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Highlands Today

Will We Ever Fix Our Country's Real Problems?

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Highlands Today Staff

Published: December 6, 2007

When was the last time the U.S. Congress and any president passed major laws that truly helped the American people? It wasn't tax cuts for wealthy people, nor was it the prescription drug law that was a boon to pharmaceutical companies who bought, paid for and even wrote the legislation. No, not much has happened since the Civil Rights movement that was fundamentally right for the people.

That's because our federal government is way past actually doing what's best for the people. Sure, politicians will sell it as that, and like sheep, too many of us buy into whatever they're selling. But what have they actually done since 1965 that was big, that was right, that truly made us a better nation? Nothing.

Meanwhile, Social Security will most likely fail in the coming decades. As of now, more than 40 million Americans do not have health care coverage. Our deficit is so high, our grandchildren, their grandchildren and great-great grandchildren will be paying it off.

Our country's dependence on foreign oil leaves us pouring money into the coffers of people who fund terrorists who kill us. We have done nothing to address our country's insatiable energy consumption, or contribute in any way to lowering greenhouse emissions.

We lock away entire generations of minorities for small-time drug crimes and believe we've addressed the problem. We slap one-size-fits-all assessment tests on our schools and thump our chests about how we're improving our schools. What a joke.

Our country put together the best minds in the country to devise an atomic bomb to stop World War II. Why can't we do that to find an alternative, renewable energy source?

We had the foresight to implement Social Security to keep our seniors from living in poverty. For too many Americans it's a supplement that they don't need. It was never intended for that.

We had the initiative to invest in an interstate transportation system that had a huge price tag, but the payoff has been undeniable.

We had the audacity to send people into space, and our nation's success in the last 50 years has been predicated on those technological advances, such as satellites, cell phones and thousands of other advances. The money produced in our economy by that investment is incalculable.

For whatever reason, we seem to have lost our way. We won't address our true needs, and spend all our time fighting over same-sex marriage, stem-cell research and whether the Ten Commandments should be in some rural courthouse. We can blame the politicians, but we are ultimately responsible.

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