SPEAK UP, DAMNIT!!

I am by NO means a fan of Glenn Beck (CNN). I often disagree and feel he is an obnoxious, arrogant blather mouth.

HOWEVER.... He had an editorial on CNN.COM today that I felt was true. The AA analogy is a little annoying (and I cut the beginning of of his article out where he sets all this up...), but the statements and the substance of the rest is compelling as far as I am concerned.

I also think it is as true with regards to Rhode Island as it is with America as a whole.

Everyone is busy in their lives.... but it doesn't take long at all to make your views known....spend 5 minutes to collect the email addresses of your national and local elected officials. Then it's easy to just shoot off a quick note to them when you hear, read or see something that concerns you. Look at it this way ... if you DO it, then you have every right to get up there on that high horse and BLAT the SOB's when things are going wrong. It's a justification to bitch - AND, it might even influence the bastards to do what YOU want, not what THEY want.

I really do feel overwhelmed by the cacophony of screamingly bad decisions, corruption and arrogance in out representatives. I think we ALL need to care more about where this country is going .. about where our states are going. And in the absence of direction form us, the people who represent us are screwing things up.

Anyway ... (getting down off the soap box) .... here's the article in part. Beck can be a jerk ~ but he happens to be right this time.

…
Through hard work and unwavering principles, America took itself from a far-fetched idea to the greatest, most compassionate, most free country the world has ever known. But as our success has grown, so has our arrogance.
We've compromised our values, sold out our principles and used our freedoms to justify giving more power to the government. In the first century of America's life, its government was afraid of its citizens. Now, it's the other way around.
Maybe America should consider starting on the same kind of 12-step program that's helped millions of other addicts who couldn't see that they were slowly killing themselves. Here's my version of it, condensed to six steps since I know that Americans are way too lazy to stick around for all 12.
Step One: Admit we are not powerless.
Take a look at our Constitution. Not just a transcript; find an actual picture of it. The first three words, "We the People," are at least four times larger than the others. Do you think that was an accident? Of course not. Our framers chose those words, and made them that size, because they knew they were the answer to any problem we would ever face.
Step Two: Believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.
I think this one pretty much speaks for itself.
Step Three: Decide to take our power back.
A recent polls says 81 percent of Americans now say that our country is on the wrong track. If you're one of those people, who do you blame? The Bush administration? Congress? The media?
Here's a crazy idea: How about blaming ourselves?
If you don't like the fact that your city has led the country in poverty and homelessness for the last 10 years, then ELECT SOMEONE NEW. Stop voting for the same people from the same party every year.
Our power hasn't gone away (see Step One), it's just been masked by politicians who are tearing us apart for their own gain. We need to reclaim that power, and then we need to use it.
Step Four: Make a complete and fearless moral inventory.
Alcoholics aren't exactly big fans of introspection and self-examination, but this is one of the most important steps to recovery.
What are America's faults? What are our assets? By taking stock of both, we can start to work on maximizing our strengths and eliminating our weaknesses. It sounds simple, but when's the last time you really thought about what America does right? That brings me to Step Five.
Step Five: Admit our wrongs, and our rights.
We're constantly reminded about America's faults and flaws, but what about our achievements?
If you want to teach our kids about Vietnam, that's fine, but you better also teach them about World War II. And if you want to talk about our wars, you better also talk about our welfare. America is one of the most charitable countries in the history of the world, yet our mistakes are always glorified far more than our generosity. That needs to be reversed.
Step Six: Be ready to remove our defects.
Just like an alcoholic, we simply cannot go from sleeping on the street to perfection overnight. This is a big ship, and it takes a long time to turn it around.
But we have to start somewhere, and the best place is with the defects that almost all of us agree on. For example, does anyone really believe that being addicted to Saudi Arabia's oil is a good idea? What about China owning billions of our debt? Speaking of debt, what about the fact that we've saddled our children with $53 trillion in future Social Security and Medicare obligations?
But before we can address any problems, we have to first admit we have them. Many of us are in denial about just how divided we've become. We think that it's just the election or the war that's tearing us apart, but the truth is, it's much larger than that. We're every bit as arrogant, greedy and self-destructive as I was when I hit bottom.
Fortunately, it's not hopeless. It never is. If a program can work on a rodeo clown like me, it can definitely work for a country as great as ours. But until we're able to stand up and say, "Hello, my name is America and I have a problem," we'll never even have a chance.