It's Time to Pull the Plug, But Not on Grandma!

The founding fathers must be rolling over in their graves as they listen to what has become of their dream of free speech. In recent years we have witnessed a frightening abuse of the concept of freedom of speech in our country. Some of the worst abuse has been propagated during political campaigns over the past decade. Many thought that free speech meant that you could use lies and twisted truths to get a candidate elected. The reasoning was that the means justified the end. We are now seeing a similar strategy being utilized in the current political power wars. The power brokers in our system are once again proving that free speech is not free and we are currently paying a huge price.

Freedom is the biggest piece of the foundation of our country. I am thankful that our forefathers were brave enough to stand up and say enough is enough. As the health and insurance challenge is playing out, I am certain Tom Jefferson and the rest of his "buds" would want to revisit the phraseology used to insure people the right to be able to say what they think. There would no doubt be some discussion about including the concept of the truth being connected to the concept of free speech.

With that in mind and with Thomas Jefferson's blessings (I am pretty sure he'd give me his blessings) I need to take some action. I am not going to pull the plug on Grandma, but because of the people who are abusing our freedoms, I want to pull the following "plugs."

As of today, I am pulling the plug on The Game of Politics. First of all, it's not a Game to me. It's about my future and my children's futures. The talking heads on Sunday mornings spend more time talking about control and power than they do talking about our challenges. They talk about how parties are going to vote. They talk about how the mix might change in the next election cycle. They talk about the election in 2012. They talk more about what is good for the parties and not what is good for the people. They spin in the direction their bosses tell them to spin. Basically, they talk about the Game of politics. The game of politics has us worrying about magical voting mixes instead of whether or not we are doing what is right and best for the country. I hereby officially pull the "plug" on The Game of Politics.

The death of politics as usual will also involve the death of Scare Tactics. Twisted truths and lies told to the American public as a way of intentionally manipulating should not be protected under free speech. This method of political manipulation should be punished as an abuse of our freedoms and in my book treated as an act of treason. Truth and honesty from our political leaders is a basic right of our citizens. Neither party has a monopoly on this challenge that involves telling the truth, but the underdog party usually is more aggressive and blatant with the fairy tales. The so called Death Panels and the pulling the plug mania is a horrible example of Democracy gone astray. I hereby also officially pull the "plug" on this type of Scare Tactic.

While we are correcting some things by pulling plugs, I want to pull the plug on Celebrity Death Obsession. In case you haven't heard, Michael Jackson is dead and he ain't coming back. But through a magical modern invention called the CD, you can still listen to him forever. If we could have focused the same amount of time helping out in our communities as we have watching and talking about MJ, many of our community challenges would have been eliminated. From this day forward, the media must spend five times as much time on real news as they do on celebrity news. I am pulling the plug on Celebrity Obsession and of course this includes Sarah Palin.

So may The Game of Politics rest in peace and our focus be tuned in to helping make our country and our citizens healthy once again no matter who gets the credit.

Comments

[MorganLF]

And let's not forget that all these convoluted mutations of the original language in health care proposal make for a nice portfolio of quotable quotes come election time, (Ms. Palin). Death squads indeed, I agree with Alfalafool, this is tantamount to outright racism.

Hey Tommy, just found out you posted here. Guess who I am? Hint Mr. Nash's history class!

[Tom Gerdy - Huffpost Blogger]

Richard,

Anger is blinding and we are promoting anger from both sides. The most important operative word in your post is discussion. We have not even getting close to a discussion during recent elections and when discussing recent legislative or presidential proposals. Unfortunately the liars are to be found inside of congress and out. The liars are found on both sides of the isle. The reality is that the truth and the solutions are found somewhere in between the two sides. The root of the problem is that we are too busy circling the wagons to protect "our sides" to even get close to looking at solutions. We care more about party and power than progress.

[Alfalafool]

There appears to be a concerted effort to "Push the Envelope" on the First Amendment with Fox News upping the ante almost daily. They have become so outlandish and blatant in their lies, twisting of facts and outright racism it is as though they are daring anyone with half a brain to call them on it and tell them to shut the hell up. Why? Just so they can turn around with pointed fingers decrying such "censorship" and infringement of their rights to spread lies and racist hatred. This they package and sell to the idiots who take them seriously as an example of how they are being persecuted and how their free speech rights are being taken away from them - just as YOUR rights are being taken away from you! Don't be if surprised what you're saying in this article is cited as an example of how "the fascists running this country want to suppress free speech and Obama is like Hitler so if you have a license to carry then carry on down to where the President is scheduled to speak, not to threaten anyone, oh no, just to push the 2nd amendment envelope, wink wink..." I'm afraid in this way they are taking the game to another level, a very dangerous level - and they know it!

[Richard Monahan]

another person who knows the truth and will define and censor it for those of us who are to ignorant to be trusted to determine on our on what to believe or not to believe. tell me tom does your zeal for the facts and calm tone of discussion extend to the debate on climate change? Would you like to begin by obama's endorsement of a single payer in previous public statements found on the internet when he denies ever making such comments? how about reciting some of the tactics used on university campuses to shout down and silence conservative speakers? Do you consider the cost estimates given out by the obama administration which are quoted at these town meetings to be facts or are they lies as pointed out by the cbo? One point, look and listen to the dingell town meeting where the elderly gentleman is yelling at dingell concerning care for his son in the wheel chair. listen when dingell replies i wrote an amendment to take care of cases such as your son's. why did it take an amendment to guarantee his access to medical care? no one knows what is in the bill and people are angry that such a monumental change would be passed without discussion. remember obama wanted a bill before the august recess and now we know why. the liars are to be found in congress not in average citizens exercising their constitutional rights.