29 years later, same speech

Yesterday while watching the coverage of Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy's funeral and his life in general, I realized two things: 1. I had no clue who this man was and what he stood for. 2. Listening to the political talk from the past sounds like it is 2009 and not 1980. (I will get to this in a moment.)

Now let's address the 1st realization. Before this past week if someone would have asked me what I thought of Senator Ted Kennedy I would have said something like this: "From what I know he is a liberal politician from a famous political family that has been in office way too long, got away with a crime possibly at Chappaquiddick, and probably doesn't see eye to eye with my conservative views." Watching the coverage made me curious to get to know more about this man and the life he led. According to the conservative talk shows that I have been exposed to he was not a good man and not a good politician. The fallacy in my opinion of him was that it was based upon what someone else said. The 2nd fallacy of my opinion was that the people who were saying these things clearly had an agenda, they were getting paid to cater to the conservative people and had clear motivation to "spin" the truth or paint an ugly picture of this man.

This 1st realization has given me a piece of humble pie. Because although I don't agree with everything I discovered about this man, there were many things that I discovered about him and his politics and his beliefs that I completely, whole-heartily, 100% agree with. I realized that I need to find things out for my self as oppose to take people's word as fact. Just because Sean Hannity says it, just because you hear on the radio, just because it was typed into an email doesn't make something true or from a credible source. In the end I realized that Ted Kennedy did much more good for this country than harm. He was a man that also kept his family together through tragedy and shame. Trust me, this family has seen more tragedy and shame over the last 4 decades than any one family would want to endure of a 1000 decades. It is up to you to decide what your thoughts are on this man, but think for yourself, don't take the common road and follow the crowd, take the road less traveled, the high road, and educate yourself on this man if you ever plan to have an opinion of him.

Realization #2: Nothing has changed in our society. In 1980 one of the presidential candidates was recorded as speaking about the problems that America faced at the time. High inflation, High unemployment, high energy costs, the need for immigration reform, and the need for health care to be available to all Americans. Why does this sound like 2009? Because the same politicians who have been running our country for decades are talking about the topics that get you thinking passionately. Because you might be directly affected by one of these hot topics, it gets your attention when it is spoke about. But where is the help? Where is the change? Why do Americans wait for their mighty government to help them out? Where is the accountability of self? In fact, when I hear politicians on TV talk about how they want to protect American jobs because Americans are the hardest working people on the Earth, I about fall out of my seat laughing. America listen up. Nothing is going to change in the grand scheme of things if you don't change things at the personal level.

As a whole we are fat, as a whole we are lazy, as a whole we are asking for a handout, as a whole we are waiting for our neighbor to help the other neighbor in need, as a whole we have stopped evangelizing, as a whole we cry, complain, claw, fight, and whine for our nation to remain a "Christian" nation because it was founded on those principals! Yet where is the action to uphold these Christian morals? Where is the action in our lives to make this place a better Earth than we found it? America is in a decline. This decline is real. Don't talk to me about the few who are out there doing good, talk to me about joining the few. If you want change, look in the mirror. America wake up and do something about what is wrong, it starts with you, and don't lie to yourself.