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Friday, July 19, 2013

Let's Ignore Those Idiots in Washington

 Last April my daughter and I toured China for 10 days.  We were both somewhat ignorant and suffering from what turned out to be incorrect assumptions about the Chinese people and the culture.  Having grown up during the Cold War, I fully expected to see "coolies" dressed in black pajamas and pulling a rickshaw.  So wrong.  Here's a photo of a typical young Chinese woman.
 

Doesn't she look Western?  Or look at this photo - would you believe this is a communist country?  
Never did I think that we would be able to wander freely as we did.  We went shopping, ate in a Pizza Hut, browsed through the Shanghai Art Museum, all without chaperones.

Our tour guides surprised us by talking about all the changes in their lifetimes in their country.  No question went unanswered by Sam or Allen.  The only warning we were ever given was prior to our visit to Tiananmen Square where the massacre took place in 1989.  We were told not to discuss what happened that June among ourselves, that there were undercover police alert to any mention of what the government has never acknowledged took place.

All of the people we spoke with were proud of their country, but not necessarily of their government.  Here in the U.S. more than a year later, I see many similarities in the attitudes of the Chinese and the Americans. Are you starting to lose interest in the childish behavior of our elected officials?  Do you think they are truly representing your interests, or their own?

Please comment and tell us what you think would happen if we all just went about our business paying no attention to the government.  In China, because they do not have elections, the people feel little or no connection to, or responsibility for, what their government does.  Of course, I am not suggesting that what the government does has no effect on the citizenry, but, believe me, I saw people far happier than you would expect them to be living under a Communist regime.

Is it possible that what Wall Street does affects our lives more than what Washington does?  Can we boycott Washington?  What if we hold an election and nobody votes?  But - and this is a big but (ha) - what if we only shop at businesses who support Gun Sense? What if we agree to ONLY buy products made in America? Are you making McDonalds richer by making yourself fatter? Well, stop.  I could go on and on, and you probably can, too.

What do you think?