Sacrifice Should Be Our Mantra!

When a political leader comes out and uses the sacrifice word, they are castigated and ridiculed. Remember, those of you that are old enough, when Jimmie Carter sat in front of the cameras, with his sweater on and asked the American people to turn their thermostats down, to save energy? This was used by the opposition to paint him as a President that cannot solve problems and expects the people to actually help with solutions. He went on to be defeated and the idea that he asked for sacrifices helped him lose.

Each day we lose more members of what Tom Brokaw, termed the, "Greatest Generation". This is the Americans that entered and helped win World War II. There are stories of men, that were rated 4-F and could not serve in the military, who committed suicide. They wanted to sacrifice for their country. During the war, people had bond drives and Americans saved pennies, so they could buy war bonds and contribute. They had rationing to preserve food, rubber, fuel and other materials for the war effort. American children went out with wagons to collect scrap metal to help our men and women at the front.  Corporations, overnight went from making automobiles and refrigerators to tanks and munitions. Everyone sacrificed and then we succeeded.

Where is that same mentality today? We ask billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes and we are labeled as Un-American. We are asking for Universal Health Care and we are now, Socialists. We ask for corporations to pay a fair and living wage and we are told we are destroying America. We ask for the poor to work and produce and then we give them no jobs, while we complain about having to pay to support them.

Look at the auto industry. A short while back, they were faced with the spectre of bankruptcy and yet a few weeks ago General Motors posted their largest profit ever. What happened? People sacrificed. The workers, that are being demonized by the right, gave concessions. They gave back pay. They gave back benefits. They reduced hours. Management then worked hard to organize better, They pushed for better products and then when the profits hit they gave large bonuses to the workers. They companies are paying back the American people. Everyone sacrificed and we succeeded.

I have an idea! If sacrifice leads to success, why don't we all sacrifice? The wealthy elite can stop paying 12% or less in taxes and start paying the same as the working folks do. Home owners could give up their tax deduction on mortgage interest, while corporations stop having special tax breaks that lead to them paying little to nothing in taxes. We could see that people are able to get fair and honest wages in return for helping companies make better products and profits. Then companies could reward workers with bonuses. Parents could sacrifice some leisure time to help teachers and schools to educate our children. The list can only grow from here. Everyone has to give to lead us back to prominence.

I gave the example of the Greatest Generation, but look back at the history of not only our country, but the history of mankind and you will see examples of sacrifice. In our American history, look at the Pilgrims and what they endured. Our Revolutionary War and the founding father, did they not sacrifice much?  How about the settlers that spread across our great country, did they have hardships? The Civil War, the great depression, industrial revolution, two world wars, the list of sacrifices continues, and I have to ask, what have you sacrificed? What have you done? What have you committed to? These questions all have answers and that answer is sacrifice for the betterment of our country.

President Kennedy phrased it best in his inaugural address, "And so my fellow Americans,  ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what can you do for your country." Is it to much to ask that we all give to save America?

Response to my readers.

I have several comments that my readers have posted and I want to respond to them here.

First to Anonymous. On Feb. 20th I wrote a post, entitled, "Santorum is attacking our first amendment rights." The response was from a Christian that I believe has the proper prospective. Religious views are personal, and we are taking them into the political arena. When we have people trying to force their views on religion, it become very dangerous. If you haven't read the comment, please do. It is very insightful and well written. I always enjoy these types of comments. Quick note to anonymous, if you want please sign as a follower and share your name. Your choice, but I do hope either way you will continue to read and give my readers more of your responses.

To Lawrence, thank you for your kind words on my Feb 10th post, titled, "Why do we vote against our own interests." You asked how to get my posting each time. Sign up as a follower and they will be sent to you e-mail. I promise you and all of my readers, I do not spam and do not use my blog for any other reason then to post my opinions. Also please take the opportunity to comment anytime. I always enjoy responses, even if they disagree with me. I like the debate.

To, three of my biggest supporters, Jon from SOC Oracle, Danny and Marines. I always enjoy and look forward to your insights and great comments. You three have followed me from the beginning and have always favored me with your responses.

Lastly to all of my readers. As a writer, all I do is place my views and information out, so all that care to see, can. My viewers grow every day and I invite all of you to respond. When I get comments back from readers, I am very gratified. It shows, what I am writing, is striking a note with readers. Again as a writer, my reward is people seeing and then responding. Thank you for your support and as always take advantage and put your own thoughts out and share with others. This is how we communicate today. Let your voice be heard. Every voice is important, not just the American Voice, but every voice around the world.

We Need To Start A New War! This Time With Iran!

Just to get this started right, understand that the title is pure sarcasm. I have listened to the Republican Presidential Candidates and the same old Republicans over the last few weeks and it is starting to sound very much like the lies and push to war we had over Iraq.

Dick Cheney, John McCain and Lindsay Graham are three of the old Republican guard that are rattling the sabers, to push us toward more military action in the Middle East. They are using the same words that confronted us during the lead up to invading Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction. Remember that one. We were lead to believe that we would fall into huge quantities of these terrible instruments of war. Over a decade later we are still looking for them. Saddam Husein is a mad man, bent on destroying Israel and delivering nuclear weapons into America. Today it is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, is the mad man, and he must be stopped.

