I am astounded...

Between the undignified and clearly untruthful fracas over health-care and the equally foolish and deliberately ill-educated arguments regarding climate change (which really is an indisputable fact), the "discourse" in these United States, if one may call it that, has sunk to new lows.

I guess we have the Bush years and then the emergence of the Palin person, not to mention "Joe the Plumber," to thank for that! The Bushes were never known as erudite, or even nice people anyway - now we see the legacy.

What troubles me is the fact that Mr Obama (whether through poor judgment or worse advice) seems to be following in the footsteps of Bush 43 too closely. Evidently, the lives being bandied about seem to hold no value for the handful of "decision-makers."

We all hang in the balance: the presidents, congresspeople, doctors, nurses, patients, teachers, children, rice-growers, dogs, cats, yaks and cows; it does to matter. All life will surely perish if the greedy men and women - the 'captains of industry' and the elected officials who are supposed to govern their behavior are not kept on a short leash.

The laissez-faire attitude toward business, which brought on the collapse which led to the Great Depression, has proved to be as inexorable as bamboo. It resurfaced with a vengeance in recent years and was so prevalent in the Bush years - but no one seems willing to call a spade a spade - it is utterly bankrupt. Heaven forfend that we upset the bankers, Wall St. investors and the others who recently nearly destroyed the United States and with her half the global community.

Why we even allow such practices in 'polite society' goes beyond me. The argument for laissez-fairre is specious on its face! But, for some odd reason, the same preposterous points are thrown up to defend an economic policy which is without foundation, in fact has been shown to be bankrupt as often as it has been implaced! Are we, the intelligent electorate, supposed to tolerate, ot endure, such impoverished practices?

The Republic of these United States is not a lecture-hall, where hypotheticals may be discusssed. This is real life, where human beings suffer and die when the wrong decisions are made.

And our government seems not to care - oh, the president speaks eruditely about the need for change. He pays much lip-service to the high-points of climate and economic policy which will build a more stable and secure world for our children...but the erudition is all so much more CO2, it seems - yet more hot air to affect the slow but steady destruction of our climate.

Does he think, this president of ours, this highly-educated and erudite man and the equally well-educated and informed woman to whom he is married and their children, does he imagine that breathable air will be available to him, even when we are suffocating? Does he think that the sun-block will be available to him when the rest of us are too devastated by solar radiation to survive?

This madness of capitalism - this laissez-faire "get what you can, while you can, however you can" - which has finally been shown to be a cruel fraud, is NOT the sine qua non of human experience and happiness! And yet, we insist on kow-towing at the feet of the bankers, industrialists, insurance agencies and the other thieves and gamblers we imagine preserve the Republic and may, JUST MAY, make us rich. Does it NOT occur to most of the hapless folk who invest in the stock market that they are gambling and risking their childrens' futures on pipe dreams?

It goes beyond me that anyone, even the meanest hermit, can still think that gambling on the stock market represents any intellect whatsoever. Clearly, people still think there is integrity in the stock market, even after all the graft, corruption and utter destruction strewn about over the past years? But, why?

We, the citizens, sign petitions, make phone calls, write letters...and still, we might as well NOT exist, for all the attention our elected representatives pay us. While I will confess this "democracy" is a vastly superior form of governance to any threatening despotism, for some years now it has failed to address the primary needs of the Republic. Now we find ourselves with our hand caught in a wringer, and Congress looks out of our TV screens at us, like this desperate plight is all OUR fault and not theirs - deer caught in the headlights!

They have refused to take our direction, and preferred, instead, to take largesse from the corrupt lobbyists who throw cash and favors around like Mardi Gras beads. How the notion of lobbying can be made to harmonize with a democratic form of government is incomprehensible. The attempts to influence how our government works, what we vote for, what we focus on as a society: that lobbyists traduce those aims and instead put the emphasis on money solely is an evil which ought to be expunged.

THE DOLLAR IS NOT GOD!

I am grown weary with my head exploding. The time is now to alter radically the way we govern ourselves. Failure to act simply guarantees the soon demise of this Republic.

The corruption, graft, sin and moral turpitude one finds in both houses of Congress just prove that mankind is a flawed creature. Nothing could be more certain...or more tragically true.

Around the globe, life suffers and the governments, to whom we entrust our well-being and safety ignore the most basic decisions which might alter social direction, real security and turn us into steps which might actually preserve the health of our Republic, as well as of ourselves.

I am not certain we can afford to wait much longer. While I am no alarmist, the indicators are all flashing red...so, I wonder if we can have much leisure at our disposal.

The climate is going to fail us, our Republic is showing every sign IT is in failing health and I am not sure that WE, the PEOPLE understand, or care to understand that listening to some blow-hard 'pundits' (who, BTW, make millions of dollars a year) or Sister Sarah (who seems to be out only for herself) or certainly not to some tea-bag protesters (who are just easily manipulated, if well-meaning, fools) is going to move the big-hand on the Eternal clock-face back.

A more serious, an adult response is required NOW! We really do not have time to negotiate about who is more correct or who gets what...

The whole of the human race groans - one might say, 'Rome burns and Nero fiddles.' I still hold with Jefferson in the Declaration, when a government fails to do the task for which it was set-up, then we need to feel free to scrap it and establish a new, more responsive form.

I grant that certain things and programs will need to be carried over and, it may be, re-established under new guide-lines. But in all things the needs of the people must be paramount. They are NOT so now!

I wonder that we do not adopt a more parliamentary or even communal manner of self-governance. At least then, we might hope for a more direct response to our problems and needs. As it is, this experiement has shown itself a bit too frail, too unavailable to the electorate, too vulnerable to the graft and lobbying which make for poor representation of the voters.

This really needs to change or, as Proverbs says, "...the people perish."

"True Religion..." article finished

I finally finished the "True Religion" article, inspired by the quote from William Penn is finally finished and forwarded to Paul.

I have been so seriously hampered by not having a functioning Word program, to finally be able to sit down and compose an item without and limitations is so liberating.

I will be able to lift certain paragraphs from the article into the book, too.

I do hope Paul can use at least parts of the article. It runs rather long, so I do not hardly anticipate his using the entire thing, but certain paragraphs may be suitable for The Call.

It will all depend on his standards of usage, so...we shall see.