and impact of what is being said because each article is based on information that has most likely been addressed in some manner in a former article.  It was designed to be a progressive series.

PURPOSE

In these articles, I have tried to relay my opinions as to what has gradually happened in the United States over a period of many years.  These articles have not been, nor are being presented as factual material, nor as accusations against any person or entity.  They are solely based on my perception of what I have experienced as a whole over the last sixty-one years of my life.  My intention is to stimulate citizens of the United States to think outside the box, consider alternate solutions, and then do their own research in order to make intelligent voting decisions.  And, this should be done as opposed to believing everything that they see, read, or hear via the present day news media.  It is not so important to me that you agree with me on my opinions, as it is that you come to your own conclusions based on your own intelligent research work.  That is what separates a properly informed and responsible voter from what I call a “political lemming”.

In doing so, I have offered many suggestions regarding what I think that we need to do and how we might be able to do it.  In this article, I will bring together many of these ideas and begin presenting the ultimate common sense solutions to the myriad of problems that we face today.  Please keep an open mind because some of my suggestions will most likely be very controversial.  These suggestions will not be easy things to do.  But, in my opinion, the sacrifices that we must make today are the direct result of us allowing things to get totally out of control for so many years.  They didn’t happen overnight and they were happening long before many of the present day politicians ever came into office.  However, I feel that we have now reached the breaking point.  If we don’t take dramatic measures now, then there may be no turning back for ourselves, our country, nor our environment.   And, I am totally convinced that the vast majority of people in office today, no matter which of the two major Parties they represent, will not do the things necessary to bring about the kind of change that this country so desperately needs.

I further believe that these suggestions must be shared now,  before Mother Nature decides that she has had enough abuse from the carbon based units who have raped her environment and natural resources for so long, and decides that it is now time for a cleanse.  And, if she does, then the remaining people, if any, must realize that they must start out differently from the way we did the first time.  They will have the knowledge of what caused our downfall, and hopefully remember the things shared in these articles, and the suggestions submitted therein.  Therefore, I offer this as a final plea for change, or as a guidebook for a new civilization to begin over again.  And, if neither is the case, then maybe it will serve as a warning to others, who may visit this small, remote planet, and want to settle here.  It will tell them that we were once here, and that we were blessed with this wonderful, life giving planet, filled with plains, forests, clean lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and pure oxygen, all teaming with abundant life.  But, we were unable to control the beast that lies within us. and destroyed it all.

RECAP

I started this series of articles by showing how every nation that has tried to assert their dominance over the world has fallen.  And, they have fallen for basically the same reasons.  As corruption and deception among the leaders grew, and their quest for world dominance continued, the nations outgrew their ability to support their efforts and themselves as well.  Thus, their massive treasuries began to shrink, causing a virtual collapse and meltdown of their entire monetary system.  Without the money to equip, supply, and feed their armed forces abroad, they became vulnerable to attack and began losing on all fronts.  In my opinion, the United States has been following that exact same path.

In the next few articles, I showed how the United States broke away from the tyranny of England only to set up a system of government that was much like the one that they fought so hard to break away from, with the exception of a few unique differences.  Even Benjamin Franklin warned us that the Government that our Constitution was creating “can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other”.  From my viewpoint, that is exactly what has happened to the people of this country.  Their lust for profit, power, and control has manifested itself in the mighty power brokers of this nation.  And, that manifestation of power has had a direct and major influence on the elected and appointed leaders of our government.  In my opinion, these results have fulfilled Franklin’s prophecy. 

