Yet this was not the highest achievement of his life. Considered too old for military service, he still joined the army during the dark days of World War II. He and his band traveled around boosting moral and bringing a bit of home to soldiers fighting Hitler’s fascist monster. He lost his life a few days before Christmas of 1944 on a flight across the English Channel on his way to arrange a concert for GIs in France.

He had a lucrative career turning out some of the greatest swing music of his time. He did not have to leave the comfort and safety of his homeland. Unlike many of the moral midgets we see adored by today’s teeny boppers who spend their time bellyaching, whining and complaining, he stepped up to make the soldiers lives in the field a little more tolerable.

His legacy of great music is well known, but the world have continued to spin without out it. The GIs who had an easier time under difficult conditions were even more of a gift to the world… even though it cost him his life.

Most of us won’t have the musical magic of Glenn Miller and most of won’t be called on to entertain the troops or even join them in battle. What kind of legacy will we leave when we are gone? Will it be a huge stock portfolio, a real estate empire or, possibly, a profitable business. All of these things are great, and would probably be a good thing to leave behind. But the point is, it will all be left behind.

It is the people we leave behind that will be our real legacy. It can be anyone we influence in a positive manner. Psalm 127 describes the value of our children:

Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

A friend of mine likes to explain it this way: with a sword or a club, you can only carry the fight to an enemy who is only a few feet away. With an arrow you can reach an enemy across a field or river. That is the value of an arrow in the hands of a skilled archer.

Our offspring are not only given to us to replenish the human race, but to continue to the spread of God’s word – they can continue the fight long after we are gone to our reward. That is, if we are guiding our children and grandchildren in the path they should be going. Not liking the Biblical “train up a child in the way he should go” thinking, modern education tells we should just present children with various choices and allow them to make their choices themselves.

This is what we are paying the public schools to do to our youngsters. As bad as this sounds, from what I’ve seen and conversations I’ve had, it’s plain that the disciples of the NEA aren’t quite so pure when it comes to allowing their students to make unguided choices. This is one of the factors at the heart of our nations’ descent into the secular panacea of moral relativism.

Our children are truly a gift from God. The fact that we didn’t snuff out their lives on an abortionists operating table is a good start. But, bringing them into the world and permitting our culture to lead them to lead them down the path to eternal condemnation is not living up the responsibilities that come along with the gift of a child.

Looking at this responsibility with a long term perspective, some have realized that their child’s education is one of the key elements in guiding them to an accurate world view. A good number of parents work diligently with their children to be instill a Biblical understanding of their place in the world. This is great, but the public schools and their friends influence them for so much more time than the family.

But, you say private schools are expensive. In a way, this is true. However, “expensive” is a relative term. Expensive compared to what? I would suggest that if the child needed some sort of life saving surgery or medication, if was at all possible, money would be found to give to the “healing professions”. I would also suggest that your child’s mind is at least as important as his or her body. For even more hands on approach, home schooling is an option for those so inclined

It may mean keeping our cars a little longer, living in a little smaller house or a smaller bank account, but, if our children grow up to understand that there is a source of all good things, and it isn’t Washington, what price can we put on this.

Some have a hard time thinking this way. After all, isn’t building an inheritance for our family something we want to do. It is, yet it isn’t the most important thing we can do for them. Once we have secured a level of comfort for them, time becomes a commodity more helpful to the children in our homes.

In an age where the financial markets are shaky and people see their retirement plans melting away… in an age where the real estate market has be eviscerated by our government and lenders extorted by less than honest community organizers… in an age when the number of businesses closing their doors increases almost daily… people are looking for an investment that won’t be taxed or regulated into insignificance. Our children are such an investment!

Young people have burdened themselves with debts that they cannot repay in a declining economy. But can they bear total responsibility? Parents, looking for “only the best” for the little darlings, and living in an instant gratification society, see nothing wrong with borrowing to get the things they want. And they want the “best” education for their kids, even if it buries these same beloved kids in economic servitude for most of their lives.

It seems that young people, and their parents in many cases, think little or nothing of spending outrageous sums of money for and “education” that will “guarantee” their well being in life. The inflated price is of minor consequence as no one has to pay it now. The supposed benefits are immediate and the payments are just a shadow off in some distant future.

