Whatever Happened To...

Good ideas are in short supply these days. Diversity amongst ideas are rarer still. Everyone has an opinion and people feel their opinions are unique for the most part as we are all individuals. One of the tv shows I like watching is "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO. I enjoy the discussion of topics and the exposure to information. As talk shows go this is one of the more enjoyable ones as there are no commercials you can swear and there seems to be less of an agenda. Tonight on the last show of the season I found the panel of guests particularly entertaining consisting of Richard Dreyfuss, some journalist, some artist/activist, Dan Rather, and Norman Lear. Civics was the main focus and they talked about teaching people what our country is and how it works. How we no longer participate in the running of our country and we are mostly distracted by catch phrase politics and whatever else is the flavor of the day in news. When did we forget that representation does not mean let someone run the country while we go about our lives and that it takes actual responsibility to effect change. Although I may not be in a postition to criticize it seems that our country reflects what we are or have become. There may be no hope for utopia but there is hope for another iteration of of our lives. Priority seems to be a source of the trouble we see everyday we are alive. We are all trying to win a race that never ends. By worker better, faster, stronger, we don't win anything. This isn't a gameshow where you recieve lovely parting gifts or a grand prize, although I am tempted to trade it all for what is in that tiny box. Complication of government, religion, and politics make my head spin at times when I try to imagine the start to a resonable soultion to the problems these and other institutions have caused. Is my life a mess because of the world or is the world a mess because of my life. YES. I mentioned in the previous post a passage that I read. The closing of it seems to fit well here and it is one of the things most on my mind. "We have to accept personal responsibility for uplifting our own lives".