I miss...

[gbm85]

I miss the way things were before 9/11.

I miss being able to make an international phone call without it being tapped.

I miss getting on a plane without being treated like a potential terrorist.

I miss an America where people were not afraid to get out of bed in the morning.

I miss a country with the wisdom to realize that an isolated incident does not have to change their entire way of life.

I miss the America that protected itself by fighting to the death for freedom, instead of the America that protects itself by fighting its freedoms to death.

I miss the America that knew freedom comes at price.

I miss the very short time when 9/11 was a tragedy, and not an excuse for hideous government actions.

I miss 9/11 not being a political platform.

I miss the America that dropped the first and only destructive nuclear bombs, because it realized that sometimes the only way to fight an atrocious enemy is with atrocity.

I miss a country where the government answered to its citizens, instead of the citizens answering to their government.

I miss a citizenship that would have realized that their freedoms are eroding, and would have fought tooth and nail to stop it.

I miss democracy.

[rahmota]

Amen and yeah brother do we miss those things more each day. Like the song says you never know what you had til its gone. I just wonder when people will wake up.

[DesignFox]

There are too many things to distract us into thinking all is well...

I just hope when things come to a head, I've lived my long and happy life and moved on.

EDIT: Of course, the more I think about this statement, the more I realize that I am part of the problem! No one wants to deal with the issues at hand...and so they get worse and worse... I think life is just so busy...between work, families, hobbies... we all sort of have our head stuck in the sand. But what can we do to fix these problems?

[NightAngel]

I miss a country where the government answered to its citizens, instead of the citizens answering to their government.

...

I miss democracy.

Well, I agree with a good deal of your post gbm but here's something I have to nitpick:

We are not now, nor have we ever been, a Democracy. We are a Republic and that makes a great deal of difference in how the country is and can be ran.

In a Democracy people control the government.
In a Republic the government controls the people.

Of course it's more complicated than just that but that's the extreme basics. I have no plans on debating on this but I'd invite anyone/everyone who didn't know that to Google it up.

[rahmota]

Nightangel:

We are not now, nor have we ever been, a Democracy. We are a Republic and that makes a great deal of difference in how the country is and can be ran.

This is very true. Although I might quible over whether we are still in fact a republic anymore or have slipped over into an Empire but that unfortunately is another debate altogether.

Suffice to say things have changed and not always for the better over the years. I'll leave it up to the individual to determine when the good ol days actually began or existed if ever......

[Seshat]

No one wants to deal with the issues at hand...and so they get worse and worse... I think life is just so busy...between work, families, hobbies... we all sort of have our head stuck in the sand. But what can we do to fix these problems?

Book yourself some time - even just an hour a week.

The first such time, sit down and decide which issues are important enough to you that you'll work on them.

After that, during your 'work on issues' time, research which of those issues currently have effective lobby groups/activity groups. Get the 'what you can do' information from those groups.

Next, do the simplest of those 'what you can do' things. Write letters to your congresscritters. Investigate local recycling drop-off points. Attend a workshop on some issue or other. Figure out when in your family budget you can purchase a more water-efficient shower-head.

During this phase, spend some of your issues-time in the library, learning how your government is supposed to work, and how it works in practice. Also spend some of your time talking with people in the lobby groups for issues that interest you, learning how lobbying works.

By this stage - even if it's taken weeks or months to get to this stage - you should have enough information to decide whether to join an existing lobby group, or whether to start a lobby group for an issue you consider to be under-supported.

You won't be able to effectively support more than one or two broad issues - perhaps education and road safety, or childcare and environmental work. You might be able to support more if you have narrow issues such as the revegetation and care of a particular creek, or creating a home for intellectually-capable but physically disabled people in your city. If you're the lead on any issue, you can probably only handle one.

As an individual, you can usually only accomplish a small amount. But lots of individuals accomplishing lots of small things does add up, and it is worth doing it.

As for solving the major political problems of any country - that's a big thing, and would probably take a big lobby group with lots of people giving their one or two hours a week. But being part of that would be worthwhile too. The Polish did it quite recently - look up 'Poland' and 'Solidarity' for inspiration.

