Checking my thoughts

I wrote and sent the following email in September, I re-read it and thought about what it said, I feel the same way now that I did then, though in some spots there is still a little glimmer of hope.


I usually do not commit to the time it takes to write my own thoughts on the direction of our country but, because of the media I've been watching and the articles I've been reading on the internet as well as the bills being considered in the congress, I've decided to put my thoughts to paper (so to speak).
 
I'm confused, scared and feel more than a little helpless over the current condition of our country.

Our government, by President Obama's own admission will be upwards of nine trillion dollars in debt within his term of office.

We are considering health care for everyone to the tune of another one trillion plus, dollars over the next decade.
 
The President apparently has no illusions of being able to fix our existing government so he is appointing czars at a frightening rate, (by my last count it's in the thirties).  And while they are supposed to have no role aside from advising the President, the green jobs czar now seems to have some god awful amount of money he is directing how it's spent.  Also there is no oversight or 'vetting' process about who these people are, every one of them has the President's ear.

When Senator Obama was running for President I looked up his voting record as a Senator and found that he voted 'present' more times than he actually took a stand on anything.  And on those rare votes he did cast, he was directly in opposition to where I stand.  This is the primary reason I did not vote for him.  There were other things besides that but this is what started me looking harder at him.

The President said in the campaign that if you made less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars there would be no new taxes but almost in the same breath said that because he is going to force companies to go green, electricity rates would "necessarily skyrocket" and those companies "would pass that on to the consumer".  I know the argument can be made that this isn't a tax but I'm thinking that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

The President also said we needed a civilian police force that is as powerful and as well funded as the military…why?  What would they be used for?  Is it to take the guns of armed citizens maybe?  Is it to protect us from the hoards crossing our southern border?  I don't have an answer but these kinds of questions worry me beyond belief.

I'm ashamed of Americans that allow the media on both sides of the debates to harm this country by doing things like calling a citizen a racist for carrying a semi automatic rifle to a town hall meeting.  The rifle was slung over his shoulder with the barrel pointed at the ground and the media shot showed a close-up of the rifle and the blue shirt of the man carrying it.  What they did not show was that the man carrying the gun was a black man.  I see these kinds of stories on every media outlet I watch, though now on Fox, there is more media attention paid to other media outlets doing this kind of thing than there is to actually doing this kind of thing.

We cannot trust our government, our individual representatives, our news (pronounced 'entertainment') media, our schools, our police, our insurance companies, our community organizations, our Boy or Girl Scout leaders, our churches, our lawyers, our doctors, our scientist, and the list could go on forever.  I feel like I'm living in a world of ever declining circles of trust.  The only groups of people I still have trust for is our military and firefighters, and that is at times sketchy.

I trust my family and I trust a few good friends I've made over the years but I think we as a world, have gotten so involved in making everything about 'me' that we have forgotten about everyone else.

Do I own a gun?  Well let's just say that I do not believe that anyone besides me, can protect me or my family from harm and whether it is a gun a knife or a baseball bat, I will train myself on how to use it effectively for those reasons.

In these ever declining circles of trust I find myself driving by people stopped on the side of the road when before, I would have stopped to help, I will still stop in some conditions and will phone for roadside assistance in others, but I look at people that I don't know with suspicion, and hate the way I feel for doing it. 

I have analyzed myself almost to death over racism, wondered if I hated blacks, browns, reds, yellows, or whites, and have always found the answer to be no but I always question myself.  So far it isn't the race that that I dislike, it's the action of the individuals within the group.  When I see skinheads shouting white power, I find that just as despicable as I do when I see blacks shouting black power. 

The government wasn't wrong to pass equal rights laws but where I believe it went wrong was affirmative action laws.  Laws that make it easier for one group of people over another are wrong, whether the group be Hispanic, blacks, Jews, lesbians or boy scouts.  If the equality laws were written right, then when you were discriminated against the law should protect you. 

The mistake I see is that the 'used car' salesmen and saleswomen we have sent to congress are convinced that they have the responsibility to 'save' our country and they think they have the right to throw ours and our descendants, future prosperity away to 'save' us.

I don't know if we can have a voice in fixing this problem but I think a little common sense would go a long way.

First I think that we should stop looking for our government to help us do anything.  If a high speed rail line getween Las Vegas and Southern California is needed then the people who would prosper from it should build it.  Don't build it on the backs of the taxpayers so the Casino owners get rich…I know, it's sold on the prospect of creating jobs…really?  There are other jobs that need to be done.

I also don't believe that we as a race are causing global warming, and the government should not get involved based on sketchy science, or use it as a cash cow to raise taxes.  I keep thinking we should take care of our planet but at what cost.  Aren't we natural too?  Don't locusts transform the landscape, or ants, or beavers, or elephants…we are just more successful.  We should try and figure out ways to live cleaner and keep our planet as nice as we can for our children but you can no more ask that we stop progressing than you can ask a grizzly bear not to kill you (you can ask the families of Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard about that).

People ask why we didn't shout when President Bush was spending like a drunken sailor…well for me the answer is that it takes time to become outraged and we had a chance, with a new President, things would change.  Things are changing just like President Obama said they would, he is bringing a fundamental change to the United States…only…fundamentally, Constitutionally, the United States was the greatest country in the history of the world.  We as a nation have done more to advance freedom and humanity than any other nation in history.  Don't think I've got the rose colored glasses on, yes we have had our share of despots and overall bad people, but when I look at the good as compared with the bad that we have caused then I have to think we are a 'fundamentally' sound country.

Now as I said earlier in this tirade I'm confused, scared, and feel more than a little helpless.  I know there are people that will try to tell me what I should do, like write your Congressman or Senator and tell them where you stand, or grab a gun and go shoot them, or trust that they are going to do the right thing.  I do write, I don't shoot and I don't trust, and I only have the slightest hope that my letters will have any impact, so now, I still feel like I have no voice.

prp

Si vis pacem, para bellum