- Jun 6, 2007
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Human beings have a spiritual dimension in part evidenced by the fact that human beings experience peace and joy from interactions with other human beings even after the direct interaction and the fact the vast majority of people if not all question whether there is a God, a higher being a more powerful being that had a part in creating this world and that has an involvement in what is going on in this world and whether there is an afterlife for human beings. In fact, surveys in America indicate that the majority of adult Americans believe there is a God. This writer does and believes this God has a perfect nature, in part, meaning he is all good, all knowing and all powerful and that this God is engaged in this world meaning it matters to this God what is transpiring in the world; probably and I cannot prove this most Americans at some level believe the same. With this preface I want to proffer a belief it isn't something I cannot prove it is a matter of faith it is something I believe in my gut and my conscience based on a life-time of living but again I cannot prove it. I believe that the natural disasters that America is seeing this year is a sign from God. The forest fires in the west of the country, Hurricane Ida, the droughts and the flooding America has seen this year are strangely odd in the high level of damage they have caused. Sure human beings have damaged the climate by the use of fossil fuels which causes these seen weather effects but there is something unusual about the severity it makes me believe that it is a sign from God; these natural disasters have killed innocent and good people so I am not saying God ordained it which would be an unjust act toward these victims rather I am saying God permitted it he allowed the damaged climate to work its will which otherwise he would have stayed it with his hand. the sign I think God was and is trying to send is that Americans are straying from being a good people and we should get back on the good path!
A senior citizen like me can compare America over decades and it is obvious that we have become a less good people. What the heck are we doing with the proliferation of gambling across our country now sports gambling seems to be the hot craze, gambling means that we as a community are responsible for our neighbor gambling money he or she needs to provide for their family or should be saving for their retirement or should be passing onto their children so they can secure a decent standard of living for themselves and their children. This expansion of gambling shows that we as a people don't appropriately care about our neighbor. I don't know at this juncture what we do to rein in this evil maybe have a national database that tracks gambling expenditures that gambling businesses must monitor and be restrained by that would limit Americans from gambling away more than one thousand dollars a month.
Americans seem to have lost their sense or commitment to doing what is good. What is good often involves balancing of interests now many of us seem to not consider the other sides legitimate concerns or distort them for our benefit. The immigration issue is an example one side wants to have open borders and the other side wants to have mass deportation; doing what is good means comprehensive immigration reform the illegal immigrants that have been here for years deserve to be legalized because the country used them to operate the economy and on the other side we need to stop illegal immigration our nation's jobs, our nation's quality of life is for American citizens and our nation's strength and a pervasive benefit of America is that we are a melting pot of cultures it is absolutely not okay that we become an Hispanic or any other ethnic monolithic culture we need to absolutely stop this legal right that you make it to America's borders you can claim refugee status. It doesn't matter that you come from an impoverished country or a country controlled significantly by drug cartels, American has its own problems we cannot take you in, that's it period!
There is so many issues like this where what is good is not ruling the day. On voting their should be a national law it should be very limited, mandating two weeks of early voting and on the other hand banning mail in voting unless the person cannot get to the polls or is aged, the ballot harvesting that will result otherwise will significantly undermine our democracy, citizens freely choose those that represent them. Taxes on the wealthy and corporations needs to increase to reduce the economic imbalance in America which leaves many in real hardship but great restraint needs to be shown we want to be fair and we don't want to cause significant negative economic effects that will ripple throughout the economy that will hurt those sought to be helped. On healthcare the Government needs to shoulder a lot of the cost for people because it is unaffordable, on the other hand America needs to cut costs in the system across the board because it is too expensive the costs to treat respective health problems. America needs to a large, large degree transition away from carbon fuels but needs to do it in economic measured steps with full consideration of the ramifications of these steps. America needs to do a better job at stopping violence against blacks and minorities but should not hurt the system in doing so only improve the system.
A dispositive sign that our country has a character problem is the fact that Congress was not brought back into session and a joint resolution wasn't passed calling for the President to not remove the U.S. military out of Afghanistan until all American citizens that wanted to leave the country were evacuated and that our Afghan allies that wanted to evacuate were given an outstanding opportunity to evacuate so that America did not abandon our Afghan allies that are at high risk of being killed by Taliban reprisals. So many Americans especially U.S. veterans alarm and disagreement with President Biden's super callous pullout attest to the egregious morally bad act of America's Afghanistan pullout and Congress as a branch of government as a check on the President did nothing, absolutely nothing.