This new government was also founded on the principal that all men are created equal.  Yet, they failed to define “man”.  As a result, the poor, the women, and the slaves, were not considered to be on an equal basis as the “real” men who owned property and were well educated.  And, that thread of thought has carried through the years and is still manifest in our leaders today.  The results are shown in the state of our economy and the living conditions of the average American citizen today.  It is also demonstrated in who the Federal Government caters to first when bailouts are issued.  It is further demonstrated by whom our legal system protects and focuses on the most.  A good example of this is the Supreme Court decision to allow nearly unlimited campaign financing, thus giving a decided advantage to those who have the most financial backing.  The Great American Dream has now become the Great American Nightmare.  That is, it’s a nightmare unless you are wealthy enough to make your dream come true.  We have somehow twisted very good concepts into laws that give the wealthy more rights and abilities than the others who are not so wealthy, under the disguise of equal rights. 

From the start, the powers that be made little to no effort to bridge the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots”.  Nor did they even respect the rights of the real owners of this land, as they mercilessly killed many of the original inhabitants, driving the rest from their homes so they could satisfy their insatiable appetite for growth and expansion.  I ask you, who are the real savages?

Later, as the Industrial Revolution kicked in, American industry exploded with growth.  Factories sprang up everywhere and there was a huge need for unskilled labor.  America became the land of opportunity for people of all nations. 

However, as automation gradually began to replace the unskilled labor force with machines, workers began losing their jobs everywhere.  This change did not have as much of an impact on the skilled labor force because they had a trade to offer.  Therefore, skilled workers were still high in demand, and futures were being made in small businesses.  "Mom and Pop" businesses sprung up everywhere.  Instead of many people being employed by a few mega corporations, as it is today, most were actually employed by many small businesses.  If some failed, it wouldn’t have a major impact on our overall economy.  If you lost your job, or moved, there were many small businesses to apply at most everywhere you went.  These businesses grew to be the backbone of our country.  Customer service was of prime importance and terms like “the customer is always right” became a common motto of many small businesses.  You don't hear that today.  Business owners took pride in their work back then, and strove for high quality products that were made to last.  After all, if the customer was happy with their service, he would most likely come back, and he may bring a new customer with him.  But, if he was not happy, he might not come back at all, and he may tell his friends as well.   

But, there were forces building within that would eventually grow to become a threat to the very existence of every small business in the country.  As profits skyrocketed, some of these businesses grew to become giants.  And these giants had names.  They were called major corporations.  These giants fed and grew off the revenue stream created by new customers who were coming from the many small businesses that could not compete with them.  Because the giants had so much money, and could buy in such volume, the small businesses were not able to match their lower prices.  Thus, customers began flocking to the major corporations, and many small businesses eventually began closing their doors. 

Yet there would be a price to pay for such misplaced devotion.  As stock holders demanded more and more widgets produced at lower and lower costs, they began making products with less expensive materials; materials that would wear out and break down quicker.  Thus the quality of the product suffered greatly.  For example, a refrigerator that used to last 20-30 years, might not last but 4-7 years with the new materials used.  The importance of the quality of products was gradually being replaced by the importance of the quantity of products.  And, people were basically forced to purchase the same or a similar product many times over, as opposed to just once or twice.

As these giants grew even larger by making enormous profits on the stock market, some of them began coming together to form mega giants.  They were called conglomerates.  With conglomerates, corporations could now combine with other corporations that were involved in other, different business activities.  As these organizations became bigger and bigger, emphasis on the small businesses and individuals themselves began to diminish.  Instead of focusing on the billions of dollars that many small businesses could generate together, attention began to center more on the few mega giants that brought in the billions of dollars all in one revenue stream.  The power was in the concentration and focus of this pot of gold.  And the people who controlled these businesses became “bigger than life”.

I do realize that under our present system, profits must be made in order for our country to survive.  However, what I am against is the near absolute control and power that a few people can have over other people and other businesses as a result of such a system.  Such control can monopolize an entire market, an entire industry, and even an entire country if allowed to grow without restraint.  And, when there is a limited amount of wealth to go around, the more wealthy one entity becomes, the wider the gap becomes.  As time continues, giants become mega-giants, and the poor become even poorer.

