I’ve been absent for the past several weeks and you can blame taxes. It’s that time of year, and up until yesterday, I was swamped with paperwork for three people and itemization that will make one’s eyes cross. This took up so much of my time and gave me multiple migraines, that it got me back to thinking about the Boston Tea Party and the Declaration of Independence.
This country was founded by people who were essentially wanting to start a new life away from the European forms of Monarchy and Religious Persecution. There were so many who were taxed into debtor’s prison that they’d never again see the light of day were it not for a few social reformation experimentalists like General James E. Oglethorpe. He took debtors, prisoners, people down on their luck that needed a fresh start and wanted to prove they could be productive members of society if given the chance. He wasn’t the only one, but he purchased their debts and these people became indentured servants for the amount of time to pay off this debt. They worked for their freedom and many of them achieved this.
Now, I know you don’t need a history lesson, but, perhaps a reminder of the kind of people that started this country. Yes, there were the titled gentry that obtained gigantic swathes of land in a game of chance or someone’s good will, but they were not and never have been the backbone of this country. The American Revolution was fought and won by the sweat and blood of the working Colonial, and our country continues this tradition to this day.
The main difference is: We allow ourselves to be taxed into complacency.
What happened to those militia, those fighters, those Colonials that stood up to a Monarchy taxing them to death? I look around and I see us devolving back into what we fled. Is it comfortable? Is it some inevitable path for a successful country to take? Are we no longer the Red Giant Sun of this world, and fading into ignominy?
We’ve lost top credit billing, we’ve lost top currency value, we’ve lost age old relationships with fellow countries that have been with us since the beginning… Who are we, anymore? The politicians haven’t changed. We can’t blame them, not really. They’re the same selfish and self-aggrandizing creature they always were.
So it has to be us that’s changed.
We no longer bother to protect ourselves and our own interests, and instead, want others to do it for us. We’re lazy (in comparison with what we’ve been). We’re lazy and complacent and fat on the labors of our fathers before us. What will this mean for the generations ahead? Some say it will be very little time before we have either another civil war, finally splitting the country into smaller bits. Some say we will be taxed into such a state of bankruptcy that we’ll have no choice but to invite other countries to buy our debt from us.
Read that again and think about the situation between the US and China. That’s already happening, isn’t it? And you know who’s spending that money? We are. The government isn’t doing it by themselves. They’re a bad parent borrowing and selling everything they can think of to keep their children in the luxury they’ve come to expect.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no where near holding them blameless. I am, however, stating that American Citizens need to take some of that blame, themselves, instead of pointing the finger and yelling “He did it!” like some juvenile child.
And to those who do point the finger at one person, I shake my head at you. The president is no more singly responsible for this country than you or I are. His choices have been made based on the efforts and information gathered by hundreds of people, and pushed and pressured into decisions by the men and women of our congress.
That being said, they are a figurehead and do have a responsibility to be what America is, to show what we are to the rest of the world. He is our reflection, and I’m not happy with the past twenty years of presidents nor what they’ve shown. I’m not happy with the current crop of candidates, either. They’re all attacking the oval office as if it were home base in a game of tag instead of realizing it’s the figurehead of a nation desperately in need of redirection from this overpowering swell of government involvement and taxes. The United States of America, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution were all formed to move away from this kind of tyranny. We need to watch what’s happening in the Mediterranean and Northern Africa, because that’s going to happen here within the next generation.
Our children.
As we have done from the state of things our parents left us, our children will also reap the benefits or difficulties we ply upon the world, now.
Remember this the next time you want to blame Obama or Bush or W or Clinton for all the wrong doings in this country. And remember that when you point a finger, three more point back at you.
I challenge the American populace to take more responsibility. Take it back upon yourselves instead of foisting it off and gaining this country more taxes. We were not made to be this way. We are an independent, proud country and should remember how to act that way.
Vaguely Paisley 