Post Traumatic Stress in America, slowly subsiding with Audacity of Hope
It has been a bitch of 8 years. By letting Bush & Co. have free rein, by NOT acting to protect the environment, our money system, our health care insurance system, our low income and hungry elders and children, we’ve given the message to our government that we ‘don’t want to know’ what they’re doing. That changed with Obama’s election.
We are, however, waking up to a terrible hangover. Americans have suffered untold damages, we have post traumatic stress disorder from remaining silent thru the last 8 years. Its unravelling, unwinding slowly, with the jolt of hope from Obama’s vision.
And now we are FINALLY being told about the insanity of our ‘shadow banking industry’ and the delusion that we still operate under, trusting those who have destroyed our country financially, the leaders of Wall Street who are now vying for jobs divvying up the trillions of dollars in bailouts.
Vanity Fair writer Niall Ferguson has a beautiful new article titled “Wall Street Lays Another Egg” about the ‘Emperor has no clothes’/'Banking Industry has no money’ phenomenon.
Then there is the ‘problem’ of civilians killed by US troops around the globe. WIRED Magazine has a great blog article: Despite the pinpoint targeting, despite the satellite-guided, pint-sized bombs, despite the lawyers in the air operations center and the patient behavioral profiling, American airstrikes in Afghanistan still continue to kill civilians at an alarming rate; more than three dozen were allegedly slain yesterday in a strike on a wedding party in Kandahar province. Every errant attack undermines U.S. efforts to stabilize the country, and gives the Taliban another propaganda win. But the air war is showing no signs of slowing down — in fact, airstrikes are up more than 30 percent this year.
So what can U.S. commanders do about the civilian death toll? A well-connected outsider has an out-of-the-box idea for the new administration. “One thing President Obama can do immediately: Create by executive order a high-level position at the Pentagon dedicated to the human costs of war,” Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict.
Obama’s election represents a sea-change for Americans, a waking up from our complacent slumber, a desperate wish to be proactive, have a healthy economy, be global citizens.
I pray that he does not choose the facile appointees. That he blows our minds by choosing RFK, Jr as Head of the EPA. Not Larry Summers for Treasury, but someone who has NOT put their foot in their mouth about women and minorities. That he name a Pentagon Department Head dedicated to the ‘Human Cost of War’, and a open up a Department of Peace.
Brian Solis, publisher of bub.blicio.us, reports on a talk by billionaire John Doerr at the Web 2.0 Summit where Doerr advises kickstarting research and innovation in the energy sector.
Doerr focused on the fact that the US needs to invest in graduating a greater number of capable professionals. His goal is to double it from 30,000 to 60,000 graduating in physical sciences and engineering. Doerr highlighted the fact that a majority of students are studying from foreign countries. After they graduate, we send them back home, “what kind of foreign policy is that?” he quipped. His advice, “Staple a green card to each diploma!”
Its innovative ideas that we need.
Please, break the cycle! There is a mandate, now. Please step up with the audacity of hope. Open with big ideas and push forward with all hope. The world awaits.
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