The Real Quagmire

That Iraq is a quagmire is certain, That Afghanistan is even more of a quagmire, is even more certain. These days, however, I get the feeling that the real quagmire we are experiencing is right here in the good ole USA. We have the met the quagmire and the quagmire is us.

The TV News: At the time, it seemed like a good idea - the 24 hour news channel. In fact, what it has turned out to be is a business looking to create a market for itself. There is very little news and a lot of opinion and the opinion is not necessarily thoughtful, it is commercial, and therefore, not as thoughtful, because thoughtful does not sell like radical, angst and anger producing, out of somebody's gut expressions that parade as opinions but really are just self commercials, trying to sell oneself to the public so that your ratings go up and your salary gets more ridiculous. So, what we get is concentration on one or two stories at a time; depending upon which story can produce the best ratings.

Who can really say that the AIG salary bonuses is the most important story of the last week. Really, in the big mix of things that we need to understand, address and resolve, the bonuses don't make much of a difference, but the majority of "news" time has been spent on the AIG story. Meanwhile, Lou Dobbs is tearing down most of the institutions in the nationa, Hannity is yelling who knows what (we all know what - it comes down to about two things normally - the democrats are wrong and gays and lesbians are subverting the country), and Nancy Grace is overscrutinizing every bizarre legal and police matter she can get her hands on. It's a quagmire because none of it nits on the matters about reality and the making of history that are helpful to constructing some kind of better society or even just understanding the world in which we live.

The Congress: Instead of looking into many matters that need to see some light and resolving a lot of national problems which go chronically unsolved, the Congress is engaged in posturing for the next election. So, we also get AIG and other sideline issues as the major meal served up by our representatives. Instead, we ought to have a full out debate on how to stimulate the alternative energy sector of the economy. This would be helpful. This might actually solve a real problem.

The President: I have to admit that the President seems like the only one who is actually focuses on the real job - solving the vast problems which plague our society. Almost every day or every other day, we get a new action out of the White House or some aspect of the executive branck of government. The Obama Administration may be wrong on some of the solutions, but they are actually working on solutions, not on trying to win an aelection, sell a commercial on the news channel or posture for looking good in front of the public. But the president faces the Congress/Media Quagmire.

The Private Sector: These area bunch of cry babies from the financial/banking sector to the major manufacturers. They all made millions and then when their decisions of greed led to economic recession, they want a bailout. The small businsess may be the exception as they need to actually perform a real service or make a real product that somebody needs to survice. But the big ones are just personal ATMs for the rich and greedy. The private sectors opposes everything that could help the public because it means taxes, yet they get more tax relief than the poor - just take medicare, for instance, which, in fact, is a get rich quick scheme for the pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry. If we didn't have medicare, they all would have 30% less clients. Since Jimmy Carter we knew that we needed a better, more fuel efficient car or an alternative energy car. Nobody got to work on it despite a huge amount of profit since that time. Where was it invested? The Private sector is a quagmire because it has come to believe that the nation exists to serve them, not them to serve the national interest.

The Churches: I really should not put the church close in category to the above as they have so little influence anymore. The reasons for this are many and increasing each day. Mostly they are caused by the quagmire the church created for itself when it decided to be "successful" instead of "faithful". But is it noteworthy, at least, that the self described "most Christian" nation on earth, heres littel or nothing from the churches on the most important issues of the day, except the usual banter of the Christian Right on its pet issues. The church has become obsolete because it does not speak up on the issues that any simple persons can see should be the issues that bother Christians (people who have some connection to Jesus) like poverty, abuse of children, war, discrimination and the issues of justice that have to do with providing access to those who have been marginated by our society. The churches do not speak up because it would damage their image of themselves as "successful". Instead, what we get from the churches is a steady diet of scandals where the church and God are being used to deceive the public, manipulate believers and abuse those who come to the church for healing. Oh, wait a minute, the churches have united recently to oppose anything the President might want to do to reduce the charitable donation deduction for the very rich. now there is an issue worthy of the church's attention!!!

The people of the US: I will get in trouble on this one. First, the disclaimer: there are many fine, upstanding, beautiful, intelligent people in the United States. Nevertheless, as a group, we lack focus and understanding that would lead us to take actions that would ensure a "good" life for us. We let Bush lead us into trillions of debt and tow wars not worthy winning. We still insist that all our politicians tell us that we are the "best, last hope of humankind", "the greatest nation on the earth" when these are not only arrogant, egotistical lies, but also absolutely meaningless in tersm of the struggle for a "good" life. These are things that "brain dead" nations like to hear. Instead, the "people" shoudl want to get to the bottom on things - like why we can go the moon and beyond, but we cannot produce a solar cell that makes solar energy economically viable, or why we don't use the vast millions of acres of land we have for building solar or wind energy plants that would essentially guarantee us energy self sufficiency for as long as we can see into the future and produce a less contaminated air to breath and water to drink. Instead, we sit around saying it is impossible to go much faster on the development of clean energy. We put up with a system of health care that denies 40 million people health care insurance. We accept that if doctors cannot be absolutely richer than 95% of the population then health care would decline. In short, we are part of the quagmire because we are complacent dupes of a system that uses our indifference and our fear of losing all we have to manipulate our opinion and repress what would be a normal tendency to protest and to demand better from our leaders.

We have clear goals to achieve: get the economy moving; develop clean and renewable energy sources, find a way to live in peace; quality health care for all. These are not huge problems for a creative and resourceful people, but they require that for a moment we give our attention to actually developing solutions instead of watching "reality" TV which has nothing to do with reality and of finding sources of informationa and analysis which actually are objective instead of calculated to make a profit or a name for someone.

Until that time when the American people demand information that is realiable, news that actually helps us understand the world around us and solutions from the private, goverment and public sectors, we will continue to be dragged down by the quagmire because the quagmire is us.