Saturday, June 27, 2015

Profound U.S. Changes

Profound changes have been occurring in the United States of America during my lifetime over the past three-quarters of a century.   Recapping the progressive nature of all these changes would require describing considerably more than what I want to write here now.

Most recently our Supreme Court has ruled in favor of individual freedoms for all Americans to wed their loved partner.  This act will result in significant benefits for many individuals who deservedly will now become full citizens. 

Another Supreme Court ruling has made it possible for this richest of nations to continue to provide health care for some of our citizens who might otherwise have been without such assistance.  More plan refinement must continue for the ultimate benefit of all.  

Other issues involving symbols associated by so many with racial oppression are finally being relegated to a long overdue status of significantly reduced prominence as evidenced beginning with South Carolina's Confederate flag relocation.  Tragically, the life of many innocents allegedly taken by a hate-filled mentally-warped-thinking youth with allegiance to that very flag has been the impetus to arouse Americans to examine our morality on this issue.

Perhaps now we'll -- once again -- following another killing disaster -- seriously consider action to curtail the role of guns in our society.   We might even want to re-examine the use of the death penalty in our criminal justice system for all, but especially for the sake of wrongly convicted innocents.

We still have many important domestic issues to resolve over which we have some control and must act on them.   Clearly there are other unpredictable external forces we're unable to control taking actions that we will simultaneously need to address.  We must demand those elected legislators mired in obsessive ideology to the degree they neglect realistic practical action recognize compromise is an art they must acquire and practice for us to have an effective government.

The Supreme Court still needs to reexamine their erroneous decree interpreting corporations to basically have person status.  We, the people, have reaped the lopsided results allowing our political system to be corrupted even more by big money -- this in a time when such inequity exists between most citizens and the small obscenely wealthy percentage of those absorbing the bulk of all profits.

History is fraught with lessons of what can occur in a nation where such financial disparity is present.  Those who seek to be our government leaders, plus our nation's financial and corporate leaders would be well-advised to re-establish parity with citizens.  We citizens would be wise to take more responsibility for our government and its actions so discontent does not build to a potentially destructive force imperiling our democracy and republic.  Forces exist that all too readily want to usurp our way of life, belief in individual freedom and free speech.


10 comments:

  1. thank you so much for visiting my simple sharing
    so much going on in the world
    it is difficult for me to take it all in
    agree with some
    and some I do not
    where I live by the woods
    this is where I belong at this time of life...

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    1. "...so much going on in the world" ... challenges us to keep up. Often we must focus on life's basics for our health's sake lest we become overwhelmed and that's all right.

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  2. Excellent post (on its merits, not just because I happen to agree with every thought you expressed!!!).

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  3. I agree with all you've written here. I am 82 years old and can remember the days when WE ACTUALLY HAD A MIDDLE CLASS. I fear that the great disparity between the poor and the 1% who seem to feel they own the country (and buy it during election times) will result in a modern day Civil War if we do nothing about it.
    Thank goodness that the Supreme Court upheld the ACA ...it will definitely help my son who was able to get it although he is a Type 1 diabetic.

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    1. We definitely need to do what we can to rectify the financial disparity for the sake of the generations coming after us. I could never have imagined in my youth that this situation would have been allowed to develop with little or no effort being made even today to correct the disparity.

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  4. A very thoughtful post and I agree with most of it. I don't, however, think the gun ownership issue will ever be resolved. The possession of guns was the right of a "well ordered Militia," something we don't have much of anymore. How you would keep criminals from obtaining them is beyond anyone's thinking. And if criminals have them then everyone should have access. My daughter has a gun. She lives on a farm in a rural area. She also has several dogs including a big German Shepherd.

    I'm sure folks in New York were trembling in their boots with the recent escape of the two killers, who probably should have been executed. However, i have serious reservations about execution. We do need to clean up,our prisons, obviously. Several prison workers helped those killers escape. Good to see you back in blogland,

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    1. I agree the gun issue is complicated. When we lived in the country during my youth, we had guns I was taught to properly care for and safely use. They were not toys or playthings. The adults used them for hunting various creatures we ate -- wild rabbits, squirrels -- not for the sport of just killing. This is a carry-back to earlier life styles and a way of life many in our nation know. City-dwellers hardly are going to be hunting in their neighborhoods or at the local park. Some effort toward resolving the gun issue cries out to be addressed as so many children and innocents are mindlessly slaughtered. I don't believe each of us packing a gun is a solution as some of those in the business of selling guns suggest. Preserving our individual rights while protecting our personal security is our challenge as individuals and as a nation.

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  5. Wow! This was an absolutely excellent post!!! I agree with you totally.

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    1. Good to know some of us share the same thoughts.

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