THE COUNTRY IN MIDDLE SCHOOL BEHAVIOR

Too often we hear people threatening to not vote for Obama if he doesn'[t give in to their demands.  The most recent that caught my eye was Gene Karpinski from the League of Conservation Voters,  Without question air quality is an important issue, but with the Republican Congress saying "NO!" to everything raised by the President, I readily understand why Karpinski was told that Obama would take it up if he was elected to a second term but could not do it now.  The top priority right now has to be economics and jobs.  The greatest country in the free world is hardly living up to that label these days yet many in the USA have not caught on to that and are living with the past way of doing things.

In March, one survey found that Education was a top priority.  Read more.

For CEOs it was 'how to promote creativity within their organization'.  Read more

With Christmas approaching as well as the end of the year for people to offset taxes by gifting to charity, 'our mail cup runneth over.  We mourn the waste of resources trying to squeak out more money than we have to give. Everyone but the top 1% seems to be suffering, clamoring for assistance, and it all seems to be as basic as survival.  For this country to have so many people on the verge of malnutrition and starvation, homeless who are living exposed to the elements, returned war veterans left bereft of acknowledgement for what their service cost them and their families and jobless, it is not a pretty sight and a real blemish on the face of the United States of America.

Is it any wonder people are resorting to protesting in the streets.  How do the police justify their brutality for peaceful protesting and the right to free speech when the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are individuals and that obscenely generous campaign contributions are protected by the right to free speech.  People may not complain of the injustice to our democracy while the Supreme Court justifies changing the reading and meaning of the first amendment which has stood for

The amendment reads:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."  It does not limit as to how that speech can be delivered but peaceful protest has always been acceptable.  Even in the Colonial days, the soap box became the stage for citizens to speak out in the town parks.  Why are we allowing these values to dissipate? 

A MISNOMER: THE PATRIOT ACT

On October 26, 2001, then President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act., acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.  It is time for its renewal to be reconsidered.  Since it was rushed to passage after 9/11, many who voted for it because of their confidence in Bush.  Since then many have questioned whether it should have been passed, how it seems to skirt the Constitution, and whether the passage consideration would be destructive to our democracy.


One areas of consideration is the intrusiveness of our government in the area of Free Speech, not only of Americans but of citizens of foreign countries as well. Our government has requested Internet information on foreign nationals, whose governments resent the intrusion and are unwilling to violate the privacy of their citizens. 

Twitter was willing to challenge a grand jury subpoena,  but it is unlikely the Google and Facebook would have given or did give similar response. To read how Twitter views the issue, click here.

Please make sure your legislators are familiar with the Patriot Act before anyone votes to renew it.  There are some very important aspects that may have been acceptable to some while everyone was mislead to think we were in real danger from weapons of mass destruction.  Since much of what brought us to that point is no longer relevant in the same way, we should carefully consider the damage renewing it, as is, can do.