Where's The We?

Tuesday, June 9th, 2015
3:23 PM

"We the People of these United States of America..."

A concerned inquiry yielding concerning silence, the question the youth of this nation will inevitably find staring them dead in the eyes, unshaken by distraction and unwavering in its demands, when the day arrives and citizens of a country laden with unfulfilled potential look up from screens of disspiriting passion and bear witness to the chains of paranoia, the blindfold of our technological addiction and the corner we find ourselves, paralyzed to escape, a prison we built ourselves, brick by brick, ignored wrongdoing after ignored wrongdoing, selfishly slaving away to ensure our own demise. Where's the We? A question I fail to answer on a weekly basis posed by my father, a living relic of rebellion and a product of purpose.

America, home of the brave, land of the free.
America, land of the self-proclaimed, home of the red-headed step-child.
It is difficult to reflect on the state of this nation, especially without bias towards sensationalized news or conditioned assumptions, and even harder still to do so without comprehensive research and fact-checking. The burden of such large-scale reflection is so daunting that most, it seems, choose to to ignore the rebellious itch to question most anything, let alone the unsettling state of affairs in the United States of America. If all the ideas pertinent to such a discussion were necessary for the mere existence of such a discussion, there would never be any discussion whatsoever.
Luckily, there are those among the 330+ million citizens of this grand nation, myself hereditarily included, who simply cannot ignore the urge to scratch. Those who must relieve the burden of weighty concerns, who know the futility of having all of the facts, mainly because it is not feasible for most anyone. There are exceptions to every rule of course, but that one may stand the test of time. By the time a tax-paying American without a high level security clearance gathered a comprehensive file on all relevant issues, the situation and therefore the facts, will most definitely have changed, negating the entire purpose of compiling such a file in the first place. But I digress.
I must write about these heavy thoughts, and those who share the impetus to pen understand the frustration and the delight. Irrespective of the lack of every fact, the truth may shine through just enough to spurn one of the faces among the masses into checking the facts, filling in the gaps and correcting misperceptions on our behalf, the scratchers, the curious. Some call it progress. Without questioning, without argument or disputation, there can be no forward movement, no progress.

Interesting that my rambling introduction, attempting to ensure journalistic integrity by acknowledging what possible concerns may arise before they do so, brought the dialogue to a most apposite topic: progress.