The dividing space which doesn't really exist
One of the most wonderful things that I have realized myself is that although we all hold sturdy political positions that differ; they all revolve around the same emotions of the same reality, our families. The crutch that we need to bust from is that we are so different, when the reality is I think most people politically sit very close. The media, politicians, and others have turned our democracy away from its design, as a system of accountability. We often get so lost in the finger pointing that accountability is the last thing on our minds; we are now at a place where we don't expect accountability in government anymore. For me at least this is a very scary and dark time for our democracy.

I may define my self as a Democrat, but that doesn't define who and what I respect or believe. I am a deep patriot with an old soul, and a love for this country that can bring me to tears in an instant. I want to be able to tell my two girls the same things my parents told me about the American dream. I actually want to leave them a better country then it is today. It’s a habit from being an environmental conservative leaving campsites in a better condition then when I arrived.

Our culture and roots can tell us where we come from but they don't ever define our future. The future is really what we make of it and I am always optimistic. I also am not a Bush fan as you already know, but after 9/11 I gave him too much credit. I allowed my emotional feelings towards the beliefs of others to enrage my ability to seek the pertinent questions before I supported the Iraq efforts. I was wrong, yes it would be easier if I wasn’t but it wouldn’t make my position right, or better, or easy.

I am also not a religious man, although I was raised catholic, attended catholic private school, and even was an alter boy. I have nothing but fond memories of my experiences yet I found my own faith to be a fraud. The religion wasn't the fraud I don’t see knowledge of any kind as a fraud, even my knowledge that is wrong. It was my belief that religion in any form didn’t give me deeper and clearer insight into the person I wanted to become. I was being a fraud to myself attempting to understand something infinitely complex like a human being with something that limited the complexities in everything with a specific ideology, perspective, or religion. John Lennon actually said it best “I don’t believe in Beatles I just believe in me.” I can only count on myself to build my own perspectives and to discern reality, I will be wrong but I must turn myself into the wind and keep fighting for the truth; it’s all we have in a democracy.

The CIA world fact book says there are almost 300 million Americans. We have come to believe we can fit all the information pertinent to them in a couple of hours in spaces of time we call news. I happen to think that we are more complex then this. I love to flip things around and change my own perspective because it opens me up to the possible realities that may exist. 300 million Americans are all watching almost the exact same news, about the same subjects and trying to find the one program out of a half dozen that best suits the perspective they already have.

That doesn’t mean much until we know how that affects our awareness of the information we consume. One of my favorite topics to bring up to people is inflation. It is something that most people assume they can’t understand. The only thing they need to really understand about it is that when the value of money goes up those who hold the money automatically have more.

There are only a couple of hundred thousand I am not sure of the exact number but it’s way less then 1% of Americans, that make more than 200,000 dollars a year. Why does this group of people who own the bulk of the money and assets in America get more for doing nothing? I never found this question asked in the news. I know it is my own question and it remains for me unanswered.

I think what I am getting at is you can’t be sure what you don’t know until you know you don’t know it. If you only think inflation is about how things cost more you would never know that it’s really about the value of money and while the distribution of money doesn’t change its value does. Those who have the money benefit greatly from a system that holds the rest of us under it’s thumb; simultaneously increasing the value of those that control it while reducing the value of those that don’t.

An unconnected story this week also illustrates the problem with trimming information. I am not sure that you are aware a four star general was relieved of his duties last week. The news stated it was because of infidelity, at the time he was a week away from finalizing his divorce. He had been separated from his wife and she even condoned his relationship with this other woman. The woman was not in the military so there was no conflict in dating a subordinate. He was also three months from eligible retirement. This particular officer had joined as a private and earned his way all the way to four stars. Now who doesn’t have respect for the effort this man has given his country? No special treatment in his career he had to earn it, in the end to get railroaded out on some BS that he is having an affair. I would think this would be a liberal media’s wet dream to expose this injustice.

We are taught that we all have the same ability to achieve success in this country. The reality is without accountability a man who dedicates his life’s work to his country can be tossed aside when he gets in the way of the people who pull the strings in the system.
- posted by Wayne @ 3:14 PM