic tubes running up to our nostrils. They'll probably have a Monsanto logo on them.

In that piece, I attacked the compromising and abuse of one of our most fundamental biological rights. Bush's comically-named CLEAR SKIES is a perfect example of the lords of industry writing the rules for their own advantage, condemning tens of thousands of us to die prematurely by cutting corners on our basic human right to breathe clean air.

In this posting, I want to focus strictly on how you and I are being systematically robbed of yet another thing, something so basic to life, something so pervasive and necessary, that lacking it our entire planet would look like the moon. We look at another one of those fundamental absolutes that is being stolen from us in the name of progress.

In his powerful speech "Where Do We Go From Here?" on August 16, 1967 in Atlanta, GA, Dr. Martin Luther King asked, "Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that's two-thirds water?"

Damn good question.

To single out this remark is not a trivialization of this great man's vision. He was talking in general about our system of ownership, where a small elite of well-to-do capitalists wield the power to exploit everyone else.

Think about it . . .

Water.

The human organism basically is protoplasmic material floating in around 42 quarts of water held in a big sack made of skin. Water is about as basic to being human as it gets. We are 60% water.

Why should we have to pay for water?

Does asking this making me some raving pinko commie socialist?

Water has gradually become commodified. We used to just go down to the well in the center of the village. Then cities and counties provided water treatment facilities, publicly owned then later very tightly regulated by municipal governments. This held the price for access to high quality water at a bare minimum. Now it's slowly being privatized. And the quality of municipally available water is being gradually degraded so that it's no longer safe to drink. We end up going to the supermarket to buy water in large plastic jugs.

What happened to being able to turn on your tap and drink some H2O?

When did our community decide it was no longer its fundamental responsibility to provide something so basic to life as water?

And I don't mean water laced with cyanide, mercury and other heavy metals, containing sludge and industrial waste, stinking of human urine and feces, tainted with every widely distributed hormone, prescription drug, anti-depressant, steroid, antibiotic.

I mean the kind of water that our bodies have always required and contained.

The kind of water which is as basic to human survival as . . . well, water.

This attrition of the public domain __ those things which constitute the fundaments of a organized and humane society and a healthful nurturing community __ is always a very gradual step-wise process. The privatization and commodification of the basic elements due to members of a community creeps up in very small increments. Tiny decisions are made one by one, each seeming like a rational or at least more convenient way to do things. Then somewhere down the line, we look back and say, "What happened?"

When things as basic as breathable air and drinkable water are commodified, it doesn't bode well.

Many political scientists and international experts have been predicting for some time now that wars in the foreseeable future will be fought over water.

There's a method to this madness. Corporations and capitalists can sniff out opportunity anywhere and everywhere. This is what they do. It is what they are designed to do, driving the engines of the economy, revving them higher and higher, sucking in what they need and blowing $$$s out the back end.

Think about it. If corporations can completely control and charge for basic necessities, what a perfect plan! It's not like lipstick or adding cruise control to the options on a new car. You don't have to convince people of the value to drink water. If they don't they die.

There is no doubt capitalism has energized much of the world and been the major force behind development across the globe. But economic growth has never been nor is it now the only measure of progress. Not everything of worth has a bar code.

Look into the eyes of your child, your spouse, members of your family and community. Can you tell me how much a moment with someone you love is worth in dollars? What should we charge for a sunset? How much for a walk in the park?

As Oscar Wilde's character replied in Lord Darlington when asked what a cynic was: "A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

So where do we draw the line?

Maybe the better question is: Since we failed decades ago to draw sensible lines which safeguard our individual participation in a society which respects each and every citizen and assures basic decency for everyone equally, what do we do now?

I'm not here to lecture you on the basics of government and citizen responsibility. Actually, if anything I'm here to lecture myself, to remind myself of some things that have been long buried by the shit storm of nonsense, diversions and distractions that is the news media today. I'm here to try to cut through the tsunami of irrelevance and ignorance that has swamped our national dialogue __ the one you and I should be having about the America we want to have and pass along to future generations __ and try to focus my own thinking.

