Greetings good citizen, not only has the calendar dwindled to just one page but a week from tonight the Christian world will celebrate Christ’s birth.
Regardless of your individual upbringing (or perhaps because of it) year’s end brings with it a period of reflection, a mental regrouping if you will, as we ponder not only the year just past but the year yet to come.
Front and center in our musings, a topic we feel comfortable discussing openly here, is the ongoing occupation of Iraq.
There are no good answers on the Iraq front save that we shouldn’t have invaded in the first place...but it’s too late for that sentiment, isn’t it.
The next ‘bright spot on the horizon’ is the coming (albeit tenuous) Democratic majority in Congress.
We hope for great things...but intellectual honesty tempers this hope by acknowledging that we live in a badly broken nation.
From 2000 to 2005, the number of manufacturing jobs declined nearly 18 percent. Virtually every job category registered decreases except pharmaceuticals. SOURCE
Virtually EVERY job category good citizen; can this dire situation that has been thirty years in the making be corrected with the single stroke of a pen?
Yes, yes it can...but it won’t happen.
We certainly don’t have another FDR in the current White House and not a single candidate for 2008 is running on a ‘let’s put America back to work’ platform as FDR did.
A prosperous America is one that works, providing its citizens with the means to support themselves.
Well, 2008 is still a ways off. We can still hope that someone with the intestinal fortitude to set a course for prosperity will throw their hat into the ring during the coming election cycle.
Drifting somewhat further from the relatively safe haven of Iraq our thoughts turn to energy security and the forces that are blocking true progress in this vital area.
Will the common good triumph over self-interest?
What do you think?
Me? I think the oil interests have deep enough pockets to burn through as many politicians as it takes to protect their stranglehold.
Why do I think this?
They control the price of oil...the more it costs them, the more they’ll charge us.
Cynical, but there it is.
I could go on, the litany of woe is, as you well know good citizen, endless and without succor.
Perhaps the larger point I’m trying to make is this ‘as it goes for the nation, so it goes for you...’
For all of our personal cares and worries, our collective fates are inextricably bound together.
Many (if not most) of the larger issues that devil us personally have their roots in the larger problems facing our society.
When you reflect upon your hopes, dreams, goals and aspirations, reflect for a moment longer on the kind of soil in which you intend to plant these seeds for the future.
Is the soil rich and strong, full of vitality? Will your dreams grow and flourish or will they wither and die in a blighted and desolate landscape?
Yes good, citizen, the condition of the fabric of society is vital not only to your future success but also to the continued well-being of you and yours.
Despite all protests to the contrary, no one is a rock, no individual an island.
The continued destruction of the fabric of society comes at a price.
For the time being that price is your hopes and dreams, which are being sacrificed for someone else’s here and now.
A society that lives in fear of itself cannot stand...which is to say consider those who prosper at our expense, knowing that we know.
Yes good citizen, while you reflect upon this world and your place within it you would be wise to spend a little more time reflecting upon the kind of world it has become and why things are the way there are.
From 2000 to 2005, the number of manufacturing jobs declined nearly 18 percent. Virtually every job category registered decreases except pharmaceuticals. SOURCE
Just a little refresher to help you reflect.
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner