Artwork Mozart and Politicians

I've been working on finishing up a canvas and just about there with another. A Mozart cd was on auto-repeat and I was having a really good day.

And as I'm working my thoughts are wandering.

And I thought about this new Jobs bill President Obama wants to get through and how much resistance he has gotten over getting anything done since he was elected and I thought, wow, these politicians are so out of touch.

And this is why....

They are confused. They have forgotten that, "We the people," refers to all of us measily citizens. You know, the ones who are citizens and who pay taxes and who pay their salaries. Of course, we all know that there are lobbies and lobbiests and corrupt politicians who are only looking out for their own interests. The ones that fill their pockets.

But at some point it is time to wake up and realize that we have some serious problems we need to deal with in this country. One in six men are going to get Protrate Cancer. And one out of every eight women will get breast cancer. And 1-2 children out of every 100-150 will be diagnosed with autism.

We have jobless? Yes we do. Do we have people ready and wanting to work? Yes we do. President Obama has been compromising and govenors have been cutting their budgets and then there are those who do nothing but complain and oh yes, do nothing.

I don't care what party they call themselves. We are all sick of this attitude in Washington D.C. If President Obama gets a bill signed that helps people get to work on the infrastructure of our country that is in need of updating and repair and to kick start environmentally sound businesses then that is a win for everybody. It's like there is a resistance to do anything so President Obama doesn't get credit for it because maybe, just maybe, he would get re-elected.

Guess what, people care. They care a lot about what is going on. And it is ridiculous that party agenda or ideology is being put ahead of what is best for the people who elected these politicians to represent them.

So I say, if representatives aren't willing to work with the president and if they don't want to get that we are all in this together, then maybe people should take note of this and make sure not to vote these politicians back into office. I mean, if they aren't going to do the job then maybe people who are fed up with this mentality, regardless of what party they vote for ought to stop electing these people into office?

We need a two party system. I think even a parliment is a good idea. One party, that is facism and just google a country and the word facism and read how one party systems have led to civil wars and terrible deadly persecutions of people who lived in these countries. It's never good I don't care if it is philosophical, religious or rationalized by some other agenda, the we them mentality doesn't work. Because the reality is that, "we" is by its very definition inclusive and plural.

We have some serious problems in our world. And we need the finest minds to be able to focus on how we can go about solving some of these serious issues.

Really, industry should not exclude being environmentally pro-active. The two should walk hand in hand. Maybe scientists could work a little more on preserving and understanding the planet we need to survive on, instead of genetically altering our food and coming up with products that industries create while dumping pollutants into our air and water so some ridiculous and irresponsible status quo is perpetuated by those who owe favors to the politicians that are helping them to avoid change and stuff their pockets with more.

We need to focus on solar and wind power. We need to come up with inventions that help the regular everyday people who have a car, swapout gasoline with something else that isn't going to further destroy our planet on all kinds of levels.

We need to stop using pesticides and start learning how to work with nature to grow healthy food.

There is a huge company that is trying to be the source of seeds for growing everything. In their ideal world all people, all over the world, would have to go to them and get seeds to grow their crops every year. But seeds are essential in the growth and health of the plant. Plants with seeds have a hormonal affect on what consumes them. This is a really bad idea.

Oh, and building five casino's in Chicago? Really? So a few can haord a bunch of money and not pay taxes? Industry needs to take us ahead toward the promise of a better future. Honestly, intelligence would be a lot more beneficial to all of us if it was mixed with some good old fashioned, common sense.

We are in a fix here in this country because banks and real estate developers got greedy. Because people were greedy and because they made poor choices because they were ignorant and believed what the people who, "should know" told them.

And because chemical and pharmaceutical industries and oil and gas and utilities have made a ton of money here and then they moved it offshore to avoid paying taxes. So, "we the people" made them rich and then when it was their turn to pay up their share of the taxes they took their bundles of money out of this country and hoarded it elsewhere. Our resources were used and our labor and time was also used to create something. And then what we spent on those items was moved to some island account somewhere. It's hard to have pity on us because our captains of industry have been doing this kind of business in other countries for decades.

To change this we need to simply make a rule, you make it here and you sell it here then you need to pay taxes here. Where ever you sell something you should pay taxes there. If you make something in another country and you ship it to another country to sell it you first give that item a value and pay taxes on it. If that item is then received in another country and is sold then taxes should be paid wherever the unit is sold. Period. And quite frankly, I think paying more than a flat ten per cent of income in taxes is outrageous. So make it a flat payment. For everybody, including industry.

And cities, stop taxing people and ticketing people out of town. It's so stupid. I recently was in on a conversation where people were complaining about tickets and how they double when a payment is late and then they double it again. They don't allow people to make payments on tickets. They demand it all upfront. It's so crazy. It is short sighted and foolish.

Whether someone is from here or coming to visit from another part of the country, getting tickets or being towed is penny wise and pound foolish. I have only been to Chicago twice in several years because I'm so scared of getting a parking ticket. People are sick of getting huge tickets for going through a red light when they are stuck in a bunch of traffic and no-one knows how long a yellow light is going to last. They cut the seconds there is for a change from yellow to red down to three seconds. So if traffic is moving and you are getting ready to go into the intersection and then someone ahead suddenly stops you could wind up getting stuck just across the thick white line and you could get a ticket. People may be able to save up for a day or night in the city. They may be able to save enough for a nice meal and an event of somekind. They can even afford to pay for gas and parking. But throw in tickets and fines and tows and this is enough to make what was going to be a special time into a nightmare. It has left a bad taste in people's mouths and they aren't interested in coming to the city anymore. And then politicians complain and vendors complain because the numbers of people in attendance have gone down.

Make the city a nice place to come to and people will enjoy coming there.

So those are my ideas. I am a survivor of a Traumatic Brain Injury. Granted I did get my Bachelor's Degree but I'm still living way below the poverty level. Now if I can come up with these ideas, there should be a whole lot of people working on getting this country going and doing something about it.

I voted for President Barack Obama. And I'll gladly vote for him again. Because he gets it. Instead of bullying the Republicans, like they did when they had control, he extended a hand of co-operation so the tone of how our politicians work on Capital Hill. I think that he truly believes in the best of all that our country can be. And I believe in that too. So you keep on keepin' on, you are doinga great job. And you've got my vote.

Oh, just a suggestion. I think people should be able to easily access what they representatives voting records are so the everyday citizen, who is working overtime and busy can see what their representatives are doing and they can vote accordingly. And we should be able to create our own passwords and we should be able to keep our voting records confidential and we should be able to make sure that our votes were counted accurately. This is crucial to a healthy society. Campaign finance reform is really important. We need to offer people a fair and level playing field so more people can run for office and more people can be chosen by the voters instead of promoted into office by the much fewer rich and powerful. Because as we have seen, this doesn't always make for good politicians or leaders.

Hey, I still believe that most of us care about the same things. Taking care of our families. Having a good job to go to in a safe environment and having good schools where our children will have smaller classrooms so they can actually learn something. This is not rocket science. It can be done. But we have to expect that our representatives will go to Washington DC with a co-operative, open mind so people can work on the best solutions for all of us. We aren't all ever going to agree on everything all of the time. But we can get a lot done working on those things we can agree on. And the rest, we can find a compromise that is reasonable. That's what these guys are supposed to do. This is what they are getting paid to do. And with our votes, we should insist on it.