You don’t have to look far these days to find some reason (or excuse) to be sad, disenchanted or cynical. There appears to be enough anger and divisiveness amongst us to span the globe many times over, and what we’ve got is a mighty mess as a result. How has this come to be in a nation founded on the belief of a better way? Accusing one another, pointing fingers. Aren’t we all to blame? What has gone wrong isn’t the Democrats fault any more than it is the Republicans. It is us, the American people who have abdicated our civic responsibility. What I’m searching for is hope, and something (someone) to believe in again. Not by way of stump speeches by would be presidents, but from every day people. People who will no longer remain apathetic or follow sheepishly as we continue to lose our way. I so desperately want to see us care enough to actually step out of our comfort zones, and become advocates and activists. The fate of our soldiers in Iraq isn’t up to someone else, it is up to us. If we are enraged that the United States has lost stature and credibility in the world, who do we turn to to remedy that? Hasn’t it been our own neglect that has allowed this environment to flourish? How many of us are still “shopping” as prompted by Bush, rather than paying attention to the disintegration of our founding principals? If it bothers you that money spent in Iraq could be better appropriated to save lives rather than end lives, what have you done to impart that sentiment to those who are continuing to make these life and death decisions? Do pictures and stories coming from New Orleans haunt you? Are you the slightest bit embarrassed that the greatest nation on earth has not kept it’s promises to it’s most vulnerable citizens 2 years post Katrina? Are you worried about the politicizing of the justice department and what that really means to the principal of “blind justice”? Is it okay with you that at any given time and for no apparent reason your phone calls or emails may be monitored without due process? And, if that is okay with you in a Republican administration, what if the shoe is on the other foot come Jan, 2009? Would you be willing to look the other way regarding expanded executive power if the occupant of the White House doesn’t share your particular ideology? Where are the Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King Jr’s of the world when we need them? Those who see injustice and inspire legions of others to act? Where are the John Lennon’s? Those who would urge us all to “give peace a chance”. There was a time the people of these “united” states actually worked together during times of crisis. What saddens me most is I feel the crisis we are facing now is that of an identity lost in the haze of war and arrogance of power. Who are we and what have we become? Have we really thrown up our hands in defeat? Fixing all that has gone awry will be left to those who come next? Our president obviously feels that way, telling us the next commander in chief will have to figure out Iraq, not to mention the myriad of other messes that need tending to. I can’t look my new born grandbaby in the eye and not feel the urgency to do my part. Waiting for someone else to take responsibility is waiting too long. Everything we are and aspire to be depends on how we pull together now for our own common good . Our conscience won’t allow us to continue to turn a blind eye will it?
Carla