Computer Extreme...Thank you for starting this
thread, and I echo your feelings, as MANY out there do! A Country is only as strong as the ideas and actions of it's people. To think that any leader on a Political level has our best interest in mind, is naive at best. I fractured my back last year, and am still dealing with daily pain. My ambulance to hospital/specialist/therapy (with $400mo. insure.) billed out at a whopping $70,000. I paid what I could, and then the hospital made me apply for low income exception or as they call it "Charitable Contribution". When a Dr. (specialist in this case) charges $1200 per day to spend 1 min. asking "feeling better today?" something is gravely out of whack! Sorry for the side step, I just can relate to your story. We live in a Corporate Dictatorship, and have been for some time. $$$ is at the forefront of all ventures and elections. Since they still tell us we live in a Democracy, and that we are a "free country", this means we have the right to band together and speak up and out. We need to get back to strength in community first. Stop competing against each other, and support, enrich, and educate in our own backyards first. Support local business on every level. Boycott big corporate structures, which have created this problem to begin with. We have a long road ahead of us, by waking up, sharing with others in places like this, start community outreach programs to reconnect with our fellow citizens and decide together what are actual effective ways to instigate change. I recently went to a lecture that my local museum was giving, and it happened to be by my favorite photographer in the world Sebastiao Selgado. It was an incredible lecture to say the very least. His work as a humanitarian is weaved within his creative at all times. The relevance of his lecture to this topic was how he saw his home country of Brazil destroyed in a very short 40 years as they Industrialized. He went back to his once fruitful farmland upon his fathers death, and was horrified by the barren land, dried up river, and destroyed Rain Forest. He asked his wife (also his editor and best friend, which I believe holds incredible power), what the hell to do...this was WAY TOO much, too far gone....she replied by saying we plant one tree, and then another....Today, they and their foundation are responsible for rebuilding an immense % of the Rain Forest not just in Brazil, but for the Amazon as well. Their Farm now houses Green Houses that grow over 600 species of plant life.
Point is, we need to get active..NOW! Americans have been slyly guided towards being a passive people. So what do we do? I don't know, but if everyone expresses their frustrations and look to each other for support...it's a start. Our dollar is worth s--t, and it's heading (sooner than we think) to being worth F--k All. Go back to bartering in our communities. Trade this service for that service. Keep our spending down, and improve our quality of life on a social level, simply by getting to know and connecting with the people around us. Just look at this e cig. forum for starters...there are a great many people here who
through each other, have or are removing the affliction of smoking... most of us within a day or two. That's pretty incredible! The core of that accomplishment is alternative. Someone found an alternative for us all, and it works! There are alternatives out there, but we as a united people HAVE to acknowledge we are searching. There is a THEM...and there is an US. The first major thing this country needs to do, is get the F---k out of our wars abroad. Our children are being killed in the name of oil and opium. I would rather be bombed by a crazy nation, while knowing our children are getting the best education, then policing the world the way we are. Priorities are all out of whack, and we need to speak up. We need to get rid of Racism and Bigotry in our own back yard and remember people are people. Stop pushing religion onto people, and simply let religion be a part of an individuals life. There must be a Revolution at this point. The claws of Corporate Deception are deep. We can revolt in many ways these days, and that's why I say start on our own street corner. Bounce ideas off of all sorts of professionals within small groups, and then slowly unite. I don't know the answers, but I do know that when I stop complaining and go to a museum, a lecture, a conference, a something other than a 9 - 5...I GET INSPIRED!
Thanks for letting me express myself this morning, and wishes for us all to break out, branch out, and reclaim the value of this rapidly depleting Nation!
Much Love,
Mr.e
