This past election shows that there are enough people paying attention to everything to show up to the polls and vote. Too bad we only had Democrat or Republican to choose from but that is the way it is set up right now.
That can be changed. Bob Barr is now exploring and trying to organize the Libertarian Party to better identify the Party. I will be interested to see and hear what the Libertarians have to offer. So far that Party has leaned too close to Anarchy for my tastes.
Anyway, my optimism has been renewed since the November elections. I no longer feel that the voters are numb to everything going on. It is obvious by this past election that there are many, like me, that are fed up with our government and want to take back over control of it.
Thanks fellow voters. You have renewed my faith in this country's citizenry. I have a much more optimistic outlook for our future. Now we have to deal with the element that is creeping into our society. It is Nationalism. This country was based on equality for anyone that will pledge allegiance to our country. Whether a person is atheist or a person believes in multiple gods and everyone in between, we are all citizens of the United States of America. We should work and play together. We should learn from each other so as to understand the rest of the world.
We cannot allow the faction that is growing in this country that is trying to divide us according to color, race, creed. We are all one people of this country and we need to remember that.
More on this later but I just wanted to thank all of you that bothered to vote. It shows that this country is not beaten down as I was starting to believe.
jayeye
Friday, December 22, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
Wake Up USA - Our Country Is Being Hijacked
Did you know that when the Supreme Court hands down a ruling it does not mean it will become law of the land?
Only if it is perceived as being "law" by the majority of American citizens will it become law of the land.
It seems that most of the decisions the Court has made in the past do reflect the majority of the citizen's view. Those decisions that did not reflect the majority were not about specific things that the majority worried about so those laws were not appealed by the public. It has not always worked out that the majority of the people agreed with a decision handed down by the Supreme Court. When that occurred the people overturned the decision. That is what our legal system is all about in this country and why this country has always been envied throughout the world.
NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD CAN SAY THEY ARE AS OPEN AS OUR LEGAL SYSTEM ALLOWS.
We THE PEOPLE are not taking advantage of this system. We are allowing the Congress and the White House dictate to us what is "right for us". How many times have you heard a member of the White House or Congress say "this is what the American People want" and it was not what you personally wanted? What are you, chopped liver? Last time I looked I was an American citizen and many of the things being quoted as "what the American people wanted" is not at all what I would have wanted. Is that happening to you? If you answered "yes" then we have to take the example of those citizens who fought for their rights in this country in the past.
The precedence (this is a fancy word for something that has happened in the past that was accepted by the majority of citizens and our legal system as part of our "rule of law") the people did not agree with the Supreme Court and overturned it's decision was set in 1793.That is when "THE PEOPLE" would not accept a ruling concerning property ownership in the Chisholm v Georgia case. Congressional members were urged by their constituencies(that is the people that live in the district or state that the representative lives in) to adopt an amendment (17th) which made the Supreme Court ruling obsolete. "THE PEOPLE" had spoken. This prerogative of "THE PEOPLE" keeps the law fair throughout the land. We have to be proactive and not reactive to keep things fair in this country. That is what we are about as a PEOPLE.The ruling in the Roe v Wade case was really about individual rights and not the actual abortion procedure. It says that all women have a right to decide on their own, with their doctors, whether or not to abort a particular pregnancy. It does not say abortion is a good thing. It does not say abortion is a bad thing. What it says is the government and the rest of the citizens of the country should stay out of each others business. None of us have a right to make a decision for another person unless they are put under our supervision and we are given the right to make decisions for them.We only have the right to make our own decisions. Therefore, the highest court in our system should not have the right to make a decision for any one person either. The Supreme Court is there to render a final decision based on the law of the land and THE PEOPLE have the right to accept or reject that decision.
That is the system we have set up however the people can waive their rights at any time and allow the federal government to intrude on their life and dictate to them what they must do and how they must live. That is what we have done in this country today.
On the other hand, the people could stand up for their rights and demand the federal government to act accordingly. They work for us. We pay their salaries. They have no right other than those that we THE PEOPLE bestow on them. That seems to have been forgotten in our mainstream society today. People seem to want to abdicate all things to the federal government. These people are saying to leave them alone to live their lives as best they can. They don't want to be involved in the everyday operations of our country.Others of us understand where the federal government should be and how it should be serving THE PEOPLE and making decisions that most of us agree with.
That is the purpose for this entry into my blog.
If I can wake up just one or two people with this entry, it has served it's purpose.Now ask yourselves these questions:
Do you agree that Congress should be able to give themselves a raise any time they want to?Or would you rather vote them a raise now and then?(If this became the situation you would see a bunch of these guys that say they are "doing it to serve our country" leaving Congress and their "service for the country" as soon as they saw their "free lunch" going away.)
Do you agree religion should be a basis for which legislation is passed?Or would you rather have legislation based on equality and fairness across all religions?
Do you agree with relaxing air and water quality standards in our country?Or would you rather have legislation creating tough standards for our industries to follow?
Do you agree that the drug war is worth the money and energy this country puts into it?Or would you rather see the reasons for drug use addressed and truthful education put forth?
Did you agree with starting the Iraq War?Or would you have rather continued to keep Sadam Hussein under guard and under watch until we could gather enough help from the rest of the world to do the job correctly?
Do you agree that the Iraq war has to be "won" before we get out of the country?Or would you rather see our citizens return safely and have help from the rest of the world to train the Iraqis?
Do you agree that our country should disassemble the safety net that has been put in place in regard to Medicare and Social Security?Or would you rather see an incentive given for the younger generations to think more about their future and their financial security along with the safety net in place.(note: Social Security was put in place because most people have very little money to save for their future. Social Security at least forces them to save something for their future and makes the companies that live off of their efforts contribute some to their future. What is wrong with that idea?)
Do you agree that the United Nations organization is a bad idea?Or would you rather have this organization in place to help solve problems between nations that we don't want to be going to war against each other?
All it would take is for "THE PEOPLE" to rally for any cause they considered important enough. If the civil action was taken in all of the districts across the country such as marches, sit ins, and many of the actions that were taken by THE PEOPLE in the past when bad decisions were made by the Supreme Court, during civil rights issues, during the Viet Nam war, and being taken today by people against the Iraq war.This "turmoil" over who is allowed to serve on the Supreme Court bench is smoke and mirrors by this government on both sides of the ailes.
They are playing out their parts as Congress in this great "play" the government puts on for "THE PEOPLE". (I don't hear any singing so it cannot be called a "musical" although the politicians can certainly dance)The "play" is picked up by the media because the media get their cues from the politicians. As one looks at the list of media owners today it reads like a who's who in the Corporate circus. That means the "liberal biased" media the Conservatives talk about is owned mostly by Conservatives.They are not liberaly biased any longer(if they ever were?) since our federal overseers thought it was a good idea to relax legislation put into place in the past to keep the media as fair as possible and allow more media outlets to be owned by one main corporation.
Now as you compare the ownership with the outlets owned one can see the coverage that has been set up.This list of Conservatives I mentioned earlier owns outlets including radio, television, newspapers, cable systems, the gamut of media outlets. They are spread over the country in such a way to cover the major metropolitan areas where significant voters reside.
For instance, in one particular area of the country one Corporate owner(ie: Clear Channel, FOX, and etc.) could own the CBS, NBC, ABC, WB affiliates which means they control the entire media feed into that area. A story that plays in that particular area may not play anywhere else in the country or just the opposite they might not run a story that is running throughout the country. In effect, controlling the information given to voters.
If it is not total censuring it becomes a "twisting of perspective" giving a false inference with their stories reported.The only place we have freedom or at least "perceived freedom" is on the internet however now there is such technology that even the net could be controlled and monitored.
It probably is controlled because of our need for "homeland security".Isn't that what the facist called Germany, the HOMELAND? MOTHERLAND was another name they used a lot. Trying to stir up nationalism so THE PEOPLE would support the "cause". If the people had not cooperated with Hitler Germany would not have started the European part of WWII. They would have never invaded the other countries around them had THE PEOPLE resisted. Many of them tried but were killed. Had the majority resisted Hitler, he would not have been able to cause the problems he did. The majority of Germans did not know what was going on. They were in the middle of financial turmoil and did not bother to understand what their government, Hitler in particular, had in mind.
All of my ranting in this blog has been to try and wake people up to the fact that we do not have to continue down this path that both the Democratic and the Republican parties have taken us down for the last few decades. We do not have to accept any laws that the majority of the people do not agree with. We are not a dictatorship country so wake up and make a difference!
The only peaceful way of doing things is civil disobedience within the laws and voting for the people that will make changes. Not just the "other" party but for a significant change.
WE NEED A THIRD PARTY to put forth a person that can be trusted with our future.WE THE PEOPLE can take back this country without violence. This is the vision that Martin Luther King Jr. had in his dream. The majority of American citizens showing a UNITED PEOPLE standing up for those that cannot.After all of this crap being fed to us by these guys in Washington, DC we still have the most effective way to deal with them. We can vote them out of office and we can put in someone we trust. But first we have to find someone we can trust. Right? Yahoo! Where are you? So far, I must say they are not making themselves visible for us to see.
Be patient and look deep into someone's soul before voting for them. See if they really are representing you or are they representing the party and it's agenda. No matter what the party affiliation, make your politician show you how he feels. Don't just listen to what they say and believe them. Make them prove to you beyond a shadow of doubt that they are representing what you believe and what you would put your life on the line for. After all that is what we are asking the military personnel we employ is it not?It is not necessary to worry about who is on the Supreme Court if the majority of "THE PEOPLE" don't agree with a particular ruling.