The degree is the thing. Often it doesn’t matter if it is in some useful field, like nuclear medicine, or some feel good area like women’s or ethnic studies. Universities, in the political correctness, are willing acomplises as the offer more and more courses outside the realm of useful knowledge, and charging major dollars for them. It is the lack of immediate consequences when spending this money for a product of questionable value that keeps the value from being questioned.

According to the College Board, in-state tuition and fees at four year state colleges have increased 8.3 percent in the past ten years. The price of a private school education has doubled in that same period, to the point where the average year costs around $42,224. This is pretty close to the median family income… which is not what it was just a few years ago.

Sensitive to the plight of the spend thrift students, the administration has come up with a plan to have the taxpayers pick up the tab for this academic indoctrination, while protecting the progressive liberal academia that fills there heads with socialistic propaganda.

In an effort to ease the burden of education costs on students President Obama, after moving to bring student loans under federal control, has come up with a plan. As with most things coming from the prevaricating president, we are told it will will cost us nothing, yet logic, common sense and simple math show this cannot be. The plan involves reducing the required payment to be based on 10 percent of discretionary income rather than 15 percent. Then he proposes to write off unpaid balances after twenty years instead of twenty five.

This must be a revised form of the new math the educational community foisted on us many years ago. Traditional and accurate math tells us that collecting smaller payments for a shorter time period yields less money than the current system. Newt Gingrich sees it as a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions leading to a bubble in education – by increasing the demand by limiting the consumer liability at public expense. Michelle Bachmann calls it an abuse of power. This is the same kind of insulation from price/value sensitivity we see in the medical field that makes the free market economy work.

So, on one hand, we have a narcissistic educational community that may actually believe they are providing a valuable service, and on the other writing the next thing to a blank check to keep the entire enterprise going. The students struggle with their loans, but, ultimately, the taxpayers are on the hook for the tab.

All things considered, it may be that by trying to fix student loans, we are missing the problem. We are only looking at a symptom of the problem, which is really the cost of higher education. This problem will, most likely, never be addressed as long as we have easy payment plans obscuring the real cost of this foolishness.

Our children and grand children face dangers far different from those that we faced as kids. This does not mean the old fashioned, traditional dangers have gone away… they are still there too. Traditional methods will help with traditional dangers, but new tactics are needed for new threats.

Enough Is Enough understands that Internet safety is the responsibility of the public, the internet industry, and the legal community. However, parents remain the first line of defense in protecting their children against internet dangers. Unfortunately today’s younger generation is far ahead of their parents, educators and other caring adults when it comes to digital technology and social media. Those who care for them are generally uninformed, ill-uipped and overwhelmed when it comes to internet safety issues, and they need knowledgable outside help. As the nation’s leading internet safety organization, EIE has been responding to this call for action since 1994, by creating Internet Safety 101, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Internet Safety 101 is a widely-renowned resource and teaching series that paints a comprehensive picture of the dangers children encounter online. Through the Internet Safety 101 program, EIE strives to educate and empower parents, educators and other caring adults with the information they need to effectively protect children from Internet dangers.

Do yourself and the younger ones you care about a favor and check out the program. What you don’t know can hurt them.

[Disclaimer: Neither Political Christian, nor Larry Miller have any connection, financial or otherwise with Enough Is Enough. We believe they have a message to the families with children and provide a valuable service.]

This video of Professor Abdullah Al-Nafisi reveals several problems we are currently facing. He is talking about the ease of using biological weapons against any populated area. It gives us a chilling reminder of how ineffective our defenses are along the border where such weapons would likely be smuggled in. The diminutive size of the weapon means in would fit in an automobile glove box or a business man’s briefcase.

It also means that it would not be difficult to smuggle into the United States in the backpack of a Mexican or Iranian slipping across the Rio Grande or in a fishing boat across one of the Great Lakes. Unfortunately the regime in Washington is more interested in keeping tabs on tea party members than keeping out potential Democrat voters.

Even with the threat of mass devastation, our government is more concerned with the devastation of their re-election prospects. Then we have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that would rather pursue the supposed health hazards of civilian possession of guns than the prevention of death on such a massive scale.

Unfortunately, the operations of so many parts of our government have become so politicized that they couldn’t fulfill their intended functions if our lives depended on it… and they may well.

Just recently the CDC recommended an expansion of their intrusion into our lives and further destruction of parental rights to raise their children as they see fit, by recommending that boys receive Gardasil in addition to the girls who have already been forced to submit to the state while Merck & Company laughs all the way to the bank.

