Maybe this will come as a shock to you, but America, the once-great nation, is being systematically poisoned. No, not by chemicals(but I wouldn’t doubt that either), but by the public being ignorant and apathetic…and they don’t know or care that they are. As there are probably some people reading this that will think differently, let them come forward with some solutions.
When you have an electorate that can accept slick slogans instead of sensible solutions, that is taking the easy way out and, in the end, proves not to be easy at all. When the electorate chooses a candidate based on what he/she says, rather than any past performance, that is also the easy way out and, as has been pointed out, does not prove to be the easy way at all.
I have what I call the three generation theory, and it goes like this…my generation, which is Generation 1, is the last one with a direct connection to “the war” and, to my generation that is World War Two. My children, and they are Generation 2, know of the war and treat it as history and, perhaps have a family member that served in the war, plus they will still experience SOME of what America was, but is changing into. My grandchildren, Generation 3, will only know of the war as a history lesson, if they learn anything about it at all in school. They will accept America as they find it…and it will be vastly different from the America of my generation. The crux of the matter will be that they don’t know and don’t care about what came before.
Therein lies the problem. Schools are not teaching about America. They don’t teach our values, our history, our governmental system. Politicians spout off with empty platitudes which sound good on television but have no actual meaning, and, if you watch TV much you’ll notice that many of them are speaking in an empty chamber…much like their heads.
Our founding fathers knew, and prepared for, an event which is unfolding before our eyes…the usurpation of power by one branch of the government. They gave us a system of checks and balances which was designed to combat that very thing…provided that the three branches actually worked. It seems that no one cares much about those checks and balances, at least not to the point where they could(and should) invoke sanctions against the usurper(s).
Americans, by and large, simply don’t know and don’t care what happens in government. So long as they have sports on television, celebrities having babies out of wedlock, divorces that may end spectacularly, and they can live those lives vicariously, they’re happy. What a sad state of affairs this is. The United Negro College Fund motto is “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”, and to that you can add “A whole country is also a terrible thing to waste”; and we’re doing it. You can see that the country is being wasted when you watch members of Generation 3 answer questions asked of them.
On a recent man-in-the-street series of interviews, when he was asked about government, the wars, the economy, this man (whom I judged to be in his mid-40s, and therefore in Generation 2) answered everything with “I don’t care”.
Another outstanding example was a young man (I judged him to be about 25, and therefore in Generation 3) was asked about our borders. He replied that we didn’t need borders and when told that borders define a country he said, “Who needs a country?” Before you say that these were hand-picked answers, let me assure you that the interviewer was just stopping people randomly.
What does that tell you? It tells me that the systematic dumbing-down of America is working, just as it was designed to do. This isn’t, as you might be ready to claim, just from this administration–no, this goes back 40, maybe 50 years, could go all the way back to Harry Truman, the last completely honest president this country had. Harry had a way with words, and he didn’t waste them with meaningless phrases. If he had something to say, he said it, and there was no way you would not understand what he meant. Ignorance and apathy are alive and well in America, and we are the worse for it.
My parting shot is this: when a president speaks he should leave no doubt as to what he means. I would like to hear this from a president: The United States is a peaceful nation and we despise war, but make no mistake, if you screw with us, we’ll put you back in the stone age, and nothing will grow in your land, not people, not animals, not plants – nothing, for a thousand years. Is that what you want? If it is, bring it on.
Image: http://www.janegoodwin.net/2012/04/05/stuff-people-say-to-teachers/
