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Edited on Wed Feb-21-07 07:52 PM by NanceGreggs
Firstly, I am baffled as to how one can equate thinking the country is going in the wrong direction with simply being spoiled or unhappy. It’s about the direction of the country and where that direction is leading us. “Happiness” has nothing to do with it.
Yes, we still have running water and electricity. But our infrastructure is outmoded and in disrepair. Estimates to sustain it at present levels are in the multi-billions of dollars – which we don’t have, because we’re spending that money on the great success in Iraq instead.
Just because your government tells you that 95 percent of the population are employed doesn’t make it so. You know those low unemployment numbers you read about? Did you know that once your unemployment benefits run out, you are no longer counted as being unemployed – whether you’ve found another job or not? Those numbers also don’t reflect how many citizens are now working more hours for less pay, or have lost benefits that used to be part of their compensation. Maybe people think we’re going in the “wrong direction” when the average CEO now makes in one day what the average worker makes per year.
I guess people who see their jobs being outsourced to cheap labour markets, or those who now have to hold down two jobs just to keep their bills paid when one job used to be sufficient, are just “spoiled brats”.
If your house catches fire or is burglarized, of course you’re happy to see the appropriate first responders arrive on the scene. Maybe it’s the fact that the number of police and firefighters are being cut back due to lack of funding, at the same time a billion-dollar US embassy is being built in Baghdad, that has people so down in the dumps.
Of course, you can also rest assured that if your house does burn down, or is burglarized, or is destroyed by a hurricane, you’re looking at spending the rest of your life in court, trying to get a penny out of the insurance company you’ve paid your premiums to all of those years. But that’s what insurance industry lobbyists are paid for, ensuring they’re off-the-hook.
I don’t think religious freedom is causing anyone to lose their smiles, but the stranglehold that religious fanatics have on the present administration is making people a bit testy. We are a nation founded on freedom of religion; we are also a nation founded on the principle of separation of church and state. And when that separation is eroded, that’s not a freedom – that’s a loss of freedom.
The world LOVES the US? You might want to read a newspaper that’s less than six years old. Things have changed – maybe you just didn’t notice.
Nice motels, nice restaurants? Can’t see how that would get anyone upset. But I DO see how billions of tax dollars being spent on an unnecessary and illegal war while millions of Americans are homeless and hungry would ruin your day. Some people are just like that – they can’t, in good conscience, ignore the plight of their fellow citizens. Maybe they should all just go to a nice restaurant instead of worrying about people who don’t have any food.
As for that president who led us through the dark days after 9/11, maybe if he’d bothered listening to those who told him such an attack was imminent, there wouldn’t have been a 9/11 to deal with. Maybe the fact that he used it as an excuse to invade Iraq (you know, the country that didn’t attack us) is what has people wanting a better direction for the nation.
And then there’s those unhappy Americans who see how their sons and daughters were sent into combat without sufficient equipment to keep them safe, while billions of dollars were handed over to Halliburton and Bechtel et al – money that has yet to be fully accounted for. I don’t know about you, but seeing soldiers get their pay, their pensions and their benefits cut while they’re in combat kinda grates on my nerves, especially when it’s due to the same people who keep talking about how they’re “Supporting the Troops”.
The treatment (or lack thereof) these same soldiers get when they come home, severely wounded and permanently handicapped, might also be a cause for “unhappiness” among the population – especially when they hear about literally tons of cash “gone missing” in the fog of war, and the fact that no one in the government can be bothered to even find out where it went.
But we’re told they are fighting for our freedoms – you know, the very freedoms that have disappeared while they were away fighting. Maybe that’s what has all of us spoiled brats in such a bad mood. But, hey, it’s not like all freedoms have vanished – we’ve got those new freedoms to replace them, like the president’s freedom to ignore the Constitution, the law, and just do as he pleases. I guess we ungrateful bastards are just not happy with that particular trade-off – damn us all to hell.
We used to be the most blessed people on earth. We used to have freedom of speech (now we’re told to shut up if we don’t agree with where our country is headed.) We used to have transparent and fair elections (now we have Diebold). We used to have freedom of assembly (now we can wind up on a watch list if we attend an anti-war protest). We used to be guaranteed legal recourse if unjustly accused (now we can just be labeled ‘enemy combatants’ and our rights go out the nearest window).
Yeah, I don’t know what we’re all bitchin’ about. We should all just shut up and count our blessings – and as we see those ‘blessings’ (previously known as ‘rights’) fall by the wayside, we shouldn’t bother to speak up about it. We should all just check into one of those friendly motels along the highway, enjoy the propaganda (previously known as ‘honest journalism’) on the big-screen TV, break into the mini-bar and toast the end of democracy.
What a bunch of whiners we've become. If only the founders of our nation hadn't been such spoiled brats, throwing tea in the harbor with that ungrateful attitude of theirs, we wouldn't ever have been bothered with being asked whether we thought our country was going in the right direction or not.
We simply would have been TOLD that it was -- kind of like we're being TOLD now.
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