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January 21, 2011
Politics, the kind that we watch day in and day out, 24/7 is what ails this country today. The endless ranting and hate-filled discourses that only serve to infuriate the public are wrong. And the perpetuation of twisted facts and misinformation ironically by those who are in the industry to enlighten the people is unconscionable.
It’s this politics, way too much of it, that has turned 365 days of the year in America into an Election year. As soon as they got voted into office, these public officials could only think of nothing but ways to keep themselves in office by promoting their party’s agenda, feeding their base and protecting the interests of their political donors.
This political environment of lies and hyperboles, violent rhetoric and savage imagery has given rise to emotion-driven polls, irrational voters and incompetent, self-serving public officials. The halls of the US Congress have been littered with peddlers of self interests and mercenaries of corporate avarice. This once very respectable edifice where highly intelligent and extraordinarily sharp minds debated issues on the basis of their substance and merits out of which were born great speeches in US history has sadly turned into a theater of the absurd, where each legislator took turns at making a fool of himself or herself believing those who listened had also been fooled.
Abraham Lincoln’s democracy, “a government of the people, by the people and for the people,” is long gone. Instead, in its place was installed a government of impoverished people, run by corporate-purchased politicians for the preservation and ultimate good of the privileged few.
Corporate greed has overrun this country not only because it has a permissive system that allowed for its excesses and abuse but also because it is now inhabited by a generation that has lost the values and principles of its forefathers. Government leaders without strong values and high moral principles cannot steer the ship to the right direction. A government run by ill-motivated leaders is headed for its doom.
America today has an extreme shortage of honest, good-hearted and efficient leaders whose primary motive is to serve their people and country. They are leaders who would rather lose the election for doing what is good for the government than win it by compromising the welfare of their country and its people. They are leaders who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good.
Yet good leaders are not all that America is in short supply of these days. It is also in dire need of citizens who have the right value system and know how to set their priorities right. They are citizens who take pride in getting education and becoming a productive member of society. They are poor but decent people who would rather earn their keep than depend on public welfare. They are students who will persevere to become the best they could ever be. And they are parents who will give everything and do anything to see that their children live up to their maximum potentials.
Freedom is a sweet and precious thing we enjoy in a democratic society like this. But freedom without discipline or responsibility will bring us to our doom. We are free to vote the men and women we want to run our government but if we do not exercise this right thoughtfully and carefully we are liable to elect the wrong people. If we do not do our homework, read about the candidates and determine if they are fit or unfit for the office they are seeking to hold, we are bound to make a costly mistake.
America’s problem lies not in shortage of heroes and good, caring people. There is no place in the world quite like America, where people are happy and eager to share their blessings with others in less fortunate circumstances. In the midst of grave economic downturn, they don’t turn their backs against humanity in need. Celebrities and regular people have bared their hearts and pocketbooks to countries ravaged by natural disasters, Haiti being the latest of them. Heroes emerged in the most recent tragedy in Tucson, Arizona where a 63-year old federal judge, a 9 year-old girl and a 30-year old congressional aide that was scheduled to be married were among the 6 people shot dead while a Congresswoman almost lost her life. They are people who did what their good instincts and training told them to do in a dangerous time.
Faced with overwhelming domestic problems such as joblessness, massive home foreclosures, trillion-dollar budget deficit, terror threats and 2 wars that continue to drive our country to the poor house, America needs seriously brilliant minds, spirited leadership and a citizenry that’s committed to doing its best and making sacrifices to create inroads at recovery.
It would be unfortunate to see the humbling of a great power like the United States of America. But if we, its citizens and its leaders, continue doing what we’ve been doing, we might as well prepare for the worst. God help America! God bless America!