So it must come from each of us who feel betrayed by the candidate choices at each election. You see, I believe that there is no way that Americans would tolerate the poor government that they receive if they were not conditioned to expecting nothing but poor government.
If we are conditioned that all politicians are crooked, then we are not surprised when we find it in bushel basket lots, corruption abounding. We aren't surprised that the President and Vice President have lied to America profusely, and therefore consider it politics as usual rather than a criminal act.
We must first hold America and our Constitution and dreams to a much higher standard. They are the law of the land.
It begins at home.
Values aren't about religion. They aren't a product of going to church, necessarily, even though churches should be teaching them, and many are simply not. Today's pulpits are more filled with politics than most political campaigns. They are money machines meant as an elixir to make us feel better; making us feel good than we are better than the largely unnamed heathens and witches of society (JUDGEMENTALISM is a sin), ignoring the needs of those afflicted other than a good scolding, and building temples and trinkets of worship (idolatry) through brick and mortar, wealth and trinkets of gold and wealth.
American Values are rooted within the Bible, yes. But they too are rooted within the Koran, and all things good in religion.
They are rooted also within the Constitution of this United States not as a sectarian statement but as a values statement that "all men are created equal and equally endowed by their creator", the true Value of America and Democracy.
So it begins with each of us.
It begins in our churches and schools, where we speak out and demand that education begin with the reading and understanding of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and paralleling World History such as the Republic of Germany circa 1921-1943.
It begins in churches when we demand that we quit speaking of government as being an extension of the church and confronting those that wrongfully do.
It begins in elections when we demand campaign integrity, and fair elections and completely eliminate practices that bias, discriminate or otherwise falsely disenfranchise - and that includes electronic voting.
It begins with each of us in letters to the editor, in letters to candidates (before they are congressmen), in essays and in stands within our precinct meetings. It means a need for prompt and immediate accountability of those elected and if not accountable that they be fired in the Donald Trump tradition of immediacy.
These are simple things that each of us have allowed ourselves to think are beyond our reach.
When we feel small, we ignore. It becomes a cancer on our soul. We are unwilling to take a risk to do what we know is right.
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