[Osborn F Enready]

Athena said:
I want to point out, when the US was founded, the world was nothing as it is today. The US was self sufficient and didn't really need to important anything.

I say:
I agree. Our situation today is much different, but it is not different to the point of necessitating new rules and laws to survive. The problem is that laws have made us much different, and we no longer have a free market, a desire for industrial independence, or a focused concern on economic independence. Most all of this has occured over the last 156 years of Republican and Democrat bi-partisan monopoly on government, which should say quite a bit about the root of the problem. The greatest mistake was the New Deal, and its idea of big government and origins of laws and power.

Athena said:
Today we should understand, the abondance of US wasn't just about how it was governed, but was also the result of a mineral wealth that has since been exhausted, shifting the US from an exporting nation building a huge banking wealth, to an importing nation that must borrow from other nations to keep going.

I say:
I feel the majority is due to how it was governed, especially the lack of constitutional enforcement and the creation of the federal bank and recalling all gold and silver certificates. We created a system that has an appearance of stability, but is truly just a tool of economic management that removes the power from the people, and puts in the hands of the bankers. Bankers and big business, as well as big government, has quite different objectives than the working man, his family, and their countrymen. Now people are forced to resort to revolt for appeal to the government, since almost all forms of redress are done away with. We are at a point where we either must make a stand in unison, or watch the entire concept of the union fall to pieces.

Athena said:
What justifies war, in a nation deliberately living at the expense of others, consuming the resources of others, to enjoy wealth while improvishing others.

I say:
In my opinion not much, but seeing as how our nation was designed to be isolationist in most ways except for free trade, I don't see why you are ASKING ME THIS. I haven't supported most of the wars we have had, nor have I attempted to justify them, if you checked. Our entangling alliances are what caused this mess to begin with, and it is those alliances that must now be broken to ensure our own place in this global power struggle we have helped to create. I applauded Washington for his farewell speech, and I feel it solidly shows all of our mistakes compared to todays system. Every warning he voiced, exists now today in our system, and it is our downfall for not heeding those warnings.

Athena said:
What prevents war is being too valuable to others to destroy, and we need to work on this.
Human decency today, needs to be about all humans, not just self interest. We face an economic decline on the level that has ended civilizations. We won't like the results of reality if it continues to be the self interested reality we have manifest so far.

I say:
If you recall, we became the incredible population we are today by basing our existence on the Constitution which enumerated plainly the rights of ALL MEN, and claiming to be a CONSTITUTIONALLY LIMITED, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. Unfortunately, while the peasants were busy working to put food on the table, the laws have been changed, and we are no where resembling that republic we once claimed to be. Whos fault is it? The peoples, and the establishments.

How can we be as pompous as to say we understand the worlds problems, when so many don't even understand our own countries problems?

We must clean our nest, before we attempt to teach others the ways of cleanliness.