Freedom
Your freedom ends where my freedom begins; or,
conversely, my freedom ends where yours begins. Our nation is a nation of
freedom, and we want to stay that way. As such, there is no room for anarchy—absolutely
none. Our inner desires notwithstanding, we cannot do as we please and should
not. The more there are of us, i.e. the more our population grows, the less
freedom we can have and the more regulation necessary to protect us from one
another is required. This is a fact. It is also a fact that with freedom goes
responsibility, without which, our freedom is lost, relinquished by us to those
who would steal it from us—not unlike our unwittingly leaving our purse in a
shopping cart at the super market. We are surrounded by thieves ready and
willing to steal from us. This is the reality of our lives.
And where am I going with this? Our nation has begun a
downhill course; we are under attack; and we need and must have increased
responsibility by our people before it is too late. A great proportion of us
are, in effect, deaf, dumb, and blind to what is happening to us and what is causing
it. Constantly bombarded with false information, propaganda, and erroneous bias,
the political knowledge of our citizens is severely lacking and their ability
to analyze and evaluate issues, causes, and effects, suffers accordingly.
Sadly, many, if not most, of our people from the President of the United States
of America on down to the janitor in the local bar appear to not even know the
difference between a Congressman and a Representative or a Senator, including
the Congressmen themselves and the media—something as simple as that.
So that you will understand what I’m talking about, I’ll
explain. Article I, Section 1 of our Constitution clearly states that the
Legislative Branch of our Congress is one of three branches of our government,
the other two being the Executive Branch, as specified in Article II, and the
Judicial Branch as specified in Article III, and consists of two branches of
its own, The House of Representatives and the United States Senate. The
official title of a member of the House of Representatives is Representative.
The official title of a member of the Senate is Senator. A Representative is no
more, no less a Congressman than a Senator, yet I am yet to hear a Senator
referred to as Congressman. This may not seem important. In fact, it may even
sound petty, but our lack of knowledge about how our government works is so
prevalent that even something as minor as this is important. One would think
the media would catch on, at least, but they just keep on.
Now, to return to the main thrust of our subject, in
addition to the need for an increase in the knowledge and responsibility of our
people, like it or not, there is a dire need for increased regulation by our
government. The rampant abuse of our systems and institutions throughout our
nation by those in power, who, under the guise of preaching the evils of
government preach otherwise, denouncing regulation and dictating that we do
just the opposite. Greed and avarice permeates our culture and undermines the individual
freedoms of all. Only the intellectual strength of our people and their
responsible commitment to government can save us—by doing “what’s right”.
The overall good of our nation isn’t just about the
good of the Corporatocracy and the Power Elite, the rich and powerful who
really run our country through their lobbyists and vast amounts of money, it’s
also about “We the people”. Don’t forget us. But, if we don’t stand up for
ourselves, if we don’t go to work and fulfill our responsibility in governing,
no one else will.
And, what is it we should do to this end? First, we
should vote—every last one of us. There are those who have fought and died for
that right, and we should preserve it. Next, we should look, listen, read,
study, and know the who, what, and why of what is happening around us—not
relying on our opinions, biases, and prejudices, but dealing with the facts.
Just remember, there is the seen and the unseen to everything. Every action has
unseen side-effects. Look for them as they just may affect you.
Next, we should educate ourselves and insure that our
children are educated as well. We need education in order to qualify for
employment; but we also need education just in order to live, to comprehend, to
protect ourselves from those who would take advantage of us—to understand the
world, our government, our people, how everything works. In
order to facilitate equal education to everybody, and, in turn, equal
opportunity, I strongly feel that the financing of public education should be
changed from financing by district (based on property values) to equal
financing of all districts within each state, giving the poor equal opportunity
for success.We should also return discipline to the schools.
Arguably, in years past, people could live decently without
education and not even miss it. That isn’t true anymore. I just heard on TV
news. There are six million people looking for jobs—even in these times of full
employment. Yet there are seven million jobs going unfilled because there are
not those with the necessary technical ability to fill them. With the highest
standard of living of any nation on earth or in the history of civilization, notwithstanding
the fact that our average degree of prosperity for the working man has been
going downhill since the seventies, we cannot continue to think “my mother and
father only had an eighth grade education, and they did all right, I don’t need
to continue on in school”. That’s “bunk”. We need to go to school through four
years of college or through vocational school. In fact, I think, and this is
just my opinion, we should require the first two years of college even if we
choose vocational school, with special emphasis on reading, writing, mathematics,
English, and history, including world history as well as American, i.e. Pre K
through 14. In fact, we should legislate this into law, making “dropping out”
illegal, perhaps even going so far as to conscript them into the military and
educating them there. I’m not sure. There may be a more desirable solution. I
just know our country can no longer afford to follow its present course.
