We are fast losing our place in the world as a leader of a free people.
Freedom is a costly commodity that takes an open mind, a steady hand and a lot of compassion. We cannot become the bully of the world and retain our respect. If we are to follow the framers’ guidelines, we should learn about the Constitution – a living document that changes with the times and requires periodic, modest adjustments.
A couple of good books on the Constitution are available at our Cortez Public Library: America’s Constitution: A Biography, and The Constitution Today, by Akhill Reed Amar.
Don’t let the name throw you off. The man has done his homework and worked for many Supreme Court justices and taught in many of our top universities. Both books are up-to-date through 2016. They may change your mind about laws, elections, and the governing of a free people.
Every four years we become obsessed by the race for the presidency, but the fact is, Congress really runs the country and we should be more concerned as to whom we send there and whom they show allegiance to. Is it the people, or the oligarchy and its lobbyists?
There are supposed to be three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. But the real power these days lies in the lobbyists for the oligarchy – the few who buy and sell our elected leaders. As with any strip club, money gets you the lap dance.
When a politician promises to lower your taxes (a surefire way to become popular), use a little skepticism. Ask them this: Who will pay your salary? Usually we find out that they will take it from children, the elderly and education. Children are our future, education is a dire necessity and Social Security is not an unearned entitlement, it is an insurance policy everyone buys from our government. The reason the Social Security system is supposedly broke is because politicians have plundered it to cover their mistakes. Promissory notes do not pay interest.
The oligarchy has tried to destroy this democracy since before its beginning. After all these years and hundreds of thousands of good lives sacrificed, we are still slaves. The Koch brothers and their fellow oligarchy members are hellbent on destroying this nation.
George W. Bush got his name on the cornerstone of the World Trade Center monument and thousands got their name on marble crosses that we honor several times every year during holidays that have become nothing more than excuses for corporate-boosting sales. How proud I am! I’m a Korean War vet and my monument is a communism-supporting corporation.
If we want to take our country back from the oligarchy, we have to do more than focus on a media-driven “horse race” between two candidates every four years. We have to know the Constitution and our government. We have to know the system. And we have to know the candidates for the House and Senate. They’re the ones making the sausage, not our mop-topped, orange-headed president.
To Willetta:
The morn doesn’t come with the crack of dawn.
It starts with a stretch and then a yawn
a face to wash and teeth to brush
as we hear the first song of the thrush
To the perking aroma filling the room
the first cup over which we swoon
Then out on the deck with cup in hand
to listen to the waking of the birds in the land
Surrounded by them in a wreath of trees,
sometimes putting me on my knees
They’re free to fly and to perch as they will
knowingly they harmonize their free will
The call of the coyote, the rustle of deer
The squirrel with its chatter brings me to tears
Knowing you’re gone, though your love remains here
With this refrain it is you here again.
Galen Larson writes from Montezuma County, Colo.
