I’ve noticed that when something terrible happens people band together and help each other. During the horrible September 11 attacks in NY the nation came together. They hugged, cried and connected. On September 12 no airplanes entered our airspace. Flags flew. People talked. We showed the best side of ourselves. We were vulnerable and we allowed it to show.
On July 20, 2012 Colorado suffered another round of sadness when a shooter entered a midnight showing of The Dark Knight in Aurora and proceeded to shoot and wound unsuspecting patrons. What followed was more care, love, concern and kindness.
Even our politicians did something unusual and generous – they withheld playing the campaign ads that assault us each time we turn on the television. Someone decided that Colorado was dealing with enough pain and abuse and didn’t need more harassment from our presidential candidates as they point fingers, promise the moon and spend outrageous amounts of money that could be used in a million different ways.
“Nearly 700 independent political groups have poured more than $187 million into 2012 campaigns nationwide so far, according to FEC records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. More than $41 million of that has come from groups that disclose only a limited amount of information about their donors, or none at all.” (CNN) http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/18/politics/campaign-finance/index.html
This is the thing … I know who I am going to vote for. You know who you are going to vote for. We don’t need to wait until Election Day to decide whether we want Obama or Romney. We could go to the polls today and pull the lever. Instead money will be wasted as we dread the phone calls, as we are bombarded with newspaper and magazine ads, we will hit the mute button on our televisions and oh yes … have to deal with banners on the internet.
The newest campaign ads SHOUT that Romney is a demon or perhaps Obama demonizes …. what? Have you seen that ad yet?
What will make this stop and go away? How much more abuse do we have to put up with before November? If we actually had a cap on spending for each election then all the PAC money in the world wouldn’t matter once the cap was reached. Did you hear they are expecting over $100 BILLION to be spent on this election? Truly, anyone that can WASTE that amount of money has no right to lead our country. ANYBODY LISTENING?
What will make this go away — I think we all know that money and power will only escalate the fiasco that awaits us. Regardless of who wins this election, the majority of American will lose … as if that matters to our politicians.
Can we get money out of politics? (socialistworker.org)
http://socialistworker.org/2012/03/08/can-we-get-money-out-of-politics
Top Super PAC Donors
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/news/economy/1206/gallery.super-pac-donors-politics/index.html
Dark Money
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/29/dark-money-2012-election_n_1708127.html
196 People Control 80% of Super PAC Money
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/07/27/196-people-control-80-percent-of-super-pac-money-who-are-they
Dirty Politics as Usual in the South
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/01/21/145574138/dirty-politics-as-usual-in-south
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Sometimes when you least expect it there’s a story that takes you by surprise and captivates you. This book, When the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander Newfoundland by Jim Defede did that for me. This story detailed the events that happened in Gander, Newfoundland after the World Trade Center bombing in NYC on 9/11. Do you remember that the airspace in the US was shut down after that happened? Many of the planes turned back, others that were very close to the US were diverted to Canada. Others not yet over the ocean were rerouted to Gander.
Happily ... after retirement 