The general theme of the post Democratic dominance, according to the Democrat in Chief is, "Dream big, do big, win big".
What a load of bullshit.
Flowery prose and words that reach for the stars melt into ethereal nothingness like Icarus' wings.
The battle for America, the battle for the future doesn't begin with austerity or free trade or assigning the role of Cold War USSR to our primary trade partner and one of our biggest debt enablers, China. The battle begins and ends within our borders. The battle begins and ends with educating our kids; to inspire our kids to aspire to be more than kings of Halo and gurus of procrastination and underachievement. The battle begins and ends with elevating the poor and providing REAL health care to every person.
True greatness, true exceptionalism is not based on credit scores and having the most toys; is not based on nuclear arsenal or missile defense or retouching the moon. True greatness of a nation is being able to hold that nation up as an example of equity and equality; of taking care of the sick and the poor; of teaching our kids not only to use their brain but teaching them to see neighbors and nation as part of a symbiotic whole, of seeing the world as part of that whole. The measure of greatness is rising above those things we fear. To embrace Mexicans who want a better life for their children; to not throw up walls of separation because of the God one chooses to believe in; to lift up and not look down upon nations and peoples who, through no fault of their own, lack the natural resources or the fertile lands that allow for stability and wealth. The measure of greatness isn't forcing those that are different to desire that which we desire; to think as we think.
America may have the capacity to be exceptional, but we are not exceptional now. We fear and we blame and we interfere and we label and we threaten. We are not world police but world thugs. We do not empower, we destroy. We do not lift up, we devour and hold down.
We can not be exceptional until we take care of our own poor, until we take care of our elderly, until we educate our kids, until we treat every race, creed, gender, as Americans, as humans, as equals. We can't be exceptional, nor claim to be exceptional, so long as we measure a person's worth not on the strength of their character and by the deeds they perform, but on whom they love or by the size of their bank account. We cannot be exceptional so long as personal greed drives our personal ambitions. We cannot be exceptional so long as our national pride is based on carrying the biggest stick or having the largest GDP.
Dreaming of bullet trains and petroleum free cars and solar farms is a worthy dream. Desiring cheaper goods and bigger homes and the highest quality food is ok...but not if those things are attained through the sweat of children; or at the cost of the environment; or are only available to the privileged few.
Fear is rampant in this country and is being continually fueled by those who fear the most. Whether based on not having the coolest God or the most fearsome weapon or having to settle for a single comfortable home...we live in fear. We are afraid to be average when average isn't a sin. We should not begrudge the successes of some, nor fear the inclusion of all. Above all we need to teach our people, our children that their is a line where enough is enough; that life is less a game and more a job of constant responsibilities towards improving the world we live in and ensuring that those who follow have such basic necessities as clean air and clean water and plentiful food. This country can be, must be, exceptional...but that can never be so long as excess is our motto.
Looking back through our history, through world history there is only one true constant...greed...and greed kills constantly and consistently. Whether king or pope or dictator or CEO the incessant push for more...for bigger...for better, has left this world in a perpetual state of tension whereby the few dominant and the masses suffer.
Fear drives us. Fear of being poor, of being left behind. We look upon our neighbors who have the wife or husband we covet; the home we covet; the cars we covet; the material goods we long for with rabid jealousy. We constantly focus on those things we want and not on what we need; not on those things we have and should already give thanks for. We throw out terms like "welfare state" and "entitlement" and defend their use by marginalizing the target as being lazy or unintelligent. Glenn Beck and Kim Kardashian are idolized as "American Dream(ers)" when they shouldn't be revered for their success, but should be reviled for being the poster children of American decay.
We have universities that teach people to fear and to blame and not to question accepted dogma. Universities that eschew science for myth. When we question why our kids leave college without knowing much more than when they left high school we don't have to look much farther than politicians and FoxNews. Our kids are taught that they are exceptional. They are told that science is hocus pocus. They are told that evolution is crap and blastocysts are human. They are told that greed is good and that faith is more important than knowledge. They are taught by politicians that lying is acceptable, that the more outrageous the lie the more books you can sell and the more riches you can attain. That, so long as you can get the votes, lying and greed are not liabilities...but virtues.
This country was great three times: At its inception, at the end of the civil war, and during WW2. We might add the Civil Rights movement...if only it would have been concluded logically and with finality; but, like so many other things...we chose to rest on the laurel of achievement.