[DesignFox]

Thanks Seshat. I actually feel a lot better, now.

[rahmota]

Designfox: My apologies for missing your edit. But yeah what Seshat says is a good way to start. Basically just look around you close at home. I've been a political activist I guess you could say for almost 8 years now.

I'm active witht he local school board keepign aware of whats going on, my couty commisioners meetigns, etc... Concentrate on your local area first. then worry about bigger issues. Remember you dont have to save the world only a couple people. But if enough people save a couple people well it adds up.

One other thign to remember as a political activist is that no matter what POV you take there will be people who disagree and they can get rather verbal or otherwise abusive depending on how charged the issue is and how active you are. back in 2004 I was actively campaigning against the same gender marriage ban and got my car egged, spit on and generally yelled at and insulted by people in favor of the ban. Some of them a local "christian" church group. Also that was one of the factors in the loss of two peopel who had been friends.

So stay local, be ready for some dissappointment and remember as my sig says whats right aint always whats legal and whats legal aint always whats right.

[Seshat]

Good. I'm very glad of that.

Be patient. Most of these worthwhile things take time. A lot of time. My mother once told me 'we're doing this now so that your children will have a better world'.


As an example of the amount of effort required for even the simplest thing:

If you're trying to get permission to revegetate a creek with native vegetation, removing exotic plantlife and permitting the local fauna and flora to return, you'll probably need to find an example of such being done elsewhere (lots of examples in Australia), find an expert in your local area who can tell you what the native flora is, and make up a plan explaining how you intend to do it, why you're doing it that way, and such.

Then you'll need to get local assistance to actually do the hard work. Local schools might help, especially ones where the science program includes biological sciences - they can make it a field study to watch the creek return to its proper self. Groups like Lions Club International or church congregations are also good sources of willing labour for environmental improvement, and of course so would be local branches of any environmental organisation such as Greenpeace or World Wildlife Fund.

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~fomc/ is the home page of one such creek-rehabilitation project. They've done a wonderful job, btw.

At Merri Creek, they took it in slow stages. Starting at the origin of the watercourse (presumably so that seeds flow away from the revegetated stuff and towards the not-yet-done), they removed exotics and restored local vegetation in small segments, never so much that the local fauna had no hidey spots. Only once a completed section had enough habitat for fauna did they move on and rip out the exotics in the next stage.

Sorting out the creek is a decades-long labour of love - but it's made SUCH a difference to the creek, and to the community the creek flows through. The bike/walking tracks along the creek edge get lots of use, and there are platypuses and frogs in the creek now. (Both are notoriously sensitive to environmental damage, in this part of the world.)


Don't expect to be able to save the world. Oh, some people manage incredible feats - they're the right person in the right place at the right time. But we're not all Rosa Parks, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, or Mahatma Ghandi. Sometimes we're just 'that guy - you know, the one who fixed up our creek'. And that's perfectly fine.

[crazylegs]

I miss the very short time when 9/11 was a tragedy, and not an excuse for hideous government actions.

I must admit I was very suprised to see how both the US and the UK responded to the September 11th attack. It would be akin to us invading Ireland to stop the IRA attacks, and seeing as we had just sorted an accord by talking to the relevent groups I was incredibly disheartned to see us wading in all guns blazing.

[Hellbound Alleee]

But what is a government if not people? It's made of people.

In a democracy, do we really control the government? Do you? Did you ever have a choice as to what system to follow? They set the parameters, they give you a couple of choices, but when did you ever really have a choice? Did anyone ever ask you what kind of government you wanted? Do you have an alternative to the system of powers? I don't see a democracy, I see levels of class. There's the working class, and the ruling class.

Of course freedom comes with a dear price. The price of freedom is safety and convenience. Freedom is danger and responsibility. And freedom is "god-given," or "nature-given." It is not granted to us by the government. It is not so generous as to allow us freedoms. It says so right in the constitution, that these are inalienable rights, granted by the creator. We should never forget that. It means that government does not give us freedom. What do we protect our freedoms from? The government.