Usually, required drugs guard against diseases that are spread by casual contact. Gardasil works to prevent the human papillomavirus (HPV) that is most often spread through sexual contact. Again, our government is taking a broad brush approach to avoid dealing with the real issue.

A few years ago, it was found that 95% of HIV infected homosexual men in a San Francisco study had anal HPV infection as well. Half of these had precancerous HPV caused lesions. To protect the feelings of these people who have taken another path to satisfaction, and to obscure the real problem, once again we are all expected to put our children at risk. We are just to accept the decision of our betters that the drug that, as of the beginning of 2011, has caused the deaths of at least 103 young women. Beyond this, it has a history of producing seizures, strokes and a whole host of other ailments, with no know cure.

In either case, political correctness in our government prevents it from dealing with the real issues threatening our land. Our leaders are chasing one red herring after another, never willing to pursue the real danger. They are always more concerned with the danger to their political power.

Whether they are doing this purposely, or through ignorance of the real danger, the people running the show are a clear and present danger to every last one of us. We permit them to remain in power at our own risk. It’s fine to support your favorite candidate. Let’s just not do it to the point that splinters the opposition that will drive these liberal progressive academic theorists far from the levers of power.

Sure we need to deal with the Federal Reserve, EPA overreach, ObamaCare… but the first thing we have to do is pry the deranged Marxists from the city on the Potomac. That has got to be our first priority. We stop the hemorrhaging of our freedoms before the repairs can begin.

Fort Worth, TX — On Tuesday, high school freshman Dakota Ary was given in-school suspension for stating in class that he believes homosexuality is wrong because of his Christian faith. Liberty Counsel is representing Dakota in this case, demanding full vindication and a full retraction of the suspension. If the school board does not comply, a lawsuit will be filed for violation of Dakota’s First Amendment rights.

Dakota was in a German language class at Western Hills High School on Tuesday when the topic of homosexuality arose. “I’m a Christian and, to me, being homosexual is wrong,” Dakota said to one of his classmates. His teacher overheard the comment, wrote Dakota an infraction, and sent him to the principal’s office. The class topic was religious beliefs in Germany. During the discussion, one student asked what Germans thought about homosexuality in relation to religion. Another student then asked to hear some translated terms such as “lesbian.” These questions provoked the conversation about Christianity and Dakota’s expression of his opinion to one classmate.

The discipline referral form says the comment was out of context, even though the lesson for the day was on religious beliefs. The teacher charged Dakota with “possible bullying” and indicated, “It is wrong to make such a statement in public school.” Last week, the teacher displayed a picture of two men kissing on a “World Wall” and told the students that homosexuality is becoming more prevalent in the world and that they should just accept it. Many of the students were offended by the teacher’s actions and his continually bringing up the topic of homosexuality in a German language class.

Matthew Krause, Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel, along with Dakota’s mom, Holly Pope, met with school administrators Wednesday morning. Krause states: “Just because you walk through the schoolhouse doors doesn’t mean you shed your First Amendment rights. Dakota wasn’t disrupting class. He wasn’t bullying or harassing anybody. He was just stating his personal opinion on a topic somebody else brought up and in a civil and respectful manner.”

Liberty Counsel recently defended Florida Teacher of the Year Jerry Buell, after he was suspended for a comment he made outside of class on his personal Facebook page, expressing his disapproval of legalized homosexual marriage in New York. After a week-long “investigation,” the Lake County School Board fully exonerated and reinstated Buell.

Harry Mihet, Senior Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel, commented: “The double standard advocated by homosexual activists is mind boggling. Jerry Buell was suspended for opposing same-sex “marriage” outside of class. This teacher in Texas is actually bullying his students into accepting the homosexual lifestyle inside the class, and yet it is his student, not him, that gets suspended. We will vigorously defend and restore Dakota’s constitutional rights.”

Despite what some judges would have us believe, the constitution is the same as it was a hundred years ago, or for that matter, two hundred years ago. Of course there have been amendments, but for the most part, they have clarifications. Yet there were some that changed the philosophy of parts of the document. Allowing senators to be elected by the people rather than keeping them tethered to state governments was one instance. Permitting a graduated income tax was another. Not all change is for the better.

