As we approach the official anniversary of the founding of our Republic, we should pause to reflect on the meaning of Independence. Here are ten things I’d like our country to be Independent of:
10. Non-critical, ungrounded commentary – parroted, packaged & distributed; anchored by an intentionally ineffective Fourth Estate
9. Reality TV
8. Bad manners and general lack of civility (which came first, the #9 or the #8?) in all domains of life – a modicum of decorum is still necessary for everyone to realize their Pursuit of Happiness
7. Permanent, Full-Time Politicians, even worse than standing Armies
6. Double-dipped and spiked public pensions (#7 & #6 are competing with #8 & #9 !) exemplifying the shift in our culture from industry and contribution to bureaucracy and entitlement
5. The 1999 Graham-Leach-Bliley Act repealing banking/speculation separation prohibition of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, together with the allowance of multiple layers of synthetic derivatives (the towering house of shaky cards built by Goldman Sachs that is amplifying the worldwide financial crisis). Giving the country over to the Financial Elite was perhaps not the best idea in the history of the USA…
4. Politically-driven public education… having schools as political footballs and training grounds for future ranks of full-time politicians is at best a distraction from focusing on the education of our youth -- as Frank Zappa said, “shut up and play yer guitar”
3. Government-issued statistics (major dietary item for #10)
2. Customer service policies that say “I understand…” but mean “SCREW YOU!”
and finally…
1. Brand marketing that concatenates two English-sounding names, with or without hyphen… our Republic fought hard to gain independence from the British Empire; why the nostalgia?!
So go online and read some of the original text of our Declaration of Independence http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/doi/text.html . Guaranteed to be inspiring, guaranteed never to go out of fashion.
Happy 4th!
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