Monday, January 28, 2008
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM.....
This has been the most curious election year for me. I’ve listened to the candidates tear each other down, argue over qualifications for the office of President and do silly things. In this day and age why do they still reach for a child and want to kiss it? I would think that should have been laid to rest long ago. Still, while talking change, change, change they keep doing the same silly things.
“Change” means to me that it is no longer practiced, that you are going in another direction….a better direction, that will benefit “whatever“. As I watch them being introduced they are all smiles, confident and self-assuming. Then they begin raking through the rest of the “field” with cutting remarks and mean spiritedness. I am ashamed “of” them and ashamed “for them” since they aren’t ashamed of themselves.
For me, I’m hard-put to support any of the candidates. Most of the field is “old politics”…….saying the same things in every State with the same stale rhetoric. I am of the generation where most of the stumping was done in small towns, city parks and on the 4th of July. Folks back then even thought that was too much time to have to listen to candidates….how would they like it now? If they are the least bit serious about “for the people and of the people” they would quit running all over the country and use that money to help the folks they keep talking about.
As I look at the runners, they are not poor, never been poor and don’t understand poor folks. How can people with so much power and money of their own justify the travel expenses they rake in from “donors” who incidentally are also wealthy? If anyone really cares about something they aren’t running around trying to get someone else to do it…….they roll their sleeves up and get busy.
It comes down to who loves poor people the most! Yah, right! That gets them elected every year but when those “poor” folks stand at the steps of the White House and say, “Hey, how about me!” they are ignored and shoved off the steps. Once the new electorate body takes office there is a sign in the window……”Business As Usual.”
For those of us who are older and remember the old movie, “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” …….it is the loss of innocence for the ones who want to make change and find they cannot.. The powers-that-be sharpen their claws on all that innocence, gag and blindfold them…..then toss them in a back room until they get the picture.
No, I’m not an angry old woman but I am a realist. It isn’t the political arena that makes the country great….and it isn’t the rich, because they are busy indulging their rich appetites. It is the blue-collar guy, the housewife who makes the money stretch and children who grow up in a family and are taught the values of Freedom. It’s also those kids who grow up and go to war when the politicians decide they must. Thank God for common people. They are the heart of our country and I love the good in them.
Show me a battle, someone who adopts a dog or cat because it’s home has been blown apart, someone who cries over a child killed on the street….someone who is there to give medical help when there is no other and I will show you a United States Service man or woman. These kids give all, have days without sleep, carry heavy loads and die because they want to keep us free. Many come home in a flag-draped casket. The best of our Nation die for us.
I ask you, how can a politician ever….EVER….equal what these young people give for our Freedom? May God welcome each one home who has died for our Freedom……and keep the others safe as they carry on.
Essentially Esther
“Change” means to me that it is no longer practiced, that you are going in another direction….a better direction, that will benefit “whatever“. As I watch them being introduced they are all smiles, confident and self-assuming. Then they begin raking through the rest of the “field” with cutting remarks and mean spiritedness. I am ashamed “of” them and ashamed “for them” since they aren’t ashamed of themselves.
For me, I’m hard-put to support any of the candidates. Most of the field is “old politics”…….saying the same things in every State with the same stale rhetoric. I am of the generation where most of the stumping was done in small towns, city parks and on the 4th of July. Folks back then even thought that was too much time to have to listen to candidates….how would they like it now? If they are the least bit serious about “for the people and of the people” they would quit running all over the country and use that money to help the folks they keep talking about.
As I look at the runners, they are not poor, never been poor and don’t understand poor folks. How can people with so much power and money of their own justify the travel expenses they rake in from “donors” who incidentally are also wealthy? If anyone really cares about something they aren’t running around trying to get someone else to do it…….they roll their sleeves up and get busy.
It comes down to who loves poor people the most! Yah, right! That gets them elected every year but when those “poor” folks stand at the steps of the White House and say, “Hey, how about me!” they are ignored and shoved off the steps. Once the new electorate body takes office there is a sign in the window……”Business As Usual.”
For those of us who are older and remember the old movie, “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” …….it is the loss of innocence for the ones who want to make change and find they cannot.. The powers-that-be sharpen their claws on all that innocence, gag and blindfold them…..then toss them in a back room until they get the picture.
No, I’m not an angry old woman but I am a realist. It isn’t the political arena that makes the country great….and it isn’t the rich, because they are busy indulging their rich appetites. It is the blue-collar guy, the housewife who makes the money stretch and children who grow up in a family and are taught the values of Freedom. It’s also those kids who grow up and go to war when the politicians decide they must. Thank God for common people. They are the heart of our country and I love the good in them.
Show me a battle, someone who adopts a dog or cat because it’s home has been blown apart, someone who cries over a child killed on the street….someone who is there to give medical help when there is no other and I will show you a United States Service man or woman. These kids give all, have days without sleep, carry heavy loads and die because they want to keep us free. Many come home in a flag-draped casket. The best of our Nation die for us.
I ask you, how can a politician ever….EVER….equal what these young people give for our Freedom? May God welcome each one home who has died for our Freedom……and keep the others safe as they carry on.
Essentially Esther
