Monday, September 29, 2008

Everyone Needs To Read This. I ask-"What can we do"?

Thanks to my friend Diane for sending this.

This letter was sent to the Wall Street Journal on August 8, 2008 by Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Of Beverly Hills, CA.

On July 31, 2008, the Wall Street Journal had an article titled, 'Where's The Outrage?'

Really. I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The outrage is here, but no one is listening - for who am I?

I'm not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement.

I'm not a celebrity like Barbara Streisand that can garner the attention of the press to promote political candidates.

I'm not a filmmaker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies to the public.

The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don't know how to reach those who feel similarly in order to effect change.

Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United States of America, is in a state of moral and ethical decline. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what's fair.

Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by the government and lending institutions to stave off foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be made to pay the consequences for their poor judgment?

When my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase only what we could afford. Believe me, there are much larger, much nicer homes that I would have loved to have purchased. But, taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went with the house that we could afford, not the house that we couldn't afford. The notion of personal responsibility has all but died in our country.

I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and her family learn English now allows itself to be overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal immigrants.

I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here illegally;
That the Los Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I felt it Incumbent to send my child to private school; that every time I go to the ATM, I see 'do you want to continue in English or Spanish?'; that every time I call the bank, the phone company, or similar business, I hear 'press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish.' WHY? This is America, our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or multi-lingual society are sure to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in English.

I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of new threats on American traditions from Muslims. Just this week, Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee. Tennessee, last I checked, is still part of the United States. If Muslim's want to live and work here they should be required to live and work by our American Laws and not impose their will on our long history.

In the same week, Random House announced that they had indefinitely delayed the publication of 'The Jewel of Medina,' by Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife, A'isha due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad to see large corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the principles that built this country.

I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a political policy, yet Appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years of history and why talking with Iran has been and will continue to be ineffective. Yet talk, with a madman no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability to detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran's nuclear program? Would we rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews - one which they would be unlikely to survive? When does it end?

As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the Environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they want to put a bag tax on grocery bags in California; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the environment - I recycle, I use water wisely, I installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit.

But when and where does the lunacy stop? Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants, and the United States of America no longer knows right from wrong; good from evil. So what does California do? Tax grocery bags.

So, America, although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I don't even feel like my vote counts because I am so outnumbered

1 comment:

Kathy said...

She has hit the nail right on the head on every point. I only wonder if "people" are really getting bailed out of their mortgages, or are the people that over-bought gonna be left out in the cold with no home and a foreclosure in their past, and only the mortgage co will be "bailed" out. ? I think these people are still going to suffer the consequenses of their decisions, maybe I'm wrong on that. For some reason the nation as a whole has come to the place where they don't want to offend anyone or step on any toes...well we all know how that's going to work out....IT WONT! Just like with child rearing, there MUST be bounderies, limits and rules. Life is not fair and it never will be. Somehow there must be some absolutes. In this place of no absolutes, there will be chaos and unrest...it will only get worse!