I'm here to remind myself, and hopefully a critical mass of other concerned individuals, that many things we should be able to take for granted __ breathable air, clean drinking water, safe nutritious food (that'll be the topic of National Values 104), and some others down the line __ are rightfully ours and they have been stolen.

It's time to get them back.

It's time to put aside right, left, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Libertarian,
Socialist, gay, straight, black, white, yellow, brown, red and blue. Because there's a lot we agree on.

We just need to clear our minds and talk about those things.

We need to talk.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

 

National Values 102

We breathe air.

Unlike abortion and gay marriage, there seems to be a lot of agreement on this. We all accept that breathing is not a luxury, not a hobby, not a pastime, not entertainment.

Breathe in, breathe out __ it's something as constant as our heartbeat and only stops when our heart stops.

Isn't breathing an absolute? Isn't air __ or more accurately the oxygen in the air __ one of the fundamental building blocks of life for us human beings? Is there anything contentious or controversial about our need and our basic natural biological right to breathe air?

In National Values 101 I stated, however, we're not talking any old air. We're not talking about air that's full of industrial smoke, automotive particulates, carbon monoxide, or invisible toxic gases. We're not talking about air that burns the eyes, irritates our nasal passages, makes it painful to breathe, turns our lungs black, and consigns us to living on a respirator. We're not talking about air that is carcinogenic and will lead to tumors and kill us before our time is due.

Can we all agree on this?

Yet too often we are given false choices:

If you want a job, then you'll have to put up with "acceptable" levels of pollution.

Either you want the economy to grow or you want the government regulating everything. You can't have it both ways.

This is not only nonsense. It is propaganda __  the polite term for boldface lies  __ and is irresponsibility at its worst. It is abandoning our public duty and a priori commitment to live in a country where concern for its citizens __ concern for one another __ is central and paramount. It is ignoring our constitutional mandate as citizens in a democracy to promote the general welfare.
I know there are libertarians and other minimalist ideologues out there who dispute this.

If anyone out there has a coherent justification for saying . . .

"I have no problem having my children breathe air which makes them sick, will cause them cancer or emphysema, compromise the quality of their lives, and resulting in them dying younger than they should."

. . . please send it to me. I'd love to see what your craven mind has conjured up.

Does this sound melodramatic?

It's not.

Sometimes things are that simple.

To poison or not poison. That's the question.

The issue is not where we draw the line __ what constitutes acceptable levels of poison in our atmosphere __ but how we hold the line that respects human life and good health.

The general welfare.

Of course, where it gets dicey and muddled by a lot of self-serving propaganda, ideological dogma and outright deception, is what role government has in protecting the quality of air.

Let's cut to the chase.

Can each individual household afford to have its own fire brigade available in case of fire? Can each individual household hire someone to drive an envelope over to the bank to pay the mortgage payment? Can each individual household raise an army, equip an air force, deploy a flotilla of battle ships and nuclear submarines to protect itself from invasion by hostile foreign militaries? Can each individual household afford to pave the road between home and school, home and work, home and the grocery store?

Can each individual household muster the necessary legal team and cash to stop a factory down the road from spewing toxic gas into the air?

Government, especially one which consists of the citizens of the country, is by definition __ as delineated in our constitution __ the way we collectively do those things which we cannot individually do. And it is the strength of our system, certainly not a weakness, that government performs services on behalf of all of us for the betterment of all of our lives.

We've forgotten this.

I'm not pointing fingers. I'm just as much a victim of the tsunami of sheer nonsense that fills the media and the overwhelming cyclone of bullshit that passes for discussion of the "important issues of our times." It's all but impossible to keep a clear head and the needed focus to make sense out of our relationship to the institutional machinery in place to do our bidding, often to assure some of the most basic items to a healthful, productive life.