From my perspective, as these mega-giants got bigger and bigger, laws were designed to protect them from failure because of the impact that their failure would have on communities and cities.  However, in doing so, focus was gradually shifting from the backbone of our country, the small businesses and entrepreneurs to the mega-giants.  This scenario is demonstrated best in the recent bailouts that followed the stock market correction. 

When you put all of your eggs in one basket and someone drops the basket, you lose all of your eggs.  The powers that be should have been smart enough to have never allowed this to happen.  Caps must be placed on unlimited business growth by individual companies.  Our legal focus should turn once again to small business if we are ever going to rebound from the mess we are in today.

The financial industry, the oil industry, and the auto industry are examples of some of the industries that have became so important in the eyes of the Federal Government that they could not be allowed to fail.  So, they bailed their heavy players out to save the thousands of jobs that would be lost, and allowed thousands of other jobs to be lost in the smaller businesses that did not have bottom lines large enough to appear on the Fed’s radar screen.  I ask you, where is the focus of our government leaders, and who do they protect?

And now, we are trapped and forced to support industries that, in my opinion, are doomed to failure.  Oil is a finite resource, and is now on the decline.  We should immediately focus on developing alternative fuels for the power and transportation industries because we depend on oil for so many other things besides those industries.  Why let all of them fail when you could save others by converting the ones who use it the most, now?  That would give us time to design artificial oil sources to replace petroleum, like the Germans were trying to develop near the end of World War II. 

Autos are now so numerous, and are emitting so many poisonous gasses into the atmosphere that we are faced with the dilemma of how we can replace them with something that is safer, healthier, and makes more sense.  And also, in my opinion, the financial system is nearing a complete collapse because we have allowed rampant buying on credit, corruption for profit, skyrocketing interest rates, and an inflated economy with a devaluing dollar as a result of creating new, easy money out of nothing, and recklessly pumping it into the system. 

With the aging of the baby boomers, the Medical Industry will face a crisis of unprecedented proportions, as more and more people are faced with chronic and degenerative diseases brought about by two other mega-giants, the Food and Beverage Industries.  As sugars, salts, additives, substitutes, fats, grease, sterilization, etc, begin taking their toll on their subjects, many more people will be faced with terrible medical problems.  And, how will the Insurance Companies be able to pay all of these claims without increasing the premiums of this already poverty-stricken generation?  Insurance companies for the Dental Industry already pay only half, or less, of the cost for major dental work, and if the same tooth requires major work that has already had major work done on it in the last few years, they pay little, to nothing. 

We are in big trouble, especially when you consider the fact that no serious effort has been made at all to begin restricting our unlimited population growth.  Do you really think that the new Healthcare Plan will bring in enough money to pay for all of these claims?  Do you really think that the Federal Government will keep all that money in the Healthcare pot?  If you believe that, then I’ve got some ocean front property in Kansas that I’d like to sell you.   Look what happened to our Social Security Fund. 

And, how about the many claims of the illegal immigrants, who don’t even pay taxes for their benefits?  Since when do illegal immigrants have more rights than American citizens?  Also, do you really believe that the poor and uneducated will voluntarily limit the growth of their families, when you consider the benefits they are getting in their relief programs?  When one man’s freedom demands payment from another’s man’s wallet to maintain his freedoms, then we really have a serious problem with our definitions of freedom and rights.  Perhaps our rights should be dependent upon acceptance of the responsibilities that go along with those rights.  And, when we can’t demonstrate acceptance of those responsibilities, then we should lose those rights until we have demonstrated our ability to accept them.

The quality of our nation, as a whole, has continued to deteriorate, as we have consistently loosened our control over values, morals, restrictions, and responsibilities due to the twisted cries for individual rights.  I can’t believe what they allow to be played on the air today, the language they use, and the things they show for our kids to see.  Promotion of violence is prominent.  Look at the video games our children play. 

