This entry was sparked after watching a film earlier today regarding a young vietnamese man's plight to America to find his American GI father. The story's primary focus is his horrific and degrading experience in his travels abroad and in America.
This young man never gives up for two reasons: his father, but more importantly his belief in the opportunities that America can provide immigrants. The film sheds some light into the inaccuracy of this age old belief of our nation.
Our society used to exist on the forefront of moral integrity. We are the country that supports religious, political, ideological and personal freedom. At least we present ourselves to be. Thousands of pieces of litigation, wire taps and court cases later, our certainty in our own moral fiber needs reevaluation.
We have become the country of bailouts, the outlawing of abortions, and one which has suspended the basis of our justice system...habeas corpus.
Our beliefs in the pursuit of our own happiness led us to a free-market system. This free-market system is responsible for us having the strongest economy in the world, or former economy. With China at the forefront of international economic growth, our government's decisions to repeatedly ignore suggestions and desires to allow for more regulation, all but forced our government to handout billions in loans and bailout money to the two cornerstones of our economy, cars and Wall Street.
The Big Three have been responsible for some of the greatest and fastest cars on the planet. But it was their unfortunate philosophy of bigger and faster is better that led them to the footsteps of the White House on bended-knee with bucket hat in hand. Gas prices shot up and forced the consumers to realize the luxury and speed characteristics that earmarked our country's vehicle design are astonishingly illogical. Why do we need so many 4x4s and pick up trucks?? Of course it has been the desires of the public that the manufacturers have played to. However, if not so many millions had been spent on advertising of the "all-new more powerful V-8 engine and never-to-be used extra head and cargo room," then perhaps the public would not be begging for it.
It has been our own ignorance of experts and statistics that has time and again plagued this nation's well-being. We continue to re-elect the same congressmen whom we blame for our financial insecurity and high cost of living. Fenno's Paradox is as alive and well as it has been for years. It is the perplexing position of individual's approval of their congressperson and contradictory disapproval of Congress as a whole.
It is these congresspeople who head the committees that submit the legislation that leads to the taxes we complain about, the poor status of our school and highways and approval of an ever-growing military budget. It is our elected officials that make the votes. We have no one to blame but ourselves. It is true that industry is in bed with congress. They have the money to provided for campaign contributions and lobbyists to see their interests acknowledged. But it was the elected officials of years passed that gave into the lobbyists and accepted those campaign contributions.
It is in fact our very own freedom that led the current infringement upon our rights. If we had made more educated decisions in previous elections, we might not be as disgruntled. We have moved from a nation of hope and happiness, to one of stress and fear.
But as Obama's Innaguration is around the corner, so too hopefully is birth of a new era. One of more coprorate and financial regulation. An era in which the greed of superconglomerates is no longer fed by the desire for reelection. Hopefully it is an era equated with the addressing of the interest of the public at large, and not the top tier of the economic sector. Perhaps it will be an era to lead us back to the persona of fast cars and freedom.
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