Question EVERYTHING! Get Involved! Care!

I think only now are people beginning to realize you can't just leave politics to the politicians because they (like any person acting without an active, responsible base) will vote for what they want and what best suits them, especially if the people represented by them appear to not really care. But maybe it's just me, maybe I'm getting more active so it seems like the world is with me when, most likely, it isn't.

We are still too comfortable holding up our news anchors and politicians up as experts when really they both look after their own interests more than appeal to the people and provide facts. If you do not seek them out, there will be stories you aren't hearing because you think mainstream media will cover you. Mainstream media and politics have become a theater performance and many people are just now starting to walk out of it. But still many people watch and are engaged in watching highly paid television personalities disparage the concept of higher taxes on the wealthy.

This is not the America we know and love anymore; the great majority think you can still work your way to success but there exists now too many factors to keep the working class from achieving this and even if they do, the middle class is not really comfortable right now either. Our country is now divided into two on the basis of having money and not having money. The only other group, but perhaps the largest, is people who think politics, as it stands right now, is still relevant and fair. Government and politics need a complete overhaul before they can actually take credit for doing anything useful today.

We are not questioning enough; we are not looking at the people who give us information and thinking about their lives as hypocritical to what they spew out their mouths. So many of us just take their words and apply it down our now non-existent concept of party lines. Republican, Democrat; all of that is irrelevant in our lives because the two have merged into a corporate interest decider and, if the American public, continues to stand idly by, they will take it from us.

If we remained unemployed long enough maybe they will convince us or we will accept having to take what were considered migrant jobs for unchanged migrant wages; the working class (with the non-existent middle-class) will live the 1984 or Visioneers reality of toiling away for Big Government (but really Big Corporations) for the betterment of 'all' even though worker advancement is a concept of the past and not for us peons. And government will get on our screens and scream at us to buy this new item, from our favorite government-sponsoring corporation, because it is the path to happiness.

Tea Party politicians, like Michele Bachmann who recently claimed HPV vaccines may cause mental retardation, are lying to gain support because they believe God will forgive sins used to gain influence which is then used to spread God's will to a heathen population. Not only does she, or politicians like her, not care about what anyone outside her faith wants but she also will do anything to attain power (for God) and, in her mind, her version of Him will forgive her for that. Just as radical Muslims and radical Israelis; radical Christians are just as dangerous.

You don't have to vote for or agree with Tea Party politicians but people are out there right now who ARE listening to them, believing their falsehoods, and will vote for them. That's scary! We have to be as engaged and enraged as they are!

The media; we watch the news and take what they say but what of the current occupation of Wall Street by protestors aimed to hold bankers accountable? Why has that not graced the outlets with any force; that's big news and yet they treat it like a footnote or, worse, non-existent. The media gets to pick and chose what we hear and what we don't; the networks chose the anchors you see on TV. Nothing of what exists as it does now, had to be this way, it was all choice; someone picked this anchor over that and that shapes history; shapes what we know but we must always question that. We cannot continue to just be pawns of our government and our media; we are the people, we have the control if we choose to flex it but we must flex it collectively, as a unit; as a nation.

What of Jose Padilla; never charged of being a 'Dirty Bomber' yet crucified by media outlets as such? It was a choice by the media; such statements are not consistent with the facts. To say he was convicted as such is misleading to a generally gullible public who now forms an opinion on Padilla based upon that. It's not the people's fault we are gullible; we hold our news media and our politicians to a high regard and expect them to do what's best, what's right, and what's fair; we believe they can hold themselves accountable but they can't. In today's society, it's hard to find anyone doing any of those things let alone all three.

College campuses, and the general American opinion, usually have a positive opinion of alcohol, a substance with known dangers to self and others but pot impassions people into a frenzy of anti-drug buzz words. But why is alcohol okay; why did it get the green light? Choice; alcohol, through lobbies or public interest, has become our acceptable, or 'right,' drug for 'partying' and pot something we refrain from, now, in the interest of productivity (but people who smoke pot are neither inherently stupid nor lazy). We hold alcohol up as okay, despite its dangers, but pot we can easily vilify and the government has that side defended. Why can't those who drink have have their drink and those who smoke have their pot? I don't drink usually but I'd never vote for anything like a return to prohibition because other's drinking does not effect me; why do they seek to prohibit us and our drug of choice?

The drug war, itself, started as a matter of choice, someone said do it and they did for thirty years but that doesn't mean it was the right thing. Even the fact that it's been in effect for thirty years does not justify it or make it 'good policy' for Americans. We arrested many Japanese-Americans during World War II and held them in prison camps; I don't think anyone agrees that was right, but it's our history and we do make mistakes. Question policy, question authority because it doesn't always know all; in fact, it rarely does nor does it employ reason or compassion, only a perverted concept of justice and self-righteousness.

If 100% of people are in agreement, then something has been missed; we should not have such a majority lest we've lost our sense of individual thought and personal experience. We all come into this world and experience things differently than our peers; we need to be open and accepting of those differences that shape us rather then condemning or interfering with them if personally unaffected. To fight for freedom, to fight for the rights of others (that is no real benefit or gain to you) is truly a show of love and compassion to your fellow man (as the Bible dictates to those who so often forget); to condemn the freedom of others can only been seen on the opposing side as odious discontent and hatred of those who are different and do things against what they think is 'right.'

But 'right' is subjective; there is no 'right,' there is no 'wrong.' All that exists is our founding Constitution which is used to settle issues of 'right' and 'wrong' fairly, justly, and with equal representation of every person in this great nation. But it is skirted and changed as convenient; 'right' and 'wrong' becomes further convoluted.

We need to get personally involved or, at the very least, inform yourself beyond the scope of what the TV spits out at you. We are at a point of strength; we are so low as a nation that we now have the unique opportunity to build our country back up in a different way, a progressive way, but it will only be through pressure from the people that it will happen.

No to Environmental Regression

Recently, on Fox News, I had heard one of their analysts denouncing a bill to end the use and prominence of Styrofoam packing (which has been a known environmental issue for some time) in the name of jobs. I believe this to be false.

UPDATE: An article challenges the Republican view that regulations are high percentage job killers.

If ceasing the manufacture of Styrofoam packaging, would not the jobs go to a manufacturer who is making 'safe' packaging? With the increase in demand, corporations making more environmentally friendly packaging will need more employees to handle the surge. The only one's perhaps displaced by such a policy would be manufacturers that do not embrace change and progressive ideas, they are forced to go by the wayside for not staying with the demands of a growing nation; this is the way of business, it has always been a gamble.

Additionally, how can we justify regressive steps? We know Styrofoam and other packaging materials are unsafe; it would be irresponsible to allow ourselves to get caught up in an employment and economic hysteria only to cause an environmental crisis years down the line. We must find a way to fix our problems but also not move backwards in our policies and protections.

India is a country that has allowed their land and air to be polluted beyond repair; if we do not believe  environmental protections are as important or do not take them as seriously as our economy and employment then Americans will face a bleak and unhealthy future.