They make out drug dealers and murderers as heroes in our movies.  They promote unethical stock market traders, who deal in greed at the highest levels, as role models.  They allow foods and beverages to be promoted and sold as being good for us, when they are filled with things that are known to be harmful to our health.  Yet they make it illegal to promote certain vitamins, minerals, and herbs as being good for certain ailments.  What have we become?  And once again, who is our legal system protecting?

This unrestricted freedom is literally bringing our country to its knees.  There is no longer respect for one another.  We no longer relate to each other.  Just look around.  Drive to work.  Look for a parking place.  Stand in line.  Call customer service.  Walk through a transit system station.  Go to a mall.  Shop for a Christmas present and observe the 21^st Century version of the spirit of Christmas.  Observe the frustrations that people are experiencing because of this loss of respect and our growing population that has totally gotten out of control.  What has happened to courtesy and politeness?  We have totally turned inward.  The dilution of our society has taken away our strength and power.

People don’t use logic anymore.  Or, is it that they just don’t care?  Women cross the street with a baby in their arms and don’t even look both ways before crossing.  Two or three people walk down a sidewalk, not considering people coming towards them on the other side of the sidewalk.  And, if you don’t move for them, they will literally shoulder right through you, rather than being courteous, and falling in line behind one of their friends to allow you to clearly pass on your side of the sidewalk. 

Just yesterday, I observed a lady entering a crosswalk, pushing a stroller containing a baby across the street.  She was going against the light.  Before entering the crosswalk, she didn't look either way.  She didn’t even look at the red light in front of her.  She was totally lost, in her own little world, not even remotely thinking about the safety of her child.  Now, I know that in Georgia, a pedestrian entering a crosswalk always has the right of way.  However, this lady was assuming that everybody plays by the rules, and she was risking the life of her baby to prove it.  What if a motorist didn’t see her?  What if a motorist was texting?  What if a motorist was fixing her hair and looking in the rear view mirror.  What if a motorist was drunk, on drugs, or having a heart attack?  The woman pushing the stroller would be legally right if there was an accident.  But, she could also be “dead right”.  What good are her precious rights if she is dead?  And her baby could have been “dead right “as well.  What has happened to Common Sense today?  And, why can’t our leaders see what is happening around them?  Many of them are as old as I am, and there is no excuse for them.  They should know better.

All too often, it seems to be the position of our leaders to wait until things become a crisis before addressing them.  To me, this indicates a blatant incompetence in our leadership.  For example, what is wrong with addressing the population problem now, before it becomes critical?  It is no longer a religious issue.  If God created us in their image, then we are expected to make intelligent decisions.  If God tells you to fill up a glass with water, then he expects you to have enough sense to stop filling the glass before it overflows the top.  In my opinion, that applies to populating the Earth as well.  I think we have done a fine job of that, thank you.  It’s now time to cut back.  If we are really concerned about our children and their future, then we will address this issue now before it becomes critical to them.  Or, are we just too scared to stir up the human rights issue?  I am not afraid of doing so.  You know where I stand.  I don’t believe that people should have rights in the first place if they can’t accept the responsibilities that go along with those rights. 

Some other nations don’t even allow new immigrants to enter their country at all unless they can offer a special service to the betterment of their country or can become an immediate asset to it.  This is no longer 1892.  There are no longer vast stretches of open land that is available for all.  Our population is nearing the top of the glass.  Perhaps, we need to acknowledge the hard facts that face us and make some tough decisions.  We have done our job to the world.  We now need to think about the preservation of our own nation.  We need to start thinking about what is really best for our nation, our kids, and our environment.  And I believe that was the exact intend of the framers of our Constitution before our leaders twisted its meaning into something that no longer represents the citizens of this land.

And, in light of this growing problem, we certainly don’t want the type of people in our country that would willfully violate our laws before even becoming citizens.  Common sense would tell you that this type of person should automatically be rejected for citizenship without further consideration.  But, of course, that would be logical.  And, in reality, we are talking about the government here.  Giving them amnesty is not only a slap in the face to all of the legal immigrants, who worked so hard to gain their citizenship, but it will stir up the very heartland of America, who strongly believe in the earning of one’s keep.  And, how about the many poor people whose jobs will be taken by these people who are willing to work for next to nothing?  They talk about the rights of illegal immigrants, when they should be talking about the rights of American citizens.

