The Last United States

These United States of America: what do we mean to the World?

Are we still so territorial as we were when we were fighting off enemies with stones and clubs? The Author is sixty-five years of age and remembers the times when neighbors knew one another; remembers when "House Warming Parties" were given for new people who moved into the neighborhood. Now in the 21st Century we don't know our neighbors (even when they live in the apartment next door to us or in the house across the street). Why are we all so distant from one another? What are we afraid of? Did this all begin in the typically "white" neighborhoods when a "black" family moved into the area and we withdrew from the area? Or did the typically "black" neighborhoods resent a white family moving into their area? So many questions and so few answers. I can say a few things about all this tragedy...it'll get a lot worse if we don't stop it soon! Our government has even aided in the separation of people in the country by creating, or allowing the creation of, ghettos and segregated neighborhoods and not saying anything about the problem.

Now we are faced with problems so large that no one people or nation or group of nations can resolve the issues. We have world-wide hunger and starvation. The world is fast running out of land that is capable of producing food stuffs for the huge population boom which is here and soon to become worsened in the next twenty years or so. What will the people of the USA do about these huge problems? Will we give food away when our own are hungry? Will we give our dollars when we are unable to purchase enough gasoline to get to our jobs ( which are continuing to move to lower-wage countries)? Will our government reduce our ability to protect us from enemies, seen and unseen, just so we can eat our food and drive our vehicles? Will wasteful government spending and hiring continue to outgrow the received revenues we taxpayers give? Will the people continue to be forced to vote for the lessor of two evils when we go to the polls to elect a new President or Congressional representatives?

I say that "We the People of the United States of America" must stop accepting the status quo that we've so long become accustomed to. It's time for all of us to stand up and be heard and not take the old answers from lawyers and politicians who smooth over their words as if standing in a courtroom and stretching the truth in order to get what they want from a jury. We are not trying cases in a courtroom in this country with our politics; We are attempting to grow a great nation that will continue in prosperity for many generation yet to come.

However, at every turn our personal efforts are being made null by the voting of our so-called representatives in D.C. They vote the way they think is best themselves, without regard for the wishes of the people they represent (or at least it so appears). Who of us does not know how to maintain our family budget, and why do we allow our representatives to make us go into such debt that we likely are not able to pay that debt for many decades to come and leave that debt load on our children and grandchildren? I know this may sound as an echoe of the words of the "Right" and some of the pesons running for office these days. But if we are to change the way our country has been taken by others, we must wisely choose representatives who are wise as we are. We must find people who'll listen to us and then do the Right Thing for our posterity. I have two grown sons in their mid to late 30's and neither is able now to find a fulfilling career of his choice. They were educated of the Public school system of Washington State and through that were given challenges of the "least common denominator" instead of being challenged as the individuals they are. We the people have allowed our school systems to become houses of "day care" for our children instead of requiring great teachers (not only good teachers) to really teach what these children need as skills their lives and the betterment of the world in which we live need. We need (we parents) to exercise insistance upon our schools, and those who do the hiring, to hire the best teachers they can in order to prepare our children for the best careers in our nation and the highly competive world economy. We cannot accept anything less. Demands must be placed on those whom we hire to work for us in schools and the workplace to perform at their very best and not accept anything less. If we expect our society to grow, rather than deminish, we must press on to reach the stars for the salvation or our nation.

It has long been said that, "as go the United States so go the world." We may now see how very true is this idea. The USA has faltered under the recent guidance of our past nine years of leaders and now the result is the entire world is reeling from the economic decline we are suffering. Do we allow ourselves to bring down the poorer nations of the world by our own selfish and inadequate actions, and failures to act in ways that our founding fathers would have acted? No! We must bear in mind what our founders demonstrated to us: that we are a free people but not so free as to injure those who rely upon us for leadership and morality in our daily lives. We must hold high the standard that we bare. We must run our country's budget process as we would that of our homes. We must stop the unending spending which has brought us to this sour point in our relationship with one another and the world as a whole. We must see that what we do is looked upon by those around us, including our own children who'll soon take over the rule or the ruin of our nation. Our children and posterity must think in a way that will conduct themselves and their businesses for the well-being of the entire world and our Great Nation... The United States of America.

So many people now expect, or at least suspect, that our world is headed for Armagedon. Are we really going to allow the end to come becuase we simply give up acting on what we know is right or wrong? No...we will not go that direction! We are human beings created with hearts and minds which we are to use for our betterment. If we allow some white-toothed, smooth-talking, air-brushed person to tell us what to do and how to do it, even when we know they're wrong, we'll end up like the nation of the early Roman Empire... Corrupt, without morality, drunk with wine and power, as the Romans were and then suddenly, without any nation in which to live . Our money will become worthless as our souls have become. We will be ruled by those who have oil power and gas power and nucear power. Our great arrsenals upon which we spent our fortunes will be of no use, for what food can a missile purchase when food is gone? When we return all those men and women who are standing guard in some foreign country far away from our shores, what work or career will they find waiting for them? When we stop payments to countries so they can feed their people, what will we do to gain friends around the world? We will watch them starve and then fight and perhaps even attack us. The world stands at the presipice of destruction daily due to our lack of understanding of the most basic of human life. We all need food, shelter, work, family and friends. Our nation is no different! Our world is no different, for the whole world consists of people like you and me. We are all brothers and sisters and love and care should be the guiding light we use to show us the way to live our lives and build our nation.

We must not fail!

We cannot fail!