But why, recently, do people feel the need to emphasize that a study of the constitution is a non-partisan endeavor? Could it be that one political party takes offense at the idea of people – the common folks who made this country great – want to know the rules by which the governmental games are to be played? If the people know what the limits of governmental power are, then they are in a position to holler “FOUL” when those limits have been exceeded. This would put such a crimp in the unauthorized expansion of power both parties have pursued.

What we have in Washington, and through out the rest of our country, is the equivalent of the Philadelphia Eagles coming into Dallas to play the Cowboys on a field owned by the Cowboys with officials hired and paid for by the Cowboys. Everything may look nice and fair until the officials make some calls that show they have decided some of the NFL rules just don’t apply as written, or they just should not be there at all… especially when it benefits the home team who is writing their paychecks.

Philadelphia fans would be livid and do their best to see that there would be payback next time the blue and white team comes back to the City of Brotherly Love. But, suppose the NFL commissioner would agree with the Dallas officials – where would be their recourse?

I’m not sure what Andy Reid and company would do, but this is the situation we are facing with our government’s rule book (our constitution). One of the teams has made it a policy to disregard the old fashioned ideas for years. The other team gives lip service to constitutional limits, but also disregards it with regularity – just not as often or as blatantly.

This may be the reason for the non-partisan advertising. Democrats would take offense since they are the most obvious offenders. Republicans would feel the need to support it with their words while secretly hoping nothing much would come of it other than providing more useful idiots who could be convinced to follow the lesser of two evils song and dance. While we find it easy to measure the donkeys by constitutional standards, we find it harder to apply them to the elephants. This is a mistake.

The people who wrote our constitution had a pretty good idea of the difference between right and wrong – between good and evil. Many have lost this sense today… to the point where the definitions have been reversed.

The prophet Isaiah had this to say:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eye and clever in their own sight.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. (Is 5:20-23 NIV)

We see what our Creator thinks of such behavior. If we think differently, it’s at our own peril. If we really think of the United States as the shining city on a hill, and especially if we believe it came about as the result of divine providence to show what free, god-fearing people can do, it is our duty not only to study the constitution that our forefathers handed down to us, but to insist that our leaders of both parties submit to it’s limitations. They were there for a purpose.

For those with children in school, now is as good a time as ever, to become involved in the PTA. We cannot leave this public facing organization to be a “yes, sir, how high shall I jump sir” lap dog of the teachers union. There are many good, dedicated teachers and they need and deserve our help and support. Then, there are others who also need help and support in guiding them toward the values of the people of this land.

For those not forced by the economy to live in a two wage earner household, or who have individual careers by choice, you may want to look into becoming a class room volunteer. Now, if you are like me, there is a problem with me donating my time to help ease the burden on someone who is being paid to do their job. However, it is a golden opportunity to observe classroom activity first hand. You will be privy to much information, many school districts studiously hide from parents and the public in general.

Parents also need to take the time to read through the books your children bring home. Don’t just look at the titles and headings. Much of what is presented sounds good on the surface, but when you look at the details, there may much you would be unhappy with.

This is where parental involvement comes in. You may not be able to change what the public schools are teaching your children, but you can certainly sit down with them and help their critical thinking by showing the errors in the information they are receiving. It doesn’t matter if it is the pseudo science of global warming, the fantasy theory of evolution, or any of the attempts at developing a secular humanist situation ethical system.

This will do a few things for you as parents. It will force you to become a little more knowledgeable in some areas. For many readers, though, this will not be a problem. The other thing, and most important, is that it will give you something to talk about with your kids. Studies show that most parents have only a few minutes conversation each day. Talk about what’s going on in their school life and studies.

They may not always agree with your arguments, but you will get them to consider the alternate views, and you will at least open some doors to conversation. If you are concerned enough about your children to take them to church, it is your duty to work with them to show them the errors in public education that will drive them away from the truth and destroy them for eternity.

What happens when you do find material that is inappropriate? Don’t go alone to the principal, superintendent or school board. You will be patronized, marginalized and ignored. Find other parents. Get people from your church or neighborhood to go with you.

By yourself, you will be frustrated and your time will be wasted. You will be looked at as an amateur trying to instruct “education professionals”. Showing up with a group of polite, but firm citizens who understand that each of these school employees work for the citizens. It puts the intimidation shoe on the other foot. The parents are not subjects of this government agency any more than they are subjects of their state or federal governments.

It’s another school year and the kids are ready for exciting new knowledge and seeing old friends. Let’s work to keep the promise they see in the school experience. These children are our blessing and our responsibility. We can’t push it off on the state… it’s short changing our children and the state is not doing a very good job.

