Saturday, September 04, 2010

One Big Dysfunctional Family

We’ve managed over the past few years to change behavior on a massive scale.   When I was a child, seatbelts were something you wore on airplanes; smoking sections were non-existent; anything no longer serviceable was tossed into the trash. Recycling?  What was that?

Now, of course, we all buckle up when we get in a car, we can enjoy an evening out free of the tyranny of smokers, and most of us recycle religiously.  These changes—and more—have come about because legislators at some point (often, alas, quite belatedly) have done the right thing and passed laws that save lives, make air more breathable, and treat the planet more gently.

Of late, however, it seems that lawmakers are more interested in playing politics than in serving the voters and more focused on staying in office than in making the hard, crucial decisions that affect so many lives, both now and in the future.

The more I see of the health care debate, the more I realize how archaic and unresponsive our system has become.  A minority of senators can filibuster a bill to death.  That might have made sense in horse and buggy days, but the world moves much faster now.

Much of the debate has centered on A) whether there will be enough votes to stop the filibuster, and B) whether those who vote for a progressive health care bill risk losing their seats in the next election.  This latter point separates the politician from the statesman.  The statesman (or woman) evaluates issues, the effects and costs of proposed legislation and votes for what he or she believes is best for the country.  The politician too often votes for what he or she understands to be the wishes of major contributors.

As a country we’ve become one  unwieldy, extended dysfunctional family.  What began as a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” has become a government of the people, by those they elect, for the benefit of the moneyed who fund their campaigns.

We can change this by changing the way we finance political campaigns.  But who has to enact the laws that would make this happen: our legislators, of course.  The question is: Will they do the right thing?  If so, when?

Remember: It’s Not a Life Sentence.  But it’s up to us to push for change–not only in our personal lives, but in our civic lives as well

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October 31, 2009 | Filed Under politics | Leave a Comment 

The Decline of Common Sense

Image via Wikipediatitle page of the 1865 edition of Lewis Carrol...

It’s not surprising that some of us find it so tough to make sense of our lives these days.  Look at the world we live in.  It’s an Alice-in-Wonderland place that defies everyday reason.

Consider:

—-Drivers operate cars and trucks, lethal weapons all, while talking on cell phones or texting.  And in many places, all this is legal.  A recent New York Times article says the people who do this “ . . . argue that the convenience of constant contact—and the chance to tick off items from an endless to-do list while driving—far outweigh what they think are slim chances that it could lead to a wreck.”  Tell that to the families who have lost loved ones as a result of such hubris.

—-Our government (we, the taxpayers) bailed out companies deemed “too big to fail” and run by executives whose annual compensation is stratospheric while millions of the taxpayers who provided this largesse lost jobs, homes, and self-respect.  Now, we hear the big-time bonuses are back.

—-So-called “town hall meetings” devolve into shouting matches and turn what should have served as rational consideration of solutions to our health insurance problem into a primal stew of misinformation and fear.

—-As a nation, we continue our love affair with guns and thereby facilitate the murder of thousands each year.  This, because some believe the Constitution guarantees the right to gun ownership.  I believe the Constitution guarantees only that states have a right to arm their militias, known in this day and age as the National Guard.  Read the second amendment.  Written at a time when soldiers were expected to report for duty with their own weapons (the ones they used to protect livestock from predators or defend themselves from armed attack by outlaws on the frontier), the amendment says:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. I doubt our founders envisioned urbanites showing up at crowded rallies with assault rifles in tow.

I’ve come to believe that staying sane requires that we all become more involved in and informed about the issues we face as a nation.  We may feel powerless, but we’re truly powerless only if we fail to participate.  What issues would motivate you to get involved?

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October 1, 2009 | Filed Under mental health, politics, self improvement, stress | Leave a Comment