We, the people, need to....

From writers talking...

1st writer:

"All I have to say is that I sincerely hope there are enough good lawyers to save us all cause that's what it's gonna take. " Betty

2nd writer:

Good lawyers willing to fight the good fight can help, no question, but what is really needed in this country is for a majority of the hard-working folks to wake up to how political demogogues have set out in the past to play on their fears and passions, and how they are continuing to do so on a regular basis right now.

At some point, if the greatness of the American dream is ever to be reasserted and recognized by our people and by others around the world, people have got to understand the kinds of deliberate political and social ploys to which they have been subject.

As a group, as a majority, our voting citizens have got to recognize that those who are the first to leap up on the podiums, and the first to play ear-splitting chords of patriotism and religion, are not necessarily (or even usually) the leaders we want to depend upon for the long haul. Until people become aware that these "tools" (tapping as they do directly into our emotions, fears and prejudices) are the most common devices used by these All-American phonies to get us to dance to the tunes they want us to follow--until we as a people, as a voting public, know and understand this, we will remain in trouble as a nation and as people and it will take more than dedicated lawyers to pull our fat out of the fire.

The first need is for us as a people to regain some genuine respect once again for the whole idea of dissent and political differences (the very circulatory system of a thriving democracy). We have to value those who have distinquished themselves by intellectual work and achievment, who have demonstrably succeeded by actually using their minds to solve problems--people who are skilled at thinking things through on a daily, regular basis.

We need to acknowledge once again that university degrees are not something to be made mock of, and that they are not just a "ticket" to making more money in our materialistic society--but rather, that genuine intellectual accomplishment is something to be respected, not disparaged and villified--not if we really seek to find again the greatness of which this country is capable.

We need to recapture, somehow, some genuine tolerance and respect for the differences between us--differences not only of color and religious belief and sexuality---but differences in our views and perspectives both politically and socially.

Clearly, having an anti-intellectual buffoon at the helm is not a plus for us in this struggle, nor is having a leader who is surrounded by political hacks and minions who make easy capital out of the fact that an opponent is well-educated, or that he speaks other languages, or that he is a liberal (and therefore, ipso facto, a traitor and a weakling).

The direction in which our country moves now and in the future, where we go as a nation and how we get there, depends largely on the thinking or lack of thinking given to these matters by those who have reached the age of reason, and who, for better or worse, register to vote.

What friends we make and keep throughout the world, what enemies we target and deal effectively with--these require much more thought and concern on the part of the voting public than has been demonstrated in the last several decades.

In sum, we need a sea change in the social and political climate, one that shoves the "no-nothing" haters back into their holes. If we are ever going to regain the stature we once held so proudly on the world stage, we will need a lot more than we've been getting from those spin-doctors inside the beltway, and a lot more than the college-boy slogans and the revivalist camp meeting whoop-dee-doos we have been getting from this administration.

Ed

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