NO LONGER SILENT

“THE GREAT THING IN THIS WORLD IS NOT SO MUCH WHERE WE ARE, BUT IN WHICH DIRECTION WE ARE MOVING”!
Kings indeed we have, (the government) who wear the marks, and assume the title of royalty (the public officials), but as for the qualities of their minds, they have nothing by which they can be distinguished from the rest of the people.
The United States of America was a country destined to be a leader. A country to go forth and help promote peace, and justice. For years the United States of America has been in front leading the world. Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where all followers. Everyone looked to the United States as an example, and as a pillar of strength.
What went wrong? How did we get so off course? How did the rug get pulled from right under our feet? These are questions that should and must be answered by the highest level of our government.
These questions are the duty of every American citizen to voice up. The American public has right to know what is happening before our eyes, and in what direction is the United States government leading the country, and the people.
It does not matter if we like it or not, but the reality is that every nation in the world is, one way or another, dependent with each other, and always affects the United States of America. The phrase “NEW WORLD ORDER” is very real, and it will be the ruin of the United States of America. Instead of being a leader, the United States will become a follower.
We must put our foot down. Sure there are crisis around the world, but we have crisis and issues here at home as well. Problems that hurt our communities, our families, our morals, and our values.
The world is seeing how we are falling, and it does not care. Actually, the nations of the world are happy to see the United States of America loose control and fall flat on her face.
I have seen you in your glory during my younger days. You have made me a slave with joy and tears. A slave with pride and happiness. I am happy and honored to be one of your sons. Always first to pay my taxes, and respect the laws of this great nation.
You, America, have given me many opportunities and a better way of life. I will love you as long as I live. I have learned to accept the good with the bad, and try to make the best of it.
I feel like a father who speaks out to his children who are about to go astray. I am a citizen with a free voice who speaks of his love, hopes, and beliefs for his country. I am a citizen who hopes to be heard, and share with others the good values of life.
I have heard you speak of peace, but we find ourselves in war. You speak of democracy, but you enforce dictatorship. You speak of human rights, yet your own children suffer. You use democracy to cover your tracks, and only care for the few rich and powerful.
Burdens are put upon your children with heavy taxes, insurances, unemployment, trade deficit, which cause stress, and fear, which weakens families and slowly destroys them.
Our political system is failing us. Our politicians are becoming corrupt, and selfish. Our country is not well governed. We are a country that has lost the true meaning of life. We are a country that is lost.
Corruption, greed, power, and immorality, are just some of the reasons the Great world empires have fallen, and our government, along with the so-called elected public officials, are slowly dragging the United States of America to hell. One would think that our government officials would learn from the past. The past is the key to the future, and history does repeat itself, and if we the people, do not wake up and shake up the government, history will repeat itself, and the fall of the United States is only a blink away.
Until now, I did not want to believe what my country has become. A follower, not a leader. A puppet controlled by a few. I neglected to speak up loudly, and now I regret the mistake.
America, you are my dreams that has become a nightmare. America, you are my love that has become a thorn. No longer will I keep silent. No longer will I hold my thoughts. Now is the time to speak and let others hear the message, and with God’s help, and with the faith of the people, we will turn this country back to its moral, and just ways. We must secure a future for our children, and our children’s children.
“Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the RIGHT of the people to alter and to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness”.
What a powerful paragraph. If the founding fathers of the United States of America, can see what is happening to their dream for a great and just nation, and government, they would be turning over in their graves.
As a citizen who gets involved with the political system of this country, from the local, to the state, to the federal, and even international level of government, I have had the honor and privilege to meet and talk to a variety of people of all races, religious, and gender, with all kinds of backgrounds. By being out there with the people, one gets a true understanding about the heart beat of the Unites States.
Over the last two decades, there has been a build up of a deep frustration within the vast majority of people. There is anger, and a feeling of betrayal. Everyone agrees that the United States of America, is the greatest country in the world, but the feeling is that our elected public officials are slowly bringing the United States to her knees.
Complaints are everywhere heard. From our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of private and public faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our government is too unstable, and the public good is disregarded in the conflict of rival parties, and of personal gains. Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested, and overbearing majority.
It is sad, but yet very disturbing to know, that most of the time our government is dictated by the major and powerful corporations. It seems that the CEOs and board members that reside on Wall Street, are more influential and powerful than Congress. Actually the members of Congress are nothing but puppets, and the puppet masters control them from Wall Street.