THE PEOPLE" can make anything happen in this country because WE ARE THE COUNTRY.We used to be a proud and strong-willed people that settled the frontier going west until we hit the other ocean. Now most of us would not travel far at all to settle down. Let alone pee in a can or crap in a hole in the ground. Think about what our forefathers accomplished... without toilet paper!And we seem to like the "status quo" plan. As long as it does not effect us or someone close to us, we don't pay much attention to it. For instance, the Patriot Act I & II. Those acts are dangerous in the wrong hands. Therefore they should not be there in the first place. I was a psychology major in college and one of the lessons we learned was that absolute power will be taken advantage of eventually. That is why we must have checks and balances along the way for everyone in power or in a position of leadership. (Once those checks and balances are taken away it is simply a matter of time before the ego and pride in a human take over.) The same goes for our intelligence community.If the FBI, CIA, "whatever" cannot do their jobs efficiently enough to protect the country with these checks and balances in place then we need an overhaul and new management that can find a way to do it. Not just a change in President but an overhaul which takes the Congress into play as well. Right now there are in place men that are suppose to be collecting certain intelligence information to keep our highest level leadership involved and up to speed. These people have not received the proper training in life to be able to be effective, efficient guardians of our security.
Read the Intelligence Committee report regarding our men in the military. When it comes to "grunts" ( these are individuals that are part wild animal and part civilized man) we have the best trained in the world. There is no army in the world that can defeat us on the battlefield but we are vulnerable in the intellegence field. I mean that as it sounds.When I was in the intellegence branch of a service for four years I noticed an overall level of education. As my recruiter said only 10% of people qualify to become part of that branch of service I felt confident in my fellow soldier. If you read the IC report it states that our level of intellegence is one that could be compared to the level of an elementary student.Today's generation of 18-35 year olds is not less intellegent than their dads and granddads, they are just spoiled more. If that could be possible to spoil a person more than I was...but I digress.
Today's kids are spoiled by having immediate gratification with everything from cars to school. In the past, school was not a given. If your dad was not well off enough to send you to college, you had to work your butt off to get there. It became so hard and competitive it discouraged some from even trying. They did not have the initiative to try and get ahead so they fell behind. Since then, many have given up and rely on whatever they can get from society and they take the rest from someone else. Or they do without because they don't even have the incentive or initiative to steal something. In this day and time it is no excuse to say I'm black or I'm poor or I'm oppressed...whatever the excuse that is being put forward. Unless you are born into slavery you have every opportunity to make a career for yourself. The military service is not a bad place to start life. The discipline and organization that is taught stays with a person throughout their lives. That is if they learn discipline and organization. What I am saying and apparently the IC report agrees with, is that kids now days are not taught the right things to get them through life. Either at home, at school, or in the military service.
The Pentagon operates under any party elected. It has been set up that way for a reason. There should be no politicizing any war effort(not agenda but the military's efforts) nor should there be any politicizing the military. A war effort should be apolitical and our military has always been able to act accordingly in the past. We have to keep it that way now. Whether we have a Republican, Democrat, or some other party that may come along. (We need a third party to come along to be the alternative many of us are looking for.) A party that will lead this country into higher levels of technology, ethics, morals, and show the image to the world that most of us believe about this country. The military has to work with whatever party is in leadership. Notice I did not say "power" I said "leadership". This is a perspective we all must adopt if we are to be successful as a coherent society. No party is in "power" or we are in trouble.We are a benevolent society and will help anyone in the world that we can. The reality of it all is we have to be safe and self sufficient in order to be strong enough to exist in this world. Towards that goal is where I would like to see our efforts be the strongest in this country.
It does not take a special decree to overturn a ruling from the Supreme Court. So we should not allow this smoke and mirrors "play" to continue. It does not take any special legislation because the founding fathers had the wisdom to put in place a system that the majority of THE PEOPLE rule.Rule of law is the bedrock that our country was built upon. It took many years before we could be called the UNITED STATES and now that is falling apart due to political affiliations.We have taken our instinct of survival and competition to heights that are disturbing. We analize everything based on our lust for competition. You either WIN or you LOSE. WIN at all costs and screw the opposing team with every measure available. It is okay to forget about morals and ethics when it comes to most competitive sports these days. That attitude has carried over into the everyday lives of many citizens and our politicians because they are caught up in the competition of it all. (This must come to a halt. We must get our focus back on the country and our place in this world.)
My brother is a perfect example of a person lost in their own zeal to participate in the system. He is a born again Republican. That is not to be confused with a legitimate born again person that feels reborn in the light of the Creator. A born again Republican will support the party no matter what. Some, like my brother, don't agree with the corner stones of the party and yet will support it just to be "against" the other party. He, like many others, believe in freedom of choice in an abortion. He believes that our Drug War is wrong and it should not be waged. He has many aspects of his life dependent on the corporate structure and has fallen prey to that industry therefore the Republican party is his only hope.The problem with fanatics is they will tell little white lies or even big lies to further their agenda and they will talk over you in a conversation in order to get their point across. They say it is done because their point is the most important and they feel that they will change your mind if they get their point heard even though they are not listening to you and your point ever. Forget they told a lie just remember they have good intentions. Their agenda is the right one for everyone and they will not listen to the opposite sides views or try and see their perspective. To them that is a sign of weakness. To not be totally convicted is a sign of weakness. To be in the "middle" (this is where most of us reside) is to show signs of weakness. They don't understand the concept of anyone else being right or even having a legitimate idea that does not agree with theirs. You cannot talk to a person like that you can merely listen. Any attempt at discourse will be met with interruptions and yelling.On the other hand take a born again Democrat. They feel that they have been taken advantage of all of these years so it is revenge time for them. Every breath they take is calculated to a reaction by the Republicans. Every path they take is to undermine something that the Republicans are doing or saying. They are not thinking about THE PEOPLE they are thinking about themselves and how to compete with the Republicans. They are thinking about ways to WIN the next election. They don't do anything for the PEOPLE when they get elected they just keep getting re-elected. They think the role of the government is to be a "nanny" of a sort. If you don't agree with them then you are for the "other side". Neither of them are even contemplating another party coming into the fray. Almost as if they know a third party would never have a chance of succeeding. The one thing they don't contemplate is the majority of the people getting together for one cause. They think we are so divided that we could never come together on a common cause. THAT IS THEIR MISTAKE and THE PEOPLE's advantage.Neither of them are thinking about you and me. Whether you are Republican or Democrat you have been forgotten about until election time comes. They make it every two years so we can really never forget the competition and exist without controversy. If there is no action the media will find some.Just check out the legislation that has been passed this yearand signed into law. Nothing to benefit you and I. Nothing to benefit the country as a whole. The legislation put in place this year was simply moves by the Right and Left to set standards that they want us to live by. Standards in limiting bankruptcy, malpractice suits, envasion of privacy, and nothing in limiting businesses comitting fraud, pharmaceutical companies inefficiency, fraudulent medical practices, and etc. In order to protect insurance companies from large claims the doctors are able to buy insurance protecting them from malpractice suits which protects the doctors but now who is protecting the "victim", which could be you or me actually.That legislation satisfies politicians' medical and pharmaceutical supporters and works to protect the large companies. Two very big contengencies for every politician. The only way to be elected to any office of government you have to have large caches of money. Why? Because it costs large amounts of money to get advertising on television at times that people are mostly watching. The networks and the advertisers know what stations, which time of the day, and what their average audience does for a living and how much they make. All of this based on people responding to surveys conducted by the various entities such as Gallop surveys.Of course if we take a random survey of a particular area we can expect the results to lean towards the culture of the area surveyed. Rich will yield "rich" results and Poor will yield "poor" results. A more diverse survey would include rich, poor, and middle income individuals from all across the area being surveyed. Results can be manipulated to suit the agenda of the survey too easily to allow the results be more than curious information.Back to the test of government for the people or on the backs of the people. With the new legislation passed this past summer, we cannot go bankrupt under the same terms as in the past. They have restricted us from being able to clear our names, or get our lives back together again after a setback in our finances unless we get access to a sharp attorney. In the meantime all of the biggie corporations(think Delta and Northwest) are going bankrupt now to take advantage of the past laws. They are going to abandon their employees pension plans, leaving them for the taxpayers to foot the bill and that leaves all of the burden of the new law squarely on the middle class of this country, you and I. So much for companies and loyalty to their workers. If it were not for the educated workforce our corporations would not be where they are today. If they think they will be able to operate with unskilled and undereducated workers because of the computers in place, they will be wanting to get skilled labor back within ten years. In the meantime, many lives were ruined and had to pick themselves up and go at life once again.Since there are more middle class workers and tax payers out there than there are millionaires, we are the ones paying most of the taxes regardless of what one might tell you. That sounds rediculous at the surface because "certainly millionaires and billionaires are paying more than you and I". NOT TRUE. More people yields more money, even if it is at a lower rate. Some of us are in the 12 - 20% group of wage earners. We pay all of that money in to the taxman. Now, let's talk about those in the 21-30% bracket. They have "write-offs" they can take from their gross income, just as we all do, but their write-offs offset a lot more money than any we can come up with. They can afford to have their taxes calculated for them by a professional that knows every nook and cranny of the tax laws and how to take advantage of every provision. Most of us cannot afford the taxes let alone the tax preparer. We pay what we have to and they pay only what they cannot get out of.Those of us in that middle range of income, working our asses off to make a living and build a