In the wake of the recent mindless Arizona massacre, my wife asked why it was that the NRA could flood the blogosphere so quickly in advance of the growing call across the country for the banning of assault weapons on the streets of America. Together we concluded that it was because of simple "passion." NRA members seem all to be very passionate about not only their freedom to own guns, but fiercely defiant at any suggestion that those guns be controlled in any way by government. Such passion is fine. We need more of it. Maybe had we as concerned citizens been more cognizant of what was really going on in our nation's capitol these past thirty years and found the collective passion to resist...we may not be in the myriad mess that we find ourselves in today.
The fervent Religious Right on the implied promise of banning abortion, gay marriage and returning prayer to the public schools banded together and elected George W. Bush not once but twice - to the ultimate dismay of many in the Religious Right and many if not most Americans. The Tea Party in its fervor found a following large enough to have a major impact in the last national election. Collective fervor and passion does get the job done.
Abortion Clinic
That being so, where is the fervor in the nation today? Stupid, unwinnable wars, millions of illegals flooding the country thumbing their noses at the Immigration Service that is supposed to be setting our immigration quotas according the nation's needs and not those of the illegals. This is no immigration policy, it's a sham social engineering attempt to mask and cover the failings of the Immigration Service since the failed amnesty of 1986. We need to extract the rhetoric from the immigration tempest and see it for what it really is; we need new people and should even welcome new people in this great country - but we need to be able to honestly appreciate what they offer and accept them graciously in return. This will never happen as long as our new immigrants must sneak across our borders and hide their identities for years while not knowing who they are or to whom they belong. Immigration is not our problem. Our total lack of a system is. Let's determine the numbers of new immigrants we are prepared to handle and live by it.
The banking industry got rich selling 0,000 homes to school janitors and single moms - to the ultimate practical destruction of the entire U.S. economy, from which we all suffer and will perhaps for decades.
All this from a corrupted United States Congress which forgot why they were there; forgetting that the pledge they recite each business morning is to the United States of America, composed of fifty separate states who banded together to form that "more perfect union" - and if that fails, we all fail. Instead, they treat Washington as the mother lode, to pillage at every opportunity in bringing the vote-getting bacon (pork) to the homefolks. Career longevity largesse in the form of campaign contributions from corporate America - monies from products or services bought by Americans - has working Americans paying for the corrupting of their own government...and the steady shrinking of America's working middle-class.
All this is well known to Americans - hence the horrendous public approval rating for Congress of around 13%. Why, then, are we only hearing from those fervent enough to join together and speak in numbers? We have a government filled with agencies that cannot see beyond the next administration and a congress that cannot see beyond the next election - while our nation continues headed right off a cliff.
Americans not only found the passion to fight and win World War II but built from that effort a highly developed and progressive industrial nation. We built the Interstate highway system, and created the GI bill for thousands of young veterans that paved the way and created the incentive for thousands of other young Americans to seek an advanced education for themselves. The nation boomed, bloomed and became a beacon of hope for much of the rest of the world. We need such a passion across this troubled nation again today.
Everything of consequence that happens in this country must flow through the United States Congress.
We need one that can operate.
Where's the Passion?
Herb Austin, M.A.