This is a strike that has closed public schools in the liberal bastion of Madison and several other counties around the state. The events show that these teachers have infected their students with their socialistic propaganda to the point where the young skulls full of mush have joined them on the picket line. They have apparently convinced their idealist charges that they are standing up to “the man”. The idea that tax payers who are already hard pressed by the economic downturn should be hit up once again for more money to keep these unionized government employees in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed is just plain wrong.

The taxpayers of Wisconsin are being asked to fork over more and more of their hard earned dollars so these supposed public servants don’t have to contribute their own dollars for their own retirement and health benefits. These union members have grown fat and happy living at the public trough. Now that the flow of citizen funds is slowing down, these teachers have become indignant that those filling the public trough have run out of money.

These actions should put an end to the fantasy that teachers unions are looking out for the children. We should have been paying closer attention when Al Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers said, “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.” If the interest of these people were really in the welfare of the children, would they be shaking down the parents that are struggling to provide food, clothing and housing for these same children?

So the goal of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to free the citizens of the Badger State from the blackmail of the teachers and public employees union is being met by the resistance of those who believe these resources are rightfully theirs to take. Using intimidation in an attempt to force the state government to bend to their will, they have the audacity to call the Governor a bully.

Unfortunately, the people of Wisconsin simply do not have the organization to present their case to the media and the world. What they do have is a governor and legislators who are actually looking out for the well being of their constituents. The sad thing is that many of us are pleasantly surprised by this as it is such a rarity in this day of professional politicians. Along this line, we cannot forget to appreciate similar efforts by John Kasich in Ohio. The problem is that these unions and others in the progressive left simply do not comprehend that “public” money is not theirs.

Those of us fortunate enough to live in states not currently under attack by these larcenous laborers need to keep our eyes on what is going on under the surface locally. Self serving public service unions are infesting our nation. They are just waiting to stand up and slap down any effort to economize in the public sector and bring the price within the scope of what the tax payers can afford and are willing to pay. We cannot allow them to succeed. It will be a rocky ride, but a necessary one if our country is to remain free and prosperous.

In February of this year, Hannah Workman, a fifth grader and straight-A student in Florida’s Clay County School District, was denied entrance to her elementary school’s gifted program because she did not score high enough on the entrance exam. While that is unremarkable in and of itself, her mother later learned that Hannah would have scored high enough to enter the gifted program if her family earned less. The standards on the entrance exam, she discovered, were based on income level and English proficiency. Students who qualified for free or reduced lunch or who spoke limited English only had to score in the 90s to qualify, while other children needed to score at least 130.

Though seemingly a minor footnote in the story of America’s public schools, the testing policy of this Florida school district cuts to the core of the philosophical debate over the role of education raging among educators and policy makers. It reveals much about the changing definition of “fairness” and the problem with using publically-funded education to redress social inequality.

Fairness used to mean that the same standard should be applied to everyone. Today, “fairness” has increasingly come to mean purging inequity by all available means. It doesn’t take someone with a college degree to recognize which of the two is really just, however. 11-year-old Hannah explained it succinctly enough to her local news station, WJXT in Jacksonville. “They should have one set score where it doesn’t matter how much money your family makes or if you have fare-reduced lunch, if you get that score, no matter what, you can get in,” she said.

The administrators of her school district disagree. Because there is a finite amount of resources available to the district’s gifted program, and middle and upper class parents have more resources available to spend on their own children’s education, “fairness” dictates that access to the gifted program be easier for students with low incomes. By lowering standards for those students, their income disparity will be offset.

Unlike the parents of these students, however, a public school district has no income of its own. It is funded by taxes, which are disproportionately paid by middle and upper class residents of that district. In a very real sense, publically-funded education is already a redistribution of wealth, operating under the assumption that this investment will benefit society in the long run by creating a skilled workforce and a more intelligent and responsible citizenry. It is assumed that once given the opportunity to attend school, every child will be expected to perform up to the standards required by that school, regardless of their background.

What the policy of this Florida school district is saying, however, is that children of middle and upper class parents should have a more difficult time gaining access to the resources provided by their parent’s tax dollars. Moreover, resources that would otherwise have gone to motivated or intelligent students should instead go to less motivated and less intelligent students in the interest of “fairness.” It is placing a value on income over intellectual ability, and in the process, implying that children from low income homes cannot be expected to perform as well as other children.

