War on Complacency
We don’t need a war on drugs or a war on crime or a war on poverty. What we need is a war on complacency. (August 2004)
Saturday, January 27, 2007
200,000 Soldiers v. 300,000,000 Citizens
A newscaster on Fox News says “Stay tuned for a story on what the government is doing to protect you”. A reasonable story? Absolutely. One of our government’s responsibilities as spelled out in the Constitution is to “provide for the common defence”.
A more sobering story would be “What are the citizens of this country doing to protect it?” Two hundred thousand solidiers can’t protect this nation but three hundred million citizens can. Each of us needs to be involved in the defense of this country. No nation should ask only some of its citizens to fight for its existence.
If the country isn’t safe, then we can’t have the freedoms we enjoy. And, if we aren’t free, we can’t “pursue our Happiness”. We take our safety, freedoms and way of life for granted and aren’t making the sacrifices needed to keep the country strong and thus free. We may be Americans but we aren’t necessarily effective citizens. Only involved citizens can keep a democracy free. (August 2004)
Remembering September 11th?
“A Los Angeles-based market research company hired by Paine reported that in 2002, 41 percent of those asked said they planned to observe September 11th in some way. This year (2003), only 17 percent will be observing the day. ‘You can expect those numbers to be cut in half next year. If we don’t do anthing, the memory will fade,’ ” he said. (Irvine World News - 9/11/2003)
Is there any doubt that the biggest issue this country faces is a lack of an involved citizenry? (September 2003)
American Citizen
“The freedoms and privileges afforded every citizen in our democracy are unwittingly being threatened by the very citizens they were designed to benefit. The term ‘American Citizen’ is too often considered to be a status, gained either through birth or naturalization, rather than a role to be fulfilled.” Matthew Horton - Good Citizen Director (August 2003)
SIGocracy
We are supposed to live in a democracy - a country “of, by and for the people”. And the Declaration of Independence says that all men are endowed with certain unalienable Rights including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
Over time however, Americans have focused on their “pursuit of happiness” and not paid enough attention to issues that keep us free (i.e. Liberty) and protect us from our enemies (i.e. Life). Special interest groups have filled the void.
The result has been that our freedoms are eroding and we are becoming more vulnerable to outside influences. And, we have become a SIGocracy - a country “of, by and for special interest groups”. (July 2003)
Silent Majority
The “Silent Majority”? There is no “Silent Majority”. It’s an oxymoron. In a democracy, when the majority is silent, they are the minority. (May 2003)
2002 Election Day
March 5, 2002 was election day. On that day, the bodies of a number of Amreicans, who had died in a “fire fight” in Afghanistan trying to recover the body of a Navy Seal, were being flown back to the U.S. for burial. They and their families had sacrificed everything.
On that same day, fewer than 40% of registered voters and 30% of eligible voters were willing to take time from their “pursuits of happiness” to vote. It was too big a sacrifice.
Our unwillingness to take on the responsibilities of citizenship to keep this nation free is the single most important issue we face. Edmund Burke has it right when he said - “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing”. Too many of us aren’t doing enough. (March 2002)
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The American Blog
The purpose of the American Blog is to highlight and discuss matters related to being effective citizens in a democracy.
The American Blog is an adjunct to Good Citizen, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) non-profit with a mission to teach Americans the importance of being involved and how to be effective citizens. It’s focus is in on identifying simple, yet powerful, things - citizen actions - each of us can do to keep the country strong, vital and free - goodcitizen.org.
