I know that lately I have come across as sounding rather harsh and critical of my fellow countrymen, and I have found myself on the receiving end of some rather sharp rebukes for my views. Yet I feel I am completely justified when I say that the average American has absolutely no idea of how their government is supposed to function, and the limits to its authority.

To defend my view, I urge you to go to the webpage that follows and watch the short video segment. It is a clip taken from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in which he does his Jaywalking segment. In this particular video Mr. Leno goes to Universal Studios and asks average people questions that are among those required to pass the U.S. citizenship test. The answers he gets, to what should be common knowledge, is why I believe that there is no hope for this country, because the people don’t have the faintest idea as to the form, function, and limits upon their governments powers. (VIDEO)

Like many of you, I recently received a “census” survey from the Republican National Committee. I learned, a long time ago, that the answers to surveys were found in the wording of the questions. In other words, survey participants are led to the wanted answer by the wording of the questions.

The survey was accompanied, of course, by the requisite request for money.

At first I was going to toss the whole thing. The RNC doesn’t really want to know what the American people think, ergo the survey set up to elicit the wanted responses, just the check enclosed – thank you very much.

Then I decided that since they had given me the opportunity to communicate with them, via a return postage-paid envelope, why should I miss the opportunity to tell them what I really think.

I have been pretty quiet for the past several weeks thinking through many of the things happening in the world and our current situation in this country and in the world. Our globalization makes it imperative that we live our lives as members of a larger collective and less as individuals. Individualism is a right that we all have and should enjoy personally, but as is applies to the collective we need to be mindful of our impact on those around us.

As we wander through this life we impact everyone and everything we encounter. We are no longer an island adrift in a sea of self indulgence and secure in our own little world. We are like the rest of the world connected by our global political and financial decisions. We have become one world. As we consider our direction as a country and society we must be mindful of our affect on others; not just in America but in the world around us.

I remember awhile back a friend at work told me that his wife had read some of the articles I had written and said something along the lines that it was a wonder I haven’t been shot. She isn’t the only person who expresses those sentiments. You would be amazed at how often I hear people say that one of these days members of some government agency are gonna come knocking on my door and drag me away in handcuffs. I say, “Bring it on, because I ain’t going nowhere without a fight!”

Summer is essentially over and the barbeques and the beer, hemp, crack and block parties are winding down, as people get back in the groove for school and prepare themselves mentally for the eventual cooling of fall and the bitterness of a harsh winter. The informality of the warmer weather falls away and is replaced with pressed suits, starched shirts, conservative ties, high heels and business dresses. A self-absorbed America is humming along as it usually does, somewhat oblivious to the man-made hurricane that is hovering just over the horizon and threatening to come ashore.

Meanwhile, the poor put on warmer clothes to head for the welfare office where Obama’s stash is sitting there in vaults to be doled out to those who have lost their personal pride, self-reliance and claim no responsibility for their actions, or consider themselves victims of discrimination, or some societal-inflicted injustice of one kind or another.

We no longer have a choice. We are told what to accept and what to allow. Special interest groups dictate our available choices. Our Government is no longer interested in our desires; they now tell us what to like and what to accept. We have no choice.

I want to preface this document with a few personal statements.

1. I don’t care about your sexual preferences

2. I don’t care about your religious preferences

3. I don’t care about your ethnicity or national origin

4. I don’t care what car you drive or about its color

5. I don’t care how much money you make or how you make it

6. I don’t care how smart you think your children are or where you choose to school them

7. I don’t care how much hair you have or don’t have

8. I don’t care about your personal life… At All! 

A while back I received a short e mail in response to my article Let’s Talk Illusion and Delusion. The person e-mailing me said, “Well, you have made it clear, you are not only at war with the new deal, but you are at war with the 20th century…. ” I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I am at war, but my beliefs certainly clash with large number of people, even those who consider themselves part of the patriot movement.

Even though many people are picking the candidates they support more carefully, looking for those who have a record of supporting the Constitution, they are still looking to the government for the solution to our nation’s problems.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to see people elected who will uphold their oath to support and defend the Constitution, one has to ask how did people who disregard that oath get there in the first place?