Distorting the American Dream

It amazes me when I see that our nation seems uninterested as to the reason for corruption in our government. I have spoken with many of my peers, from all walks of life, and lately we all seem to be a bit turned off by the ongoing circus up in Washington. No one likes to see our "For the people" government more concerned with being re-elected than accurately representing us. That was, at one time, the purpose of having a Senate and such: to represent the people. I'm sure we can all remember times when we have looked with disgust upon our State, local, or Federal government for the level of corruption therein.

In recent months, there has been little actual investigation into the corruption surrounding our new President, as pointed out by Falkenhayn in his last post. Also, the steam-rolling new stimulus bill continues on its path, unchecked in its disastrous rhythm. There is more "pork" in that bill than in the entire state of Alabama. When one examines the nature of all the earmarks, which I would point out were not supposed to exist by promise of Obama in the first place, it doesn't take long to see that they are "payoffs." Corruption, it seems, is a very lucrative practice. Most of us are not surprised, and most of the people I talk with can see through this like we all saw through O.J. Simpson--it doesn't take a genius.

What bothers me most is the greed in all of this. Behind all of the motivations of all the little government entities and committees, behind all the financial gymnastics, and under all the smiles and press conferences--there is greed. You take a look at the current financial "crisis", and you can call greed the culprit. Take the current economy for instance. We all know that giving American jobs away, whether to illegal immigrants inside our border or foreigners across an ocean, is not a practice that ensures our economic strength. Companies have been greedy, and they found a way to make some quick cash. Quality went down the drain, but someone got rich today. And now we are enjoying the fruits of decades of selfish behavior. This is just one example, but I can assure you that greed has been a cause of many of the problems we now face as a nation. Somewhere along the line, people started believing that getting rich was the American Dream realized. This is simply not true. Getting rich may be the dream of many people in America, but that was hardly the sum of the dream of those who came here in search of freedom. The opportunity for success certainly has its place in American history, but to for a nation to forsake itself in the name of riches is not what our Founding Fathers had in mind. Let's not go on believing that having a fat bank account is what it means to be an American.