The thoughts expressed in this blog on the removal of the space technology programs in the United States make me also being to wonder why we haven't learned from "police actions" in other countries, over-eating even balancing imports and exports in trade. I don't understand how we can be such a great nation yet still lack the ability to critically look into the past and say to ourselves "Damn...we should probably not do THAT again!". Instead we seem to insist on putting ourselves in the same sticky situations as before and I'm sure that Neil Armstrong would be singing his agreement!
I feel that the removal of this program and the repercussions it will have on the United States years from now will leave us baffled and most likely wondering "Why did the government put us in this situation?!". The truth of the matter is, as American citizens it is our job to provide input on what will happen in our country and if we stand by and allow a small portion of our population to be the only factors in decision making , we are partially at fault. If we can take the sidelines and leave decision making up to a few, when mistakes from history are repeated in our own time, we don't have much room or reason to complain. This is all very unfortunate and makes me wish for a more engaged and informed nation that would take the past into account, yet maybe that is just something we will never learn.
This post was well worded and effective in urging the reader to take a second look at what is going on right now and I thank the author of this blog for encouraging that type of proactive behavior.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Apidiocy
Is it apathy or idiocy that our nation suffers? While so many of our nation’s good citizens remain in a supposedly skeptical state we somehow manage to remain disengaged and ignorant of large scale national issues as well as local political events and continue the tradition of complaining about and criticizing the government. This is a problem America! Many of us will feel compelled to distrust the government yet at the same time we sit in our Lazy Boys and munch on potato chips because we aren’t directly affected by what the government does at every moment of our monotonous days.
Why don’t we see that this type of inaction and lack of involvement we are putting more and more unchecked, unmonitored and un-scrutinized power into the hands of the government and government officials? I’m not suggesting that we should entirely distrust the government’s intentions however, we must play an active role in protecting (as well as knowing) our rights and currently, as we stand, the general public is in an extremely vulnerable position for being entirely stripped of rights. Has nobody read Orwell’s 1984? We have to find a happy medium. A place in the middle where we can actively play a role in holding up Constitutional values, which may mean criticism to the government and political actions, and trusting that the people who we allow to hold such a great deal of power will do the right thing, the majority of the time, for the sake of the nation.
Open your eyes people! The government will continue to gain power at the state and national level, particularly the executive branch, and I honestly don’t know one person, Republican or Democrat, who would say that giving the President an unrestricted amount of expanding power is a good idea. Not every person who we vote into office is going to be a good a person. A perfect example of this expansion in power can be seen with unwarranted wiretapping and the justification that in times of “extraordinary” danger, “extraordinary” measures must be taken. This type of “protection” is argued as a power of the Commander-in-chief to provide and deliver safety precautions for the sake of the nation however, the president is only “Commander-in-chief” during times of declared war, which we have not been since World War II. Does this mean that the president is now able to exercise extreme war-time power during times of “peace”, or non-legal, undeclared war-time? What about the fourth amendment? While we are so eager to use the Constitution to defend our school-yard dramas and petty family-get-together political arguments, we can’t take a moment to look at how we are actually throwing away our rights because of our own disengagement, laziness and apathy? Most of us won’t even realize that we have sacrificed a huge right in order to obtain the protection of trained snoops until one day it we have nothing left.
As stated before, while we don’t necessarily have leaders with ill-intentions, that may not always be the case. We as a nation must wake up and take necessary steps to ensure our rights and protect our future. We must attempt to stay well informed, involved, reasonable and we must protect our rights or forfeit the right to complain about our government and our nation while we lay around our homes picking lint out of our belly buttons. We don’t suffer from solely apathy or idiocy America; we suffer from a deadly combination of both and it is far past time to cure ourselves. Good luck.
Why don’t we see that this type of inaction and lack of involvement we are putting more and more unchecked, unmonitored and un-scrutinized power into the hands of the government and government officials? I’m not suggesting that we should entirely distrust the government’s intentions however, we must play an active role in protecting (as well as knowing) our rights and currently, as we stand, the general public is in an extremely vulnerable position for being entirely stripped of rights. Has nobody read Orwell’s 1984? We have to find a happy medium. A place in the middle where we can actively play a role in holding up Constitutional values, which may mean criticism to the government and political actions, and trusting that the people who we allow to hold such a great deal of power will do the right thing, the majority of the time, for the sake of the nation.
Open your eyes people! The government will continue to gain power at the state and national level, particularly the executive branch, and I honestly don’t know one person, Republican or Democrat, who would say that giving the President an unrestricted amount of expanding power is a good idea. Not every person who we vote into office is going to be a good a person. A perfect example of this expansion in power can be seen with unwarranted wiretapping and the justification that in times of “extraordinary” danger, “extraordinary” measures must be taken. This type of “protection” is argued as a power of the Commander-in-chief to provide and deliver safety precautions for the sake of the nation however, the president is only “Commander-in-chief” during times of declared war, which we have not been since World War II. Does this mean that the president is now able to exercise extreme war-time power during times of “peace”, or non-legal, undeclared war-time? What about the fourth amendment? While we are so eager to use the Constitution to defend our school-yard dramas and petty family-get-together political arguments, we can’t take a moment to look at how we are actually throwing away our rights because of our own disengagement, laziness and apathy? Most of us won’t even realize that we have sacrificed a huge right in order to obtain the protection of trained snoops until one day it we have nothing left.
As stated before, while we don’t necessarily have leaders with ill-intentions, that may not always be the case. We as a nation must wake up and take necessary steps to ensure our rights and protect our future. We must attempt to stay well informed, involved, reasonable and we must protect our rights or forfeit the right to complain about our government and our nation while we lay around our homes picking lint out of our belly buttons. We don’t suffer from solely apathy or idiocy America; we suffer from a deadly combination of both and it is far past time to cure ourselves. Good luck.
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