Reader discusses upcoming election

GUEST EDITORIAL

GUEST EDITORIAL

OTHELLO - Some commentators say the upcoming election could be the most important since 1860, when Lincoln was elected to help save the Union. We are at a crossroads, and our future is at stake.

America has been evolving since its inception. Abuse of labor by big business barons evolved into sometimes abusive and corrupt labor unions. Codes of conduct derived from our Judeo-Christian roots have been gradually repudiated, as more and more men refuse to take responsibility for the children they father, out-of-wedlock births skyrocket, personal accountability is replaced by victimhood, and the family disintegrates (all with a helping hand from Hollywood). Pride in America has evolved into anti-American propaganda at most institutions of 'higher learning' (an oxymoron). Apparently oblivious to the problems that await if we continue experimenting with fiscal irresponsibility and moral laissez faire, we are the blind being led by the blind as we imitate our not-so-wise European friends.

Some of America's evolution was good and necessary. Slavery was abolished and Jim Crow outlawed, big business monopolies were checked, insider stock trading penalized. But once the pendulum starts swinging, we don't know when enough is enough. A safety net to help the poor get back on their feet becomes an entitlement society where many expect the government to take care of their problems. What starts out as sensitivity towards minority racial/ethnic/religious groups evolves into quasi reverse discrimination. Our federal government has morphed into an incentive-killing, parasitic behemoth and morality has become relative, selective and politically correct. ------ *Note---here's a definition of moral relativism as taught in many universities and practiced by the United Nations: America's value system cannot be considered superior to that of any other culture. There are no moral absolutes, and hence, religious freedom, one-man-one-vote, etc. cannot be considered universal rights. Abuse of women in another culture (female subjugation, honor killings, or in some cases non-litigated rape), must be accepted because we're not allowed to impose our American values on someone else or even consider those values to be exceptional.

In this election, Americans will decide if the pendulum continues swinging towards European socialism, political correctness, and moral relativism, or if the trend is reversed--- before we find Americans rioting Greek-style in the streets (Occupy Wall Street was just a warm-up). Do we continue with the hippy revolution that started in the 60's (if it feels good, just do it), or do we start returning to our roots? You can't levy taxes fast enough to pay the societal costs of the children born to single mothers who don't have a father in the home. Do we continue running up obscene deficits with our entitlement mentality, kicking the can down the road, or do we act like adults and face up to our fiscal responsibilities? It's more than a responsibility-it's a moral mandate that says you don't push your indebtedness onto your children and grandchildren.

During WWII, Americans came together and helped change the course of history. Hundreds of thousands gave their lives so we can enjoy what we have today. Will we squander that legacy? A sacrifice is now required of us-not of giving our lives but of tightening our belts and acting like responsible adults. Like Greece and other European countries, bankruptcy is just down the road if we don't change our spending/regulatory habits and our entitlement attitudes. The dollar will cease to be the world currency and our economic engine will decelerate to the point that America ceases to be the 'light on the hill'. It's imperative that we remove the shackles from what was once the amazing American economic machine. And, with some sanity and common sense, it can be done without destroying the environment.

The farmers of Washington State are struggling to comply with a tsunami of regulation that is cloaked under 'food safety' and 'worker protection'. But for every rule that has efficacy and value, there are two or three that are either unnecessary or ridiculous. Some of it is being borrowed from Europe, and some is coming from our own USDA or WSDA or L&I, but Walmart and Costco decided to jump on the bandwagon and start requiring compliance by all growers if they want to sell their produce in a Walmart or Costco store. We all want safe food, but the problem with the entire regulatory/environmental movement is a lack of cost/benefit analysis. Does the remote possibility of sickness or injury justify any preventative cost? If so, we'd better outlaw automobiles, because you're at an infinitely higher risk of physical harm driving your car than eating fruits and vegetables. During apple harvest, a grower must prohibit his workers from eating their lunch under the shade of an apple tree. Why? Because the bread crust they could drop on the ground may attract a dog that might poop under the tree. Never mind that animals are mobile and usually poop some distance from where they eat the crust. Never mind that I've never heard of someone getting sick from eating a Washington apple (which grows high in the tree away from animals). Never mind that the apple goes through a washing process at the apple packing shed. Never mind that after apple growers spend millions of dollars complying with hundreds of detailed requirements, the apple will make its way to an open display at Walmart where a consumer (who just used the bathroom and didn't wash his hands) will pick up an apple and then return it to the display. All the money spent on food safety was just blown out of the water-wasted. We'd better start a government agency that installs cameras in bathrooms and monitors our hand washing procedure. Touching a public door knob is a thousand times more likely to make you sick than eating a Washington apple. We really need a billion dollar public-door-knob bureaucracy, don't you think? My wife and I recently bought a new dishwasher that doesn't work very well because the government limits how much energy the machine can use (I hear new clothes washers are the same, and that some people with new machines sometimes wash their clothes twice to get the same results they used to get with one washing). Such is the moronic insanity of allowing Ivy-league graduates who don't know which end of the tree the apple grows on to sit in high-rise offices and dictate how the rest of us carry on our business and live our lives. I'm sure it gives them a warm, fuzzy feeling, but it's the consumer, and ultimately the economy, that foots the bill (in dollars wasted and freedom lost).

Somehow the pendulum has got to start swinging the other way, or America will cease to be the vibrant, free nation that we have known and loved. And the time to start that change is now.