On Our Country... -Wednesday, October 15, 2003 -12:22 am-
Because of a lot of the things I've been reading and watching lately, I've been thinking quite a bit about our government and our country. I've come to the conclusion that a lot of things must be broken. Some of it has to be down to the fact that the world the Constitution was written in no longer exists. The Framers set into motion a system that divided power among offices, but looked to one man to wield and take responsibility for that power. I think that idea may no longer work. The whims of the man in the Oval Office send the world careening on too tilted a course. And when that course leads to rocky shoals, one man bears the burden of the failure of a nation. If, by chance, the man holding that office is a good man, the strain placed upon him by other people's follies surely must be too much to bear. One person cannot possibly be capable of dealing with the demands of a world gone mad. Another stumbling block, I think, is the misconception that we live in a democracy. At a Federal level, the United States is not a democracy, it is a Republic. The people are under the mistaken impression that we make the decisions for the country by voting. We don't. At best, we get to elect the people who make the decisions. The only time we have direct affect on the governance of our country is when a Constitutional Amendment is ratified by a vote of the people. Anyone remember when that last happened? Now, even that system is broken. We no longer have our voices heard in the process of election. The President of the United States was not elected by the people. Due to our flawed and corruptible system of election, a man whom the majority of America did not vote for controls our country. But even there, I misspeak for someone controls him. We have sold our country to the highest bidder. We are now a nation owned by corporations. When at a time when the economy is faltering, and the dollar is falling faster against every other currency than at any time in history, how are we supposed to make our voices heard against corporations that can afford to lose USD40billion just so one of their products may succeed? Our civil liberties, the very reason this country was founded are being systematically stripped from us, and the American people remain quiet. Those voices that are raised are extinguished by the hands of shadows and those to prominent to disappear are discredited. Once the people begin to awaken to the loss of freedom, will they be allowed to leave?