What we have become, what we need to do

    I have thought about this for a while now, we have become a nation that no longer has the will or know how to work together towards a common good.  Why?  Personally I believe that this is exactly what the GOP has sought to do to our nation, divide us along political, ethnic and economic lines.  This division, as well as our national obsession with spending money on things we don't need (but must have), has created a society where the only interest is for the individual.

    We are in the midst of a economic slowdown due to many events, one being the cost of gas.  Do we hear solutions which might mean some type of sacrifice by Americans?  No, what we hear, from the GOP especially, is a solution that solves nothing and feeds into our gluttony, selfishness and worse, a solution that offers nothing for the future.

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    First and foremost we cannot drill our way out of the current problem with gas, and we will never be able to drill our way to cheaper gas again.  What we can do is work together as a nation to lower our individual use of gas so that we use less of a resource that is limited and now very costly.

    We must seriously look to alternatives to fossil fuels, we must encourage and reward people for using less, needing less, for saving and for sacrificing to help us become independent from fossil fuels.  

    In much of the industrialized world people have been paying high prices for their gas for years.  A good percentage of that cost in those nations is taxes.  You see, these nations have the foresight and the ability to help their citizens do the right thing for their nation, and while not restricting the individual, these nations have used that tax money to build mass transit systems that give alternatives to one using a car.  

     What do we do here?  What does the GOP do?  Do they ever really point out to our citizens that we are not going to be able to live as we have in the past?  No, the GOP provides an easy answer (which isn't really an answer as it won't help now or much in the future), and asks nothing from those who call our nation home.

    There was a time in our nation when leaders were leaders, when they stood before the masses and said we must work together, there must be sacrifice in order to solve the problem.  During WWII, there was rationing, people grew their own food, people worked together and sacrificed because we had leadership that told them the problem could be solved through hard work, sacrifice and pulling together.

    We spend like drunken sailors, never really thinking about what that means for the future, whatever it is, money, resources, instead of saving for a rainy day somehow we feel that we are entitled to have it all, and have it all now.  This is the result of the leadership of the GOP, forever claiming that Americans are above having to do anything that would require pulling together, rather it is the individual that should be rewarded, the individual that should not be asked to contribute to a solution, no, the GOP would rather that we all just continue along as if there was no need for anyone to give back anything for any reason.

    We have not been asked to do anything to support this war, nothing.  We are not asked, nor told, by the GOP that driving slower, growing some of your own food, using cloth bags instead of plastic, that some of these things could help people get through these tough times.  

    When the GOP runs this country, instead of a nation which works together for the nation, we are used as pawns for the GOP agenda. The GOP focuses on divisive issues that aren't going to feed a family, rather they are issues that have no relationship to most Americans personal lives.  What is the "crowning glory" for the GOP?  Fighting gay marriage and abortion, teaching creationism in schools, bringing religion into the public sector, need I go on? Somehow if we fight and keep gays from having full rights our nation will be "saved."  

    Again, note that the gay marriage issue requires no sacrifice from Americans, only the prejudice that lives within far too many in our nation.  Again, Americans are distracted from the issues that really matter, the matters that invade our lives: the cost of health care, rising cost of gas, the cost of secondary education, the loss of good paying jobs, a war that has not been paid for but will require over a trillion dollars from our children, a mortgage crisis, a retirement crisis, the list is endless.

    When we wake up from this long stupor that the GOP has imposed, we will be stronger for it, and if our leadership brings us together as a nation, like FDR did, then we as individuals will be stronger, better off, and our nation will prosper through the sacrifices that we are asked for.

    There is no easy answer to the troubled waters ahead, and we have been led to this waters by policies of the GOP, policies which have created a middle class that has seen their worth disappear while those at the top have enjoyed unheard of rewards.  The GOP would like you to continue to complain and ignore what needs to be done, the GOP would like you to point fingers and blame without seeking solutions that will require we pull together, the GOP would like to keep you in the dark and blaming issues and people that really have nothing to do with this nations well being.

     Coming together as a nation scares the GOP, working to solve these issues exposes the policies of the GOP for what they are:  policies that harm middle class America and reward the wealthy.  Sacrificing and learning how to live differently is not what the GOP has in mind, because you see, if we all continue to satisfy our own basic needs, seek instant gratification, we are lured into complacency and self indulgence.  We stop thinking about our neighbor, our country, and we allow the GOP to do their dirty work.

    No more, our times, they are changing, and we must pull together and look at the work we have in front of us, we must give up things in the short term for huge rewards down the line, for our children, our country.  

    We can move forward, but as with anything in life that is worth having, this is going to require that we stop whining and demanding instant solutions to problems that require action on our part as well as the governments, and when we move forward with a common goal, as a nation, we can do anything, as we have in the past, and we will in the future.

    The time of darkness must be put behind us, these long years of GOP division must come to an end, and it is up to us to show the leadership and the answers to these serious and pressing issues, we need to sacrifice and pull together, and we need our party to stand up and be heard, stand up and remind Americans of what is really harming them, and show Americans how progressive policies are meant to help all not just some.

    It is time for real leadership, it is time to hear the word "sacrifice" for all, not just for those hurting due to the high cost of gas or the foreclosure they face, it is time for change, and it is our job to make sure America realizes just how much they have been duped by the GOP.