I've been a news hound as long as I can remember, since before the days of 24/7 news, when we had local news for 1/2 hour followed by network news for 1/2 hour. There was one daily city newspaper, one weekly local newspaper, Time, Newsweek and National Geographic to acknowledge there were worlds beyond our own. There were Special Reports interrupting a favorite soap opera or prime time show, and there was investigative journalism, reporters who were actually given the budget to track, research and uncover stories that would not have come to light otherwise. It was a time when news and information was not structured as a profit center, but as a public trust, a 'fourth estate' to hold government and industry accountable and accurately and honestly inform the electorate.
With a decades old, corporate owned, profit based format of news as entertainment, we can consume much partisan opinion and agenda driven information that leaves many misinformed, some confused, and still many others searching for more. With critical thinking not fostered or sometimes even allowed in public education, we are left with a chasm often filled with a projected reality, rooted in the average audience's base emotions or implying presuppositions.
I have always taken to heart the inscription on the north facade of the Boston Public library, "THE COMMONWEALTH REQUIRES THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE AS THE SAFEGUARD OF ORDER AND LIBERTY."
With a more than fifty year undertaking to bring our Republic closer to the definition of a Plutocracy, the first casuality must be the education of the electorate. Honestly and thoroughly informed masses are in direct opposition to a gradual, slow boil coup toward this end.
That being said, I listen to and read those sources that would undermine our Republic and it's Constitution. In order to understand and combat those who seek to undo us, we must know and understand their logic and their arguments, however twisted and fact free. Otherwise, all we have left to do in the face of it is name calling and shadow boxing. You may have good form, but you'll never land any punches if you don't know where they stand.
I am not anti-capitalism, anti-business or anti-government. I am opposed to a nation of the 2%, by the 2%, and for the 2%. There is currently far too much which is fundamentally wrong for a quick or easy change, basic precepts that must be modified for this grand experiment to continue for us all. There is much to do and much to share and enjoy instead of subjugation under 2% rule. The vast majority of Americans work very long and very hard for their existence, and we should deserve and expect nothing less than a level field of play.
