Listen up people. We are in a recession. I know some of you know, but I don’t know you if you really realize what the fuck that means or how serious that is. It’s like my generation when we are at war. We are like; hey we are at war in this country. Crazy, huh?! Do you have any idea how the state of the country and people were when our parents or their parents were around and America was at war. Everybody was aware and concerned and would listen to their radio shows every night for more information. People signed up in numbers to join the army to go fight. Everyone. Now yes we pursue information and sure we have news at 11, and Google will post the top Political stories on our tricked out Google page, or maybe will see someone update their Facebook status with some political insight. But is that enough? Is that really self driven?
My basic comparison is previous generation’s were more involved and directly pursed this information and insight, where I feel a lot of times (since respectively we are too busy surfing MySpace) we are given this information. This poses a problem. Even with the previous generation’s pursuit of direct information, we have still managed to build a government where we have officials who are corrupt as the mafia and can’t get the job done. Just this week alone we have people attempting to sell their senate seat for some cash, we have one of the top dudes at the FCC get investigated over playing favorites with some companies over others and purposely leaking company patents and documents before they are approved to hurt that companies outlook. We need to have more of an effort here to be involved with who we are electing and what their performance is when elected.
I picked the above image for two reasons. It’s a historical poster that was used to bring people together to join the forces of America. It spoke to people all over the country that they are important, they are needed, and they are influential. Now whether they were or not, that is another post for another time, but the point being, we all can make a difference. If you don’t think you can then please live MY country. This country is great for the one true reason that you can make a difference. Look, if you freaking Gandhi or Hitler, both created waves of followers from just themselves. They weren’t the son of an ex-president, they weren’t millionaires, and they weren’t even physically or socially trend-setters or leaders. They just had a vision, a goal, and set mind and soul. So yes, one person can make a difference.
The second reason for choosing that poster is the crucial need for action. This poster was created in 1917 and was used to recruit soldiers for both World War and World War II. As mentioned, it was a national campaign and they (we) needed all the soldiers it could muster. So, in short, America needs all the soldiers it can muster today. Not real, gun slinging soldiers, but soldiers of morality, soldiers of aptitude, soldiers of truth, and soldiers of change. We need people to stand up and do something here. We can’t let these high-talking members of our government woe us with their candor and confidence. They need to be checked on, regulated, and if they commit any social or political injustices, they need to have higher penalties. If you make any illegal trades or provide insider information for stocks, that’s a felony. This is important because stocks and publicly traded business affect the economy here and around the world. But yet if your company or brokers give out foolish house loans you don’t even get a slap on the wrist. But hey at worst maybe millions in bail outs. If you are in a government position and you abuse your power, it becomes a giant speculation game but no one ever really gets reprimanded. Being asked to resign does not correct the million’s of lives or billions of tax payer money that wasted.
I see government officials the same as professional athletes. Both may have been born with raw talent, but for the most part fought their way to the top. Both are highly paid (some more than others) for on and off the field practices (illegal or not!). Both have tremendous pressure at what they do and thousands if not millions of people heavily criticize every action. Both depend on their career highlights to give them future and higher job opportunities in their field/industry. And here is the kicker, both are high profile persona’s that a lot of people look up to and put a lot of trust and faith in to. This means these people have to be held to a higher regard, and a higher moral value since their public influence is so much greater. We need to make more examples out of these people (sorry Plaxico). It’s been way to easy for people to do horrible things and get away with them. This needs to change now.
We simply need to be more involved with politics, but more important our politicians. Now it’s hard for the youth as you/we have so much other items of life that we are trying to understand or improve. So it takes time. It also hasn’t helped that our government hasn’t really related to the common man in a very, very long time. Now, not common like Palin; I don’t need Earl from down the street running, but common like Obama that he has a modern view on a modern world. And most importantly, he wants change.
If we could just have a percentile of the passion like people who follow sports who know every pitch in the Dodger game of November 27, 2001, to have that insight, memory and intense studying of our government we could be such a great country without all this poverty and corruption. Use the internet, use your friends/network, and you use your voice to start taking action. Don’t wait for someone else too. It’s time for YOU to get up, stand up … well you know the rest.
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