I think it takes guts to realize that people want the same basic things, and their values are basically good. It's when they are granted power that freedoms are blocked. If we "need" government because people are bad, and need to be controlled, we have to remember that government IS people. If people are "bad," then government is bad, and the people who choose the people in government are also bad, and incapable of making good choices.

But if people aren't "bad," then maybe they can take care of themselves.

[DarthRetard]

To me, it all comes down to the social contract. The one written by John Locke, who, of course inspired Jefferson in his writing of the Declaration of Independence.

We as a people submit to a government's sovereign authority, and in exchange, they protect and defend our life, liberty, and property, or in our case, the "pursuit of happiness".

When the Articles of Confederation were dissolved in favor of ratification of the United States Constitution, great care as taken to enumerate the checks and balances necessary to prevent another monarchy.

I, unlike Rahmota, do not see a ruling class, and a working class. Those same "rulers" worked, and still do, some of them, as we do. Like Hellbound said, we are a government, of people. We decide our "rulers" and government, and therefore are directly responsible for their actions.

My response to anyone who has a problem with the things going on, (and believe me, I do too, don't think I'm back there giving Bush massages), is to ultimately do something about it. Voice your opinion. For if you sit back and only watch, you are no better than those prolonging the destruction you seek to eliminate.

[rahmota]

I, unlike Rahmota, do not see a ruling class, and a working class. Those same "rulers" worked, and still do, some of them, as we do.

Really? Could you see GW doing any of the things you or I do on a daily basis? Remember back when Bush I went grocery shopping and didnt even know how the "magical" bar code scanner worked? These people are so out of touch with the real world that its not even funny.

The rich elite of this country dont get out there and work the way we do. They push papers around. They sit in offices and talk and yak and see how to spend other people's money. I bet if you took one down out of their ivory tower and handed them a shovel if they knew what it was they wouldnt know which end to use.

To me, it all comes down to the social contract. The one written by John Locke, who, of course inspired Jefferson in his writing of the Declaration of Independence.

We as a people submit to a government's sovereign authority, and in exchange, they protect and defend our life, liberty, and property, or in our case, the "pursuit of happiness".

And what happens when that government forgets that it is as responsibile to the people as the people are responsible to it? When the government breeches their portion of the social contract? When the government no longer defends a person's life, liberty, property or "pursuit of happiness"? What then? The contract has been breeched. Do we get to start over or what?

My response to anyone who has a problem with the things going on, (and believe me, I do too, don't think I'm back there giving Bush massages), is to ultimately do something about it. Voice your opinion.

Well I will agree with you on this. Doing nothing definately gives you nothing in return.

[DarthRetard]

Rahmota, on the social contract issue, if the government breaks it's end of the social contract, according to our declaration of independence, and which was the case for our own dissent, we are obliged to dissolve our government, which though it seems drastic these days, can be watered down into terms of impeachment, removal of one from one's position, etc.

GW, actually goes out and works on his farm quite a bit. He does own a ranch and goes out on it often. Comparing a wealthier class to a medieval ruling class, however, seems a bit far-reaching in logic. Anyone is entitled to run, no matter where you are or who you are for the most part, with some regulation. Most people start careers in politics very early, in terms of internships, running for smaller level offices, and the like.

Not all the wealthy are successful at running with lots of money either. Example: Mitt Romney. He poured large amounts of money into his campaign, and because he was not found satisfactory, and for other reasons, he dropped out.

I just haven't lost that much faith yet. I'll be starting my career in politics once I return from the Navy, and at a small level, and moving up into the bigger arena as I go.

[daleduke17]

Really? Could you see GW doing any of the things you or I do on a daily basis? Remember back when Bush I went grocery shopping and didnt even know how the "magical" bar code scanner worked? These people are so out of touch with the real world that its not even funny.

I want to see that on tape. :-p

I will give him some credit as bar code readers were still an emerging technology during his tenure in office.