Sunday, June 20, 2010

So sick of bad news!




I follow the news, like many people, because we live in extremely difficult times, and knowledge sharing is all we have to try and repair our seriously, if not mortally, wounded country.

Once again, today I observe that most of the big stories are bad news stories. We've got at least a half million people at war in at least two foreign countries, neither of which we can win in any meaningful sense of the word. We and our children and their children are under a mountain of debt caused by some very crooked people, so many of our good jobs have moved overseas, government authority over our lives has vastly increased as our civil liberties are significantly decreasing. People who can't even spell the word privacy will soon learn the full meaning of the word.

The list goes on. Here's a particularly well written report published today on Alternet Are We Going Down Like the Soviets? By Tom Engelhardt

It all so sickening.

What SHOULD we be reading about?

Where's the project to take the money out of politics?
Where's the amendment protecting our privacy?
Why haven't the people who lied to us to launch the invasion of Iraq been put on trial for war crimes?
Why haven't the people who robbed our tax money on trial for theft?
Where are the good jobs for Americans programs?
Where's the leadership for creating world class alternative energy sources?
Why aren't we using our computers and nurses for the majority of our health care needs?
Why isn't the body of American case law online for all to share?
Why can't we explore government spending of our tax money to the detail level?

Where are these and many other significant projects that people can imagine, designed to make the quality of our lives and the world around us better? Why is it the while the list of projects we should be doing are at a standstill, while the list of what we shouldn't be doing continues to grow?

I've been around 62 years, and since my childhood I have seen incredible advances in machines and technology. Since I've earned my living programming computers for the past 40 years, I'll claim enough insight to sit here and yell very loudly over what I see.

I became involved with computers because I realized their potential to change our lives for the better. But seeing what actually happened, and is happening at an alarming rate, is changing our lives alright, but not for the better at all. Instead they are being used to control us in ways that far too many people don't even realize is possible.

I see manufacturing plants run by robots, desktop computers more powerful then early mainframes, instant information, astonishing advances in all the sciences, and so on. But look at what happened, think about what could be happening, and not only feel the angst, but do something. Talk with your family and friends. Write blogs and articles, or responses. But don't just sit there and do nothing!


Bill

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