I am an American.
I am but one voice in a chorus of a millions who I feel betrayed by those we have entrusted with the awesome responsibility of representing us in government. I know that some – thank goodness it is but a minority – have abused that power, but, in general the character of Congress is strong and healthy.
America is the envy of the world.
This incessant Congressional bickering has drained the national energy of the people. Unemployment today is unparalleled in the history of the United States (Since there are more Americans today than during the Great Depression of 1929, the numbers are greater) and we, the people, want answers from Washington but instead are, because of the inertia, getting a litany of excuses and finger-pointing. It seems that it has become a practice of those sitting in Congress to work to bring down the opposite party’s program(s) or opponent(s) by the age-old use of innuendos and smear campaigns.
And, while Washington burns, our citizens, many of whom have already lost their homes, have their arms stretched out, seeking, begging alms.
Instead of solutions, our lawmakers provide us with gibberish, babble, and bosh. Some day one may even say, “Let them eat cake”.
And we, the people, thought that we had elected officials who would protect our hard-earned savings, protect our jobs, and protect the rights and liberty of the citizens as guaranteed by our Constitution.
The spirit-broken people feel betrayed by those who proclaimed as they campaigned for office, that when elected, they would provide solutions to our malaise. Why is it that the party usually out of office seems to have the solutions to what ails us, but once in office fails to implement them, and do not fulfill their campaign pledges.
As an Armenian American, who has lived in Soviet Armenia, I, and my countrymen, know what broken promises are. Our spokespeople have asked the current President on more than one occasion why he has broken his campaign promise that he would acknowledge, by resolution, that the 1915 slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire was genocide.
The worsening economic and living conditions of Americans caused by the irreconcilable differences between the two major parties has given rise to extremist groups who paint the President as a “Hitler”, a “Stalin” and use disinformation to rally the people to their cause.
There are Tea Parties and Tax Rebellions and “neo-this” and “neo-that” groups springing up everywhere. There are even those who still advocate the inalienable rights of the states. They have resurrected Jefferson Davis as their god, maintaining the remedy to our problems can be found in the doctrine of succession. They believe that it would have been a far, far better thing if these United States were severed into many nations, and that each state solves its own problems. That each of the fifty states is sovereign. The argument of the inalienable rights of the people, of the state continues long after the war has ended.
Incredulous, you say. Then read some of the hullabaloo that is being projected on the Internet these days. Of those who would even dare entertain that position let it be asked the questions, “Which State would have defeated Hitler?”, “Which of the states would have stopped Stalin?” Would it have been better for this nation, or for the world, if these United States had not existed? I do not think so.
Our memories are not so short that we have forgotten what occurred in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ancient and historic racial hatred between the smaller countries within the USSR or under the Soviet sphere, which had been given their independence, resurfaced: Armenia and Azerbaijan crossed swords over Karabakh, lands inhabited by Armenians for centuries but given as a gift by Stalin to Azerbaijan for their loyalty; Georgia sent troops to quell a rebellion by South Ossetia, which brought the Russian Federation on to the battlefield; the demise of the Czechoslovakia Republic triggered a altercation between the Czechs, the Slovaks, and Tito’s Yugoslavia disappeared from the maps and was piecemealed after bloody wars between the local Serbs – Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro have kept mapmakers busy redrawing the boundary lines. Russia and the Ukraine, the Serbs and the Croatians, etc., etc., etc. have again resurfaced.
The weak look to the United States for protection; and the strong need no protection.
I believe, as most Americans, in a strong federal government, a government that has the right to raise taxes so that it can maintain a strong military force, to protect our Republic from our enemies. Our freedom – and the world, in general – is secured only if the United States remains strong. It is not fear that we must fear, but ourselves.
The scene being played out in Washington, if it were not so tragic, is comical. We have one senator – the strikeout king, Senator Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) holding up a bill that would put food on the table for millions of unemployed, but he would approve going to war in Iraq and Iran and he would put his vote for trillions to bail out those greedy money-baggers on Wall Street.
I would never want Bunning to go to bat for me. I have personally seen him strike out too many times when he wore the beloved uniform of a Detroit Tiger. If there was anyone who help bring about the DH (Designated Hitter) rule in the American Baseball League it was Jim Bunning.
If we, the people, do not confront those whose malignant craft is to smear and slander those we have empowered by our vote to lift us out of this Depression, then truly the Republic will die.
The mighty challenges of the day are no greater that those faced by Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Reagan, and the challenges, in due course, will be met and conquered by those we, the people, have empowered to represent us. We will, as one people, find the remedies that will cure the malaise that has stricken us.
And, we will do this because we are a great people. We are a great nation. No nation in the history of civilization has had so many talented and dedicated citizens as these United States.
As I have noted, I am but one voice but, together, we are the voices who have been heard down through the ages. We are the people.
And, as one people we will restore the dignity and the honor of our nation, that soon our children may again return to the path that leads them to a future that once we, too, enjoyed, thanks to our fathers.
