There is the Republican Party…The Democratic Party…The Libertarian Party. There were also The Federalist Party…The Whig Party…The Democratic-Republican Party…The Labor Party…The Know Nothing Party…The Tea Party. All known to those who studied American History. In addition there was The National Socialist Party…The Social Democratic Party…The Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics… “Etc., etc., etc.,” as Yul Brynner said in that unforgettable musical “The King & I”.
I despise all political labels, for although they may mean much, often they signify little, if anything. For one can be a Republican today, a Democrat tomorrow and who know what in the future. The complicated – to the foreigner – system political system has been warped in time. And no one knows how to straighten it out.
As individuals, we celebrate our independence as citizens, but most are malfeasance in duty and obligation to the nation at election time. How else can one explain that less that 20 percent vote in a district’s board of education elections? Less than 30 percent in state elections and only half of us will venture to the almighty polls in a Presidential election?
But oh how we will criticize the unfortunate one who is elected to that Oval Office.
We Americans are indeed political anomalies. We demand from our government: Creation of jobs when times are rough; unemployment benefits when jobs are e lost; and stopping those who would seek refuge here for political reasons, to preserve our way of life, forgetting that most of us are the children of those who fled tyranny. Did I forget to mention that government also must protect us from the psychopaths our society has produced.
Paradoxically, we ask more from our government yet accuse it of meddling in our private affairs.
In my lifetime I have known an America that asked for nothing but gave from its heart…until it hurt. I knew an America that would open the doors to my parents…“starving Armenians”…to the Irish…when the potato crops failed, to the Jews when Hitler came to power…to the Russian who fled first czar, then the communists.
There was always room around the table for one more in the America I love and loved.
But, now, not since the Civil War has this country been so divided; not since the Great Depression have we felt so insecure.
It is time to toss aside the politics of Left and the Right; of the Conservative and the Liberal, and use all our resources and strength to put this nation back to work. Not to do so would betray those young men and women who have fought so courageously for the flag. This nation, so unique among the nations of the world, has always rallied when challenged.
In the past, we felt secure that “the printed word was sacred,” that our leaders would find solutions to our problems. Nothing…literally nothing…appears to be sacred these days. Trust in our elected officials; our TV anchormen or women has waned.
We have become a society frustrated because those whom we trust have deceived us.
Where are the Will Rogers, the Edward R. Murrows, the Walter Cronkites, the Chet Huntleys and David Brinkleys, and the John Chancellors of yesteryear – men whose nightly newscasts you could trust. Where is the objectivity and unbiased reporting in today’s news? Truth and fact appear to have become victims of ratings and profit.
The trustworthiness of a leader does not depend upon his party affiliation, but upon his honesty and integrity seen through his accomplishments for the benefit of his fellow man.
It is notoriously and historically accepted that those seeking an elected need financing, will belittle, ridicule even slander and label, an opponent to enhance his chances of winning. It is called “Dirty Politics.” It is nothing new. However, the germ has spread throughout the country. There are those who are ill-informed and/or mentally unstable who believe they must act upon a suggestion to eradicate an imaginary threat to the nation. They act in sincere belief that it is for the good of the country and it is self-evidence after the heinous deed that the perpetrator is sick.
And, as some Americans fight the truths of logic by falsely labeling our leaders socialists and suggest they are Hitler and Stalin reincarnated, our national blindness continues. The fact remains that we are wasting vital resources, fighting illegal wars 3,000 miles from our shores, against an enemy who stays in the shadows, refuses to show itself knowing that our forces will eventually leave.
In the meantime, how many more of our children must we sacrifice to appease the gods of war and profit!
Ten years of battle is ten years too many. To fight a war against an enemy who can stroll amongst his kin and can escape through a labyrinth of defenses built by his ancestors down through the centuries is, if I may say, “dammed stupid.” The nation needs to bring our men and women home.
In one of his more prophetic sermons, Italian Girolama Savonarola, in 1496, noted, “The ass alone saw the angel, the others did not…so open your eyes…”
America open your eyes!