We can begin making an immediate difference by eliminating the profit factor from industries that have a direct influence on the health, education, and welfare of our citizens.  And to be quite direct, I am talking about services such as Health, Medical, Dental, Food, Legal, Politics, Education, and basic level Housing.  These areas are vital to our existence and should never be dependent on how much an individual can pay for them. 

Profit in these areas can, and more often does compromise the general welfare of the citizens of the United States of America and further promotes crime in some instances.  In the May article, I detailed my understanding of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States.  And, based on my understanding, I strongly feel that our leaders have sold out this preamble, and yea the people whom it was written for, through their loose interpretation of the Constitution, thus allowing capitalism to compromise its very meaning and strip the very protection it offers its people away, in favor of the wealthy.

This part of our system has got to be changed immediately.  And, there is a way to do it.  However, in doing so, we must force the affected industries to change their focus from greed and profit to the quest for the betterment of mankind.  Or, we must create new industries that will adhere to this new philosophy, thus forcing the old industry leaders out of business, much the same way that they did to the small businesses. 

However, this cannot and will not be done unless we first remove the people from office who have so proven their devotion to these corporate giants for so many years.  The reason for this is that they will not allow it.  They will continue to legislate protection for these giants, as they have done for so many years.  And in the process, they will seduce you into believing that it is in the best interest of the country to do so.  My answer to that is just to look around.  Have their decisions, in the last sixty-five years, made a better way of life for you?  If you are over fifty, do you have the same American Dream that you did when you were twenty?  If you are younger, you might not identify with a better way of life than this because you weren’t around to see it.  If you are comparing life today to the way it was in 1990 or 2000, then you don’t have much to compare it with.  You may want to talk to your parents about what their dreams were and compare it to what they ended up with today.

Our Constitution was clearly designed to protect “We The People”.  And, “We The People”, from my perspective, are the citizens of this country who sent the very delegates to Philadelphia in the first place to make these rules.  Instead of focusing so much on protecting corporate profits gained from taxpayer purchases, the Federal Government should be focusing on protecting taxpayers against corporate abuse through the quest for profit.  In my opinion, our Government leaders have totally misinterpreted our Constitution and have used its power to grant them the authority to sell out the American people in favor of the protection of big business profits.  If I am wrong, then I am man enough to admit it.  But, that's what it looks like to me.  The real question is, are our elected leaders man enough to admit it when they are wrong.

In some twisted way, we have been led to believe that the more profitable big business becomes, the better our citizens will be able to live.  Looking at all the events that have happened since World War II, I just don’t see it happening that way.  Looking at the recent stock market crash, where the government had to confiscate American tax payer money to bail out these big giants without our approval, I just don’t see it happening that way. 

If it were true, then why do we still have crime in the streets?  If it were true, then why are so many people out of work?  If it were true, then why are so many American citizens unable to afford dental, medical, and vision treatment? If it were true, then why is it that after 30 years of serving in the workforce, so many people retire with next to nothing? If it were true, then why haven’t these big giants been forced to retool their factories and eliminate our dependence on foreign oil by now?  If it were true, then why is nearly half of the wealth in this country held by only 1 percent of the population?  In my opinion, the answer is simple.  It’s NOT true.  From my perspective, the opposite is true.  The more profitable big business becomes, the poorer the rest of us get.

Since we have switched our focus from individuals and small businesses to major corporations and big businesses, look at what has happened to our country.

We have gone from     “We The People”                       to     “We The Corporate”.

We have gone from     “Give Me Liberty”                    to     “The Patriot Act “.

We have gone from     “Give Me Your Tired-“            to     “Give Me Your Cheap Labor”.

