THE SWORD OF DEMOCLES ATTN: SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Senator, I offer you the solution in item #11. I hope this column finds you. We must note, of course Trump is a big problem, but far from the cause.
It is the Congress and the deceitful claim of impartiality of the Supreme Court that has allowed the cause of our tribulation and despair to be the standard and to become so ingrained that is ignored. I am in my 70’s and have watched for over 40 years, as if I were a child deserted by their Mother, as our Government allowed the transfer of work away from our Country and neglected the health of our land and the quality of life for Americans. Our land is literally crumbling as infrastructure has weakened throughout. All of this to sustain a system of greed that holds you and your peers’ hostage, without an avenue with integrity to allow your heartfelt positions. Thus, causing what you will read here. It is this treacherous desertion of our well-being, that went before, that gave us Trump. It is the system Senator, the system. Please read on:
Damocles: A flatterer who, having extolled the happiness of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, (Sicily, Italy) was seated at a banquet with a sword suspended over his head by a single hair to show him the perilous nature of that happiness.
The sword of Damocles usually alludes to the unyielding and persistent menace and peril faced by those in power. There is another unyielding and persistent menace that has creeped its way through the American way. This is a series of systemic design flaws that have caused gridlock and misdirected proper measures, that are absolute and urgent to human well-being. “Hope” must not be a word that sustains just itself, there must be pathway for fruition. Our system has removed such pathway.
Try and forget the “Right” and the “Left”. Let’s all of us, just for the sake of this article try and work with “Right” and “Wrong”. I am going to proceed with a list of our realities. And ask if you think they should exist. Matters that exist that simply should not. Matters that exist because within our system greed and unparalleled pathway to satisfy greed, self-interest and the immediate base needs of voters within the districts of each leader, influence decisions. The Government acquiescing to these systemic issues removes the common good from the equation and the results are our reality. Realities that destroy the pathways needed to satisfy the intent of this great land and the real hopes of our people.
Almost all of you will answer “No” to each question and it will then clearly follow it is not the issues that must be addressed first, it is the system that prevents their correction. Each question is just a veneer for terrible wrongs within the issue addressed:
1. Should Government Gerrymandering exist in America? Gerrymandering is the act of drawing Election District boundaries around your own Party and making this barbaric third world act binding and legal. This in turn circumvents voter thought by insuring the district favors your party. This is a third world approach, not an American approach and not Democracy.
2. Should Government be allowed to design process to ensure that profits go to the 1% allowing them to accumulate over the half the nations bounty and causing wealth disbursement as follows? The top 20% wealthiest possess 80% of all financial assets. The richest 1% of the American population own 38% of the country’s total wealth, and the next 16% own 51%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans own 88% of the country’s wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owns 14%. 1% of the people have more than the bottom 90%. Do you think this reflects the equality of founding intent?
3. Here are 5 economic questions: Should profits once disbursed and shared among employees be cached grievously far beyond all that is reasonable and hoarded by unregulated executives, often at hundreds of fold? Do you think it is proper for the top 50 American Companies to have 1.6 trillion dollars stashed offshore to avoid any obligation to America.? Do you find this void in Patriotism astonishing? Do you believe that nearly a trillion dollars (82.8 %) in the recent tax cut bill went to our wealthiest citizens when the country is distressed; esp. noting that it has been proven over and over these cuts to not trickle down? Do you believe the 22 trillion debt is a real threat that will inevitably force our collapse or do you think it is economic deceit and disguise that is not as serious as portrayed?
4. Was it right for the profits of companies within the United States in the last 20 years to go to the 1% while wages stagnated for the rest of the population?
5. Do you believe it is proper for Wyoming with a population of 573,720 to have the same power in the Senate with two Senators as does California with 40,000.000 people also with 2 Senators? This translates into every citizen in Wyoming having 75 times, yes 75 times the power of each citizen in California.
