Do Something

Do Something
(Published in the Hickory Daily Record in August 2008)

Where is our economic and social justice when it comes to the problems we face in this country? We the people of the United States own this country. Our representatives, who are supposed to work for us, are blocking us from getting what we mandate. In corporate America they would be fired for such insubordinance.

An example is the current energy crisis. I don’t believe that many of our legislators truly understand how dramatic this situation is. Billions of dollars are leaving our country daily, while the dollar continues to weaken, and rogue nations are propped up by insane policies. The bureaucracy has cooked the books to the point of telling us that everything’s fine and we aren’t in a recession. If they want to live in fantasyland that’s ok, but don’t do it at our expense.

It’s time for the bickering to cease and action to begin! Most of this country’s issues are not complex, but many of our legislators are ruining our future by putting their personal interests ahead of national interests. What they are doing is treasonous. I often wonder if an Economic Depression would be enough to reign in their arrogance.

The Declaration of Independence states, “…governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it…”

We deserve representation. Much of what King George was doing 232 years ago is being done to us today by a federal government that has lost perspective. The bureaucracy has created a class amongst itself. They have forgotten that they have their jobs at the discretion of the citizens and seem to believe that we are here for their disposal.

Common sense allows for the belief that we are all unique individuals and therefore we are going to have differences of opinion on important issues. But, we cannot allow those differences to create this bitterness that will not allow us to progress as a society. We should immediately act on issues where we share similar beliefs and work diligently to see where we share common ground on the most divisive issues.

I refuse to believe that we are all so different that we cannot agree on anything of substance, but that is how we are currently being governed. America the Super Power has become its own worst enemy. Our complacency and unwillingness to move forward in this new age will destroy all we have inherited.

It is disrespectful to previous generations to squander what they worked hard, sacrificed, and fought to give us and immoral to pass on our gluttonous debts to generations that have yet to be born. Do you realize how easily our liberty can slip away?

James Thomas Shell