by Randi Briggs
I have had so many people say to me that the government is broke. Who can argue with that? But the question no one is asking is “What Happened?”. Has anyone given that any thought? It didn’t happen overnight. It’s taken close to 100 years to get to the point we are at. We can blame it on entitlement programs, but the only people we can blame for those are ourselves, because we enabled the politicians that enacted them. We can blame it on corrupt politicians, but we created them too. When they do something stupid we encourage them. Look at Anthony Weiner – literally a pervert, but his constituents see nothing wrong with what he did. Look at Marion Barry, mayor of DC – caught in a sting soliciting prostitutes, smoking crack cocaine, and still his constituents re-elected him. And who can forget Charlie Rangle? Re-elected. The list is endless. What are we to assume other than first we create corruption and then we reward it? But that’s just part of the problem. As American citizens we fell into apathy, we stopped paying any attention. Those we elected saw no need to follow the instruction manual for running this country – namely the Constitution. The further we have gotten away from being a moral country, and the further we have gotten from the Constitution, the greater our problems have become. Those who preached “free love” and “if it feels good, do it” in the 60’s are now running the asylum. It’s going to take a long time to fix what is wrong with our country, but if it doesn’t start with you, it will never happen. Find your moral compass. Use your faith in God if you are a believer. If not, you will have to find some other meaningful standard to live by. Start paying attention to the issues. If you don’t, who will? Find an issue that is important to you, and actually call your Representatives to tell them how you feel about that issue (they will be glad to hear from someone besides me, for a change). Stop excusing bad behavior in yourselves, your Representatives, and your country. Get a pocket Constitution, and read it. It’s a pretty amazing document. We have to get our country back on track. When you point your finger at someone else, there are three more fingers pointing back at you.
Randi Briggs is a resident of Nevada County and a patriot.