future are paying most of the taxes. Especially after the tax cuts under this latest administration. More of the tax burden was switched to us in the middle. It was magic!Who has the money to hire sharp attorneys and accountants to work our finances around so we could take advantage of the tax laws?Who has the money to invest and make the stock market move in their favor with heavy computer trading available to them?Who lobbies Congress and make legislation occur?Who contribute large amounts of cash and support with meeting facilities, services, and etc. to political parties in order to get favorable legislation passed?If you said "I do" to any of the preceding questions then you should recognize what this blog is all about...YOU.In my opinion the politicians want to keep as many people confused about everything and not teach them their rights as citizens. They don't want the majority of the voters to understand what they are voting for. Sounds strange but it is the truth. The more confused you are the better it is for most politicians. They get re-elected from apathy more than from deserving to represent the people.They enjoy their jobs and they like their pensions/healthcare program that we all pay for. We give them a salary to represent us. We are claiming to each other that we don't have enough time to go to our nation's Capitol and argue for our own needs so we just let them do their job as our representatives. Right? Who really checks to see how our representatives are voting? The local ones are easier to watch but the ones in Washington, DC use Smoke and Mirrors to deceive us all into thinking they are working for us. Ask any politician if they really listen to their constituencies. They take the fact that they were elected by the people as their mandate to doing anything THEY feel is right. Not what the people want him to do but what HE/SHE wants to do.WE THE PEOPLE are abdicating our responsibilities and we want Congress to do it's magic to make every service work well, to keep the roads level and smooth, to keep gas in the pumps at a low price, to have the strongest military in the world and etc.We are a society of demands and expectations. If the politicians take a little "graft" on the side as we go along that is fine unless they try and take too much. NOT a good thing. Right?Why has this happened in our country? A country founded by God loving men and women who wanted a different life. They wanted to live in a country where anyone was welcomed as long as each pitched in and did their part. They wanted to live in a country where there was peace and harmony with your neighbors. Yes they did separate into groups as they settled but that is only natural to want to be around those that grew up as you did. Same food, same music, same culture was the draw and rightly so.We found a way to get over the differences and play up the common ground. We all wanted freedom to pursue our lives as we saw fit. We wanted to cohabitate with each other to a point. We enjoyed learning about other cultures as we came together. It was the "American" experience that everyone heard about. The lust for adventure, the initiative to always look forward and bring new technology to market. The tolerance of one another's beliefs. Always remembering our roots as human beings and that the Creator made us all in God's image. We all have some of God's DNA. That truely makes us all brothers and sisters. God of all men and women on earth is our common ground and should be remembered by everyone.We are all immigrants or sons of immigrants in this country. If you do not live on a reservation or have an ancestor who did, you are an immigrant to this country. Back when the second rush of immigration to this country was at it's peak we welcomed immigrants with open arms. Why? They were going to help us build this land into the strongest country in the world. Guess What. That generation and the next generation did what they said they would do. It is up to the next generations to continue to keep us in the driver's seat of the world as far as technology and quality of life is concerned.I am afraid that the new generations are too accepting of an oppressive government. It seems as though we parents have made it too easy for them. We wanted them to have more than we did. Well, it worked...Now we have to light their fire!My son's generation and the following generations are going to have to be stewards of this accomplishment. To be good stewards we have to think about what the founders of this country had in mind.Our forefathers were not cruel people but did some very cruel things to succeed in creating our Republic. Mistakes were made in the past but we can get over that very easily. Accept that man is human and will make mistakes however inate in man is God and his image and that will come out sooner or later.Slavery was cruel at times. Some slaves were mistreated and that is shameful for those that committed those crimes against man. It should not be something that a person of this day could be held accoutable for. Unless you are a member of the Aryan Nation and hate everyone who is not white.The Dutch were the first to raid the villages in Africa and bring the African people to the English and to the Caribbean in order to work the plantations on the islands there. Once the American plantation owners heard about this "free" labor, they ordered up some of it too. (NOT GOOD)After they were sold to Americans, many blacks were happy to be in this country even though they were slaves. They had been taken from villages where the biggest mud hut marked the home of the village's leader. Everyone else was subject to the leader and many people suffered in those villages. They were taken away from what most of us would say was not a good situation and brought into this country. Those people who mistreated any other human will be judged by God in good time.Many slaves were treated humanely and eventually realized they were better off and were cooperative with their owners. Many of them stayed on their farms or plantations even after they were freed from slavery. Those slaves made a life possible for their decendants who now live freely in our country. It seems that reverse racism exists here in this country. Many of today's blacks are very racist and hate all white people. They need to be resisted by our society and put down at every turn.When Lincoln finally issued the Emmancipation Proclamation owning slaves had become a political football. Many died defending their idea of what this country is all about. Families split apart due to a political agenda. Not philosophies. It was an agenda. It had nothing to do with cruelty to blacks or keeping slaves except as a commodity.The Civil War was about whether or not the southerners with the plantations were going to win out against the corporate wheels in our industrial complex. It was whether some states could have a different view from the others and remain United. Apparently they could not do it without trying to kill each other over it. Ultimately it was all about MONEY and the control of it.The southern plantation owners had large populations of slaves to work their fields. Some northerners also used slaves, such as the Washington's, Jefferson's, and other prominent families but the majority of slaves lived in the south. Slaves were considered partial humans so plantation owners with many "partial humans" could claim more "whole humans" living in their areas by adding all of the slaves to the census. More people in a district yields more money from taxes to fix roads, build bridges, build dams, and etc. In our system of government there is a certain formula by which tax money is redistributed for the good of the country. In order to get more of that federally administered money the various states try to show more residents. More representation in Congress means more tax money will be allocated into your state or district.Southerners used their large slave population to get more representation and money. Northerners were furious over the imbalance of funds being doled out to the south. The northern federal government (think large industrial corporations) did not like being "one-upped" by the south (think cotton, tobacco, sugar) so they declared slavery illegal to cause problems in the southern Confederate States. Not only would the plantations have to pay their workers instead of having free labor, the states would not get more tax money than the northern states. Many of the freed slaves were going north to make a home and they were adding to their roles in the census and getting more tax money dispersed to the northern states.The Confederate States were not going to have that happen so they ceded from the union and stood ready to fight over their State's Right To Free Choice whether or not to have slavery. They still wanted to be able to count their slaves and get all of that work for nothing. That war over "states rights" and not "slavery per se" was fought because of a political agenda and not a moral one. Men and women died because of a political agenda. Sound familiar? Many "slaves" fought on the side of the Confederate Army because they felt the South was the righteous side in that battle. If they were being so mistreated why would they have done that? By the way, blacks were used by the Northern Army to run native American Indians off of their land too. Look at the history of the "buffalo soldiers" used out west.Depending on who is in the White House and who is controlling Congress we can either have a "WE THE PEOPLE" government or one that is self centered and has an agenda that is based on federalism and not Democracy.This present government which is a product of the Left and Right extremes is so messed up that it can have aid supplies parked at the border of a state and not be able to communicate with the authorities of that state to get permission to come in during a natural disaster.Military and federal government not being able to move through states without permission is a great idea and should stay in place. Get a way to communicate during an emergency is all that is necessary. The technology is there and cheap by comparison to terrorist attacks or a natural disaster and the aftermath of them. We do not need to change the "Posse Comotadus" act that is in place to keep the federal government from coming into a state unless requested by the state. This keeps our federal government and the military personnel under our control as United States citizens. That is why each state's Guard is necessary. Our state's Guard should be under the command of the state's governor and the federal military should come in only when asked. The state's Guard should be in contact with the federal military when needed and the White House when needed. Don't forget they are supposed to be different but in the same chain of command.This inability to communicate between federal and state governments in today's time is a major blunder. Certainly there should be a central communcation device that each emergency unit could be in touch with. Something like "On Star" where one has the ability to contact a central operator who dispatches from where they are. A central "911" number that everyone would know. A computerized system could be installed to filter calls but also be user friendly enough to allow a person to utilize it in an emergency. It should be powered independently and totally self sufficient in the time of emergency.All of that will be available in another five to ten years. What happens between now and then is most important and something we all have to think about.Let's hope we are all here to talk about this again in ten years. Right?
jayeye
Only if it is perceived as being "law" by the majority of American citizens will it become law of the land.
It seems that most of the decisions the Court has made in the past do reflect the majority of the citizen's view. Those decisions that did not reflect the majority were not about specific things that the majority worried about so those laws were not appealed by the public. It has not always worked out that the majority of the people agreed with a decision handed down by the Supreme Court. When that occurred the people overturned the decision. That is what our legal system is all about in this country and why this country has always been envied throughout the world.
NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD CAN SAY THEY ARE AS OPEN AS OUR LEGAL SYSTEM ALLOWS.
We THE PEOPLE are not taking advantage of this system. We are allowing the Congress and the White House dictate to us what is "right for us". How many times have you heard a member of the White House or Congress say "this is what the American People want" and it was not what you personally wanted? What are you, chopped liver? Last time I looked I was an American citizen and many of the things being quoted as "what the American people wanted" is not at all what I would have wanted. Is that happening to you? If you answered "yes" then we have to take the example of those citizens who fought for their rights in this country in the past.