6. Global warming is all but a certainty according to the finest minds in Science in the World. But let’s just say their odds of being right are 25%. The question is:
Do you believe that Corporate Greed and Power esp. big oil and energy, should be allowed to roll the dice on millions of lives, and to devastate human life and earthy societal structure as we know it, with the odds 1 in 4 that this will happen? Mind you, in truth Global Warming with human causation is near certainty.
7. China has had exponential economic gain in recent decades. They have 1.4 billion people. One billion more that the U.S. In 1980, 90 percent of their society lived in extreme poverty. Today that number is a highly appreciable 2%. Yes 2%.
Their military goal is underway with design to develop extremely high-tech weaponry that can overcome our nuclear capacity and to win a war rather than destroy the world. Putin and Russia and the U.S. are on the fast tract to develop weaponry that will insure complete destruction, but China wants to win? China believes we have become the major destroyer of earthly environment and stability. The question: Do you believe there should be an International Department of Nuclear War prevention, that meets ceaselessly, researching Nuclear buildup, freezes, lowering numbers, elimination and issues of such importance that common good interests that are aggrieved give reason for war? This department does NOT EXIST. And yet we live in a world that may be hideously and in hellacious inferno, be destroyed in 24 to 48 hours from any given moment.
8. The United States incarcerates randomly for minor infraction causing a bulging prison system of 2,220,300 with a population of 325 million. Far higher than any country on earth. China with 4 times as many people, 1.4 billion, incarcerates less people 1,649,804. We also have private prisons that force minimal care and humanity diminishing deprivation and lack of rehab opportunity. Two-part question: Question: Do you believe this problem remains (a cursory bill is underway) largely to sustain an out of control Criminal Justice System, from police to lawyers and judges, to jails, and a multitude of sustaining demands? Question: Do you believe there should be a highly respected and influential department to study, evaluate and recommend solution and incarceration alternative, in keeping with the human dignity, honor and fairness once sought in earnest in the United States?
9. Do you understand this is our reality and believe it is right for infrastructure, American well-being, quality of life and the quality of our land, to be sacrificed to sustain the wealth of 1% and others of very extreme wealth?
10. This is a two-part question: Question: Do you believe that within a system that allows for the best that humans can be that answers can be found? Do you realize that the United States of America does not have such a system that allows the best we can be and that our way of life is broken and floundering as China and Saudi Arabia and others grow and flourish? In recent decades growth to America is hoarding bounty within executives and the 1% as the people stagnate and decline. Other countries do not have the problem that we do, that perpetuates and sustains and leaves unattended, all of the above.
11. The Problem. The absolute glaringly clear yet ignored problem, that if addressed could save the United States and the world is: Favor for Favor or Quid Pro Quo in Government. Essentially money in politics, not excluding favor for favor other than money. Citizens United and Corporations being people are the result of right-wing appointments and are so destructive one wonders about the real-world view of such powerful people. A world where greedy lobbyists designed to neglect America for their own well-being influence nearly all things, when they should be “Common Good Advisors” that have donated nothing to leaders. The answer: Eliminate money from politics. Address any Favor for Favor weakness in the system and cause pathway to prevent violation and consequence for transgression. The word is simply “Stop”. To end any devastation, even great World Wars, you must “Stop”. And it appears so simple. Just “Stop” this madness and behave like Americans. Give Duty, Honor, Country real meaning. The kind that makes you walk tall and gives you chills. That is what we need from our leaders. That is America
Why would we even consider addressing problems of such magnitude, when even mankind itself is in grave danger, with anything less than “THE BEST HUMANS CAN”? Why intentionally move forward with this corrupt system that does not allow this and has put us here?
With great despair I humbly offer that once again this little paper has shown how to lead, how to save our land and to guide our world. Too bad there is no valuable pursuit. It is only human existence at play. Thus, we live under the “Sword of Damocles. And one day the hair will give way… Unless Senator, unless a Champion arises.
