America, decline and fall?

Look around. What do you see? Do you see a vibrant, growing, prosperous country or do you see a country collapsing in on itself as the government exerts more and more control and eliminates more and more of our freedoms in the name of saving us? Do you see individuals and individual efforts celebrated or do you see a self-serving elite becoming more and more powerful?

We are at a turning point. If we continue to depend on the government to solve all of our problems, if we continue to give away our freedoms without dissent in return for perceived safety, if we continue to allow our futures and our children's and grandchildren's futures be mortgaged so that a small elite can be saved, if we continue to allow the very moral foundation of this country to be lost then we and our country are not only in decline, but we are in the final stage of our country's existence. The United States may not cease to exist, but it will cease to exist as we know it.

As I write this we are still engaged in a war and occupation in Iraq; a war that was initiated based on lies and that is now opposed by a majority of the population. The majority of people in the United States and Iraq want the U.S. out of Iraq! We are still engaged in a war in Afghanistan, and U.S. soldiers are still dying, while the present administration is proposing sending in more troops without a clear strategy or timetable. There is no open and public debate on these actions.

As I write this Wall Street is celebrating the continuing recovery of the stock markets while unemployment continues unabated, foreclosures continue at a brisk pace, delinquencies and charge-offs still plaque the banks in large and growing numbers, commercial real estate is beginning to suffer, and there is evidence that many banks, of all sizes, continue to be close to insolvency although the change in the "mark to market" rules now allows the banks to better hide their problems. Meanwhile the national debt is over $11,900,000,000,000 and closing in on $12 Trillion! The government ignores this fast growing and very dangerous situation in order to create even more debt! The self-serving and mostly incompetent Federal Reserve continues to refuse to allow any look at or auditing of it's operations by the American people and it's representatives even though all of the money it controls belongs to the American people! The Federal Reserve also continues to support and enrich the very banks that helped create the current financial crisis!

As I write this our government remains in thrall to special interests ignoring the real and painful problems of the majority of taxpayers/voters. Special interests help to write the legislation that best serves them and is often in conflict to the welfare and well being of the American people.

If we, the American people, do not find a way to rise up and take back control of our government and our representatives we will decline and fall as surely as other great countries and empires before us.