As a people Americans need to improve our character. But what also really needs to happen in America at minimum are two things. First, Congress needs to pass laws that cable channel providers need to provide at least two news channels to non-profits that act as unbiased news stations America needs to break out of its mold where America is lead from a news perspective by either MSNBC or CNN on the left and FOX or OAN or NewsMax on the right; these channels should be evaluated every fifteen years to see if they are keeping their charter and if they haven't their right to this cable channel should be permanently removed from them and a replacement non-profit organization should be chosen and Congress should authorize that the Federal government should provide a seed grant to such organizations to get them up and running. Secondly, America needs to have term limits (life-time) for members of Congress, five terms max for House members and two terms max for Senators. This will significantly help with the problem our country has where the top priority for members of Congress is holding on to their seat and not to do what is in the best interest of their citizens. If members of Congress knew they were going to have at maximum ten or twelve years in their job they wouldn't be so beholding to the Political Action Committees, big donors and the leaders of Congress that dole out money for reelection efforts and campaign finance reform is only a partial solution to this problem, term limits will greater weaken the special interests control over our Congressional representatives.
A senior citizen like me can compare America over decades and it is obvious that we have become a less good people. What the heck are we doing with the proliferation of gambling across our country now sports gambling seems to be the hot craze, gambling means that we as a community are responsible for our neighbor gambling money he or she needs to provide for their family or should be saving for their retirement or should be passing onto their children so they can secure a decent standard of living for themselves and their children. This expansion of gambling shows that we as a people don't appropriately care about our neighbor. I don't know at this juncture what we do to rein in this evil maybe have a national database that tracks gambling expenditures that gambling businesses must monitor and be restrained by that would limit Americans from gambling away more than one thousand dollars a month.
Americans seem to have lost their sense or commitment to doing what is good. What is good often involves balancing of interests now many of us seem to not consider the other sides legitimate concerns or distort them for our benefit. The immigration issue is an example one side wants to have open borders and the other side wants to have mass deportation; doing what is good means comprehensive immigration reform the illegal immigrants that have been here for years deserve to be legalized because the country used them to operate the economy and on the other side we need to stop illegal immigration our nation's jobs, our nation's quality of life is for American citizens and our nation's strength and a pervasive benefit of America is that we are a melting pot of cultures it is absolutely not okay that we become an Hispanic or any other ethnic monolithic culture we need to absolutely stop this legal right that you make it to America's borders you can claim refugee status. It doesn't matter that you come from an impoverished country or a country controlled significantly by drug cartels, American has its own problems we cannot take you in, that's it period!
There is so many issues like this where what is good is not ruling the day. On voting their should be a national law it should be very limited, mandating two weeks of early voting and on the other hand banning mail in voting unless the person cannot get to the polls or is aged, the ballot harvesting that will result otherwise will significantly undermine our democracy, citizens freely choose those that represent them. Taxes on the wealthy and corporations needs to increase to reduce the economic imbalance in America which leaves many in real hardship but great restraint needs to be shown we want to be fair and we don't want to cause significant negative economic effects that will ripple throughout the economy that will hurt those sought to be helped. On healthcare the Government needs to shoulder a lot of the cost for people because it is unaffordable, on the other hand America needs to cut costs in the system across the board because it is too expensive the costs to treat respective health problems. America needs to a large, large degree transition away from carbon fuels but needs to do it in economic measured steps with full consideration of the ramifications of these steps. America needs to do a better job at stopping violence against blacks and minorities but should not hurt the system in doing so only improve the system.
A dispositive sign that our country has a character problem is the fact that Congress was not brought back into session and a joint resolution wasn't passed calling for the President to not remove the U.S. military out of Afghanistan until all American citizens that wanted to leave the country were evacuated and that our Afghan allies that wanted to evacuate were given an outstanding opportunity to evacuate so that America did not abandon our Afghan allies that are at high risk of being killed by Taliban reprisals. So many Americans especially U.S. veterans alarm and disagreement with President Biden's super callous pullout attest to the egregious morally bad act of America's Afghanistan pullout and Congress as a branch of government as a check on the President did nothing, absolutely nothing.
As a people Americans need to improve our character. But what also really needs to happen in America at minimum are two things. First, Congress needs to pass laws that cable channel providers need to provide at least two news channels to non-profits that act as unbiased news stations America needs to break out of its mold where America is lead from a news perspective by either MSNBC or CNN on the left and FOX or OAN or NewsMax on the right; these channels should be evaluated every fifteen years to see if they are keeping their charter and if they haven't their right to this cable channel should be permanently removed from them and a replacement non-profit organization should be chosen and Congress should authorize that the Federal government should provide a seed grant to such organizations to get them up and running. Secondly, America needs to have term limits (life-time) for members of Congress, five terms max for House members and two terms max for Senators. This will significantly help with the problem our country has where the top priority for members of Congress is holding on to their seat and not to do what is in the best interest of their citizens. If members of Congress knew they were going to have at maximum ten or twelve years in their job they wouldn't be so beholding to the Political Action Committees, big donors and the leaders of Congress that dole out money for reelection efforts and campaign finance reform is only a partial solution to this problem, term limits will greater weaken the special interests control over our Congressional representatives.
