The difficulty we are experiencing in this 21st century gives us reason to pause reflectively in recognition that there are those who have been or are seeking public office whose agenda is not very heroic. They are programmed by the “money changers” about whom we were warned centuries ago. They are the users up and abusers of the great gifts, of this exceptional “work in progress,” we call America. To be sure, they are convincing imitators of goodness, while profaning our faith and feigning patriotism. However they are not the good guys, for good guys do not look down on us from on high, while saying “no” to our Asking, Seeking & Knocking for a more secure footing in every way. From the shadows they keep us focused on personal problems and fearful of what tomorrow may bring. For in re-directing our preoccupation to what we think has been, they get back in!

What shadowy puppeteers fear most is consistency with Ghandi, FDR, Bobby, “Abraham, Martin & John,” who saw things not as they were, but might have been. A good man under constant fire, President Obama stubbornly fights to keep "the Ship of State" afloat in a sea left mined by lesser men. Americans love to bestow heroic status to many with less than heroic intentions. Like our votes, Presidents have been both good & bad for America, so perhaps we should worship less, and research more when choosing them. Too often polls reflect overreaction to misconceived expectations. So unless we wish to have our lives, the security of our children’s future and our Nation’s International Dignity muddied in the sludge of tyranny again, we need to stop believing in corporate owned “talking heads” and the National panic they beam, in the wake of a recurring Nixon, Bush and Cheney theme.

Now in tragedy, we can finally see our neighbor and benefactor HAITI. Any History buff can tell you that this most unfortunate, poverty stricken country, we now join an international effort not only to help, but to save, is in large part a recurring chapter in our Nation’s story. As an all but forgotten footnote, Haiti is the missing link which reveals the best and worst of America’s past, present and future: We Are A Connected People! In many ways the slave rebellion of Haiti, coming so soon after our own successful Revolution, is as vital to America being a country with a national reach “from sea to shining sea,” as our National generosity is now necessary to their survival. True it was the Europeans who began our march to the Second Continental Congress, our Declaration of Independence, the great experiment in our International “Exceptionalism” as “The First Modern Democracy,” albeit compromised at present, by the unpatriotic hypocrisy of “The Patriot Act,” and in the past, by the slaughtering of Native Americans. However, without “the War of Knives,” followed by Napoleon’s 1802 invasion, Crete-a-Pierrot, the arrest & death of Haitian freedom leader Toussaint, and, in less than 30 years after our own, the Declaration, in January 1804, of the Second Republic in the Western Hemisphere, we wouldn’t be the sum total of who & what we are. We’re connected.

If the ancestors of the very poor black Haitians who bravely hang on after the recent devastating earthquake, hadn’t made it “the better part of valor” for Napoleon to give Haiti back to the Haitians, in all likely-hood, our President Jefferson would not have had the opportunity to ignore Congress and the Constitution, and enlarge our not always united United States, by doubling the size of America with his 1803 Louisiana Purchase. See the connection?

As a Progressive Independent, I make every effort to listen to all points of view and choose the “Candidate” over the “Party.” I continue to appreciate and respect Republicans like Everett Dirksen and Governor Nelson Rockefeller, yes Goldwater too, and even those “tea baggers” who long for the rebirth of what the 50’s are supposed to have been, under the Golfer-in-Chief. However, living through the slow undoing of our National human decency and International respectability, resulting from the activities of people like, Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Rove, it became increasingly difficult to understand how “We the People” could settle for such a poor reflection of ourselves, in our government. I know we have never been the perfect people our movies and even history books portray, but surely we know the Bush League redefined each of us to the world, in a most disappointing and embarrassing way. I'm not an Obama worshiper, and I have little faith in either National Political Party. However, there is no comparison between the lack of leadership of the self-serving Bush League and the mature, calm and deliberate leadership of a President with an International vision, who seems to reach out at every opportunity to embrace and include all points of view. It’s more than Bipartisanship. It’s International accountability. It’s connecting, responsibly.

Yes, truly, that is the question. There are no more "sure things." The Robber Barons of Corporate greed set free by The Bush/Cheney Regime, have successfully eliminated our American certainty, and replaced it with near financial ruin. Yes, I'd hate to see anyone but a Kennedy in the Massachusetts Senate seat, but it's time for the American citizen to stop thinking in terms of the Media created fantasy of Blue vs. Red, used by “talking heads” to ease their herding of the masses. As both Steele & Reid have proven, there are mental midgets in both National Parties.