Not so long ago, members of Congress were real people, with real jobs, in real communities throughout the country. They played an integral part in the civic, economic, and social affairs of their constituencies. They went to Washington temporarily, and then they came back home.
“Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter and to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
Our founding fathers had vision and wisdom. This small paragraph is so powerful, and one word stands out. FOUNDATION. Why is this word so important? Why is it so powerful? What does it mean? If one opens a dictionary and looks at the word foundation, you get: A part on which the other parts rest for support. “The foundation of a house is built first.”
When a house is built, the very first step is to lay down a strong foundation on which the house will rest on. If the foundation is strong and solid, without flaws or cracks, then the house is safe and secure with no fear s that it would collapse. On the other hand, if by some chance the foundation had some flaws, then it becomes weak, and probably would not be a safe support for the house, and eventually it could collapse.
Our government, and our elected officials, from the local, to the state, and federal level, should be that strong foundation for the people, for the communities and for the country. If our public officials are strong and honest, and really care for the people and for the country, then you have a strong government, and a healthy, and happy society. If the people on the other hand see cracks within the governmental foundation, and flaws with the elected public officials, what will happen? People will be corrupt, communities would fall apart, people will not trust and have no faith with the government, and a nation as a whole will be demoralized.
For all practical purposes, today’s members of Congress consider Washington their home. When they do decide to go back to their communities, back to their constituents, they act like tourists in their own district. We must restore Congress back to a citizen legislature, and not just a bunch of bureaucrats.
It costs over one billion dollars a year to run Congress itself. Members of Congress make an average of $175,000.00 a year as federal employees. The Congressmen/women make many times more than their constituents, and they have the nerve to ask for pay raises because they commute, and have overnight excursions? But the problem is not just a matter of Government expense or Congressional pay, but a matter of function, and faithful representation.
People from all parts of the country, black, white, male, female, young, old, republican, democrat, feel that Congress has lost touch with the real world, and as to what role it should play. Sometimes one wonders, because the opposite of “pro is con”, so does this mean that Congress is opposite of progress?
The Congressional role is to represent the people on major policy decisions, to translate the public will into public law on matters of national, and international importance. Congress as an institution should go to the people a great deal more often. There is no law that states that every Congressional meeting must be in Washington. A few hearings or meetings should be scheduled in other parts of the country.
There would be plenty of positive benefits for taking the Congressional show on the road. Our Congressmen, our elected officials, will get a first hand understanding of dioxin, or a shut down steel mill can do to his or her community. Holding meetings and hearings outside Washington could also increase their grass roots character, and encourage greater and broader citizen participation.
A member of Congress does not have to be in Washington everyday in order to be a conscientious and skillful legislator, and he or she can’t be in Washington everyday and remain truly a representative to the people back home.
The language of economic policy is as familiar as the daily newspaper. Tax cuts, monetarism, deregulation, are part of the economic language, but how well do we the people understand it? Do our elected officials in Congress come back home to explain and translate this language? To most people, talking economics is like talking in a foreign language. Too often, the reasoning and difficult decisions that lead to economic policies are hidden from the non-expert in a fog of statistical jargon.
Making national economic policy means facing a never ending procession of hard choices among conflicting objectives. Unlike military policy, where the only goal is to win, or business policy, where the goal is to create a profit, economic policy involves much more than finding the best path to a clear objective. There are many important objectives of policy, including full employment, stable prices, the growth of output, and greater equality of distribution of income. Economic policy can be understood without the need for elaborate theory, higher mathematics or sophisticated statistics, and fancy words.
In competitive markets, competition between many independent producers keeps the price of output close to the cost of production, including as part of these costs, the normal rate of return invested capital. The output of competitive industry will therefore be the largest output whose costs customers are willing to pay.
Where there is one producer in a market, the monopolists can restrict output, hence OPEC. Customers will pay more than the costs of production for this smaller output and the producer will earn a monopoly profit in excess of the normal return on the capital he uses. A small group of producers acting in overt collusion to restrict output would have the same effects.
From another perspective, we can view the effect of monopoly as being in the first instance to raise prices above the competitive level. Customers will be willing to buy smaller quantities at the higher price. The monopolists can control quantity, in which case the market determines the quantity. He can’t control both price and quantity independently because he can’t force people to buy more of his product at any price than they choose.
A good example is OPEC. The member countries of OPEC set high prices for their oil, which caused users of oil to restrict their purchases by conserving energy, and driving less. As a result the high prices of oil started to fall because at the high price OPEC wanted to produce more oil than the consumers were willing to pay.
