Drawing the Line for Community
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John
Sep 22, 2008, 7:55:49 PM9/22/08
to New World Network
We started this list with discussions about community. Where does community end and economics and politics begin?
They are in a very real sense inseparable, because at the foundation of community is an economic system that provides the means to create a meaningful life, and a political system that preserves and protects our right to do that.
I think the salient issue at the core of it all is one of responsibility.
The tremors running through our banking and financial system should make us all ask ourselves, what is our responsibility to participate in the determination of such affairs? And for that matter, what is our responsibility to hold our elected officials accountable for putting their interests and those of the ones who pull their strings ahead of the people's business?
The United States is built upon a principle that sovereignty is reserved to the people, and government operates at the will and with the consent of the governed. Does our government at any level reflect the will of the people, much less their best interests?
I would like to say that it does not, that our sovereignty has been slowly eroded over time by those who have usurped our power until we are all but emasculated now. But I can't. Because we gave it away.
And that appears to be our will -- to shirk responsibility for what we get, just like many on a spiritual level refuse to take responsibility for what their lives bring.
The American people have abdicated the responsibility that comes with sovereignty. For too long we have sat back and allowed the foxes to rule the hen-house. Now we don't even recognize it as our own.
The financial crisis at hand, and the political forces that seek to use it to their own ends to curry our favor, demonstrate that we the people have failed our responsibility to this great experiment at democracy. For if we cannot exercise that responsibility wisely, and hold accountable those FROM BOTH PARTIES we elect to conduct our business, then perhaps we deserve whatever they decide we should get.
Instead, we allow them to pit us against each other, and goad us into taking sides in their silly games of power to see who will feed first at the trough this time around.
Maybe they'll throw us a bone here or there. Maybe not. But let them do what they will, just so long as they don't take away our comfortable homes and big TVs and fancy cars or vacations. Then again, without jobs to pay for them, what will we ever do? Oh, my!
Where do we go from here?
john
--
John Dennison
Working for a Better World
www.PeaceOptions.com
They are in a very real sense inseparable, because at the foundation of community is an economic system that provides the means to create a meaningful life, and a political system that preserves and protects our right to do that.
I think the salient issue at the core of it all is one of responsibility.
The tremors running through our banking and financial system should make us all ask ourselves, what is our responsibility to participate in the determination of such affairs? And for that matter, what is our responsibility to hold our elected officials accountable for putting their interests and those of the ones who pull their strings ahead of the people's business?
The United States is built upon a principle that sovereignty is reserved to the people, and government operates at the will and with the consent of the governed. Does our government at any level reflect the will of the people, much less their best interests?
I would like to say that it does not, that our sovereignty has been slowly eroded over time by those who have usurped our power until we are all but emasculated now. But I can't. Because we gave it away.
And that appears to be our will -- to shirk responsibility for what we get, just like many on a spiritual level refuse to take responsibility for what their lives bring.
The American people have abdicated the responsibility that comes with sovereignty. For too long we have sat back and allowed the foxes to rule the hen-house. Now we don't even recognize it as our own.
The financial crisis at hand, and the political forces that seek to use it to their own ends to curry our favor, demonstrate that we the people have failed our responsibility to this great experiment at democracy. For if we cannot exercise that responsibility wisely, and hold accountable those FROM BOTH PARTIES we elect to conduct our business, then perhaps we deserve whatever they decide we should get.
Instead, we allow them to pit us against each other, and goad us into taking sides in their silly games of power to see who will feed first at the trough this time around.
Maybe they'll throw us a bone here or there. Maybe not. But let them do what they will, just so long as they don't take away our comfortable homes and big TVs and fancy cars or vacations. Then again, without jobs to pay for them, what will we ever do? Oh, my!
Where do we go from here?
john
--
John Dennison
Working for a Better World
www.PeaceOptions.com
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