The precedence (this is a fancy word for something that has happened in the past that was accepted by the majority of citizens and our legal system as part of our "rule of law") the people did not agree with the Supreme Court and overturned it's decision was set in 1793.That is when "THE PEOPLE" would not accept a ruling concerning property ownership in the Chisholm v Georgia case. Congressional members were urged by their constituencies(that is the people that live in the district or state that the representative lives in) to adopt an amendment (17th) which made the Supreme Court ruling obsolete. "THE PEOPLE" had spoken. This prerogative of "THE PEOPLE" keeps the law fair throughout the land. We have to be proactive and not reactive to keep things fair in this country. That is what we are about as a PEOPLE.The ruling in the Roe v Wade case was really about individual rights and not the actual abortion procedure. It says that all women have a right to decide on their own, with their doctors, whether or not to abort a particular pregnancy. It does not say abortion is a good thing. It does not say abortion is a bad thing. What it says is the government and the rest of the citizens of the country should stay out of each others business. None of us have a right to make a decision for another person unless they are put under our supervision and we are given the right to make decisions for them.We only have the right to make our own decisions. Therefore, the highest court in our system should not have the right to make a decision for any one person either. The Supreme Court is there to render a final decision based on the law of the land and THE PEOPLE have the right to accept or reject that decision.
That is the system we have set up however the people can waive their rights at any time and allow the federal government to intrude on their life and dictate to them what they must do and how they must live. That is what we have done in this country today.
On the other hand, the people could stand up for their rights and demand the federal government to act accordingly. They work for us. We pay their salaries. They have no right other than those that we THE PEOPLE bestow on them. That seems to have been forgotten in our mainstream society today. People seem to want to abdicate all things to the federal government. These people are saying to leave them alone to live their lives as best they can. They don't want to be involved in the everyday operations of our country.Others of us understand where the federal government should be and how it should be serving THE PEOPLE and making decisions that most of us agree with.
That is the purpose for this entry into my blog.
If I can wake up just one or two people with this entry, it has served it's purpose.Now ask yourselves these questions:
Do you agree that Congress should be able to give themselves a raise any time they want to?Or would you rather vote them a raise now and then?(If this became the situation you would see a bunch of these guys that say they are "doing it to serve our country" leaving Congress and their "service for the country" as soon as they saw their "free lunch" going away.)
Do you agree religion should be a basis for which legislation is passed?Or would you rather have legislation based on equality and fairness across all religions?
Do you agree with relaxing air and water quality standards in our country?Or would you rather have legislation creating tough standards for our industries to follow?
Do you agree that the drug war is worth the money and energy this country puts into it?Or would you rather see the reasons for drug use addressed and truthful education put forth?
Did you agree with starting the Iraq War?Or would you have rather continued to keep Sadam Hussein under guard and under watch until we could gather enough help from the rest of the world to do the job correctly?
Do you agree that the Iraq war has to be "won" before we get out of the country?Or would you rather see our citizens return safely and have help from the rest of the world to train the Iraqis?
Do you agree that our country should disassemble the safety net that has been put in place in regard to Medicare and Social Security?Or would you rather see an incentive given for the younger generations to think more about their future and their financial security along with the safety net in place.(note: Social Security was put in place because most people have very little money to save for their future. Social Security at least forces them to save something for their future and makes the companies that live off of their efforts contribute some to their future. What is wrong with that idea?)
Do you agree that the United Nations organization is a bad idea?Or would you rather have this organization in place to help solve problems between nations that we don't want to be going to war against each other?
All it would take is for "THE PEOPLE" to rally for any cause they considered important enough. If the civil action was taken in all of the districts across the country such as marches, sit ins, and many of the actions that were taken by THE PEOPLE in the past when bad decisions were made by the Supreme Court, during civil rights issues, during the Viet Nam war, and being taken today by people against the Iraq war.This "turmoil" over who is allowed to serve on the Supreme Court bench is smoke and mirrors by this government on both sides of the ailes.
They are playing out their parts as Congress in this great "play" the government puts on for "THE PEOPLE". (I don't hear any singing so it cannot be called a "musical" although the politicians can certainly dance)The "play" is picked up by the media because the media get their cues from the politicians. As one looks at the list of media owners today it reads like a who's who in the Corporate circus. That means the "liberal biased" media the Conservatives talk about is owned mostly by Conservatives.They are not liberaly biased any longer(if they ever were?) since our federal overseers thought it was a good idea to relax legislation put into place in the past to keep the media as fair as possible and allow more media outlets to be owned by one main corporation.
Now as you compare the ownership with the outlets owned one can see the coverage that has been set up.This list of Conservatives I mentioned earlier owns outlets including radio, television, newspapers, cable systems, the gamut of media outlets. They are spread over the country in such a way to cover the major metropolitan areas where significant voters reside.
For instance, in one particular area of the country one Corporate owner(ie: Clear Channel, FOX, and etc.) could own the CBS, NBC, ABC, WB affiliates which means they control the entire media feed into that area. A story that plays in that particular area may not play anywhere else in the country or just the opposite they might not run a story that is running throughout the country. In effect, controlling the information given to voters.
If it is not total censuring it becomes a "twisting of perspective" giving a false inference with their stories reported.The only place we have freedom or at least "perceived freedom" is on the internet however now there is such technology that even the net could be controlled and monitored.
It probably is controlled because of our need for "homeland security".Isn't that what the facist called Germany, the HOMELAND? MOTHERLAND was another name they used a lot. Trying to stir up nationalism so THE PEOPLE would support the "cause". If the people had not cooperated with Hitler Germany would not have started the European part of WWII. They would have never invaded the other countries around them had THE PEOPLE resisted. Many of them tried but were killed. Had the majority resisted Hitler, he would not have been able to cause the problems he did. The majority of Germans did not know what was going on. They were in the middle of financial turmoil and did not bother to understand what their government, Hitler in particular, had in mind.
All of my ranting in this blog has been to try and wake people up to the fact that we do not have to continue down this path that both the Democratic and the Republican parties have taken us down for the last few decades. We do not have to accept any laws that the majority of the people do not agree with. We are not a dictatorship country so wake up and make a difference!
The only peaceful way of doing things is civil disobedience within the laws and voting for the people that will make changes. Not just the "other" party but for a significant change.
WE NEED A THIRD PARTY to put forth a person that can be trusted with our future.WE THE PEOPLE can take back this country without violence. This is the vision that Martin Luther King Jr. had in his dream. The majority of American citizens showing a UNITED PEOPLE standing up for those that cannot.After all of this crap being fed to us by these guys in Washington, DC we still have the most effective way to deal with them. We can vote them out of office and we can put in someone we trust. But first we have to find someone we can trust. Right? Yahoo! Where are you? So far, I must say they are not making themselves visible for us to see.
Be patient and look deep into someone's soul before voting for them. See if they really are representing you or are they representing the party and it's agenda. No matter what the party affiliation, make your politician show you how he feels. Don't just listen to what they say and believe them. Make them prove to you beyond a shadow of doubt that they are representing what you believe and what you would put your life on the line for. After all that is what we are asking the military personnel we employ is it not?It is not necessary to worry about who is on the Supreme Court if the majority of "THE PEOPLE" don't agree with a particular ruling.
THE PEOPLE" can make anything happen in this country because WE ARE THE COUNTRY.We used to be a proud and strong-willed people that settled the frontier going west until we hit the other ocean. Now most of us would not travel far at all to settle down. Let alone pee in a can or crap in a hole in the ground. Think about what our forefathers accomplished... without toilet paper!And we seem to like the "status quo" plan. As long as it does not effect us or someone close to us, we don't pay much attention to it. For instance, the Patriot Act I & II. Those acts are dangerous in the wrong hands. Therefore they should not be there in the first place. I was a psychology major in college and one of the lessons we learned was that absolute power will be taken advantage of eventually. That is why we must have checks and balances along the way for everyone in power or in a position of leadership. (Once those checks and balances are taken away it is simply a matter of time before the ego and pride in a human take over.) The same goes for our intelligence community.If the FBI, CIA, "whatever" cannot do their jobs efficiently enough to protect the country with these checks and balances in place then we need an overhaul and new management that can find a way to do it. Not just a change in President but an overhaul which takes the Congress into play as well. Right now there are in place men that are suppose to be collecting certain intelligence information to keep our highest level leadership involved and up to speed. These people have not received the proper training in life to be able to be effective, efficient guardians of our security.
Read the Intelligence Committee report regarding our men in the military. When it comes to "grunts" ( these are individuals that are part wild animal and part civilized man) we have the best trained in the world. There is no army in the world that can defeat us on the battlefield but we are vulnerable in the intellegence field. I mean that as it sounds.When I was in the intellegence branch of a service for four years I noticed an overall level of education. As my recruiter said only 10% of people qualify to become part of that branch of service I felt confident in my fellow soldier. If you read the IC report it states that our level of intellegence is one that could be compared to the level of an elementary student.Today's generation of 18-35 year olds is not less intellegent than their dads and granddads, they are just spoiled more. If that could be possible to spoil a person more than I was...but I digress.
Today's kids are spoiled by having immediate gratification with everything from cars to school. In the past, school was not a given. If your dad was not well off enough to send you to college, you had to work your butt off to get there. It became so hard and competitive it discouraged some from even trying. They did not have the initiative to try and get ahead so they fell behind. Since then, many have given up and rely on whatever they can get from society and they take the rest from someone else. Or they do without because they don't even have the incentive or initiative to steal something. In this day and time it is no excuse to say I'm black or I'm poor or I'm oppressed...whatever the excuse that is being put forward. Unless you are born into slavery you have every opportunity to make a career for yourself. The military service is not a bad place to start life. The discipline and organization that is taught stays with a person throughout their lives. That is if they learn discipline and organization. What I am saying and apparently the IC report agrees with, is that kids now days are not taught the right things to get them through life. Either at home, at school, or in the military service.