What does this all mean? Simple. Our public officials must take care of the United States, and its citizens. A strong economy will create strong families, and that creates a high level of human nature.
Another problem which we face is the welfare system. Since Franklin Roosevelt’s new deal, a kind of free lunch mentality has begun working its way into the American mind. Welfare programs have grown large because of recipients attitudes and the self perpetuating nature of the bureaucracies that un them, threaten to strangle the entire economy.
Since the government itself has little or no money, it must take from the taxpayers to feed the welfare system, and that is strangling our economy. People who are truly needy should receive help, but the present system is full of loopholes.
We allow families to stay on welfare for three or four generations. The children of these families are born expecting a “FREE LUNCH.”
The damage is done. Our economy is strangled. The welfare system is full of loopholes. But if our elected officials have the courage to say “enough is enough”, it can be worked out.
It must be made a mandatory requirement for every well bodied welfare recipient, while waiting for his or her welfare check, to do community service. The welfare recipients must meet a community service quota in order to receive their welfare, money, and our elected official must be dedicated and strong enough to oversee this.
Unfortunately we organizations out there, like ACLU, and Rainbow Coalition, etc., that this philosophy, of earning a welfare check in inhumane, and un-American.
Another solution is that a percentage of the money from a welfare check should be held back for vocational education. Have the welfare recipients learn a trade. If an individual learns something, and actually passes, he or she will feel good about their being. It will bring in a feeling of self worth, and slowly they will be able to get out of the rut they are in. This not only helps them, but it helps the government. The government will have one less person to deal with, and it will save the taxpayers in the long run.
All of the mess the welfare system is causing can’t be blamed on the recipients only. Blame must also go to the bureaucrats. In fact a great deal of what is strangling our economy is the giant bureaucracy that is in place. Instead of saving money our elected officials are encouraged to waste it.
With all the mess our elected officials have put this nation and the American people in, no wonder there is a strong feeling of disgust, mistrust, and a type of numbness, in which the people have begun to not care, and this will hurt our country in the long run.
“We regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs not as harmless, but as a useless character”. The ancients Greeks the founders of our democratic process, where active and involved in the political system. They participated actively in the goings on of their city state, and the quote above speaks volumes. The ancient Greeks considered a person as useless if he was not actively participating in the politics of the city. In this day and age, with fax machines, E-mails, text messaging, and computer there is no reason and no excuse a person can’t get involved.
Taxes are not enough. A concerned citizen who pays taxes, should and must demand accountability of where their hard earned money is going. Citizens have a right, and must demand to know what is going on within the closed doors of the government.
It is sad to note that ninety percent of our elected officials use and abuse their status and power for their own benefit. Ninety percent of the elected officials do not really care about their constituents, only when it is election time they act a little concerned. Sadly the ten percent that actually do care, they get swallowed up by the majority of useless government characters.
I recently saw a bumper sticker, and it read: “If people lead, politicians will follow”. How true that is! Unfortunately, our elected officials know too well that we the people do not keep up with what is going on in government, and they know that the majority of he public is to naïve and gullible, thus the elected officials know very well that they can get away with almost anything they please to do, because the people are not checking up on them.
Our elected public officials, who by the way are chosen to run our government by the people of this great nation, have achieved the worst of both worlds. A system of regulations that go too far, and at the same time a system that does too little. The idea of being elected for the people, by the people has vanished. The flame in the heart, the inspiration in one’s soul, the motivation and desire to work hard for the people has vanished. The loyalty, and respect for the people and country in non existent.
Public officials, from the local, state and federal levels of government, use and abuse their power for their own selfish interests. “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch my back” is very common with our elected officials, as they scratch each other in order to gain personal goals and financial gains for their greedy selfish interests.
The public must wake up and realize that these elected officials work for us. Our taxes pay for their salaries and extravagant lifestyles. We are their employers. If one has a business, and one of your employees is causing issues that is effecting the business, you have no choice but to fire that employee, and hire another.
Our elected public officials should realize that they work for us, and they our running our country to the ground, and we, their bosses will have no choice but to fire them, another words kick them out of office and elect someone else that may do a better job. But you know what? Our elected officials are sitting around their tables laughing. What are they laughing you ask? They are laughing at us because they know that we the people are asleep at the wheel.
We must wake up. We must encourage people to speak up, and voice their concerns. We must encourage people to vote not against their nightmares, but for their dreams. We the people must face the future today. We must face the future united and strong.