We have gone from     “The Monroe Doctrine”            to     “Police The World”.

We have gone from     “A Creditor Nation”                 to     “A Debtor Nation”.

We have gone from     “Property Rights”                      to     “Eminent Domain”.

We have gone from     “Free Trade”                                to     “Managed Trade”.

We have gone from     “Good Labor Practice”             to     “Bailouts”.

We have gone from     “States Rights”                            to     “Big Government”.

We have gone from     “My Responsibility”                  to     “My Rights”.

We have gone from     “Law Protects Innocent”           to     “Law Protects Guilty”

We have gone from     “Spirit of Law”                            to     “Letter of Law”.

We have gone from     “Customer Service”                   to     “Self Service”.

We have gone from     “Quality”                                     to     “Quantity”.

We have gone from     “Save Money”                              to     “Buy on Credit”.

We have gone from     “Caution”                                      to     “Carelessness”.

We have gone from     “Honesty”                                      to     “Deception”.

We have gone from     “Reputation”                                to     “Power”.

We have gone from     “Reliable Products”                   to     “Profit”.

We have gone from     “Respected By Nations”            to     “Feared By Nations”.

We have gone from     “Campaign On Issues”               to     “Candidates Avoid Issues”.

We have gone from      “Motivate By Leadership”      to     “Motivate By Fear”.

We have gone from      “Decisions By Reason”              to     “Decisions By Convenience”.

We have gone from      “COMMON SENSE”                 to     “? “

Today, the rich and powerful have an obsession for the accumulation of wealth and all the spoils that go along with it.  This pursuit of wealth has become their god, and there are no other gods before it.  They love this god with all of their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind.  Profit is their life.  While others struggle to make ends meet, their wealth continues to increase.  And, their major goal is to keep the rest of us in debt to them, for that is what feeds their growth and gives them power.

We must shift our paradigms.  Our focus must change from supporting big business and big government to supporting a better way of life for our people.  For the first time in history, we now have the technology today to make robots and machinery that could provide us with the vast portion of the manual labor required to build much more efficient and effective cities, transportation systems, dams, and bridges, etc.  We have incredible minds in this country, who could invent incredible things.  Instead of doing manual labor just to bring home the dough, we could train our minds to become productive instruments for designing better places to live, better foods, a cleaner environment, and better living conditions for us all.  Our entire population could be trained to be productive citizens for the good of the entire country.  We have got the resources right here in this country to supply our basic living needs for years to come, if we used them for the betterment of our people rather than for profit.  If we grew our foods correctly, we would have more than enough to meet the needs of our country for years to come.

However, we must also be trained in the discipline of sacrifice.  We must be brought to understand that the entire system of getting ahead is putting somebody else behind.  And it doesn’t feel very good when only a few can win, and everyone else loses.  We must replace this “beat out the other guy” mentality with a win-win scenario for all if we are going to survive economically.    The gap has gotten too wide.  Eventually, it all comes to the breaking point, and people will just say no.  But, the question is, have we gotten to the point where we can say no.  Will we continue to listen to the shallow promises of our leaders and give them another four or six more years again?  How many times must this happen before we wake up to the fact that four more years has happened over 16 times since World War II.  Six more years has happened nearly 11 times since then.  History dictates that we are in for more of the same as long as we continue to vote for the same two Political Parties as we have for so many years.

The only way we are going to get change is to make change ourselves.  Here is what I suggest.

COMMON  SENSE  SOLUTIONS

The meat of this entire series has been saved for the last article.  These are heavy duty solutions and quite detailed.  This article will quickly reiterate the first big steps that must happen before this change can take place, and then hammer home the methods of changing our entire lifestyle in this country. 

The last article in this monthly series is due to be published on August 10, 2010.  After the last article has been up for a short period of time, all of the articles will be taken down and edited for possible book publication.

  ------ Rocky Hanes

               Author: Common Sense Reborn