The Pentagon operates under any party elected. It has been set up that way for a reason. There should be no politicizing any war effort(not agenda but the military's efforts) nor should there be any politicizing the military. A war effort should be apolitical and our military has always been able to act accordingly in the past. We have to keep it that way now. Whether we have a Republican, Democrat, or some other party that may come along. (We need a third party to come along to be the alternative many of us are looking for.) A party that will lead this country into higher levels of technology, ethics, morals, and show the image to the world that most of us believe about this country. The military has to work with whatever party is in leadership. Notice I did not say "power" I said "leadership". This is a perspective we all must adopt if we are to be successful as a coherent society. No party is in "power" or we are in trouble.We are a benevolent society and will help anyone in the world that we can. The reality of it all is we have to be safe and self sufficient in order to be strong enough to exist in this world. Towards that goal is where I would like to see our efforts be the strongest in this country.
It does not take a special decree to overturn a ruling from the Supreme Court. So we should not allow this smoke and mirrors "play" to continue. It does not take any special legislation because the founding fathers had the wisdom to put in place a system that the majority of THE PEOPLE rule.Rule of law is the bedrock that our country was built upon. It took many years before we could be called the UNITED STATES and now that is falling apart due to political affiliations.We have taken our instinct of survival and competition to heights that are disturbing. We analize everything based on our lust for competition. You either WIN or you LOSE. WIN at all costs and screw the opposing team with every measure available. It is okay to forget about morals and ethics when it comes to most competitive sports these days. That attitude has carried over into the everyday lives of many citizens and our politicians because they are caught up in the competition of it all. (This must come to a halt. We must get our focus back on the country and our place in this world.)
My brother is a perfect example of a person lost in their own zeal to participate in the system. He is a born again Republican. That is not to be confused with a legitimate born again person that feels reborn in the light of the Creator. A born again Republican will support the party no matter what. Some, like my brother, don't agree with the corner stones of the party and yet will support it just to be "against" the other party. He, like many others, believe in freedom of choice in an abortion. He believes that our Drug War is wrong and it should not be waged. He has many aspects of his life dependent on the corporate structure and has fallen prey to that industry therefore the Republican party is his only hope.The problem with fanatics is they will tell little white lies or even big lies to further their agenda and they will talk over you in a conversation in order to get their point across. They say it is done because their point is the most important and they feel that they will change your mind if they get their point heard even though they are not listening to you and your point ever. Forget they told a lie just remember they have good intentions. Their agenda is the right one for everyone and they will not listen to the opposite sides views or try and see their perspective. To them that is a sign of weakness. To not be totally convicted is a sign of weakness. To be in the "middle" (this is where most of us reside) is to show signs of weakness. They don't understand the concept of anyone else being right or even having a legitimate idea that does not agree with theirs. You cannot talk to a person like that you can merely listen. Any attempt at discourse will be met with interruptions and yelling.On the other hand take a born again Democrat. They feel that they have been taken advantage of all of these years so it is revenge time for them. Every breath they take is calculated to a reaction by the Republicans. Every path they take is to undermine something that the Republicans are doing or saying. They are not thinking about THE PEOPLE they are thinking about themselves and how to compete with the Republicans. They are thinking about ways to WIN the next election. They don't do anything for the PEOPLE when they get elected they just keep getting re-elected. They think the role of the government is to be a "nanny" of a sort. If you don't agree with them then you are for the "other side". Neither of them are even contemplating another party coming into the fray. Almost as if they know a third party would never have a chance of succeeding. The one thing they don't contemplate is the majority of the people getting together for one cause. They think we are so divided that we could never come together on a common cause. THAT IS THEIR MISTAKE and THE PEOPLE's advantage.Neither of them are thinking about you and me. Whether you are Republican or Democrat you have been forgotten about until election time comes. They make it every two years so we can really never forget the competition and exist without controversy. If there is no action the media will find some.Just check out the legislation that has been passed this yearand signed into law. Nothing to benefit you and I. Nothing to benefit the country as a whole. The legislation put in place this year was simply moves by the Right and Left to set standards that they want us to live by. Standards in limiting bankruptcy, malpractice suits, envasion of privacy, and nothing in limiting businesses comitting fraud, pharmaceutical companies inefficiency, fraudulent medical practices, and etc. In order to protect insurance companies from large claims the doctors are able to buy insurance protecting them from malpractice suits which protects the doctors but now who is protecting the "victim", which could be you or me actually.That legislation satisfies politicians' medical and pharmaceutical supporters and works to protect the large companies. Two very big contengencies for every politician. The only way to be elected to any office of government you have to have large caches of money. Why? Because it costs large amounts of money to get advertising on television at times that people are mostly watching. The networks and the advertisers know what stations, which time of the day, and what their average audience does for a living and how much they make. All of this based on people responding to surveys conducted by the various entities such as Gallop surveys.Of course if we take a random survey of a particular area we can expect the results to lean towards the culture of the area surveyed. Rich will yield "rich" results and Poor will yield "poor" results. A more diverse survey would include rich, poor, and middle income individuals from all across the area being surveyed. Results can be manipulated to suit the agenda of the survey too easily to allow the results be more than curious information.Back to the test of government for the people or on the backs of the people. With the new legislation passed this past summer, we cannot go bankrupt under the same terms as in the past. They have restricted us from being able to clear our names, or get our lives back together again after a setback in our finances unless we get access to a sharp attorney. In the meantime all of the biggie corporations(think Delta and Northwest) are going bankrupt now to take advantage of the past laws. They are going to abandon their employees pension plans, leaving them for the taxpayers to foot the bill and that leaves all of the burden of the new law squarely on the middle class of this country, you and I. So much for companies and loyalty to their workers. If it were not for the educated workforce our corporations would not be where they are today. If they think they will be able to operate with unskilled and undereducated workers because of the computers in place, they will be wanting to get skilled labor back within ten years. In the meantime, many lives were ruined and had to pick themselves up and go at life once again.Since there are more middle class workers and tax payers out there than there are millionaires, we are the ones paying most of the taxes regardless of what one might tell you. That sounds rediculous at the surface because "certainly millionaires and billionaires are paying more than you and I". NOT TRUE. More people yields more money, even if it is at a lower rate. Some of us are in the 12 - 20% group of wage earners. We pay all of that money in to the taxman. Now, let's talk about those in the 21-30% bracket. They have "write-offs" they can take from their gross income, just as we all do, but their write-offs offset a lot more money than any we can come up with. They can afford to have their taxes calculated for them by a professional that knows every nook and cranny of the tax laws and how to take advantage of every provision. Most of us cannot afford the taxes let alone the tax preparer. We pay what we have to and they pay only what they cannot get out of.Those of us in that middle range of income, working our asses off to make a living and build a future are paying most of the taxes. Especially after the tax cuts under this latest administration. More of the tax burden was switched to us in the middle. It was magic!Who has the money to hire sharp attorneys and accountants to work our finances around so we could take advantage of the tax laws?Who has the money to invest and make the stock market move in their favor with heavy computer trading available to them?Who lobbies Congress and make legislation occur?Who contribute large amounts of cash and support with meeting facilities, services, and etc. to political parties in order to get favorable legislation passed?If you said "I do" to any of the preceding questions then you should recognize what this blog is all about...YOU.In my opinion the politicians want to keep as many people confused about everything and not teach them their rights as citizens. They don't want the majority of the voters to understand what they are voting for. Sounds strange but it is the truth. The more confused you are the better it is for most politicians. They get re-elected from apathy more than from deserving to represent the people.They enjoy their jobs and they like their pensions/healthcare program that we all pay for. We give them a salary to represent us. We are claiming to each other that we don't have enough time to go to our nation's Capitol and argue for our own needs so we just let them do their job as our representatives. Right? Who really checks to see how our representatives are voting? The local ones are easier to watch but the ones in Washington, DC use Smoke and Mirrors to deceive us all into thinking they are working for us. Ask any politician if they really listen to their constituencies. They take the fact that they were elected by the people as their mandate to doing anything THEY feel is right. Not what the people want him to do but what HE/SHE wants to do.WE THE PEOPLE are abdicating our responsibilities and we want Congress to do it's magic to make every service work well, to keep the roads level and smooth, to keep gas in the pumps at a low price, to have the strongest military in the world and etc.We are a society of demands and expectations. If the politicians take a little "graft" on the side as we go along that is fine unless they try and take too much. NOT a good thing. Right?Why has this happened in our country? A country founded by God loving men and women who wanted a different life. They wanted to live in a country where anyone was welcomed as long as each pitched in and did their part. They wanted to live in a country where there was peace and harmony with your neighbors. Yes they did separate into groups as they settled but that is only natural to want to be around those that grew up as you did. Same food, same music, same culture was the draw and rightly so.We found a way to get over the differences and play up the common ground. We all wanted freedom to pursue our lives as we saw fit. We wanted to cohabitate with each other to a point. We enjoyed learning about other cultures as we came together. It was the "American" experience that everyone heard about. The lust for adventure, the initiative to always look forward and bring new technology to market. The tolerance of one another's beliefs. Always remembering our roots as human beings and that the Creator made us all in God's image. We all have some of God's DNA. That truely makes us all brothers and sisters. God of all men and women on earth is our common ground and should be remembered by everyone.We are all immigrants or sons of immigrants in this country. If you do not live on a reservation or have an ancestor who did, you are an immigrant to this country. Back when the second rush of immigration to this country was at it's peak we welcomed immigrants with open arms. Why? They were going to help us build this land into the strongest country in the world. Guess What. That generation and the next generation did what they said they would do. It is