We Need A Goal
If you look at periods where America has pulled together and worked in a more unified fashion (at least given that appearance), we had a common goal or were sharing in each others misery. Look at either of the World Wars or the Great Depression to see that when there is something to be focused on, we are able to pull the oars as a team. Even after WWII, we had a common enemy that had to be dealt with in the Soviet Union. We could focus our attention into not awakening the communist threat until Reagan drove a steak into the heart of the husk that Russia had become. America must have a focus to stop the disjointed behavior we are currently experiencing.
Sure we have the war on terror but like Vietnam, the media has turned the nation against the war instead of creating an environment for unification. The acts of Muslim extremists on 9/11 brought the nation together. For a few months, Americans acted like we were a nation with a mission and we felt proud to be Americans. But the media began picking holes in the direction and once again we are traveling the road to nowhere. Even though the President has never swayed from the course set forth after the nation was attacked, we are all dancing to different drummers.
I am not advocating pulling a Wag The Dog type scenario where we are focused by the administration on some made up short term emergency. The President, for all of the hype that goes into electing one, is little more than the front man for the government. They are the face we show to the world as the best we have to offer. They are also the mouth piece for the nation. Their vision and ability to project that vision into a pathway for us to follow is what creates unity. Of course you have to either silence the media (against the constitution) or get their buy in or you are fighting an up hill battle. Presidents like JFK and Reagan were able to create vision in those that elected them. Let us hope we are blessed with a President with even half of that capability.
Icool
Cobb
Sure we have the war on terror but like Vietnam, the media has turned the nation against the war instead of creating an environment for unification. The acts of Muslim extremists on 9/11 brought the nation together. For a few months, Americans acted like we were a nation with a mission and we felt proud to be Americans. But the media began picking holes in the direction and once again we are traveling the road to nowhere. Even though the President has never swayed from the course set forth after the nation was attacked, we are all dancing to different drummers.
I am not advocating pulling a Wag The Dog type scenario where we are focused by the administration on some made up short term emergency. The President, for all of the hype that goes into electing one, is little more than the front man for the government. They are the face we show to the world as the best we have to offer. They are also the mouth piece for the nation. Their vision and ability to project that vision into a pathway for us to follow is what creates unity. Of course you have to either silence the media (against the constitution) or get their buy in or you are fighting an up hill battle. Presidents like JFK and Reagan were able to create vision in those that elected them. Let us hope we are blessed with a President with even half of that capability.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
9:14 AM
2 Comments:
You article is a beautiful statement, especially the part about "we are able to pull the oars as a team." I really liked that image.
As for a unifying force, I would dream that the entire nation ignores the media. We make no laws against them, but we simply stop consuming their product. That is why I like this writers strike so much. I hope that maybe people will find something productive to do in place of having their life sucked out of them by TV.
Happy New Year,
Peace,
Gary <><
By
tiger bass, at 11:31 AM
I'm surprised - you normally seem fairly level-headed, but thinking that "the media" has turned the nation against the war is not what I'd normally expect from you.
I don't know about the rest of the nation - I can't speak for them or the media. But I know that I am tired of having my young cousins and nephews, my friends, and the children of my friends and congregation members crippled, maimed and killed for no very good reason other than national pride.
We surely are not bringing stability to the region; anyone can agree with that. We are not bringing peace; we are certainly not keeping gas and oil prices low. So the question is, what are we doing there? Besides maiming and killing our young people, that is?
What is needed is a WPA/renewal type project, to rebuild American infrastructure, rather than spending desperately-needed money and oil to ship weapons half across the world to blow up people who are already blowing each other up...
Iraq has never in the world been about terrorism, or weapons of mass destruction. Afganistan, at least, was about that - but we have failed entirely to hunt down and destroy Al Quaeda. The Russians did not subjugate Afganistan, and we have yet to learn from their lesson, so we continue to be taught it, over and over again, with the limbs and blood of our dedicated youth as payment for our stupidity and stubbornness.
Meanwhile, "national security" at home means I can't carry even a diet soda on an airplane for fear I might have opened my Diet Coke and refilled the contents with explosives. God forbid the day that they figure out how to make napalm that smells like pomegranate/mango so they can smuggle it on in body-wash containers in suitcases...
I realize we will not agree on this - but I also couldn't leave it alone. If we had leaders whose vision included building THIS country up, instead of blowing up other countries, that would be a pleasant change indeed. Alas, I'm afraid the last true statesmen died with Senators Paul Simon and Sam Ervin...
By
Steve F., at 2:52 PM
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