The Blog is Back

It has been about two years since my last entry and I had pretty much given up on blogging.  However I have recently found myself growing increasingly frustrated with the direction the country is taking.  I just finished reading a news story about President Obama stating that the core of the tea party movement was fundamentally opposed to him because they didn't believe he was eligible to be president, which was a not so subtle reference to the "birther" movement.  It wasn't the article that prompted me to revive the blog.  Following the story readers were able to post comments and it was the amount of hateful things that both side would say about each other that got me upset.  Ninety percent of the comments posted didn't even attempt to make a rational argument supporting their particular point of view, they were just slinging insults against republicans, democrats, Bush, Obama and the other commenters.  I would like to know how we got to this point?  I realize people get fired up about politics and I'm all for passionate debate, but why can't we debate our point of view and respect those who may not feel the same way.  I also realize that the Internet gives us a sense of anonymity that emboldens some cowards to make statements that they would never make in a face to face setting.  I think that it's sad that these people don't realize that both parties have long since stopped representing the American people.  Our country is on the wrong track and slinging insults at each other won't fix anything.  There were a great deal of comments directed at the tea party movement calling them unpatriotic or a referring to them as a bunch of nuts.  I support the tea part movement inasmuch as it's a group of citizens who don't like whats going on in our country and want to see some changes.  I don't necessarily agree with their positions on every issue and quite frankly there are some nuts out there, but in a country where less than half of the eligible population turns out to vote for their leader, any indication of a widespread interest in making the country a better place is a positive thing.  So the question you may be asking at this point is "Well who is to blame for the current state of things?" Well I think that both political parties are to blame, they are so concerned about scoring political points or damaging the other party they can't be bothered with mere details such as governing a country.  A couple of years ago Apple computers was in a slump and Steve Jobs took a salary of one dollar a year until things turned around.  Lee Iaccoca did a similar thing with Chrysler.  I think it would be a good gesture to the American people if congress were to forgo their salary until this economic mess that they have been instrumental in creating is over.  They are certainly eager to implement restrictions and penalties on corporations who they feel are deserving of a bailout, but who implements restrictions on congress?  However it's not just congress to blame; the American people who's apathy towards their country allow incompetent people to be elected and re-elected share in the blame.  People without the self-discipline to not take out a home loan they can't afford just because the bank is willing to lend it to them share in the blame.  America needs to wake up, they need to elect leaders who are willing to work for the people, who understand that government service is, in fact, service.  America needs to be willing to get rid of those who are not doing the job that they have been sent to do.  There is no excuse for members of congress missing votes, if they're missing votes who's representing the people who elected them?  Congress needs to be accessible to the people or they lose touch with the people.  There are real solutions that can fix our country, but we need to work together and not against each other.  I recently read a book by Orson Scott Card called "Empire" it's about a modern day civil war in the United States, but the division this time wasn't geographic it was ideological.  The right versus the left.  At the time I thought it was an interesting book, but kind of far-fetched.  Now I'm not so sure, there is a lot of hate out there and I am afraid to think of where we'll end up if we continue on this path.  We'll I've rambled long enough.  I doubt anybody but Lucy will even read this, but as I told her earlier I have to start somewhere.