I wish we, as a people, would finally realize that the causes of the problems of this country are shared by all of us. We want our educators to teach what to think rather than how to think. Our politicians’ quest for power has led us to elect those who hurl the best insults and blame on their opposition. We wish for simple solutions and ‘magic bullets’ for our problems and ignore the solutions that take time and many steps.
Some examples start with firearms. The Constitution does not mention firearms, only arms. The impossibility of “taking all the guns away” is never presented and the phrase is used to foment fear. Firearm education in schools and licensing of gun owners, just like drivers, seems to be ignored, along with not increasing the number of weapons of war available to the public. If we didn’t feel afraid we would not have the need to buy weapons. We need to stop glorifying the nut cases by not publishing their names and sad biographies.
Would people walk hundreds of miles to enter the US if they knew they couldn’t get a job here? The government’s E-verify program could be fixed and made a requirement for hiring. Heavy fines for hiring those without visas should also be instituted. Allowing more visas for jobs we don’t want to do is needed as well. We should also be hiring a large number of asylum judges to clear those cases.
Many Government regulations are overbearing and onerous and we need a change in approach. We need to stop punishing shareholders and start to punish perpetrators. Consent decrees allow businesses to continue with their bad leaders.
Social Security could be fixed with higher payroll taxes, later retirement dates or a combination of these. Instead we blame the ‘other party’ for ignoring the problem. Both parties are waiting to blame the other for the problems that could have been easily fixed years ago.
We must remember that the ‘virtual world’, that we are spending considerable time in, uses exaggerations, fear, outrage and downright lies to get us to see their ads. These lead many of us to believe that those that are not like us and even our neighbors are awful people who want to do awful things to us. We have to separate virtual from real, which can be hard to do when ‘reality’ shows are anything but.
We have a considerable number of people that criticize our government while demanding tax cuts. How can we have competent people in government if we are unwilling to pay them competitively? Each tax cut either requires a lessoning of government services, the raising of taxes by another governmental unit or having our grandchildren pay. We even refuse to increase taxes on the perfect taxpayer: dead rich ones. A politicians job is to tax, spend and compromise, not to grandstand with wild claims while holding all or nothing stances.
As long as we allow our politicians to pander to our fears about things and people that we will never fully understand, we will not be a happy people. We need to stop voting on single issues and fear mongering and start to vote based on honesty, ethics and a real desire to change things for the better. Those who think that the Government is the problem should realize that we are the Government!
