Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Post Holiday Blues

Apparently a lot of people are in a bit of a funk following the hustle and bustle of Christmas. At least that is what a number of pundits are saying.

I wasn’t feeling particularly blue until I read some recent columns where all the reasons why I should be were pointed out to me. The economy still sucks. Wars rage on. Our political system is in the toilet. Government spending is out of control. The U.S. is declining in power….

Need I go on?

Columnist Georgie Anne Geyer says, “Well, let’s just wait a little minute. The problem is not so much that we are in decline, but that we are in decomposition. The country doesn’t hold together because we don’t hold together; we see everything in terms of only ourselves.

“Every working country needs citizens at certain crucial levels to accept leadership and not parse every demand with the imperial “me”. Otherwise a country becomes ungovernable because no leader can impose decisions.”

If it wouldn’t make it so hard to read, I would put that all in caps and shout it to the nation.

Every problem we face as a nation is related to self -service and greed, and nothing is going to change until enough people start changing. We can’t expect the world around us to cater to our every need and insure that all things will be fair and equal. We have to be mindful of the community, city, state, country, world we live in. What is in the best interests of all mankind?

I would be PC and write ‘humankind’ but being PC is one of our problems. People aren’t listening to what others are saying, they listen to how it is said to make sure nobody is being offended by the wordage and miss the point entirely.

So, what do you think?

6 comments:

Helen Ginger said...

I agree with you. My problem is with all the government screaming. I say, kick them all out. It seems in today's world, politicians become politicians not to serve the people, but to serve themselves. And that attitude trickles down (or up) to just about everyone.

Ooh, too early for ranting. My head hurts.

Helen
Straight From Hel

Unknown said...

How we as the general public feel and how we express ourselves makes no difference. I've blogged, tea-partied, and emailed, but to no end. Those who are "me-minded" are the elected officials who are looking only to pad their own pockets and have forgotten why they were elected. What should be representation of the people has become a money-making career, and someone the goals have been lost in the exchange of cash between special interest groups and politicians. I'm with Helen...sweep them all out and start anew...this time with term limits that give us the option to replace dead wood. I'm not sure how some of these people continue to serve. If Pelosi, Reid and a few others remain in, then we surely should be labeled with a big red S for stupid.

Maryannwrites said...

It's amazing that most of the people I know think that government is totally out of control and we the people need to "sweep them all out" but every election the same folks keep getting elected. How does that keep happening?

The tea parties and blogs and commentaries are not enough. We need to unite somehow, launch new candidates, then get them elected. Is it possible? I don't know. Comments?

JVRC said...

Of course we have no sense of self. We're so busy trying to accommodate everyone's ethnicity that we have cohesion as a single unit. It wasn't always like that. We were American first and ethnicity second.

But then again, it might help if we'd stop having information spoonfed to us and started thinking on our own. Just a thought.

I can't blame the government when the truth is, they is US. You and me, baby. WE are the government. So, if we need to kick 'em out...the first thing we need to ask is why the hell we put 'em in there in the first place and then ask if that's what represents us, what does that say about us to begin with?

Patricia Stoltey said...

I say kick them all out. If we screwed up in the past, we need to get our butts into those voting booths and fix what we've done. I'd also like to see my state return to a normal primary system where everyone gets to vote instead of this stupid caucus procedure that discourages voter participation.

Maryannwrites said...

I agree with you, Patricia about the caucus system. That needs to change back to popular vote. And there must be a lot of people out there who are still voting along party lines and reseating incumbents because they are canceling out all our votes to unseat them.