Pocket Change

There’s a word that you may have heard this past year. In fact, it’s on everyone’s mind because of its recent usage by miracle-promising presidential candidates. This magic word appears in almost every political ad campaign and certainly every speech and televised debate. It even appears in the parodies and satires of those same debates and speeches. The pundits discuss it ad nauseam and try to determine which candidate has the divine right to use the term. It’s been seized by the one candidate, only to have the other grab hold and scream “MINE!” like a threatened child. It’s bandied about by the masses as if it were the fabled Elixir of Life, destined to save the dying Republic – and who knows? It could be. My thought is that, like the Hula-Hoop, the word is a fad, frivolous and an exercise in political vanity.
As this particular mantra is bludgeoned into our consciousness through the blunt trauma of incessant repetition, has anyone actually paused to consider what it will take? There was a time in the United States when Free Speech was a right, not something to be exercised in certain “zones” cordoned off far from any listening ears. People arrested for crimes were once presumed “innocent till proven guilty,” instead of instantly convicted by prime time’s Nancy Grace. An arrested person also could hope for a trial within a reasonable amount of time, instead of years’ worth of procedural delays and appeals.
Long ago the military was forbidden from policing city streets, until they stationed an army brigade to patrol within our own borders. In times gone by one could rest assured that the government wouldn’t force a religion on you – but it was also believed they wouldn’t stop you from practicing the once you had. It’s even rumored that doctors once spent a few minutes listening and looking before prescribing, and the dollar was strong enough to pay for their services. We used to go to war only in self defense, with people returning to their jobs and homes after hostilities had ended, instead of never-ending conflict and strife. . .
This list of problems could get as long and tedious as the political ads promising to solve them. The point is that we all know there are problems; we FEEL it, and our souls clamor for some kind of remedy. The question is this: does the Self-anointed One or the Prisoner-of-war Patriot really offer any kind of solution? Recovery isn’t going to be instantaneous on November 4th – much to the chagrin of the winning candidate’s supporters. It’s going to take sacrifice, grit, values and some re-prioritizing. We’re going to actually have to THINK, and not just talk about doing it “outside the box.” We’re going to have to compromise and come together, which means an end to finger pointing and hand wringing.
There’s plenty of determination to be found in this land of ours. We really can return to the principles and ideals that called out to the hopeless and downtrodden of the world. Our ancestors came here searching for the outline of a dream. Some of the points of that dream are found on a yellowing scrap of paper called the Constitution. You may have heard of it, it used to get the campaign buzz until we started longing for Change.