up to the next generations to continue to keep us in the driver's seat of the world as far as technology and quality of life is concerned.I am afraid that the new generations are too accepting of an oppressive government. It seems as though we parents have made it too easy for them. We wanted them to have more than we did. Well, it worked...Now we have to light their fire!My son's generation and the following generations are going to have to be stewards of this accomplishment. To be good stewards we have to think about what the founders of this country had in mind.Our forefathers were not cruel people but did some very cruel things to succeed in creating our Republic. Mistakes were made in the past but we can get over that very easily. Accept that man is human and will make mistakes however inate in man is God and his image and that will come out sooner or later.Slavery was cruel at times. Some slaves were mistreated and that is shameful for those that committed those crimes against man. It should not be something that a person of this day could be held accoutable for. Unless you are a member of the Aryan Nation and hate everyone who is not white.The Dutch were the first to raid the villages in Africa and bring the African people to the English and to the Caribbean in order to work the plantations on the islands there. Once the American plantation owners heard about this "free" labor, they ordered up some of it too. (NOT GOOD)After they were sold to Americans, many blacks were happy to be in this country even though they were slaves. They had been taken from villages where the biggest mud hut marked the home of the village's leader. Everyone else was subject to the leader and many people suffered in those villages. They were taken away from what most of us would say was not a good situation and brought into this country. Those people who mistreated any other human will be judged by God in good time.Many slaves were treated humanely and eventually realized they were better off and were cooperative with their owners. Many of them stayed on their farms or plantations even after they were freed from slavery. Those slaves made a life possible for their decendants who now live freely in our country. It seems that reverse racism exists here in this country. Many of today's blacks are very racist and hate all white people. They need to be resisted by our society and put down at every turn.When Lincoln finally issued the Emmancipation Proclamation owning slaves had become a political football. Many died defending their idea of what this country is all about. Families split apart due to a political agenda. Not philosophies. It was an agenda. It had nothing to do with cruelty to blacks or keeping slaves except as a commodity.The Civil War was about whether or not the southerners with the plantations were going to win out against the corporate wheels in our industrial complex. It was whether some states could have a different view from the others and remain United. Apparently they could not do it without trying to kill each other over it. Ultimately it was all about MONEY and the control of it.The southern plantation owners had large populations of slaves to work their fields. Some northerners also used slaves, such as the Washington's, Jefferson's, and other prominent families but the majority of slaves lived in the south. Slaves were considered partial humans so plantation owners with many "partial humans" could claim more "whole humans" living in their areas by adding all of the slaves to the census. More people in a district yields more money from taxes to fix roads, build bridges, build dams, and etc. In our system of government there is a certain formula by which tax money is redistributed for the good of the country. In order to get more of that federally administered money the various states try to show more residents. More representation in Congress means more tax money will be allocated into your state or district.Southerners used their large slave population to get more representation and money. Northerners were furious over the imbalance of funds being doled out to the south. The northern federal government (think large industrial corporations) did not like being "one-upped" by the south (think cotton, tobacco, sugar) so they declared slavery illegal to cause problems in the southern Confederate States. Not only would the plantations have to pay their workers instead of having free labor, the states would not get more tax money than the northern states. Many of the freed slaves were going north to make a home and they were adding to their roles in the census and getting more tax money dispersed to the northern states.The Confederate States were not going to have that happen so they ceded from the union and stood ready to fight over their State's Right To Free Choice whether or not to have slavery. They still wanted to be able to count their slaves and get all of that work for nothing. That war over "states rights" and not "slavery per se" was fought because of a political agenda and not a moral one. Men and women died because of a political agenda. Sound familiar? Many "slaves" fought on the side of the Confederate Army because they felt the South was the righteous side in that battle. If they were being so mistreated why would they have done that? By the way, blacks were used by the Northern Army to run native American Indians off of their land too. Look at the history of the "buffalo soldiers" used out west.Depending on who is in the White House and who is controlling Congress we can either have a "WE THE PEOPLE" government or one that is self centered and has an agenda that is based on federalism and not Democracy.This present government which is a product of the Left and Right extremes is so messed up that it can have aid supplies parked at the border of a state and not be able to communicate with the authorities of that state to get permission to come in during a natural disaster.Military and federal government not being able to move through states without permission is a great idea and should stay in place. Get a way to communicate during an emergency is all that is necessary. The technology is there and cheap by comparison to terrorist attacks or a natural disaster and the aftermath of them. We do not need to change the "Posse Comotadus" act that is in place to keep the federal government from coming into a state unless requested by the state. This keeps our federal government and the military personnel under our control as United States citizens. That is why each state's Guard is necessary. Our state's Guard should be under the command of the state's governor and the federal military should come in only when asked. The state's Guard should be in contact with the federal military when needed and the White House when needed. Don't forget they are supposed to be different but in the same chain of command.This inability to communicate between federal and state governments in today's time is a major blunder. Certainly there should be a central communcation device that each emergency unit could be in touch with. Something like "On Star" where one has the ability to contact a central operator who dispatches from where they are. A central "911" number that everyone would know. A computerized system could be installed to filter calls but also be user friendly enough to allow a person to utilize it in an emergency. It should be powered independently and totally self sufficient in the time of emergency.All of that will be available in another five to ten years. What happens between now and then is most important and something we all have to think about.Let's hope we are all here to talk about this again in ten years. Right?
jayeye
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
What does the United States of America Stand For?
Readers....if there are any?
Have you asked yourself the question: "What does my country stand for?"
We all should examine that question. Do you believe that our government is doing what you would do in their absence? Would you have reacted to the things happening in the world the same way as our present government reacted?
These are people that are supposedly elected to represent us. But we don't ask the hard questions when they do something in the name of the United States of America which is all of it's citizens.
I have heard many people talking and the same statement seems to cross all racial, ethnic, religious boundaries: "I just don't understand why so many people in the world hate us(United States of America citizens). "We are not a bad country that deserves people attacking us" is another statement I hear.
Are we a bad country? Do we have the wrong representation to the world getting out? Are the wrong people(all parties included) in political office in our country? Do we have the wrong government in place?
Does our government truly represent the Majority of citizens in this country or do they represent a very vocal twenty to twenty-five percent of our country. After all, that is all who vote on election day so that must be the reason for their influence.
I know there are probably some very nice, cordial, and perhaps charismatic people in our Congress but for the most part citizens they do not take the Majority into mind when enacting legislation. The Majority of the citizens in this country do not go along with what has been put into place but we do not know what to do about it and our lives are so busy we have to pray that our representatives don't do something that really hurts us in the long run....
As you have probably guessed by now I am leading to the fact that they already have done it. Congress and our President have led us into a position in the world where we have to say we are hated worldwide now and most of us would never have allowed it to get this way if we were really in charge as we should be. We The People is not just the preamble words they are very important words as they were to the authors. We The People are the legal, caring citizens of the United States of America.
True. Most of us were not persuaded to make the USA our homes because we were previledged to be born here. We better start acting like United States of America's citizenship or we are going to lose our country.
I am a Viet Nam veteran and I do not have post traumatic stress and this is not a rant.
Our country was attacked by Osama and his organization of thugs around the world. Our representatives allowed Osama to gain that kind of power because they built his organization for him. He needed it to recruit fighters during the Afganistan war with Russia and we sooooo wanted to defeat Russia.
We missed our opportunity in Viet Nam and Korea. After all we were courting China and we did not want to have anything like a war get in the way of our relationship with China. But Russia, we did not want them involved in any victory of war so we fought the hell out of them, especially in Viet Nam. When we captured the enemy whether from the north or a southern fighter we found Russian weaponry and accessories. Russian watches we a great find. The spoils of the war you might say. :) I never said I did not take advantage of my position as the winner in the fights that I was involved in. Call me mercinary if you like but my butt was on the line and I deserved some of the spoils.
Anyway, back to our illustrious "leaders?". Here we are again. Back in a war that did not have to happen in a region that we have no reason to be in. Except maybe to secure the oil for the purpose of keeping economic chaos from happening because of the reserves that exist over there....
Do you see the predicament? Our government saw the potential of a total shutdown of many institutions across the world simply with shutting off oil from the Middle East.
Okay, granted they are not all a bunch of losers and buffoons but common sense shows anyone that attacking Iraq at the time we did was not necessary. We had Osama in a position where we could have pressured him to surrender or at the least kill the mf. But instead our government chose to attack another country and to lie to all of us as to why they had to do that immediately.
I don't know many people that would have said yes to that plan of action that was done in our names, the citizens of the USA. We cannot disconnect our lives away from these actions. Each of us has to take responsibility for these actions and the future actions of our country's representatives.
I am sure that by this time you have noticed that the elections are held in such a way that the voters could not replace all of Congress in one election. Also politicians are relying on the fact that most of us are not "Congressional material". Either we don't have the time to dedicate to the job, the feeling of civic service that would be needed(it is evident to me that not many of our present representatives have the latter) to represent our country. We have families that need us or we have companies that need us or some other excuse and thus we elect them to represent us.
Have you looked at the perks of the job?
Over one hundred and forty thousand dollars salary for a part time job(the hours are not full time hours). They receive a pension and healthcare plan that is the envy of the corporations operating in our country. Doesn't that sound good to you?