Like clean air!

This is the point of what some may perceive as very facile, simpleminded blog posts. But I sincerely believe that we need to get back to the fundamentals again. What are the basics? What are those things which we not only should treasure and hold dear but are areas of universal agreement?

We often get so caught up in the fighting, name calling, assigning blame, bickering, that we forget that our nation was predicated on some very solid fundamental values, drawn from the Bible, the teachings of great philosophers and legendary teachers, the wisdom of the ages, even drawn from the ministry of Jesus Christ during his short time on Earth.

National values.

Somehow we've lost sight of them. We've lost sight of the obvious.

I'm reminded of a story __ and I have no idea whether it's true or not but it's a great story __ I heard when I was a teenager.

There was a large tractor-and-trailer rig which got stuck under an overpass. This was right in town, on a single lane road, so it was creating havoc and causing a bad traffic jam. They had hooked up giant powerful tow trucks and diesel-powered winches. The truck wouldn't budge. They were now going to resort to huge metal cutting wheels and blow torches to carve off the top of the trailer.

A 10-year-old boy was walking home from school and happened on the unfolding drama. As he passed a burly man wearing a safety helmet, at that moment in the heat of directing the team to start cutting the truck up, the boy tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir. But I was wondering. Why don't you just let the air out of the tires?"

Sometimes the answer is staring you right in the face.

You just have to look.



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

National Values 101

We need to decide.

And to decide we need to have a talk.

What's the latest fashionable euphemism? Aaaaah! . . .

We need to have an adult conversation.

The question is: What are the basic conditions, perks, priorities, entitlements, services __ it doesn't really matter what you call them __ that the set of institutions and organizations collectively known as government, is responsible for providing the citizens of this country?

What's the bottom line? As an American, what can I expect?

How we answer this question pretty much defines where each of us falls on the political spectrum that stretches from "conservative" to "liberal".

Which is irrelevant!

So forget about it. Forget conservative, liberal, progressive, libertarian, anarchist, and most certainly forget Republican, Democrat, Green, Socialist, Communist, and all of the rest of the political parties.

Let's just answer the question.

And while you're thinking about it, here's what I have to say:

Air. I don't mean just air. I mean clean air that doesn't choke us, make our eyes water or create the conditions for cancer. Seems fundamental. Amazing how it's brushed aside.

Water. Again we are talking about clean water. Not Evian or Poland Springs. But water that we can drink, bathe in, cook with, irrigate our gardens with. The human body is over 75% water. Without a constant supply of healthful water, we become dust.

Food. Sustaining life is pretty basic. Famished or dead people don't do well. And I don't think this should be frivolously interpreted. Yes, we can eat dog chow. But I am proposing good nutritious food that supports healthy development and healthful sustenance. This is not too much to ask.

Education. Maybe first and foremost, we need to know, understand, think, and learn how to go about knowing, understanding and thinking. Lacking education a person cannot properly function as a social, economic or political being __ an ignoramus cannot begin to participate in society or fully contribute as a citizen.

Health and Basic Health Care. Why is this so contentious? Being sick is a drag. It's personally a drag, it's a drag on those closest to us, it's a drag on the economy. There are no winners when people are sick. To have a fruitful, functioning society, we must be at our best __ physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, socially, politically, intellectually. When we are physically sick, everything else is compromised.

Safety and Security. This is a big one. Excluding items under other categories, like non-toxic air to breathe and food that doesn't poison us, there are many areas which through our government we safeguard ourselves as citizens. A person should be able to walk down the street, or sit in a park or their back yard, without fear of being attacked, molested, robbed, raped, murdered. We should be able to be in our homes or work places knowing that a poorly maintained commercial airliner or a missile launched from North Korea won't crash into our roof and incinerate us. We should be able to use a microwave oven without it exploding in our faces. We should be able to drive across a bridge without it collapsing underneath us. Related to that, we should be confident that everyone on the road knows how to operate their motor vehicles. If our house catches on fire, we should be able to count on firemen coming to put it out. The list goes on and on. You get the idea.

