So citizen, what does 4th of July mean to you? What will you do? Hopefully you will think about our nation and it’s direction. I am becoming cynical of our future. I don’t like being cynical.
Health care: If you think we have great health care, you are immersed in a dream. Wake up. Overall our health care is too expensive, limited to those who can afford it and behind other countries in terms of management and modernization.
We need change. If you make it to 75, your health care should be free going forward. Personally, I think that if you are breathing, your health care ought to be free at the point of sale. You pay into an account while you are working – a flat 2% or some other number. No deductions, no discounts etc. A normed flat tax per income would help.
Political systems: Get lobbyists out. Get term limits in. Look at Mitch McConnell. I rest my case right there.
Energy: Don’t be an idiot. You cannot see carbon monoxide, but it will kill you dead. Who told us about it? Scientists did. So what they are telling us now is that we are cooking the planet. The planet cannot evolve fast enough to accommodate us and our pollution. Check the math. We need to get serious about alternate forms of energy. Clean coal technology is a myth. Energy from algae is a myth. People will say we have to protect jobs in the coal industry. Really? Tell that to all the businesses killed by Wal Mart, all the small farms gobbled up by corporations, and all the dairy farms gone under this last 10 years. Tell that to the furniture manufacturing industry.
Privacy: everything is fine in a car until someone dies in an accident. No seat belt, no airbags, speeding and on and on. Everything is fine with firearms until there is tragic event. So it is with privacy. Once your information is compromised, good luck. It’s too late. So take privacy seriously. This stuff with the NSA is troubling. Oh, but congress will sort it out. Like they have on everything else? Two words for congress: you’re fired.
So why am I ranting about this? Because fixing everything above won’t fix us: you and me. We have to give a damn. We have to write a letter, make a phone call, attend a rally or protest, something. It’s our job as a citizen. It’s not a hotel: it’s a nation. It’s us, folks.
Politicians’ spend crazy money on campaigns to win because they know that is the only time they need care about you and me. They bank on the fact that as long as we have Doritos and beer and Nascar, we won’t do a darn thing.
The last good run at politics as usual was the wall street protest movement. But in classic fashion, all the politicians and press painted it as youth wanting a free lunch. Thank you professional journalists, you are so valuable. “Houston we have a problem” is what they should have been reporting. Watch the documentaries of how no one is in jail for the mortgage backed securities and derivatives that were sold unethically. Watch “Inside Job” some night with your Doritos.
I dare you. I double dare you.