I was a bit apprehensive when I posted the essay by Chris Hedges, for it is a pessimistic, gloomy article that, as several friends wrote me privately, focuses on the probable outcome of our present difficulties if we don’t change. Those who responded said that while they had no difficulty reading gloomy articles, there was no point in reading such essays if there were no solutions offered. And Chris Hedges offered no solutions.<\/p>\n
So, taking that feedback to heart, I’ve found three articles that do offer solutions to our difficulties. Not surprisingly, the solutions do not center on anything Obama or Washington can do. While Obama campaigned on the theme of change, now that he is in Washington, he is being “re-educated” (as in the notorious Communist re-education camps) to show him the error of his ways. It is up to us, who elected him on a desire to see change, to show him how to proceed.<\/p>\n
The first article<\/a> that I’d like to share with you is by one of my favorite writers, Sara Robinson. In her opening sentences, she makes the very important point that the wrangling that we are witnessing in Congress is over whether or not the Republican policies of the last 30 years are intellectually bankrupt or not. They are. End of story. I’ve posted articles by Sara before, but this time, I’m going to link to the source because there are a lot more good ideas on the site where she published her article. Just because we elected Obama doesn’t mean that we can disengage from politics and go back to what we were doing – we have to stay on top of the situation and keep demanding the change we voted for. The elites that run this country will not give up their power voluntarily – they must be forced to yield to our will. <\/p>\n The second article<\/a> is by Phyllis Huster, who is running as a progressive Democrat in Washington’s 5th State Senate district. In her essay, she argues for continuing the very thing that got Obama elected: bottoms up politics. She believes that We The People are smarter than They The Politicians and offers some ideas of how to seize control of the debate.<\/p>\n The third article<\/a> is by Rebecca Solnit and is posted on TomDispatch. It is about what is happening in Iceland right now – the first economy to collapse in the financial crisis. I’m not saying that America is equivalent to Iceland, but some of what Iceland is going through is going to have to happen here if we truly want a more just society and a thoroughgoing rejection of the policies that got us here.<\/p>\n It isn’t going to be easy. We are in difficult times and we have to make some difficult decisions, but the past 30 years have shown me that those in Washington, State capitols, and county governments work for our enemies, not our friends. It is way past time to take back our country from those who have ruined it.<\/p>\n Updated at 2:15 p.m. to add third article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was a bit apprehensive when I posted the essay by Chris Hedges, for it is a pessimistic, gloomy article that, as several friends wrote me privately, focuses on the probable outcome of our present difficulties if we don’t change. …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}