If Thomas Jefferson Could See Us Now . .

He’d be starting a revolution! He’d be drafting a new Constitution! He’d be throwing somethin’ in Boston Harbor! Where is Thomas Jefferson when we need him? How pissed off were Tom and the boys before they took action?!

I am not being unpatriotic. I love my country and all the principles it was built on. But I detest my government for tearing them apart. Tell me honestly – what is the last thing our government did that made you proud to be an American?

>>>Is it the war in Iraq that has no purpose, and therefore can never be “won” (but for which thousands of people will continue to die trying)?
>>>Is it our Attorney General who fires and replaces judges across the country that don’t align with his boss’s point of view?
>>>Is it the White House administration who has the audacity to tell the American people that they will discuss that issue as long as they don’t have to swear to tell the truth!?
>>>Is it the fact that our government refuses to commit to an international agreement to reduce the burning of fossil fuels to reduce green house gases and save our plant from ourselves?
>>>Is it the fact that while we spend millions upon billions of dollars to supposedly free the Iraqi people from suffering, we neglect the entire city of New Orleans here at home?
>>>Is it the arrogance of our President (with a lower then 30% approval rating) who sits on his thrown and dictates to Congress what they may and may not propose in a bill?

Go ahead, pick one? Or do you have more to add to this list, because I assure you this is a partial list. It might be bearable if at the same time I could point to even just a few things that I felt like our government is doing really right. But honestly, I can’t think of one.

Why is this allowed to happen? At what point did the American people get so removed from our government that they can get away with these atrocities and we just sit around listening to it on the news, shaking our heads. How did we allow ourselves to become so complacent?

Well, that’s just the thing -- we did let this happen. For generations we trusted our government to take care of us and we stopped watching the shop. We stopped paying attention, because it was easier to go play and have fun and leave the work of running our country to our elected officials. Meanwhile they took the power we handed them and ran with it. The power (and greed) went to their heads and they lost track of who they work for and what they were hired to do. And apparently so did we!

But we gave them that power; we can take that power back! But we have to be willing to take responsibility for it. Not just take action. Not just be outraged. We need to take back the power and then we need to manage the power. We need to be involved, and stay involved, in our government so that this can never happen again. We need to learn from our mistakes and make them known so that future generations don’t make the same mistakes.

If Thomas Jefferson were alive today he would undoubtedly be ashamed of our politicians; and perhaps more ashamed of us for letting it happen.