One Response to “Common Sense”

1. nate down under Says:
   March 19th, 2009 at 5:06 am

   The following is the message I sent to everyone I knew to send tonight… fully inspired by this post and all of the inspirational posts that you 6MB folks have been firing (on all cylinders, especially of late):
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   A lot of us have been shaking our heads for years wondering how things in the U.S. of A. could continue on such a seemingly endless spiral downwards. Now I believe it’s culminating in a lot of ways. We search the skies and periphery to catch glimpses of hope that something or someone is going to change the perilous direction we travel and start to regain some of what we’ve lost. We’ve put our faith in different places and different people hoping for various outcomes — and try to depend upon where we placed that faith and our priorities.

   For all we know, it may be too late to keep America as the “shining city on the hill” that we all aspire to. I say this, living outside the United States at the moment, but no less connected than ever before and certainly no less concerned or affected. I have voted, studied politics, worked in campaigns and have made the effort to keep informed of the issues, players and outcomes — as you probably also have done. Nothing happening at the moment appears to make any sense and I have been left despondent, almost to the point of numbness.

   More than ever, we all seek real leadership from the people in charge — the people who can or are paid to make a difference. In the last 6 months I would venture to say we have never seen a greater abdication of responsibility to country and the citizenry than what elected officials have served up in the form of laws and expenditures that constitute nothing less than a suicide pact for a sovereign nation. And at each point in our journey into darkness I’ve wondered when — if — we would become angry enough to set aside our complacency and start to take action. I don’t want to be melodramatic, but the simple fact is that the United States of America was born out of much less tyranny, arrogance and stupidity than what is being displayed from Washington D.C. right now. I’ve studied the American Revolution and freely admit that it has had less impact on me than hearing the Star Spangled Banner sung well at a football game. There was always something wrong with that reaction.

   But that was then. And this is now.

   Now I see what what I’ve been reluctant to see. It’s no longer a matter of voting and hoping that a representative will do what he or she claimed they would do in the “best interests of the country”. There is no more “autopilot” for my relationship to governing the nation and depending on others to steer us along the right course. The time has come for something significantly different. Something much, much more radical. A movement in time that can not and will not be ignored or marginalized. I fervently believe that such a time has come.

   As to what exactly to do, I’m not altogether certain. But I believe that every significant shift in a peoples’ destiny starts with a clarion call. The following video may not be that actual clarion call, but I do believe it gets pretty close. I hope you’ll take the 6 minutes or so to watch and start to pay even more attention to what is shaping up to be the generational call for a seismic shift in where we are headed. It’s time to be more than just a voter, a taxpayer and citizen.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA&feature=player_embedded

   Best Regards,
   Nathan