Hello. You and I probably do not know each other but I'm sure if we sat down and had a beer together, we would become friends. It's an interesting phenomenon...that if we were all able to spend some quality time together, most of us would become friends. Sure we would have differing opinions about various issues, but in the end, we would find out that we really aren't that different. Most people in this country, and around the world, want the same basket of things in life: a good job, an opportunity to move up in the world, good friends, a good family, good health, a safe community, respect from others, freedom, honesty, and above all, love.
I am writing today because I am worried about our future. I would normally be minding my own business, but I'm afraid not enough people understand what's happening in the world today, nor do they understand the risks associated with their own ignorance (I can assure you I am aware of the risks of my own ignorance!). It's not easy to be informed when a large majority of our "news" outlets are owned by self-interested corporations that care more about the bottom line than the consequences of recklessly airing petty news and misinformation at the expense of real intelligent news.
This week, as we get swamped with another deluge of Jeremiah Wright drivel, I think it is past time to begin focusing our attention on measurable solutions to our long list of looming national problems. I don't believe it is unfair to say that ignorance is at the root of all our problems. I know people don't like being wrong, or being called ignorant, but it's time to put our need to be right down for a second and just focus on the Truth. As Thomas Jefferson once said, "information is the currency of democracy."
Today, we are awash in ignorance and misinformation, a combination fatal to a functioning democracy. Like Harry Burn's infamous high maintenance woman who thinks she is low maintenance, we, too, suffer from a similar misconception...most people in this country do not think they are ignorant. The truth has been so compromised in this country by bias (in part because Reagan terminated the Fairness Doctrine) that people now think bias and opinions are true! Many people, including some of you reading this right now who are probably very well educated, have not developed the necessary critical thinking skills to know the difference between bias and Truth. Many think they do but when it comes to their own turf wars, they tend to be blinded by their biases. What people don't realize is that there are very real consequences to ignorance (anyone who has lost a friend or family member in Iraq knows exactly how horrendous the consequences of ignorance can be). As long as we refuse to comprehend the measurable risks of believing misinformation, we will continue to devolve until one day we wake up without food or clean water and realize the tree-huggers were right all along.
Let's take stock of our future. On the short list of factual trends we've done nothing about, we are facing an aging baby boomer population that is on course to bankrupt Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare in less than 20 years. Combined, these two welfare programs account for almost 2/3 of our federal budget. Concomitantly, my generation (Gen X) does not have the people power to keep pace with the rising costs of these welfare programs. If unaddressed, costs will continue to rise and revenues will continue to fall, especially as we ship more jobs and cash overseas.
Secondly, not only are oil prices rising, and will continue to rise, most unbiased experts agree we have passed peak production and will see the end of oil in around 37 years (which is why Saudi Arabia hasn't increased production to provide any price relief...they no longer have supply power). Additionally, we are no closer to getting off oil than we were 30 years ago when President Carter first tried to make renewable energy a national priority. Cheap oil is what makes the modern world possible. Without it or a viable alternative, there is no modern world. Finding a viable alternative(s) to fossil fuels is in everyone's best interest...including Saudi Arabia and Republicans alike.
Thirdly, Global Warming is another potential game changer. Whether or not you believe human beings are contributing to the warming of the planet, it doesn't really matter. Facts matter. The polar ice caps are melting, as are all our glaciers. Our house is burning down and we're arguing about who should take out the trash. The time for action is now because if we do not act, the risk of doing nothing could be catastrophic. I could go on to include the threat of global water shortages, inflation, a weakened dollar, ballooning interest payments on our national debt, a degenerating infrastructure, increased job losses, raw material shortages, the housing crisis, failing healthcare and educational systems, global population growth, plummeting fish populations, deforestation, pollution, terrorism, etc., etc.
Critics might nervously label me an alarmist. But if you're going to accuse me of being an alarmist, then what's my motive? My only motive is to get the word out that ignorance and spin are destroying us. I want to do all I can to prevent economic and environmental catastrophe before it's too late. Ironically, I believe it is possible to use this unique time as an opportunity to grow a much stronger and more sustainable economy; one that truly is based on free market economics; one that includes the valuation of all externalities and long term costs. The one we have now is a faux-free market economy dictated by a hostile and greedy energy cartel. There is nothing "free" about an economy that relies on a monopolistic cartel to set global energy prices.
All these problems amplify exponentially when the complexities are combined with each other. We have never before faced such a diverse and abstruse set of variables in the history of the world! And the most dangerous variable in the entire equation is our historic propensity to value short term gains over long term goals. This is our Achilles Heel. For Americans to think it is not possible to fall from our extraordinary heights is just another symptom of our collective ignorance and hubris.
I bring all this up because as big business runs and ruins our government and our lives, we are sitting around bickering over nonsense like Jeremiah Wright. We need people in government who will take these monumental problems seriously...Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike. Most animals run for their lives when threatened by obvious danger. We just argue with each other on the tracks as the train fast approaches. I don't usually use this word literally but we've gone crazy.
While our politicians are mired in their short term corporate agendas, they're leaving your future and my future and our kid's future to chance. You don't have to go far to see some of the very real world consequences of government inaction and irresponsible short-term thinking as our financial system crumbles from the corrosive effects of unregulated greed in the marketplace. Politics is not a game, it's physics. With every action there is a reaction...eventually!
The Democratic Party, unfortunately, is our only hope. I have been embarrassed to call myself a Democrat over the past eight years but I know deep down that the essence of my party is the essence of America. We were right about getting off oil 30 years ago; we were right about global warming; we were right about environmental degradation (and will continue to be); we were right about George W. Bush; we were right about Iraq and Vietnam (Do you realize what we could have done in this country with the money spent on the Iraq war???); we were right about sustainability and corporate accountability; we were right about the Fairness Doctrine; and we were right about civil rights, social justice, and now Guantanamo. How the Republicans continue to dominate and denigrate our own message is beyond me. It needs to end, and it can end, with this election. But the only way it's going to end is if we muster enough strength and will power to take back the reigns of our government from the clutches of big business. Senator Clinton may be able to get it done but she has just as many ties to corporate lobbyists as Senator McCain. As much as I try to temper my enthusiasm for Senator Obama, he is the only one of the candidates to vociferously oppose corporate influence in government and to refuse corporate PAC money. Since legalized bribery, and our subsequent failure to do anything about it, is the root of all our problems, Senator Obama is, by definition, our best candidate. While he certainly isn't perfect, he gives us the highest probability of putting our government back where it belongs, in the hands of the American people. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and God bless.