Eyes Open Wide Shut!

While on facebook today, I read a very interesting and powerful post by one of my former students: “There has been so much time effort spent finding problems pointing fingers but no time finding solutions making change. Complaints about Reagan, Bush, Clinton, HW Bush and now Obama and things don’t seem to be changing much just more finger-pointing I am starting to think society or "we the people" are the ones dropping the ball!” One of the comments on this post stated: “that is so true but I have 2 say Bush did mess up this country bad when he was in office.” On the surface the comment is accurate; however, I believe that the original post is worth more discussion. The crises facing this country did not occur with President Bush; rather these crises had its genesis in 1968. You do recall that two of our leaders were assassinated and a setting president decided not to seek reelection. We were presented with a new term to describe a group of voter, “the silent majority.” That August we witness the worst demonstration of police brutality in Lincoln Park as well as on the floor of the Democrat’s convention. During the period from 1969 - 1976 we saw a Vice President resign because of political corruption and President Resign under the cloud of “Watergate”. We elected a president who spoke of human rights and we saw the demise of his administration with the overthrow of the Shan of Iran. During the next 12 years we heard our president tell the Russian to tear down the wall that separated East and West Germany and the fall of the Soviet Union. Of course we had presidents who promise “no new taxes, read my lips.” Do you remember the “contract with America” and the election of the man from Arkansas? We watched as an election was stolen because votes in Florida were not counted or many people of color denied the right to vote. Yes my friends I believe that my former student is correct, “we the people are dropping the ball.” I will conclude with another quote from my student: If you want to rail against government takeover of land and high taxes then get the hell out of my public parks and stop complaining about the lack of public transportation to get you there."