Well…going to be working on this one all day so it may be in pieces as the ideas come to me…had it almost figured out on the bike ride but the other post and lunch kind of took the wind out of my sails. What I want to talk about is the early stirrings of the center of the political spectrum, with more and more articles (even from some of the conservative commentators) decrying the win at all costs mentality of the right and the lack of ideas for true governance that is coming from the shouters. As you know, I’ve called for the return to reasonableness in our political discourse…and yet, I’ve also been a little too strident in my attacks on the tea party and the rest of the right. In the last few days, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts and I now kind of understand where they are coming from…and I can’t blame them for believing the well-oiled propaganda machine that is Fox News. I know that some of them can see what America used to be and I get the power of that nostalgia; I find myself wallowing in the thoughts of my old life at times and wishing those days could come back. But, those days are gone, and to rail about their passing and trying to stop the tide of change is just a waste of energy and time that the US can’t afford.
I see the awakening of the political center in the rallies that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are holding in DC at the end of October, I see it in the One Nation March in DC this Saturday, I see it in the realization that we can’t continue to govern this country for the 10 percent on the fringes of the right and left or the top two percent of of wage earners.
But there is another part of this that we also need to have happen…we need to change the mantra of this country from “I’ve got mine” to “how can I help?” And this is not just aimed at the real flesh and blood citizens of this country but at business who have been granted citizenship by the Supreme court. As I’ve said before, with the granting of citizenship, comes the responsibility of a citizen…to look to the common good, to look past what is good for the next quarter, or the CEO, or the shareholder, to what is good for the society you live and make profit in….but that goes for everyone, every citizen has a responsibility to tamp down the anger, to stop excluding people because they are different from you, and to remember we are all in this together…none of us can be successful unless we all are….
I challenge everyone here in the US to do what I’ve done…I qualify for and have paid for food stamps and other aid through my taxes that I gladly pay, but because I can survive without them, I refuse to take them so the money will be there for the truly needy, I challenge the rich to stand up and stop complaining about the extra 3 percent in taxes that they may have to pay…and to recognize they have it pretty damn good as I do, I challenge American business to stop just taking all they can get, to ask themselves the question “how much profit is enough?” and to start acting like responsible citizens. And, I challenge both political parties to stop the slash and burn, win-at-all-costs, politics is war mentality that is ruining our wonderful country….