The argument of invading Iraq, was they had developed a nuclear weapons program. They had not. The same words are used today to describe the program in Iraq and the intelligence is all over the board. They are close. They are months away. They are years away. They are doing nothing with weapons grade uranium. Where is the truth?

Lets say for discussion, they have a nuclear weapons program and is close to development of weapons. Why do we, the country that has used nuclear weapons against another country and has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, get to decide who does and does not get these weapons. Do we have a right to invade a country to stop them?

Currently, we are pursuing the diplomatic approach. We are using economic sanctions. We are trying to find peaceful means to stop countries from having nuclear bombs. Yet the Republicans are calling the President weak and screaming about how dangerous he his. Newt actually said he is the most dangerous President in his lifetime. Really Newt. George Bush got us into two wars, based upon faulty intelligence and lies. We have spend trillions of dollars and lost thousands of American lives. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens have died. This was done in retaliation to 9-11? The people that attacked us were primarily from Saudi Arabia. The same Saudi Arabia, where President Bush can be seen kissing the Saudi prince on the cheek and dancing with them. So, Newt, just look back one Presidency and you will see someone that was so much more dangerous for our security and economic welfare.

This is not the time to run around, blowing the trumpets of war. What ever happened to the American ideal? What ever happened to us being the example for good? Why are we known around the world as the aggressors?  Now is the time for peaceful solutions. President Obama, has shown the ability to pursue the logical, not the emotional. So to McCain, Graham, Cheney(please retire your mouth), Romney, Santorum and Gingrich, the time has come to get behind our country. The time has come to change our thinking from war to peace. The time has come to follow the lead of our President. We DO NOT need another war. It is time for peace! 

First They Came, A Poem By Martin Niemoller

I remember reading this poem years ago and I think it is relevant now. When I look around our country and see groups trying to restrict voting rights for people, I shudder. When I listen to groups that try to use women's health issues as a platform to control women and restrict their freedoms, I grieve. As I listen to groups that try to force their religious beliefs on others, I scream. I am breaking one of my own rules. Never compare anything to Hitler and the Nazis. I am not going as far as to compare the above mentioned groups to Hitler. Hitler was responsible for millions of deaths, either directly, as in the Holocaust, or indirectly during the war that had to be fought to stop him. There is no person or group that compares to this genocide or horror. However there is the fact of how Hitler and his thugs were able to rise and grab power in Germany. This is history. I ask each of you to read the following poem and think about the tragedy of silence.

First They Came... by Martin Niemoller
In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

I have always thought this to be a very poignant and human poem. It shows how we all want to go along and get along. We are willing to keep our mouths shut and accept, even atrocities against other humans to get along. It is this, the silence that leads to rights being destroyed. It is the individual rights and freedoms that are at risk when we choose silence. Remember I am addressing individual freedoms, not the freedoms of the churches. The religious community receives funds from the government. It receives money from individuals. Now it wants to suppress freedoms for women and claims it is being attacked by the current administration. It screams about it's First Amendment rights being violated, while it attempts to suppress the freedoms of the people that work for them. This is not a violation of religious freedom as the right pretends it to be. It is a political attack on women.

At the same time, if you look, hard through the smoke, there are, people trying to suppress the voting rights of millions of American citizens. They use the guise of voter fraud in convincing people that we need to protect your vote. This is their way of keeping certain blocks of people from exercising their Constitutional rights, of voting. Right now they are focused on minorities and college students. Next they attempt to suppress women from voting. Finally they will get to white males, and suppress their rights. If we remain silent on either of these issues we are giving away our rights and who will be left to speak for you. NO ONE!

We Have To Start With Corruption!

Are our politicians corrupt? The short answer is. yes. They run around the country soliciting money, large amounts of money, and then tell the regular people to drop dead. During the 2010 elections all we heard from Republicans, were about jobs and the economy. Since then all we hear about is how they want to take away a woman's freedom to use contraceptives. They go on about gay rights. They attack unions, teachers, firefighters, nurses and police officers. They argue about global warming. They fight to protect the low tax rates for the wealthiest people. They have even attack the President, saying he is weak on defense. Ask Bin Laden about the last one.

Where is the job creation? Where is the tax reform? We even have Newt running around talking about outposts on the moon.

The starting point for change in this country has to be CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM. Take the money out of politics. Both parties are so immersed in campaign money from the wealthy and corporations, they do not have time to address the real problems facing America. Think about the direction we are heading in. The decisions that the political leaders make. Then tell me they are not making those choices based on who is providing the most money. Anyone who believes they do not vote or lead based upon money is one of the following. Under the age of three. Completely devoid of any intelligence. Lastly the most naive person on the planet. Yet, this is what the politicians tell you. How many times has a politician been asked or accused of trading a vote or stance for money, then we hear the famous, "I have never made a decision based upon the influence of money from a donor." Yeah, and even though I was born in 1952, I am only 25 years old. Are we really that stupid, or do we not care?

