The Art of Fishing and Cutting Bait.

[SoCalDem]

We've been planning the fishing trip for decades, and we plan and we plan and we plan. We argue, we argue some more and then when we're done arguing, we argue again.

The time to fish or cut bait has arrived.

The one thing that politicians hardly ever talk about is this one issue.

National Responsibility to the citizens

Kennedy asked us to "Ask not, what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country".

The "we", implied in his speech was ALL OF US..and in response to his request, people DID step up, and they did participate.

The "doing for the country", was actually doing for ALL OF US.. the people.

At some point in time "the country" does have an obligation to "the people".

In this particular time in our history, "the people" are starting to get the "Jewish/Catholic/Irish/etc-Mother Complex"... 'I give and I give and I give, and what do I get? not even a phone call, a letter..'

We see our tax money going OUT of our family coffers, and we see little benefit coming back.

Being a club member gives one special benefits. Sometimes it's preferred seating for an event, or advance notice of special sales, or discounts for dining.

Being a citizen of many countries confers special benefits we can only dream of. (Oh, to be a 60 yr old Canadian about now.)

Our "country" does not consider "the people" to be important. the people we hire to speak for us, as "the country", have chosen to blow us all off, in exchange for goodies from corporations. the stealthy part of the bargain is that these corporations are our bosses. The system has been turned on its head. We rely on these corporations for the paychecks that keep us all going, but the money they make from selling goods and services TO us, is funneled back to politicians we hire to protect us, and is then used to make it possible for those same corporations (the ones who use our labor and only exist to sell us stuff) to screw us out of every last cent we have left over.

"The People" i.e. ordinary citizens of the US are not important. our country owes us no responsibility. Apparently our country is little more than a big hunk of dirt, sitting in-between the Atlantic & the Pacific, and we just pay "rent" to be allowed to stay here.

We are not important enough to have decent health care, without flaming hoops to jump through

We are not important enough to have our children properly educated

We are not important enough to have guaranteed living wages

Everything is "negotiable", basic necessities of life are easily bargained away, and never secured for us. Every administration sets out to undo what the previous one has done or tried to do, and in the interim, "the people" are just pawns on a chessboard, being moved around, ready for the easy-sacrifice .

Issues that should have been "decided" decades ago (any many, we thought, were), are just recycled for new argument, new definitions, new exclusions.

We keep planning, & arguing & fussing, and yet we never go on that fishing trip..

The time is NOW!