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Monday, June 11, 2012

THOUGHTS: The Disfunctionality of American Government

Lately, I've been having very thought-provoking conversations and reading informative and intriguing news articles and editorials about everybody's favorite topic: politics. I've noticed a weird trend. No matter which side of the aisle people have been aligned with for the majority of their voting life, they're dishearted, disappointed, distrustful, and straight angry at everyone in charge, not just "their guy" or "the other guy".  Approval of all three branches of government seems to be at an all time low. A recent article I read somewhere (I can't remember where, but I think it was Esquire), basically called the current Supreme Court out, saying the judicial branch that used to be the last bastian of defense of the Constitution is now simply another tool for either party to push their agenda. Congress is virtually inept, spending more of China's money to make sure that their constituents, unknowingly in most cases (as the honest Congress-people surely wouldn't get re-elected), can sign as many bills into law as possible designed to destroy the middle class and enslave as much of the lower class as possible. The presidency: regardless of who's been in office since Lyndon B. Johnson, every single one of them has been driven by either a personal agenda, a party-bound lack of independent thought, or some paid-off security of future corporate wealth.

Throwing all of this into perspective, it's getting much easier to take seriously the rants of those like Alex Jones, Jesse Ventura, or Ron Paul. You know, the guys on the outside who make claims like 9/11 was an inside job or that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident never actually happened? (The latter was proven by declassified military documents since 2005.)

I don't know where you stand on this thought, and frankly, it doesn't matter.  It doesn't even matter is that you're reading this or some other more intelligent take on the state of affairs in this country UNLESS YOU TAKE ACTION.  Taking action isn't simply joining a party and going to the meet-and-greets and town hall meetings. Taking action is demonstrating. It's writing to your senators, reprasentatives, mayors, city council members and county commissioners so often that they know your first name. It's finding out what causes support YOUR stance and helping them. It's finding like-mended and unlike-minded people and having conversations with them to either deepen your beliefs or to learn that they aren't entirely accurate.

The hardest part, though, is learning to respect and fight for the other side. A guy is anti-abotion. Another guy is anti-gun. These two live in a place that's supposed to respect freedom. That means that if I'm anti-gun, i need to understand that as MY choice, not everyone else's mandate. If I'm pro-life, then I make that part of MY life, not by making abortion illegal for everyone. If I'm not gay, I need to respect that some people are, and they have the right to be free and in love.

Loving thy neighbor I one of the ten commandments in Christian theology. It's part of the Golden Rule, the Ethic of Reciprocity, the simplest most basic law, one that transcends Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, tribal spirituality, and even science and humanism. One of Isaac Netwon's Laws of Physics dictates that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  Science has proven what phophets have preached for millenia.

But I digress from the theological tangent. The point of this rant is that we, the people, are losing this country to th few who would rob it and us blin for everything we're worth and it needs to stop. Do something. Change the world.

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