Barring those shining examples this country is rife with inglorious moments and morals and institutions: Slavery; disenfranchisement of minorities; segregation; genocide; nation building; warmongering; war crimes; fearmongering; monopolization; union-busting; sweatshops; imperialism. What drove us, what drives us; greed! Cheaper labor, more power, more control, more land and more natural resources. Wells Fargo is one of our biggest banks...and its history was built on murder and mayhem. Frontier justice is looked upon reverentially when its true nature was simply murder. Some fawn over the Confederacy and look upon slavery as "just a good business model". We rush to return to the days of robber barons who stifle competition while searching out cheaper labor forces. We excuse the misery we export by blaming Muslims or environmental laws or socialism. We reward Phil Knight with billions of dollars for paying children to work with harmful toxins and to work for pennies on the dollar and to work long hours. We reward DOW chemicals for giving us cheaper plastics and pesticides while excusing their human rights abuses (Union Carbide is a DOW acquisition...UC killed thousands without apology or reparation in Bhopal, India.) We reward Newmont Mining despite Newmont's dumping of toxic mine waste into Indonesian seas and wetlands and soil. How can we be exceptional if our example is not one of peace and prosperity but one of "the ends justify the means"?
We can dream for the exceptional but before we can be exceptional we have to be adequate. We can recommend a better path for less fortunate nations but before we can demand we have to lead by example. We can condemn foreign genocide and bigotry but we have to admit, learn from and move past our own despicable actions before we can expect a third world nation to do the same. We can condemn the culture of rape and AIDS in Africa but will African nations listen so long as our own "leaders" marginalize American rape victims and continually equate AIDS as being a punishment for homosexuality? We can condemn the Saddams and Qaddafis and Castros but do we have the right when our history in places like the Philippines, and Central and South America and the Middle East and against people like African-Americans and Native Americans makes those dictators and dictatorships seem somehow tolerable; or at the least, equivalent?
We have made our share of mistakes...and other nations are going to suffer their own burdens...but the measure of an exceptional nation is to accept responsibility for their worst actions before trumpeting their best actions.
We can dream...but we must act first. We can see a brighter future, but we have to walk the walk to get there...this time of talk and dreams needs to end, we must take the first steps and then think before we take the next steps and then think again before we continue to step. Our historical misstep has been to gloss over our mistakes, repeat them, and claim victory. Our historical miscalculation has been to run before we walk, oblivious to the destruction we leave in our double left foot wake.
Together we stand, divided we fall...lets begin taking the first steps...together. Rational budgets with rational goals. Equality for all. Comprehensive health care for all. Employment for all. All religions, all atheistic mores, are founded on a simple principle...give more than you take. A few simple steps and we can hold ourselves up as a model, we can lead by example.
JFK had it half-right...but the half-wrong is the more pertinent side of the equation in today's divisive America. Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you. The people and the nation are one, indivisible. What we do for our country needs to be reciprocated. In the past decade we have squandered Trillions of dollars on war and weapon and fear. All the while the politicians give us reasons why we must spend...why we must fear...why we must kill and sacrifice our children. However, mention sending those trillions of dollars to domestic needs and the sky suddenly turns dark and threatens to fall on Chicken Little's thick skull. We give, the government takes. Our country must give back to us as much as we invest in it.
The modern day JFK talks of Sputnik and defining moments as though we are just now finding ourselves on the razor's edge between Utopia and annihilation. We talk of shared sacrifice when the one's doing the sacrificing are those who have already sacrificed more than they should have ever been asked to give. From a child's life given in war to stagnant or falling wages; from lack of health care to...lack of health care... the backs of the burdened can't take much more. "Shared" is only in the minds of those who have, imagining that they suffer alongside those who have not.
The motto of our nation needs to become this simple motto that we overuse but fail to abide by: Leave no one behind; not the poor, not the old, not the sick; not the colored; not genders; not creeds. Leave no one behind. One nation, indivisible.
Some simple phrases we should embrace and not trivialize:
"Fear IS the mind killer"
"I shall not want"
"The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few; or the one."
"It is better to give than to receive."
"(Whichever) God blesses us all, every one of us."
"Do unto others as you would have done unto you."
"The only thing I know about perfection is that perfection is unattainable, but that it is still the goal."
It is not my intention to be a hit and run diarist...to not join the conversation. My life and circumstance makes my access to the internet...tenuous. I do read the comments...even if it is on another day.