What a job. You show up at the great halls each day you are in D.C. and sit on your ass in an office until you have to go vote for legislation. You vote according to your party's wishes and you go home at the end of the day. You don't have to listen to any of the so-called speeches in those halls because no matter what is said you have your vote decided and are just waiting for the time to go vote. The news media is way ahead of the citizenship and have published the vote tallies before the vote takes place. How could they know? It is decided way ahead of time and concessions on both sides(Rep & Dem) and everyone goes home feeling good about what has taken place.
In the meantime we are at war or hated by many more countries than in our history. Our forefathers are rolling in their graves everytime legislation occurs that takes more and more of our freedoms and rights away in the name of "security". The media is allowed to scare the hell out of us and slant everything towards the need for more security therefore we can afford to give away more freedoms and rights. The theory is that if you are Middle Eastern you are either connected to a terrorist or you are a terrorist. Can you imagine what it would be like to be Middle Eastern here in this country about now? About as popular as being black was back in the earlier part of the 1900's. Not until the 1960's did integration take hold and it was not without it's problems. They still exist today.
Most races, colors, ethnicities; whatever you decide to call groups of people want to be with others that share their culture. If they grew up Middle Eastern they want other Middle Easterners to live near. Why? We humans developed villages for social needs and if I am in another culture's social environment I feel like a person out of touch with my surroundings. It may take a couple of days before I could feel as if I fit in and maybe I could never feel that way. After all I was brought up near Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America. Give me an evironment that resembles my upbringing and I could feel very much at home.
Can you imagine being a black in the old south? Can you imagine what it would be like if you were a Catholic in the Protestant part of Northern Ireland? I cannot imagine that because I have always lived in the United States of America. What makes the USA different from these other countries where I would not fit in is our culture. I feel at home in any state in our beautiful country.
The United States of America is filled with some of the most loving, caring people that any country has. You can settle in most neighborhoods in this country and feel right at home...
unless you are Middle Eastern, Black, Brown, Yellow, you could settle in any neighborhood and feel right at home. No wonder enclaves of each race are beginning to increase.
When I grew up it would not be very long after you moved into your home that someone from the neighborhood would welcome you and most of the time offer you a baked item to let you know someone went out of their way to welcome you to the area. What a great feeling! You were accepted into the area. Others would go out of their way to let you know they were happy to see you as well. People would wave as you drove by. Unless you were Black. It seems there was always an exception when it came to Blacks. No wonder they are pissed off.
Like that guy in California that was taken out of his truck and beaten half to death said afterwards: "Can't we just all get along?".
What is wrong with that idea? All of us getting along? What happened to that United States of America where I grew up. That USA that I voluteered to protect with my life both as a civilian and a member of the military. Where is that country?
Well, let's examine the elements of our citizenry. Right down to the illegal citizens that are more of a burden on our society than any other problem we have. It is not their faults. It is our representative and their representatives that are at fault and that is the whole purpose of this blog. To point out the good, the bad, and the ugly. To point out that we need to take back over the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual operation of this country. We need to elect more people that don't really want the job but will take it because of their "civic duty".
How do we find those representatives? We advertise for them just like every corporation does. We look for the people that will go to Congress and the White House and do the "will of the people". We need representatives that will take a pay cut, forget about the golden parachute at the end, and really want to serve the country and not "milk the country's treasuries".
People unite and let's us find those representatives. If not, dwell in the dung heap that you allow to occur and don't complain about the lousy representation that you have in Congress. Don't ask the stupid question "why do people hate us?" because it will be fairly evident to you by then, they hate us because there are do nothing people like you that allow our representations to be flawed. Elect only those that you perceive as not wanting the job so badly. That is the smart tactic. Don't vote along party lines vote the person. In fact, if they align themselves along party propaganda that would be a sure sign not to vote for them.
Don't be fooled by those that go "independent". That is just another way of saying "I will not take defeat until I am totally defeated". You do not survive total defeat. You lose everything. That is why most wars end in some type of concession on both sides. Those that "stay the course even when that course is failing" cause more negative results than positive ones.
Show up on election day and write in your candidate for office. Pick someone that would do the job well but does not particularly want the job. Someone that will represent you honestly.
All of you citizens that are old enough to vote if you do not vote in this election you will have lost the right to be called an United States of America citizen in my opinion. This next one is most important because the very country that was established to be a beacon to everyone that desired a good life and a fair living is being tested. We The People must take a stand once again for our country. Otherwise you can kiss your country goodbye. Time is getting short for those that care about this country to make a difference. If we don't use our power as a large group of caring and loving citizenry we will become the minority in this country and our country's legacy will be lost forever.
We must take this country back from the facism that is at work here in this country. Look up the meaning of the word. Put very concisely it means corporate influence over governmental affairs. It means corporate influence over the operations of the entire country. Whatever the corporate level wants our legislative body provides. The President is a figurehead individual that thinks they are making important decisions but those decisions are made by proxy and echoed by the individual occupying that office of USA's leader. The Board is making those decisions as it does in the corporations.
One must take the time to research the inner workings of our country. Look who is on each company's board of directors and you will be so surprised to learn that they serve on each others boards and help make decisions that they have agreed on ahead of the meetings.
We cannot all be just robots. When people talk of the United States of America in relation to Babylon, "the whore Babylon", they are referring to the Bible teachings speaking of the "end times" and the rising of the Third Roman Empire that will reign for many years. These passages give examples of what to look for in these "times" and mentions how things will play out for several years until God saves our world from becoming totally destroyed.
The amazing thing about that story is that in each major Religion they have a story that says something about an ending of this era and a new one beginning. Some think these are the "end times" that the Bible refers to. Others who have studied Mayan culture think December of 2012 is when a new beginning will occur. Jesus Christ, when interviewed, mentioned that his life was to fulfill a prophesy. Christ said, according to Biblical references, "do not worship me". He always referred to The Father when he spoke according to the stories. Thousands of years before Jesus, Ezekiel, David, and others spoke of the times of Jesus and beyond. There was prophesy to fulfill and someone had to be put to death as a symbol for all who loved God to follow. God's son had been crucified because of his love for his Father. He preached about a loving God and a tolerant God and the zealot Jews of that time were having a hard time dealing with Jesus. He was becoming way too popular and their power over the people was waning. In a few years Jesus would have really changed the world with his teachings but...that was not the reason for his birth and he always reminded those around him of this. The apostles knew Jesus to be very capable of overwhelming the Romans and the Jews but Jesus would always remind them that soon he would be put to death because of God's teachings and that they needed to prepare for that time. "Many will be called but few will follow" is another quote from those Biblical teachings. Contemplate on that statement and then look around at the billions and billions of people on this planet. Few are going to follow.
That is what scares me more than anything. I will be among the few and that is not a good feeling to be outnumbered by those that think differently than you do.
That is why it is so important to try and put this inevitability off for as long as we can because we are responsible for this planet as well as our own neighborhoods. We need to vote for the person that we think will represent the citizentry of the United States of America with our interests in mind each time legislation is introduced. Someone that we will be proud of when they represent us to the world. Right now we are in trouble with the rest of the world for being so beligerant. We are not that type of people so that means we are being misrepresented.
Ask yourself the question: "what do I stand for?" Is my interest and philosophy being properly represented? I think if you get off the political band wagon for a couple of minutes you will see that no party is representing us. They all have their agenda and the organization would not exist if that were not true.
Vote in someone from the outside and fire the incumbents in office today. The opportunity will soon be here for everyone to express their opinions and be heard. November is the time to vote your spirit, the spirit of the United States of America.
God bless the USA citizenry. Let US group together under one banner.
I AM US-American.
Are you?
Have you asked yourself the question: "What does my country stand for?"
We all should examine that question. Do you believe that our government is doing what you would do in their absence? Would you have reacted to the things happening in the world the same way as our present government reacted?
These are people that are supposedly elected to represent us. But we don't ask the hard questions when they do something in the name of the United States of America which is all of it's citizens.
I have heard many people talking and the same statement seems to cross all racial, ethnic, religious boundaries: "I just don't understand why so many people in the world hate us(United States of America citizens). "We are not a bad country that deserves people attacking us" is another statement I hear.
Are we a bad country? Do we have the wrong representation to the world getting out? Are the wrong people(all parties included) in political office in our country? Do we have the wrong government in place?
Does our government truly represent the Majority of citizens in this country or do they represent a very vocal twenty to twenty-five percent of our country. After all, that is all who vote on election day so that must be the reason for their influence.
I know there are probably some very nice, cordial, and perhaps charismatic people in our Congress but for the most part citizens they do not take the Majority into mind when enacting legislation. The Majority of the citizens in this country do not go along with what has been put into place but we do not know what to do about it and our lives are so busy we have to pray that our representatives don't do something that really hurts us in the long run....
As you have probably guessed by now I am leading to the fact that they already have done it. Congress and our President have led us into a position in the world where we have to say we are hated worldwide now and most of us would never have allowed it to get this way if we were really in charge as we should be. We The People is not just the preamble words they are very important words as they were to the authors. We The People are the legal, caring citizens of the United States of America.
True. Most of us were not persuaded to make the USA our homes because we were previledged to be born here. We better start acting like United States of America's citizenship or we are going to lose our country.
I am a Viet Nam veteran and I do not have post traumatic stress and this is not a rant.
Our country was attacked by Osama and his organization of thugs around the world. Our representatives allowed Osama to gain that kind of power because they built his organization for him. He needed it to recruit fighters during the Afganistan war with Russia and we sooooo wanted to defeat Russia.