Equality Before The Law. The law is the law. It shouldn't play favorites. No one is more or less important before the law. Violate the law, there will be penalties. Violate another human being, that person will have remedies in a court of law. It doesn't matter if you're Angelina Jolie or Donald Trump or Barack Obama. "Justice" is portrayed as holding a scale and blindfolded. And so it should be.

Opportunity. Opportunity comes in many flavors and is not unlimited. Everyone cannot be President of the United States. Not at the same time for sure. And impediments always are being erected to our realizing our individual potential. All too often they're internal __  defeatism, low self-esteem. So the last thing we need are more barriers from without. When a society erects barriers based on class status, wealth, ethnic identity, religious belief, sexual orientation, and so on, it becomes fragmented and loses its vitality. It can become hostile and end up at war with itself. We have on the books right now legislation and constitutional amendments to discourage this. It's time we lived up to the language and spirit of these laws.

Democracy. Who gets to run the country? I was under the impression it was each and every one of us, participating on an equal footing. One person = one vote. It's not that way anymore. Now it's who's got the cash. So are we going to have a democratic republic or an oligarchic tyranny? Democracy seems like a good idea to me.

Freedom. Freedom has its limits. But it should constantly expand until it reaches those limits. What kind of freedom? To dress, speak, sing, dance, live, love, worship, socialize, assemble, organize as we see fit, respecting the rights of others to do the same. It's in the Constitution. This should not be rocket science. And it should be on everyone's mind and part of every discussion about our nation. Freedom requires constant vigilance. It requires an ongoing adult conversation, no holds barred, no nonsense. The alternative is division, racism, conflict, disintegration, civil war, or totalitarianism.

Why am I bringing all of this up? These "American values" seem so obvious.

You would think so.

But all hear in the media is . . .

"So-and-so declares all government bad."

"We need to cut spending, then cut it even more."

"Get government out of the way so we can get something done."

"We can't afford it! America is going bankrupt!"

"Fiscal cliff! Debt ceiling! Apocalypse!"

Often these are the same blowhards who are saying America is the greatest thing since mastodon burgers and pterodactyl nuggets. So why do they find it so easy to denigrate it? Why do they want to destroy it if it's so great?

The point is, I don't see anyone talking about the essentials for making America, not just an okay place to live, minimally tolerable. But making America a place where we citizens can thrive, realize our individual potential, be the bad ass exceptionalists we claim we are.

Are any of the "values" I described above so controversial, so offensive, so ideologically obtuse or extreme, that they don't deserve that adult conversation I mentioned at the beginning of this article?

I sure don't see it in the media. I don't hear any discussion of this being prompted by our so-called "leaders" __ please refer here to "Take me to your leader!".

Yet, it is at the heart of everything about our country.

What we hold to be true and dear is the beating heart of America.

We can't sit around waiting for Obama or Biden, Boehner or Reid, Pelosi or McConnell, Cantor or Chief Justice Roberts to get around to it.

They won't.

We the people of the United States need to discuss and decide who we are and what we want America to be __ meaning what kind of nation and society we will pass down to our children. Then we need to keep those priorities first and foremost in mind when we the people of the United States decide what to do.

No excuses. No equivocation. No distractions.

No "we can't afford it" or "that's socialism" or "that's Tea Party".

Let's stop the name-calling, end the soap opera and the games.

Let's cut with the nonsense and get to work.

We can do this. We're the greatest nation in history, right?

We're the baddest, the best . . . we're #1.

Let's prove it.

I say, when politicians go into their usual patronizing him-haw blather, let's keep a roll of duct tape handy to shut them up. We go back to our list of values and say . . .

"Either this makes America the country we want or it doesn't. That's the issue."

What do you say?

Are you in?


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]