Post by Andreas Lang on Jan 19, 2012 19:12:30 GMT 1
Why I Support the Movement
By James Sanders in The 99% Declaration
As I sit here contemplating the state of our country, the world we live in, the atrocities abound all over, not just within the United States with government corruption, but corruption and the general lack of morality of so many individuals in power world wide, I can’t help but find myself in a world I no longer understand, and one I can no longer ignore. I find myself at a crossroads in life where I can no longer be silent, because silence is the breeding grounds for all the atrocities I’ve mentioned, and so many more I haven’t. It’s like the world is spinning at break neck speeds trying to fly apart, and the morale fabric is tearing at the seams.
I sit here mulling over the things I’ve learned of late, the things I’ve seen within the world, our country, the questions I’ve asked again and again about why things are the way they are, and I just can’t help but shake my head. I know that part of that answer comes in the poor choices of every one of us, including me, for failure to get involved, failure to open mouths and speak minds, failure to tell our elected officials that we do not agree with the way things are and we want a change. Many of us, myself included, were lulled into a false sense of trust about, well, those they always taught us to trust.
Growing up we learned that we should trust police officers, yet as I sit here thinking of the actions by different police groups across the country, not only with the recent Occupy Wall Street movement, but also things like Rodney King, and the other numerous reports of police brutality perpetrated throughout our country, I can’t help but question the wisdom in that teaching. In school, they taught us about civic duty and pride, to trust elected officials because they worked for us the people. Then I look at the lobbyists, politicians in trouble for different things simply because it seems they feel they’re above the laws applying to the rest of us, and the way it surely seems that any politician taking money, for campaign reasons or any other, from any interest group is clearly creating a conflict of interest for the office they serve. I am sadly forced to realize that the trust they taught us to have for these people, and others, once lost, is something that must be re-earned.
That may sound funny to many, as most people know this lesson, but I never applied it to those they taught us to inherently trust. My military service further solidified the trust factor. Surely, our government and those we were taught to trust would never let us down and would always have our best interests at heart as we were taught right? I can’t help but question that teaching anymore with what I’ve seen and witnessed. I wonder how many other people fail to see what I’ve just learned, through some sort of patriotic or civic responsibility. How many continue to feel they must trust such people when such people betray them or the people they were entrusted to serve.
At this point, this is probably starting to read as if I’m some jaded old man disenchanted with our country and the world, but I assure you, it’s not that simple, nor that shallow in scope. Unlike most, I understand and realize that we cannot hold an entire group accountable for the actions of a few. I realize that with each strong emotion I feel, I must step back and evaluate the picture from a broader viewpoint, both open perspective and mind. At my age, I realize that contemplation and thought must take place absent of strong emotions that cloud judgment, conclusions, and the eventual decisions born from such thought. However, I cannot deny the fact that these are actions of a group, and the majority that controls the group continues acting in ways detrimental to the people as a whole. I look at the situation, remember I was once willing to die for this country through my military service, and I can’t help but ask what I was willing to die for when this became the result.
Source: Click