The only politician I hear talking about reform is Republican Buddy Roehmer. What, you have never heard of Mr. Roehmer. Why haven't you. The answer is simple. The Republicans, in their infinite wisdom, would not allow Roehmer in the debates, because he did not raise over five million dollars in one month. That is right folks. The former Governor of Louisiana, was denied because he did not ask the rich people to corrupt him, by giving outlandish sums of money. It is all about the money! Show me the money! Yesterday Buddy Roehmer decided to run as an independent. I believe he is worth a look, if for nothing else then to start the conversation toward the corruption that has become the way of life in our political system.

This is the beginning point to fixing the country. take the money out of the equation and now the leaders are looking at the problems and solutions that are best for all of us. Now, they are helping the people that placed them in their jobs, with loads of cash.  These people will continue to help them to stay there as long as they do exactly what they are told to do. If they veer away from the agenda, set by the wealthy class, they will have attack ads aimed at defeating them. We need to push the current candidates, Congressional leaders and the White House to change from a corrupt, cronyism system, to one that actually works for the people.

Hope Is Being Destroyed By The Right!

I mean my title completely. Look at the proposals by the right wing and more specifically the Republican Party. I listen to the political rhetoric, when they say the President is destroying the future for our children and grandchildren, with mounting debt, I just think to myself, what future!  Do we have to address our debt. Absolutely, but the question is how do we do that. That is the difference between the two parties. The Democrats favor the way of cutting costs. They want to grow jobs, increase education, make everyone healthier and tax the people, who can afford it. They also believe in the Christian value of helping your neighbor, not destroying them.

The Republican way of reducing the debt is take everything from the weakest and poorest and increase the wealth of the richest. Eliminate education for the poor and middle class, then eliminate child labor laws, so they can start working now.  Cut medical costs, by having no prenatal care and after they are born, do not provide any medical services, so they will die quickly. Those that manage to live, we will only have low income jobs for them. they will never own a home, educate their children or have the opportunity to achieve economic growth.

What this does in general is obliterate the idea of hope. Once people lose all hope for a better life, they will settle for what scraps are left from the elite. They will accept their lot in life and stop fighting for equality. They will no longer have any motivation and productivity will collapse. Each subsequent generation will be born into their station and die without ever knowing or realizing their potential. The elite will continue to suck dry other countries around the globe. As they come in and devour the resources and workers around the world, those people will loose hope. What we end up with is masses of uneducated, unfed, under nourished and hopeless people. That is the fuel for revolution.

When people lose all hope they fight back. Right now the elite in America are destroying hope. They want to strip education. They want to strip women's rights. They are taking away jobs. They are taking away health care. They are leaving us with under or unemployed. They are leaving us with over population. They are leaving us with a destroyed environment. They even are taking away our right to practice our religion as we see fit. Listen to the politicians from Rick Santorum to Newt Gingrich, to Mitt Romney. They want to preserve the direction of the last forty years. The rich get richer and the poor die. That is their vision for America, and it scares me. They are the radicals and yet they blame others. They want your rights to be only what they see, not what is fair.

This election is important. Maybe the most important. It is, whether we want to continue in the same direction of the last four decades, supporting the elite, or do we want a new direction where once again the American dream is the light of hope for every American citizen.

Santorum Is Attacking Our First Amendment Rights!

Why, are some people, Republicans, so concerned with the freedom of religion and then trampling on the rights of individuals? They are concerned with the church not having to pay for contraception and yet there is no concern for the rights of an individual to choose. They say it violates the church to pay for birth control and yet they want to take away the rights of women to even use birth control at their own expense. The Constitution is first and foremost a protection of individual, personal rights.

My other concern is when religion is brought into the conversation, Rick Santorum is very hypocritical. He judges based upon his religious views. He wants everyone to follow his path and judges those that see their religion differently.  Santorum ignores the Bible about God being the judge, not people. "Judge not , lest ye be judged." This is  ignored by Santorum.  He stated the President has a phony theology.  I want a President that keeps their faith separate from their decisions on governing. I understand that faith and beliefs will guide how they make their decisions, but faith should not determine their decisions. Santorum is scary, in the way he twists everything around religion. Do you want a President that will force his religious views on everyone? This is an attack on the First Amendment.

The First Amendment states , "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The right, and Santorum attacked the President for his, supposed assault on the first amendment, concerning the Catholic Church and having them pay for birth control. I do not see how this applies to the first. Where did he try to establish a religion? Where did he prohibit the free exercise of the Catholic Church?  Rick Santorum is trying to make everyone follow his beliefs and if you do not then you are a false follower. He is restricting the right for me and others to believe or not believe in religion. This is dangerous and in my opinion a direct assault on the First. Santorum will try and is trying now to make everyone accountable to him and his beliefs. To Mr. Santorum I say, stay the hell out of my religion. Stop running for President and start running for Pope, if this is your agenda. Stop hiding behind your candidacy for the Republican nomination and be honest. You want to change America into a nation of religious fanatics, driven by your agenda. That is the biggest difference between you and the President. He has his beliefs and this helps shape his views. You have your beliefs and this drives your views. Stop taking away my First Amendment rights.