Monday, March 26, 2007

Where Do We Go From Here?

It seems we have a nation out of control today. But when we peer into the crystal ball of the past it is all relative to the times lived at those moments. I like to speak with the older generation of our society and what I find is that the events of their times were just as cataclysmic as ours of today.

What this boils down to is Point of View. When we speak of Point of View it has to be thought of in the context of time. The depression was a bitter and difficult time for those that lived it and they viewed everything taking place in the context of now. Not being able to see the future this was an earth shattering experience for most and was seen as an event to end all events. But... those hard working people came out of it.

Creating a time line of our nation we will find that we have always been confronted with events that were events to end all events. The events started for our nation long before the Revolutionary War and will continue into the future.

To be able to understand this we must become investigators of the past to find what has worked and what hasn't and than make educated guesses as to what actions to take in the future; hoping that we make the right choices.

For us to to make these judgements of the future we must know who we are as a nation and what path we are on. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are documents that govern the orderliness of these decisions. The question is, are these documents adequate for the times? Did our founders expect us to change and add to these documents as time progressed? I remember reading a letter by Thomas Jefferson to John Adams where he pondered the idea that for a government to advance every 20 years the public must stand up and re-visit the Revolutionary Principles. Of course he said it more eloquently and I only refer to this through an imperfect memory.

When we look at our form of Government, with a critical eye, are our policies and procedures adequate for the times? Do we need to fine tune our governing documents to better reflect society today?

What can we do? Where do we go from here? Is it time to take control from the career politicians and give it back to the people? How do we do this?

In the next few weeks I will attempt to clarify some of my thoughts and possibly help guide us to some answers.

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