Policies like this are a philosophical and systemic problem, not a political problem. Clay County is not an area with a high level of poverty, nor with a significant minority or foreign born population where such a policy might be justifiable, nor is it controlled by liberal Democrats. According to the 2000 census, 5.10 percent of families in Clay County were below the poverty line (far below the national average), and 87.44 percent of the population was white. It has given over 70 percent of its vote to Republican candidates in the last three presidential elections, and its 5-member school board is elected on a non-partisan basis. In a sense, Clay County is the least likely place where a philosophy of “redistribution for equity” should hold sway.

Despite the wishful thinking of school administrators, a policy that favors lower class children at the expense of middle and upper class children will not right social wrongs—it will only serve to have a deleterious effect on educational standards. It will demotivate gifted children from middle and upper class families, and will teach gifted children from low income families that they do not have to try as hard to succeed. One straight-A student in Florida’s Clay County has already learned this lesson the hard way.

[Editors note: Michael Kleen is the publisher of Black Oak Presents, a quarterly digital magazine of Middle American art and culture and proprietor of Black Oak Media. He holds a master’s degree in history and is the author of One Voice, a collection of columns regarding issues in contemporary America. His columns have appeared in various publications and websites, including the Rock River Times, Daily Eastern News, World Net Daily, and Strike-the-Root.]

Have you ever wondered why they want to drop such items from the budget first? Do they really think we would believe that is the most logical place to save money on state or federal budgets? Perhaps not, but the ruling class knows that we won’t get upset if their favorite boondoggle projects disappeared from public view. However, they know we don’t want to witness and increase in crime or see our homes burn down because of budgetary shortfalls. They know that even our union controlled, overfunded and underperforming schools would not be the first place economize, yet this is the story we hear.

This is because we all use these services and cutbacks would directly impact our lives. Recall the last time Republicans dug in their heels and refused to go along with the bloated budget during the Clinton administration. Some of the first things to be shut down were popular attractions like the Washington Monument and National Parks. They made their point by taking away the things that gave the most comfort and enjoyment to the American people. In Virginia, Governor Kaine (of DNC fame) closed down rest stops along the highways when he didn’t get the budget he wanted.

As many remember, the Republicans caved as the public bought the lies that these cuts in services were essential because the people were not taxed enough. It was only their greed in wanting to keep their money that left the government in the bind that caused their inconvenience. Fortunately, many of the people have woken up and the Tea Parties have opened they eyes of many more.

They are not about to tell us that they want to take our money and give it to their favored people or groups. They won’t come out and tell us directly that they want us to pay higher and higher taxes so they can give the AIG bankers the money for their bonuses needed to maintain their ostentatious lifestyle. They won’t tell us we need to sacrifice good things for our families so outrageous union wages, pensions and benefits could be preserved rather than let a bankruptcy court resolve them to the point where they were not a burden to the rest of the citizens. Neither will they say to to us that it is more important for them to let contracts to favored vendors (often contributors) than stop borrowing from people that hate us and will be collecting interest from us, our children and their children.

The political class knows we won’t get upset about scrubbing plans for another bridge to nowhere, but they know most of us will get upset about cuts in education or public safety. What happens is that they fund the lowest priorities first then come to the public demanding more money when the wasteful spending is done and they need more for the essential projects.

As much as it would seem to be something we blame on Democrats, Republicans have their own share of guilt. This is not just be the way these people get the job done, but it is a symptom of a much greater problem we have with our government; the lack of honesty. Sure the destruction of our economy and the devaluation of our currency are bad enough, but if the people in positions of leadership cannot be straight with the people, we cannot unite behind a plan to fix the mess we find ourselves in – in fact, we don’t even know what the real plan is so we can discuss it intelligently.

During the Clinton administration we were told that character didn’t matter. They were wrong. Despite these claims, character is more important now than ever. The financial debacle is only the tip of the iceberg. Evidence shows that we have not gotten the straight story on job creation, environmental “protection”, health care and a host of other issues and non-issues. We have a budget crisis, mortgage crisis, a health care crisis, an energy crisis… all man made. Now we have the same people that created these problems telling us they have the solutions… and we have no basis for belief. Until we the people demand honestly and accountability from our office holders we will be stuck in this downward spiral, and we won’t deserve to get out until then as well.