Tag: Americans

Unanswered Question: Why did politics have to become a game?

On By Susan St.PierreIn In my humble opinion..., Unanswered Questions6 Comments


It’s alarming to me how many people clap like seals for all the “firsts” happening in the political realm. The first female Vice President. The first openly gay Transportation Secretary … and so on.

Our culture has become so obsessed with celebrity and its own self-satisfying ‘virtue signaling’ that we’re in BIG trouble.
Americans (in their naive arrogance) have come to vote and behave according to their own ‘tastes’ and sadly, our general population doesn’t even have a clue what “good” leadership looks like. Heck, many don’t even know how our Constitutional Republic is supposed to work.
Those people are far more dangerous to our country than the CCP.

The uninformed and/or the ‘superficial’ voter reminds me of people who like to play football pools but know nothing about the game. They choose teams because of the color of their uniforms or their mascots. Once in a while, they actually win the pool but that’s a rare occurrence. The people running the pool love those people because they add to the ‘pot’ and in throwing their money away ignorantly advantage those who are determined to increase their own odds of a bigger win.

We all know that ‘merit’ carries far less weight these days than superficial “feel good” attributes. Anybody who still remains ‘giddy’ over the first female Vice President is a fool. Sorry, foolish people are called “fools”.

Now that the primaries for President are on the horizon, I hear a lot of chatter. Many political junkies are wondering which candidate will say the ‘right’ words or have the best trending intersectionality.

Running the country is NOT a game people. Take my word for it, the World is far less impressed with us than we are with ourselves these days. (Wake up!) It’s not senior year and we’re not about to be watching candidates who are vying to be prom king and queen. Each candidate needs sober consideration.

As a final thought, I want to ask would the gender, race, sexuality or the charisma of your heart transplant surgeon carry as much consideration as the surgeon’s skill set and record? Would those former superficial things even matter?
I dearly hope our country is worth the same pragmatic merit-based consideration in voting from each citizen as he/she would use for themselves.

Meanwhile, I’ll never understand why something as important as our political leadership became a game.







It’s a Rock and a Hard place Folks!

On By Susan St.PierreIn In my humble opinion..., Sideshows7 Comments

079 Capitol Hill United States Congress 1993
079 Capitol Hill United States Congress 1993 (Photo credit: David Holt London)

There is a problem with our government. <<Everyone nods>>

Its central locale is our Congress. <<Everyone snorts>>

It just may be too simple to fix. << Jaws agape…interest confirmed>>

Our Congress is in a bubble that “We the people…” cannot easily penetrate. The idea of setting strict term limits on Congress members has floated around but… really?…do you think they’ll vote for that?

The cry of many Americans is for cleaning out all of the members. If you haven’t wondered, <<why?>>, let me school you about a few things that I’ve learned.

There is an ongoing system of “favors” among members of Congress. In order to get votes on anything, the Congressmen and women offer favors and, with it, their implied loyalty on future votes. There are Lobbyists who dance around trying to buy an interest and some promises for loyalties. The Congress people are not required to listen to lobbyists, but folks…money talks. Power (which can be used for good OR selfishness) comes in the form of loud voices of large numbers.

Here’s the rub…when a few groups of voters get tired of their needs being traded off, they elect someone new to the Congress. Great idea with little clout. New Congresspeople are not called “freshmen” because they have fresh , new, ideas. It’s because they have little power and few connections to bargain with. The “virus” of the long time members with folders full of favors and dealings( who have lost their individual purpose) cannot be stemmed by the few “anti-virus” newbies.

Then, as I mentioned above, we ask the powerful members of Congress to vote for term limits and the end of their jobs and hard fought positions? Guess we are a naive group to be sure.

Ain’t gonna happen and unless we realize that a unified AMERICAN PUBLIC needs to make a louder noise…it’s the rock solid Congress and our country will be a “hard place” to restore to her greatness.

Laundry Time in America

On By Susan St.PierreIn In my humble opinion...2 Comments

How did “We the people…” become so divided and, somewhat, gullible?

I suspect that we are simply victims of our own busy lives. My favorite quote from Shawshank Redemption was from Brooks when he viewed the world outside of prison after 50+ years on the inside.”The world has gone and got itself in a big damn hurry.”
Nowadays, when we consider who to cast our vote for, we are bombarded by “sound bites” and glimpses. This makes our political minds putty in the hands of those with agendas. They take advantage of our distractions and are no better than “pick pockets” aimed at keeping us focused away from the truth.
As for the liberals and conservatives, they have become convinced that their ideas are “either…or”. In a large part their arguments are purely about different priorities, not different ideas. I’ve never met a conservative who wants individuals to die in emergency rooms and I’ve never met a liberal who wants to pass debt on to his/her grandchildren. The big question for Americans is, in what order do we address our problems?
Now, for my opinion from a conservative viewpoint . I want to offer you a real life example:
I was without a clothes dryer for a year. Just last week, I obtained one. It was sudden since a friend was moving and was giving it away. What a wonderful, better way it is to get my laundry done! It’s a real improvement upon hanging everything out to dry…especially when it rains.

On Monday, I was still enjoying my triumphant progress. As I walked to my cellar, I felt secure that I would have my laundry done quickly. It was then that I discovered that my improved laundry scenario had one serious pitfall. I was out of detergent. I had not planned upon the new, more efficient schedule requiring more detergent than I could manage in my budget. If I’d only taken more time to consider what my new system would need, I may have been happily laundering without interruption. This made me chuckle out loud.

So there you have it… I hope everyone has considered their own expectations and can find satisfaction in a candidate who may fulfill them.

THAT is my answer…

On By Susan St.PierreIn Sideshows11 Comments

My house is separated from my neighbor by six feet.

We have a privacy fence along that entire side because “good fences make good neighbors”.

On my side of the fence, I have a bird feeder. The bird feeder has been there for about 15 years. The neighbors are new.

This Spring there was the usual bird feeder “traffic”. Of course, birds and squirrels also, chipmunks collected the leftovers.

June arrived and new neighbors put up a large above ground pool. (a nice one) I usually slow down on the bird feeder refills at this time of year. I figure the wild animals should not become too dependent. Also, I’m broke from all the winter feedings.

One day, the neighbor asked if I was still feeding the birds. They were concerned that the chipmunk population would take over their yard and eat holes ,from below, in the lining of their pool. I had never considered that…I really had no reason to keep feeding. I said I would do it only from October to May. They were glad.

Today, my friend’s husband was in our yard. He asked why my feeder was empty. I told him the neighbor’s story. He said, “Why did you stop?” He went on to say that if it were he, he would never stop feeding. It was his yard and he had the “right” to feed the birds. I answered,”Being a good neighbor is more important than exercising my right. Besides, I have a big yard and, even though the fence gives me the best view, I have other choices.”

It wasn’t until later that I realized the situation was a bit like the Mosque at Ground Zero. At the very least, American Muslims should want to be good neighbors.

That is the most basic reason why I am against the Mosque at Ground Zero.