We missed our opportunity in Viet Nam and Korea. After all we were courting China and we did not want to have anything like a war get in the way of our relationship with China. But Russia, we did not want them involved in any victory of war so we fought the hell out of them, especially in Viet Nam. When we captured the enemy whether from the north or a southern fighter we found Russian weaponry and accessories. Russian watches we a great find. The spoils of the war you might say. :) I never said I did not take advantage of my position as the winner in the fights that I was involved in. Call me mercinary if you like but my butt was on the line and I deserved some of the spoils.
Anyway, back to our illustrious "leaders?". Here we are again. Back in a war that did not have to happen in a region that we have no reason to be in. Except maybe to secure the oil for the purpose of keeping economic chaos from happening because of the reserves that exist over there....
Do you see the predicament? Our government saw the potential of a total shutdown of many institutions across the world simply with shutting off oil from the Middle East.
Okay, granted they are not all a bunch of losers and buffoons but common sense shows anyone that attacking Iraq at the time we did was not necessary. We had Osama in a position where we could have pressured him to surrender or at the least kill the mf. But instead our government chose to attack another country and to lie to all of us as to why they had to do that immediately.
I don't know many people that would have said yes to that plan of action that was done in our names, the citizens of the USA. We cannot disconnect our lives away from these actions. Each of us has to take responsibility for these actions and the future actions of our country's representatives.
I am sure that by this time you have noticed that the elections are held in such a way that the voters could not replace all of Congress in one election. Also politicians are relying on the fact that most of us are not "Congressional material". Either we don't have the time to dedicate to the job, the feeling of civic service that would be needed(it is evident to me that not many of our present representatives have the latter) to represent our country. We have families that need us or we have companies that need us or some other excuse and thus we elect them to represent us.
Have you looked at the perks of the job?
Over one hundred and forty thousand dollars salary for a part time job(the hours are not full time hours). They receive a pension and healthcare plan that is the envy of the corporations operating in our country. Doesn't that sound good to you?
What a job. You show up at the great halls each day you are in D.C. and sit on your ass in an office until you have to go vote for legislation. You vote according to your party's wishes and you go home at the end of the day. You don't have to listen to any of the so-called speeches in those halls because no matter what is said you have your vote decided and are just waiting for the time to go vote. The news media is way ahead of the citizenship and have published the vote tallies before the vote takes place. How could they know? It is decided way ahead of time and concessions on both sides(Rep & Dem) and everyone goes home feeling good about what has taken place.
In the meantime we are at war or hated by many more countries than in our history. Our forefathers are rolling in their graves everytime legislation occurs that takes more and more of our freedoms and rights away in the name of "security". The media is allowed to scare the hell out of us and slant everything towards the need for more security therefore we can afford to give away more freedoms and rights. The theory is that if you are Middle Eastern you are either connected to a terrorist or you are a terrorist. Can you imagine what it would be like to be Middle Eastern here in this country about now? About as popular as being black was back in the earlier part of the 1900's. Not until the 1960's did integration take hold and it was not without it's problems. They still exist today.
Most races, colors, ethnicities; whatever you decide to call groups of people want to be with others that share their culture. If they grew up Middle Eastern they want other Middle Easterners to live near. Why? We humans developed villages for social needs and if I am in another culture's social environment I feel like a person out of touch with my surroundings. It may take a couple of days before I could feel as if I fit in and maybe I could never feel that way. After all I was brought up near Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America. Give me an evironment that resembles my upbringing and I could feel very much at home.
Can you imagine being a black in the old south? Can you imagine what it would be like if you were a Catholic in the Protestant part of Northern Ireland? I cannot imagine that because I have always lived in the United States of America. What makes the USA different from these other countries where I would not fit in is our culture. I feel at home in any state in our beautiful country.
The United States of America is filled with some of the most loving, caring people that any country has. You can settle in most neighborhoods in this country and feel right at home...
unless you are Middle Eastern, Black, Brown, Yellow, you could settle in any neighborhood and feel right at home. No wonder enclaves of each race are beginning to increase.
When I grew up it would not be very long after you moved into your home that someone from the neighborhood would welcome you and most of the time offer you a baked item to let you know someone went out of their way to welcome you to the area. What a great feeling! You were accepted into the area. Others would go out of their way to let you know they were happy to see you as well. People would wave as you drove by. Unless you were Black. It seems there was always an exception when it came to Blacks. No wonder they are pissed off.
Like that guy in California that was taken out of his truck and beaten half to death said afterwards: "Can't we just all get along?".
What is wrong with that idea? All of us getting along? What happened to that United States of America where I grew up. That USA that I voluteered to protect with my life both as a civilian and a member of the military. Where is that country?
Well, let's examine the elements of our citizenry. Right down to the illegal citizens that are more of a burden on our society than any other problem we have. It is not their faults. It is our representative and their representatives that are at fault and that is the whole purpose of this blog. To point out the good, the bad, and the ugly. To point out that we need to take back over the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual operation of this country. We need to elect more people that don't really want the job but will take it because of their "civic duty".
How do we find those representatives? We advertise for them just like every corporation does. We look for the people that will go to Congress and the White House and do the "will of the people". We need representatives that will take a pay cut, forget about the golden parachute at the end, and really want to serve the country and not "milk the country's treasuries".
People unite and let's us find those representatives. If not, dwell in the dung heap that you allow to occur and don't complain about the lousy representation that you have in Congress. Don't ask the stupid question "why do people hate us?" because it will be fairly evident to you by then, they hate us because there are do nothing people like you that allow our representations to be flawed. Elect only those that you perceive as not wanting the job so badly. That is the smart tactic. Don't vote along party lines vote the person. In fact, if they align themselves along party propaganda that would be a sure sign not to vote for them.
Don't be fooled by those that go "independent". That is just another way of saying "I will not take defeat until I am totally defeated". You do not survive total defeat. You lose everything. That is why most wars end in some type of concession on both sides. Those that "stay the course even when that course is failing" cause more negative results than positive ones.
Show up on election day and write in your candidate for office. Pick someone that would do the job well but does not particularly want the job. Someone that will represent you honestly.
All of you citizens that are old enough to vote if you do not vote in this election you will have lost the right to be called an United States of America citizen in my opinion. This next one is most important because the very country that was established to be a beacon to everyone that desired a good life and a fair living is being tested. We The People must take a stand once again for our country. Otherwise you can kiss your country goodbye. Time is getting short for those that care about this country to make a difference. If we don't use our power as a large group of caring and loving citizenry we will become the minority in this country and our country's legacy will be lost forever.
We must take this country back from the facism that is at work here in this country. Look up the meaning of the word. Put very concisely it means corporate influence over governmental affairs. It means corporate influence over the operations of the entire country. Whatever the corporate level wants our legislative body provides. The President is a figurehead individual that thinks they are making important decisions but those decisions are made by proxy and echoed by the individual occupying that office of USA's leader. The Board is making those decisions as it does in the corporations.
One must take the time to research the inner workings of our country. Look who is on each company's board of directors and you will be so surprised to learn that they serve on each others boards and help make decisions that they have agreed on ahead of the meetings.
We cannot all be just robots. When people talk of the United States of America in relation to Babylon, "the whore Babylon", they are referring to the Bible teachings speaking of the "end times" and the rising of the Third Roman Empire that will reign for many years. These passages give examples of what to look for in these "times" and mentions how things will play out for several years until God saves our world from becoming totally destroyed.
The amazing thing about that story is that in each major Religion they have a story that says something about an ending of this era and a new one beginning. Some think these are the "end times" that the Bible refers to. Others who have studied Mayan culture think December of 2012 is when a new beginning will occur. Jesus Christ, when interviewed, mentioned that his life was to fulfill a prophesy. Christ said, according to Biblical references, "do not worship me". He always referred to The Father when he spoke according to the stories. Thousands of years before Jesus, Ezekiel, David, and others spoke of the times of Jesus and beyond. There was prophesy to fulfill and someone had to be put to death as a symbol for all who loved God to follow. God's son had been crucified because of his love for his Father. He preached about a loving God and a tolerant God and the zealot Jews of that time were having a hard time dealing with Jesus. He was becoming way too popular and their power over the people was waning. In a few years Jesus would have really changed the world with his teachings but...that was not the reason for his birth and he always reminded those around him of this. The apostles knew Jesus to be very capable of overwhelming the Romans and the Jews but Jesus would always remind them that soon he would be put to death because of God's teachings and that they needed to prepare for that time. "Many will be called but few will follow" is another quote from those Biblical teachings. Contemplate on that statement and then look around at the billions and billions of people on this planet. Few are going to follow.
That is what scares me more than anything. I will be among the few and that is not a good feeling to be outnumbered by those that think differently than you do.
That is why it is so important to try and put this inevitability off for as long as we can because we are responsible for this planet as well as our own neighborhoods. We need to vote for the person that we think will represent the citizentry of the United States of America with our interests in mind each time legislation is introduced. Someone that we will be proud of when they represent us to the world. Right now we are in trouble with the rest of the world for being so beligerant. We are not that type of people so that means we are being misrepresented.
Ask yourself the question: "what do I stand for?" Is my interest and philosophy being properly represented? I think if you get off the political band wagon for a couple of minutes you will see that no party is representing us. They all have their agenda and the organization would not exist if that were not true.
Vote in someone from the outside and fire the incumbents in office today. The opportunity will soon be here for everyone to express their opinions and be heard. November is the time to vote your spirit, the spirit of the United States of America.
God bless the USA citizenry. Let US group together under one banner.
I AM US-American.
Are you?
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