This is a call for recognition: it's not about Color, or Party, or who you voted for in the past. It's about a new low for those in high office. It’s about a middle class that needs to rise up and put Banks, Wall Street, Media and Government in their proper place and perspective. It's about the newly “have nots,” taking back America from the "Money Changers."

And, it’s about Time!

Now we have no choice but to give elected officials and Business Institutions a taste of being “Left Behind” in the “Dark Side” they have created. It’s Time for “We The People,” to step back out into the Light of Free Will, Free Thinking and Freedom. It’s Time to restore the rights of both those who have paid their dues for family & country and those who have paid their debt to society. It’s Time to resurrect our Human Decency and protect it from all industries who look down on us as cattle to be herded to financial slaughter. Time to realize Corporate CEOs and their Board Members don’t care about you, your children, nor your neighbors and friends. Time to “Seize the Day, confident in the truth that, Corporate leaders don’t believe you & I will really do anything about their using us to maintain their lifestyle with outrageous bonuses. Out of sight, in the shadows of secrets and lies, Banks and other institutions are scrambling to think of newer schemes to drain our financial blood, and keep their corporate hearts beating the life out of us and our Nation. However, now they scramble also, out of a new fear of us. They are scared of the President with the new look from the foreign country of Hawaii. They are scared of what might happen when “We the People” decide to push back. They are scared of us, out here in the real US. HEADLINE: Wall Street lives in growing fear of Main Street. This is the Truth that sets us Free.

Most of my political life, I have been an Independent, more often than not, successful at appreciating all points of view and choosing the candidate over the “Party.” I’m also old enough, not only to remember, but appreciate and respect Republicans like Everett Dirksen and Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and even Goldwater. However, living through the slow undoing of our National human decency and International respectability during the “Dark Ages” of the Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld/ Gonzales/Rove administration, it became increasingly difficult to understand how we as a people could settle for such a low self-image of ourselves. I know we have never been the perfect people our movies and even history books portray, but surely we know when we’re being Nationally and Internationally redefined in a most disappointing way. Now, I don’t claim to be a scholar but I certainly don’t rely on Google or on either our mainstream or “new media” as my only resource/research for information and perspective, so I know when I’m being manipulated and I have to believe that those ever increasing “talking heads” with their ever narrowing self-serving talking points, know as well.

It doesn’t matter whether you are Republican, Democrat, Independent or Progressive, it simply is not acceptable to continue to lie to ourselves about how the first 21st century administration delivered us into this evil. To be reasonable, they didn’t create our most pressing dangers, however they did choose to profit from them. Using our Faith and Patriotism as cover, they marched us into a State of Fear, until we became “True Believers.” As we are about to be counted for representation and maneuvered into media driven mid-term election mind-set, we simply need & must mute the rhetoric (even our own) so we can listen intelligently and review mentally all that we have been told, seen, heard and experienced in the first nine years of this New Millennium, because much is suspect, and deep down inside where we left our thinking caps, we know it.

Congratulations America: We’ve almost made it through the first decade of this new 21st century. How impressive we were, United & Counted in an historic 2008 reversal of fortune of eight years of abuse of power. Yes, for one brief shining moment, we were “We the People” again wielding the power to govern our government as originally intended. Yet, just like the Israelites in the desert, here we stand complaining “yeah, but what have you done for us lately,” not realizing our doubts and fears are fueled by those who fuel the economy for their own global satisfaction.

Truly, this has been a painful year for far too many, but the pain we endure must include a realization that there are those both in and seeking public office who simply don’t care about you, your family or your mortgage payments. They are the “money changers” about whom we were warned centuries ago. They are the users up and abusers of the great gifts, of this exceptional work in progress, we call America. They have become convincing imitators of goodness, profaning our faith and feigning patriotism. However they are not the good guys, for good guys do not look down on us from on high, while saying “no” to our Asking, Seeking & Knocking for a more secure footing. They want us focused on personal problems and fearful of what tomorrow may bring, for when they keep us standing still & distracted, we long for what we think has been. And they want back in!

So unless we wish to have our lives, the security of our children’s future and our Nation’s International Dignity ground into the ground again, it’s time to join those, like the passengers and crew on Christmas Day in the skies above Detroit, and stand up for ourselves. Willingly, Happily and Gladly be counted in the Census and counted on in the voting booth, so that “We the People” determine our family’s representation. For if we allow Conservative State Legislations to “run the table” like Tom DeLay playing with the numbers, we will neither be counted, or even count. The Census, like the voting booth, count us in, in “The Land of the Free.” This is our only path to being Nationally seen, heard, respected, preserved, protected, defended and prospered. This is what “United We Stand” needs to mean.