Seeing these sites and reading our history reminds us that we have had truly great leaders who have truly inspired and led, enabling us to maintain our freedom. Millions of people throughout our nation’s history have sacrificed their lives as soldiers or perished as victims.
As I write this September 11, our citizens are deeply in need of inspiration and comfort, security and peace of mind. The images and trauma of this date are inescapable.
We should always remember the terror of this date, and we should demand more of our leaders to avoid another terrible event.
Is it too much to want our politicians to express ideas, plans, and hopes for the nation and not drag the opposing parties through the mud?
Where is our Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln or Roosevelt? If they lived in our time, would they want to run for office or remain in their homes? Would you want to expose your family to the treatment our candidates endure? Would you like to see some return to civility and decency?
It’s ridiculous for any candidate and his or her family to suffer the invasion of privacy we see as commonplace now. We as Americans should not tolerate it and we should send this message to the press: cover the ideas, analyze the events, and demand meaningful dialogue and debate. Let’s have unbiased reporting and accurate representation of the candidates’ plans. If you’re expressing an opinion, let it be known it’s an opinion, not fact.
We should not be dealing with what I consider to be distractions from the issues. I lived through the years of the Vietnam War and I remember the draft and dissention. I knew boys who signed up, some who were drafted into service and some who looked for any deferment possible. If you’re around my age, you probably have the same experience.
I would never judge anyone solely on the decisions they made at that young age. The current Presidential candidates are around 35 years past their time of service. Why don’t we acknowledge that people evolve and change, that few in their 50’s are as they were at 20?
Previous elections have used flag burning or prayer in school as distractions and that’s not being tossed around too much this year. Now we’re stuck in arguments about Vietnam instead of dealing with more pressing issues such as:
Stability for Afghanistan and Iraq and extracting our forces
Focusing on what’s happening with North Korea, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinians
Worldwide healthcare and disease crises – pandemic disastrous viruses, HIV and AIDS
Reasonable healthcare plans for Americans
The Economy
Civil Liberties
Environmental Issues
Education
Poverty
…just to name a few topics. We have huge international and internal issues to deal with, and we don’t need the distractions.
We have a lot of things wrong with the way we approach our elections, and I feel that if we focused on the issues and made some fundamental changes in election laws and in the ways we allow our candidates to be treated, we’ll get the leaders we really deserve. Maybe we’ll have great leaders earning their own monuments again.
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