By Michelle Nealy
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them for the last eight years and move in a totally different direction.
It has been well documented throughout the Politikal Soul blog that I am ready for change. I don’t mean that in a trivial way or partisan way. I sincerely want to see things in this country change for the better. I’m am tired of seeing good, hard-working people around me struggling to make ends meet. Personally, I am tired of being the good, hard-working person struggling to make ends meet.
A 2007 college graduate, I would like to experience the working world in a thriving economy not a depressing one. I would like to see every American with some type of quality healthcare plan, even if it costs me more in tax dollars. I would like to see higher education to become more affordable (free really) and accessible to anyone who endeavors to attain it (less we become a nation of idiots). I think that richest 2 percent of Americans should pay more in taxes than the bottom 40 percent, understanding the wealthiest 1 percent of the U.S. population is richer than the bottom 40 percent. I think that main street should’ve been bailed out before Wall Street. I believe that high-performing, undocumented students should have access to higher education. I believe that homosexual couples and families should share all the same rights that heterosexual couples and families enjoy.
Wait! Am I a socialist? Perhaps. Either way, I know my shit.
In the sixth grade, I was forced to learn the entire Declaration of Independence and recite the document verbatim in front of my class. A long time has passed since I endured the arduous task of memorizing our nation’s most famous pronouncement; however, this year’s historic election has prompted me to revisit the familiar text.
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men, even those who were considered to be only three-fifths of men, are created equally; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights including life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
America, as we all know, was founded on the principles of justice and equality, but as Colin Powell so eloquently illustrated during last Sunday’s performance on “Meet the Press,” America is country of copy cats. On “Meet the Press," Colin L. Powell concluded his endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama by referring to the death of a Muslim soldier, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan of New Jersey was killed in Iraq in August of 2007.
If you look like us so-called Americans, believe what we believe, talk the way we talk, think like we think and worship the way we worship, everything is alright. To think differently, speak differently (or with the wrong accent) or worship differently is to be scorned like the Irish, enslaved like the Africans, tortured like the Arabs, belittled liked the Hispanics, force-marched from one region to another like the American Indians or placed internment camps like the Japanese. It is to be labeled terrorist or un-American.
“…Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.”
We stand at pivotal point in this nation’s history. Our financial systems are falling apart at the seams. Our K-12 education system, for most, is abysmal. The health care system in this country evades the weakest among us. In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics we are loosing our global standing. In terms of energy (of every sort), we are running out. Unemployment is up and job creation is down. Morale is low, people are broke and anticipation for real change is high.
It is time to declare our own personal independence from the foolishness. It’s time to get back to business. It is time that we challenge our elected officials to work harder to get things accomplished. We need to work harder too. Politics has become entirely too complicated. Among a myriad of other things, we as citizens must insists on transparency. America is just drifting along and no one seems to see the iceberg on the horizon.
“…When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
