Time is Running Out

[tpsbmam]

There's so much in this op-ed, I had difficulty pulling snippets -- it's worth reading the whole op-ed. We've seen our current batch of legislators and what we might have coming down the pike in terms of 2010 & 2012 elections given Tea Party type mindsets. Do we stand a chance? I look at our current crop of legislators, both Democratic & Republican, and I don't see enough of the "leaders" needed to take us into the next decade. Well, I see some, but I see them being drowned out by the conservative dunces on both sides of the aisle. I see the vision in Obama, but I now question the ability given the legislative obstacles he faces and his willingness to let the obstacles overwhelm the process that needs to move more deliberately.

Obama certainly gets our needs for the future and has admirably already made some progress -- many of his stimulus projects address some of the infrastructure issues and his 13 high-speed rail projects have taken us further in that direction than any other administration has. He gets the educational needs, evidenced by statements like the following regarding evaluating US education in his education plans: "...implement a broader range of assessments that can evaluate higher-order skills, including students’ abilities to use technology, conduct research, engage in scientific investigation, solve problems, present and defend their ideas." I truly think Obama gets Herbert's points, was ahead of the pack when it comes to many of his views of the "change" this country needs to undergo, and is the visionary we need in office at this point. I don't know if he's the powerhouse we need to get past this legislative tomfoolery we seem saddled with. I don't know if his laudable determination for bipartisan legislation hasn't become too much of a deficit in the face of Republican obstructionism?

I have to admit, given the current confluence of political, international, societal, economical, corporate, and other variables, I'm scared. And I have to admit I'm selfishly happy I don't have offspring I'm leaving in this world -- I think this could be a very different kind of country we're leaving them. I don't often say it because most of my friends, family & DU friends have kids and, though I'm sure many have thought it, it's something I'm always reluctant to drive home.

Herbert's Op-Ed:


Time Is Running Out

By BOB HERBERT


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/opinion/06herbert.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

We’ve now lost 8.4 million jobs in this recession, and a vast majority of them are gone for good. The politicians are clambering aboard the jobs bandwagon, belatedly, but very few are telling the truth about the structural employment problems in the U.S. and the extremely heavy lift that is necessary to halt our declining living standards and get us back to an economy that is self-sustaining.

We don’t hear a lot that is serious about the sorry state of the nation’s infrastructure or the trade policies that crippled so many American industries or our inability (or unwillingness) to compete effectively with China when it comes to the new world of energy for the 21st century or our abject failure to provide a quality public education for the next generation of American workers, scientists, artists and entrepreneurs.

Speaking at a conference here on Wednesday, Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania said that if we don’t act quickly in developing long-term solutions to these and other problems, the United States will be a second-rate economic power by the end of this decade. A failure to act boldly, he said, will result in the U.S. becoming “a cooked goose.”

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Mr. Katz believes this is doable, but by no means easy. The nation’s infrastructure, he said, will have to “shift from 20th-century models of transport and energy transmission to rapid bus, ubiquitous broadband, congestion pricing, smart grid, high-speed rail and intelligent transport.”

New ways of financing such transformative changes will have to be developed, linking public and private capital, preferably through the creation of a national infrastructure bank, among other things. The nation’s political leaders and the public at large will have to grasp the difference between wasteful spending and crucial investments in the future.

It’s time for serious people to step forward and help lead on these critically important issues. Time is short.

(Ed for typo)

[pokercat999]

1. Who are these "serious people", certainly not the political

class of either party. And should we find a serious person in or out of politics he/she is marginalized by the corporate media. The start of seriousness must be the reining in of corporate power, and at this point I'm sure that can only be accomplished with the use of civil disobedience and violence.