What Is Happening to America?

The people of this country have been shocked, and saddened, by the massacre that took place in Las Vegas last weekend, and they are saddened every time there is a school shooting, or a sniper hiding in the trunk of a car, picking off innocent people.

I grew up in the 1950s, and tragedies such as the shootings at Columbine School, or the massacre of innocent children in Sandy Hook, did not occur as they do in this era. Children were not shooting other children, and we used to stick together because we were afraid of being punished by adults if we got caught passing notes, or smoking in the bathroom. Today, a young person found smoking in the bathroom would have no issue putting their cigarette out on your arm, and then laughing about it. They know they can't be touched, and they take advantage of that.

The problems in this country run deeper than the youth. Hatred seems to run rampant through a good majority of the population, and not without good cause. The country is slowly working its way into two distinct classes, the rich and the poor, and middle class is on the way out. Programs for people with low incomes are being cut, so money can be spent on other projects the government feels is more important.

The country is crumbling from within when people need to sit in a high building, and gun down strangers without any pause, or drive their cars into crowds of people who are enjoying the day and minding their own business, then things have to change.

How does change come about? It comes about when a majority of people have lost enough, and are tired of taking what is left. It comes when low income families have their food benefits cut with no change in their incomes or expenses, and it comes when you can no longer afford to make the payments on a home, car, and keep up with all the other expenses of living. Yet, the media never focuses on that aspect of life, and they divert the population's attention to tragedies that have happened over the past twelve hours, rather than reporting what is happening to people all around the country.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what is happening. Fires practically destroyed areas of Oregon, Montana, California, and Wyoming, to name the hardest hit, and also fires in Colorado. While that is going on, hurricanes are pounding the south and causing havoc. Earthquakes break out in Mexico, and other areas in the world. It would seem as though something needed to be done a long time ago, but we are where we are now because people had their heads in the sand. As long as they were comfortable, it was easy to ignore what else was going on in the world, other than vocalizing opinions about things.

Man has polluted the water, the air, and has taken advantage of the earth without giving back. Politicians are out to get the most they can, but not for the people, for themselves. They use government funds to take expensive trips on private airplanes, and they are receiving the best medical care that is available, while the rest of us are stuck with what we can afford, such as Obama care. Some seniors cannot afford both medications and food, but that doesn't stop our country from sending money to other countries that don't even like us. Charity begins at home, and that is where our priorities need to be focused.

If you are the son or daughter of someone in Congress, you don't have to pay back your student loans. You are not likely to be drafted if the draft returns, and you are set for life because when your mother or father retires, they continue to make the same money they always made when working, not like the rest of us who have to survive on social security and Medicare.

I believe the salaries for government employees, including the President of the United States, should be cut back to sixty thousand per year. If a person is willing to work for that, then they care more about the job than they do about the money, and are not likely to be bought by some big company lobbying for the best they can get. Drug companies are running the show and calling the shots, along with insurance companies that state one thing, but when it is time to pay, the story is always different.

Our country used to be considered rich, stable, and the place everybody wanted to be to find opportunities, and they were there, but it is getting so our country is no longer respected for being affluent, stable, and in control. We have elected someone to office that should be no where near the controls for nuclear power. We have become a national joke, as far as I can tell, and the only cure for that is to start making changes.

If we called in all our loans from other countries, and we pulled our troops out of places where there is no war, but we are there for their security, and we closed our doors to those from other countries unless there was a good reason for being here, then perhaps that would be a start. Another start would be to stop shipping work over seas because it is cheaper than manufacturing the same product at home. Don't break up families and deport illegal aliens, but gather them and offer them the opportunity to become citizens, especially those who have lived here a long time and have families.

The American people need to start thinking independently of our government and look around at what is really going on, before it is too late.