All the President's Men

What is it about politics that both intrigues and annoys us? We are in the Presidential Election cycle. Candidates are coming out of the woodwork. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards to name a few. Everyone has a plan how to do things better. Now, since this is my blog, I can say that I personally think that anywhere would be up from here. We are at war with Iraq, Afganistan, and annoying practically everyone else. Our cowboy politics don't really fly with the rest of the world. We have thousands of uninsured and underinsured Americans, thousands working and still under the poverty line. Just this past week, I found out that the free breaskfast program, one that often gives students at our school a guatanteed one meal a day, will most likely be taken away next year. There is no federal funding. Okay, no don't get me wrong, I realize that there are a lot of things to fund, but shouldn't our children be one of the most important. Our governement seems to forget that these children are the ones that will be making all the decisions when we are all old. As one who daily interacts with some of these future law makers, I am a bit frightened! Many of the youth of today are lost. They come from dysfunctional families that don't even put the "fun" in dysfunctional. There is rampant drug use among their parents, they are poor, underfed, and unable to go to the doctor, if needed. We, as a society, need to make a stand. Fight for what we want. Do we really want to be losing thousands of young men and women in Iraq, fighting for their freedom, when many of our own are fighting for their lives on American soil in their day to day lives.

Stesha, my daughter, is writing a paper on "All the President's Men." We read the book and are watching the movie (which is very accurate to the book, I might add!). Although I was not old enough to really have clarity about Watergate, I have been stopping the movie to explain things to Stesha regarding various events. Although I have seen it before, I am reminded how monumental the Watergate scandel really was. The first real time when people doubted the honesty of their government. How interesting since in today's society, people assume that the government is dishonest. So, is that an evolution of our society? If it is, is it a good one or not?

So, where do we go from here? Looking towards the future, remembering the past. We have much to repair as a society, as a country, as a world. We should begin now....not wait until the next president takes office. We need to be a nation of "All the people's men."

Let the healing begin!