Responsibility

Over the last year and a half or so I’ve written a lot about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and how things that the current administration is doing ties into both of them; rather how it doesn’t even come close to either of them. We have a lot of problems in our country right now and it seems like the 111^th Congress and the current Presidential administration are doing all the wrong things to correct them. What’s even sadder is that we, the People of the United States, are doing the same thing that we have been doing for the last 150 years; we trust our future to the same people that have been slowly taking it away. Will the 112^th Congress be any different then the ones that have come before them? Unfortunately even with the influx of the supposed conservatives I’m afraid they will not be. I’m afraid they will do the same thing the 111^th Congress did only they will do it in the name of conservatism and free trade. Whether your name has an “R” or a “D” beside it matters little, it’s what you do with the power that was granted to you from the electorates that matters.

Following the November 2010 mid term elections the Republicans put out their version of a contract with America. At the same time the lame duck Congress was pushing through legislation that would further put our country in debt. The current Administration learned nothing from the mid term elections, or did they? They learned that they would not be in control any longer; they learned that if they wanted to push their particular progressive agenda on us they would have to push it hard and fast. They knew that any legislation they passed would survive for at least another 2 years, long enough to feed the addiction of Government support that so many Americans have become dependent on.

When the 112^th Congress took their oath and their offices one of the first things they did was to read the Constitution. The only problem was that they did not read the entire Constitution, they left out any part that could be considered offensive, such as the part in Article I Section 2 (3) that excludes Indians and counts Blacks as only three fifths a person when determining the number of Representatives a State shall have. Was this offensive? Yes it was. What is forgotten is that if the founders had not limited the number of Representatives that the Southern States could have by limiting the way slaves were counted then the South would have all the political power in the House of Representatives, what would that have done for how slavery was viewed and handled in our fledgling country? They also left out the part in Article I Section 3 where it talks about Senators being selected by their State legislators to represent the States interests. Nor did they read the 18^th Amendment which made the sale and transportation of liquor illegal, although they did read the 21^st Amendment which repealed the 18^th Amendment. All of these were left in the Constitution because they are lessons, they are history, on what worked and what did not work. They are lessons that we need to learn from, some are lessons that we need to relearn and get back to. Was this reading of the Constitution a real attempt at trying to get the Government back on track? I doubt it. I think this reading was an attempt to give lip service to the Tea Party and the American People as a whole. While they did read the Constitution did they understand it? Probably not. No one has yet to come out and talk about how our President and Vice President are elected compared to how the Constitution says they will be elected. No one has yet come out and talk about why Senators are selected by the legislators of the individual States and how that was one of the checks and balances placed in the Constitution, at least up until the 17^th Amendment was ratified and the States gave away their power, their sovereignty.

The President, his Administration, the past Congress and even the present Congress are not the only ones to blame for the place we have now found ourselves in. The blame goes back for decades, decades of bad Administrations and Congresses that sought nothing more then power and control, decades of the American People being asleep at the wheel when they go to the ballot boxes, decades of American People being addicted to being taken care of like a gold digger from the 1800’s. There is a saying that goes something like this; “With great power comes great responsibility”. The last time I heard it used was in a movie of all places, the People of this country, especially the politicians, no longer speak that way, much less think that way. We want our roads paved and our retirements funded. We want unlimited access to the internet and to satellite TV but we don’t want to work and earn it. We want everyone to have healthcare but they don’t have to pay for it. Where do people think the funds for all of this is going to come from? It’s going to come from us and our descendents with no hope of ever paying off the debt we are now incurring. We have elected individuals that know they can gain power by feeding this addiction. This is irresponsible of us and a misuse of responsibility by our elected officials. When the 112^th Congress read the Constitution they left parts out so they would not offend anyone, I want them to offend us; they need to offend to stop the bleeding from the coffers of our children and our grandchildren before they are even old enough to contribute to them. Congress is addicted to spending and having power and the American People are addicted to entitlements more then any junkie has ever been addicted to any drug. These addictions need to end and this can only be accomplished by responsibility. The difference between a Politician and a Statesman is that the Politician craves power and ducks the responsibility of their actions; the Statesman desires no power and accepts all responsibility for their actions. As my writings show I’m a believer in accepting responsibility for what you do and say. I’m also a believer in America, I believe we can come out of this but it will take a change, a change that will be painful at first but rewarding in the end. The American People can and should control the destiny of this country, that was the beauty of this country and that is what the Framers wrote the Constitution to do. Now it’s up to us; are we going to save our country or are we going to sit back and watch the Politicians run it into the ground until we are all more or less slaves to the system with no freedoms and no choices of our own?

Steve Avery

1/9/2011