Friday, August 28, 2009

Stressful times

Seems I have a lot on my plate just now, and so do a great many other people I know. Everyone is busy and feeling under pressure-getting things done in preparation for the cold and snow to come primarily. But the number one topic creating stress these days seems to be created by Washington, DC. Between the partisan politics, the bail outs, the taxes, the bank failures, the health care plan, the numerous "czars", swine flu, the ballooning size of the deficit-people are feeling a little overwhelmed...to put it mildly.

Me too.

My son will probably never know a time in his life that mirrors the standard of living we have managed to provide today. My son, and his children (if any) will pay the price of these "emergency bailouts", and the face of America will not be the one we know today. It troubles me, the future that our President seems determined to forge for us. What used to be a slow trickle, has turned into an outright stripping of constitutional rights-the breadth of which is frightening. From the stiffling of dissent, to controlling each bite of food and every domestic animals witin the US, to subsidizing off shore drilling in other countries (as are hostage to oil imports with huge reserves of our own), and so on and so forth.

It boggles the mind, it truly does, and most people feel helpless to stop or alter the changes to come. People are busy trying to cope with the imploding economy, the bank failures, keeping the bills paid and food on the table and that is stressful enough, they don't have the energy to attend the circus that passes for government in DC. I know I hardly do myself.

I just feel a deep unease settling into my psyche.

While I am not generally pessimisstic by nature (never mind what my hub says, lol) I am overwhelmed watching these events unfold without representation. Heck, no one even reads the bills before they are voted on. It's not just the large bills that are pushed through in the middle of the night, there is actually no law requiring the bills even be read into the Congressional record-did you know that? It's true.

I am wondering when the bailout is coming for people who are working.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I say, enjoy life NOW while you still have the freedom to do so.

suvalley said...

Lori, that phrase is common from almost every single person I know.

And what does that say about us, as citizens?

That we feel our wishes do not count, that our voices are not heard. Hardly anyone attempts to contact their representative about anything-because they feel ignored. That it is futile to try to do anything, because we have been taught that our elected representative know better than we do, what we should have, and what our needs are.

I have written letters and sent emails and commented on government websites about things I feel very strongly about-and you know what? Any replies are nothing but cut and paste jobs, parroting the supposed benefit of the bill or program (NAIS and others). This tells me that the people we elected do not read the bills either, and certainly do not apply critical thinking to them all.

We have come to accept that this slow encroachment on our rights and liberties are for the greater good.

The $64 question is: Whose greater good?

I remember when Gisela was trying to explain about NAIS and why it was such a bad bad idea. I was just appalled that such a thing had any traction, just could not believe it. Then I started digging around online, and it of course was very true and much worse than described.

These "czars", not appointed, not elected, have been granted sweeping powers. How does the President do that? As far as I can tell, they do not answer to anyone. I am not sure of the mechanism involved here and I have not been able to find out so far.

Just one thing in a long list of bills or actions undertaken "for the greater good".

It is well past the point of being labeled "racist" for asking questions. I am left concluding that people who are skeptical, who are concerned, who are opposed to these changes, are being marginalized (by the press, by our own Senators and Representatives) and called "right wing extremists", or "conservative" to put it politely.

How did we come to this state of opposition? I don't know, it has just happened slowly, bit by bit, and now things are accelerating at an alarming pace in Washington.

When I think back to the first conversations I had with Gisela about NAIS, she made a comment that has stuck, and that I use today.

"Follow the money"

Because if something is being taken away from us.....someone, somewhere, is benefiting.

Unknown said...

Well, I don't believe that the encroachment and striping away of our rights and liberties are for the "greater good".
Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. There will be a day of reckoning. We will just have to live through the effects of the wrong and greed the leaders of this country are choosing.

Don't ever stop standing up for what is right....ever.

suvalley said...

Maybe I did not make myself quite clear enough...the actions taken which strip us of our liberties and freedoms, are often *sold* (or billed, if you prefer) to the citizens as a way to mitigate another segment of society's troubles. We just need to give up a little bit here, which will help out over there a lot.

Which has lead us to this:

People now using the phrase "the Constitution is a living document"

Um, no. Most emphatically no.

I would like to see another constitutional convention, actually, as long as the states did not use lawyers to muck it up.

I don't care for Sotomayor being nominated to the Supreme Court either, she believes in social engineering from the bench-for that amorphous "greater good".

The greater good may be the intention, but the "devil is in the details".