People—all of us—must be educated. Gangs must be quelled. Division among us
must be abated, we must unite, we must all get along and work toward a common
goal.
We must understand. Our country is going downhill. We
are under attack. China, India, Brazil, Russia, (aka the BRICK nations) and
others are rising up from their third world status. Our nation’s status as five
percent of the world’s population consuming twenty-five percent of the world’s
resources is not going to stand. Others want their share. Our nation is going to have to work harder to
compete. In other words, we’re going to have to get off our mentally lazy asses
(I don’t want to get thrown out of church, so I won’t go further). The underclass
of our society must be eliminated by “coming up” with those of a higher
standard of living.
Just remember what you have seen as our nation has
progressed into this economy we call “globalization”. Economically, as the
standard of living in other nations, i.e. India, China, Brazil, etc., has risen, that of our
nation is edging downward. If you don’t see it, look. It’s there to be seen, if
you only will, but you must be mentally receptive. An economy is not unlike a
container of water. It holds its level as long as it is contained. Plug it into
another container which is empty, and it will seek its own level. You saw this
happen to us when we “went global”. We have become "more plugged in" to the economy of others. Just a side comment, did “we the people”
have a say in that? Or was it just another decision of the Corporatocracy and
Power Elite which controls us and controls our lives.
Also, we need to get our healthcare in order. An
unacceptable percentage of our people are without adequate healthcare and
everyday it seems to be getting worse. Costs are getting higher, people are
losing their insurance, and the massive amounts of expense are flooding our
deficit, increasing our national debt. I submit that we need single payer Universal
Healthcare for all, modeled after our present Medicare plan and self-funded as
is presently our Social Security program, not affecting our national deficit
and, therefore, national debt.
There are those who say there is not enough money to
do all these things. B.S. Don’t you believe that. Back in the Fifties, Sixties,
and Seventies, our nation was enjoying the highest standard of living in
history, our income taxes were the highest, ranging to a personal income tax of
eighty-nine or ninety percent, and we did fine, even paying off our World War
II expense in the process. So did the wealthy. Let me once again remind you.
When Jimmy Carter left office, our national debt was all but eliminated—down to
$0.9 Trillion dollars. Now, our national debt is $22.0 Trillion, give or take,
and income taxes (for the rich and the corporations) are the lowest in decades.
Sad, there’s enough money. If everybody paid taxes according to their ability
to pay, gave more thought to the wellbeing of the nation and the people rather
than the furtherance of their own bank accounts and egos, there is enough
money. I really become angry at those corporations and individuals who give up
their citizenship so as to reduce their taxes or, worse yet, not to pay taxes
at all. Also, as we take into account the people on welfare, perhaps we should
take into account, too, those corporations on corporate welfare. Just look and
count those dollars. Also, look at the income taxes currently being paid by
Hedge Fund owners—Willard Mitt Romney, for example.
I want to make one last comment. I’m not against the
corporations and the rich. The more enlightened and blessed of our nation are
absolutely necessary. We need the most talented and able people we can get to
manage our government. No offense is intended to anyone, but the uneducated,
untalented of our people are not qualified to “run” our great nation. I know
that. Our Founding Fathers knew that. We need those people who are blessed with
greater talents.
The problem arises in their abuses. Businesses,
corporations, were created by man to serve man. Man was not created to serve
them. Profit is not the ultimate goal in life. It certainly is not the purpose of
a business; but that is where this has come to. When asked, almost everyone
will tell you the purpose of a business is to make a profit. It’s not! The
purpose of a business is to provide a quality product or service to man—to
serve man. Profit is absolutely necessary for a business to survive. So are its
employees, the utility bill, property taxes, and on and on. Profit is an
expense of doing business without which the business will not survive, just the
same as everything else. Profit is the purpose of the financier and the
stockholder, the owner; but, as to the business? It is an expense. I’ve said
this many times and in many ways before to no avail; but, it’s important. It’s
important because this difference in thinking has affected the attitudes and actions
of business management as to how they manage, affecting the governing of our government
and the impact on our people.
Freedom, Responsibility, Purpose—All contribute to
forming a more perfect Union, establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility,
providing for the common defense, promoting the general Welfare, and securing
the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, the Preamble to our
Constitution.
Ronald Miller
