Can We Have Our Democracy Back? … Please?

Everyone wants a little piece of the pie, and everyone wants to have their 5 minutes of fame…

We live in a country that was founded on very basic principles. There would be no royalty, no feuds. A duly elected government where all would be equally represented. Everyone would have the same possibilities and each individual would have the opportunity to pursue those very possibilities, according to his/her capabilities.

That was some two hundred years ago. The world has changed since then. It has become much more complicated, faster, smaller in a way. We now know what happens on the other side as it actually happens. Whether we want to, or not.

We as a nation have grown, mostly along with the rest of the world. Scores of nations have come and gone -and some come again- in that time, but we persevere. We are here. A little bigger around the waist and perhaps with less hair than years ago when it was customary to wear a wig, so we could emulate those very folks “over there” we were complaining about. As we grew, along the way we also learned to speak “with forked tongue” when needed, putting truth and transparency to the side in the process. We have become full of contradictions and of issues which beg to be resolved. But we are beginning to lack the courage, or the interest, to do so. At least it seems so.

Our Democracy needs to be revamped, rethought and kicked in the rear so it can get going again…

·       We need to be able to know what goes on in the hallowed halls of Congress and the Presidency… we pay the bills.

·       We should be able to access information which is often censured and/or “for your eyes only” but which impacts us....                                                              We should be able to vote directly and not through committees...

·       Tax reform – a real one – is needed. We should all pay a personal/corporate reasonable flat tax, with no exemptions and no deductions.

·       Our government types should be paid on results, not promises. This, like any position, has responsibilities and should have results.

·       We should be able to read, learn and to express our thoughts about issues freely, truly and really freely…

·       Church is a state of mind. Each one of us chooses to believe where we feel comfort and love –or not- and others should accept this… and vice versa…

·       Fanatics should only be found at concerts and sport venues, not on the streets or newspapers telling me what I should do or think.

·       Each one of us should be able to receive according to our capacity and our efforts.

·       Those who need –not those who want- should be able to receive help in order to satisfy their needs and get to the point of not needing.

·       We should all be able to have access to decent education, but passing grades should not be given based on demographic needs, but on actual results.

·       Government sets the laws of the land; those in government should be held accountable for respecting and functioning within the very laws they propose and pass. Especially when some of these laws passed are not always in agreement with those who voted them in.

Utopian? Maybe… and the again, maybe not. Our seams are bursting at the edges and we insist on continuing to burden society with more and more of the things that should not be a burden. How long can this nation and its structure take this abuse? I don’t know. I hope we don’t get to actually find out.

This human and political experiment we have come to know as the USA is still a beautiful example of what can be, when the people actually take a hand in shaping it. When the political types actually take a bit of time and pay attention to what it is those who elected them actually do want. It is a work in progress; I think we have strayed somewhat from the road our founding fathers meant us to take, but it is not too late yet to retake it.

Will we? … Will our children?   I hope so.

Be Well … Be Back!!!

Final Notes:

·       Pray for those who are fighting an illness which may take them away from their loved ones… Every request is heard, and counts!!

·       Follow us on Twitter … @RJAsPandora

·       Any comments please send to rjalcazar@gmail.com

Sunday Morning, Early 2015

Sometimes writing is difficult. Like now... 

Like when pure laziness has kept me from sitting here, in front of the one-eyed-monster and actually thinking about something, anything at all, which can be written into this God-awful blank page into which my eyes stare… hoping for an apparition to come and say the “writing muse” is OK… that it has just been resting, tucked away in a corner of my mind. That lost corner where all things ignored go and hide, hoping not to be called back into service any time soon.

Then, the fishing begins. A look at FB to read about friends and family, where they are and what they are doing this early in the year… some are dining, some are traveling… some put pictures of family and accomplishments and some are reliving past times and reviewing what was, or what may have been had it not been for life itself and the way in which “she” (must be a she… no?) chooses to hand out little triumphs when she well knows, with her unerring foretelling vision, the elusive big score will only become, as years go by, a retreating hope that gets relegated to that huge bin labeled “opportunities lost… what might have been if…”.

So the morning goes on… write a little then go away… then come back and hope for a few more words. Not of wisdom; those are beyond my ken at this time. All that is wanted are some words which may give some continuity to what is written, to what has been written over a span of some 5 years now.

Perhaps falling into that reliving/reviewing effort there has been some time spent reading entries made 2-3-4 years ago. Well back into the first grouping retelling those days when my life was reset into a new paradoxical life line as I was put on an airplane and, like many before and since, shot off into a new plane of existence. Little did we know… very little…

So this Sunday goes on, this week goes on, this month goes on… so will the year and what time we have left on this lane. We continue to live, argue, fight off pesky issues –whether physical or emotional- and we continue to take that next step without really knowing where it will take us. Each one of these steps is a treat, if we always knew what would come after, or where it would lead… perhaps life would lose that mystery which makes it utterly interesting and challenging.

So, while the Pandora background gives me Frank Blue Eyes singing “Luck Be a Lady Tonight…” I bid you all the beautiful things you hope for; it is my wish not that all problems be resolved miraculously, but that each and everyone has the continuing strength of will to fight on and to always take that next step, not knowing where it may actually lead you.

Be Well … Be Back!!!

Final Notes:

·       Pray for those who are fighting an illness which may take them away from their loved ones… Every request is heard, and counts!!

·       Follow us on Twitter … @RJAsPandora

·       Any comments please send to otherboxp@yahoo.com