Now, the eighth year into the 21st century, America, our America is beset with several enormous problems that must be overcome, and quickly.
If our country is to continue to be the strong, safe, prosperous, and admirable nation we love, we the citizens, we who do the sweating, the crying, the bleeding and the dying, must look to our selves for the needed solutions, rather than to our supposed leaders. The purpose of this blog is to find some of those answers and share them with our fellows, that we might, working together, overcome them all.
No one from another time could look at the United States of September 2008 and not be surprised, if not appalled, by the breadth, scope and depth of the problems presently facing the country.
We have:
A catastrophic rise in the cost of all energy.
An outpouring of our country's disposable cash for energy imports.
A massive economic (credit) shrinkage bordering on a collapse due to the cash outflow for energy and and other imported goods.
Record imbalances of payments in trade.
Record personal, corporate, and government debt.
Record bank and business failures.
Record number of personal backruptcies.
Two ineffective, bankrupting wars in the mid-east.
The wholesale shipping of many of the best jobs out of the U.S.
A rapidly rising cost for entitlement programs such as Social Security and an aging middle class.
Most of these problems are the resulting consequences of a long time of profligacy, corruption and greed by our leaders, both business and elected, and a substantial portion of our people, who nurture the hope, that they will be, one day, one of the fortunate few at ease in their daily lives (read wealthy), able to entertain most any whim, cut loose from the restraints of modesty, decorum (proper behavior) or conscience.
Unfortunately, this deeply rooted and cherished goal, this goal which is the empowering motive for most of the work and activity of our citizens, is in reality a nest of snakes. And it is a nest whose eggs are beginning to hatch.
If concern for one's self and wealth are the preeminent values in one's life, setting aside any real concern for others, for family, for friends, for community and nation, then these relations that encompass, anchor, secure and protect one's life can not long endure. With the failure of these vital human supports, all else is swept away. Ironically, the prize so eagerly and energetically pursued is also lost - for all time. To turn one's back on these social supports and one's responsibilities to them, is to make a choice that guarantees the collapse of our families, our communities, and our country.
Simply stated, a deep seated immorality and intense selfishness and greed are the roots of all the serious problems coming ashore in the United States.
These values must change if we want our society and our country to continue!
The list of problems we must face and overcome in our near future, is by any measure, nearly overwhelming. Nevertheless, overcome them we must, if we are to preserve anything even vaguely resembling our present quality of life.
The important questions to answer are, how?
