The price we pay.

Everyday in our lives we are forced to make decisions, some of them are snap decisions, some of them are "no brainers" and some of them are difficult. I had a philosphy professor tell me one time that in all things and in all situations we have a choice the choices may be between bad and worse but they are still choices we make. There are times in our lives where it seems as if we have no choice or that our choices are taken from us by others more powerful but this is not true. When we examine the situation we see that we do have a choice. In another online group that I belong too one that has always been very open and tolerant of other peoples differences we discussed this idea of choice. As parents in a capitalist society our choices are different from those in a communist or socialist one and we tend to have a sense of ownership over all of our choices whereas in a socialist or communist country much of your choices are made for you by the government. Fundamentally those parents still have a choice they can choose to defy the government or to lobby and work within the established system to enact the changes they seek. This is true of American parents as well and more so because we live and breath in a country founded on basic human rights and principles. We are taught that our government exists for us and that we are in charge of making it work or not work through the system of voting. Why then do so many American parents feel as if thier choices have been limited or in some cases removed by the same government that is in place to serve us? I've given the matter considerable thought and I come to the same conclusion everytime, When a government by the people and for the people grows larger than the people in question it no longer exists for them rather it dictates to them and the people are to blame for allowing the checks and balances to be removed with little to no consequences. I can remember being 17 and my birthday falling a few weeks after the presidential election. I was devestated because so badly I wanted to participate in my first MAJOR election. I spent months before hand reading all the voting records of the candidates and examining their platforms and watching thier debates all in preparation of this monumental right of passage into adulthood. You can imagine my dissappointment when i found out i was not going to be old enough in time to vote. It never occurred to me that other teenagers were out with thier friends talking about boys or sports or fashion or other high school drama. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew this was going on but I tend to have tunnel vision when it comes to my own obsessions. I'm sure I bored my friends to death with talks about politics in the months leading up to the election and i'm just as equally sure they thought i was weird for being upset at not being able to vote. It would have been equally as hard for me to explain to them why it was so important to me. My mothers family is from what used to be communist Germany, that's right before the Berlin wall came down and I can remember very distinctly my PaPa Bricka telling me stories of what it was like to grow up in Communist Germany and what Germany had been like during World War 2 where he was forced to serve in the Nazi Regime. My PaPa Bricka, whether it was his intention to or not, left a very impressionable child with a very great respect for our capitalist system. He told me of how dangerous it was for him to sneak his wife and my Granny out of communist Germany and how he almost lost his life doing it. He told me how when the Nazi's were brought down how happy and relieved he was to be let go only to return home to find that Russia would not be in charge of them and that things would be equally as bad under Russian law as was under Hitler. Dear reader can you imagine what kinds of choices a parent must make in those situations? How does a father choose between oppression or death? How do a husband and wife choose make the decision to risk it all and I mean all because if you were caught they would shoot you on sight to smuggle themselves and thier children out of thier home country? Choose: bad or worse? My PaPa Bricka was a devout Lutheran he and his wife my Great Grandmama made the bravest choice and trusted that the Lord would protect them and thier children. Obviously they made it to West Germany and from there defected to the United States and sought asylum here. They could have stayed in West Germany but they wanted thier children to grow up in a free country not under the shadow and threat of communism. We parents here in the Unites States often take our freedoms for granted and sadly as is the case we demand more privledges and more freedom than we are responsible enough to handle and when we can't handle what we've asked for we turn to our govenment to fix it. Less and less I see people of all ages growing more and more lax in the voting and more and more determined to just "let the government fix it" we all seem to have forgotten along the way that WE are the government and on our shoulders rests the responsability for it.
We argue over who should get what and whose entitled to which priviledge but the constitution says we have only the right to PURSUE Happiness it does not garuntee that we will be given it. It says that we have the right to Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.A redress of grievances..do we not as parents have grievances about our educational system and yet do we make a petition to the government to adress these grievances? I say no we leave it to lawyers and judges and politicians who have do not have the same concerns we do and; in my opinion; do not make an impassioned petition on our behalf. We see groups of ordinary normale everyday people come together in Washington to make a statement such as the Million Man March and the Tea Party and do we do come together to do the same for our children future? No we do not instead we spend endless hours spinning our wheels accusing this faction or that one for the miserable state we find our public education system. Where is the million mom and dad march? Where is the Parents as Teachers Party? Why have we not stood up in force and made ourselves heard to the highest echelon of our land? We all have our reasons for being 'too busy' we have jobs we can't leave, we have children to tend to and homes to keep and husbands and wives to placate but when will we run out of excuses and reasons? When will we make the hard choice the unpopular choice to stand and be heard and fight the impossible fight for our children's sake? When will we stop blaming the rich or the welfare poor or the government for bieng what they are and start taking back the control we have so willingly given up?
I realize dear reader that my opinions are harsh and that you may take offense to much of what I have had to say here tonight in this blog. I also understand that you may dislike me after reading this and that you may not share my opinions but you know what that's O.K. because Thankfully we live in a country where we can be free to say and to believe and to practice what we choose without fear of imprisonment or loss of life. Isn't the Bill of Rights an amazing and wonderous work or reason and humanity! Vive La America!!!!!