Candidates and speakers take to the podium and speak in Clarke Co., MS. Photos and graphic © 2011 by Terry Lynch.
While listening to political candidates speak, I sensed their love and soulful caring for their community, state and nation, which caused me to have a sudden realization! Harnest our greatest national resource, the American people, those who want to do public service work, and create a National Public Service Works Program on a grand scale, to end unemployment, to vanquish poverty, provide higher educational opportunity, repair our infrastructure, repay our national debt, and provide health care and housing for all American citizens!
It was perhaps one of the finest gatherings of local and area politicians I have ever witnessed. On July 16, 2011 candidates running for office gathered at the Multi-Purpose Building in Clarke County, Mississippi to introduce themselves and explain why they would like your vote.
At the door I purchased a five dollar plate of baked beans, cold slaw and hamburger. Yum! Yum! It was good! I understand the money raised will go to the Gavin House, a very good project which I support. Licking my lips, then I sat to listen to the various candidates make their presentations and ask for everyone's vote.
Now these folks were not running for President of the United States, but they each were running for a political office which was very important to them. You could tell how important it was by listening and watching to their heat felt words.
What impressed me most as I sat listening to the candidates was how each put their heart and soul out there for everyone to see and feel. Some were better speakers, perhaps than others. Some had years of experience as public servants or businessmen and worme. Some had served in public office for many years, been in the military or served duty as police officers. Some had taught in schools or balanced the books of businesses or municipalities. Some were young, energetic, new comers to the public arena and were seeking public office for the first time. Some were late comers, older, more experienced in life, and yet seeking office for the first time that they might contribute their sum of knowledge and what they have learned from life's hard knocks to make their communities a better place.
It was quite inspiring to see each of these candidates step up to the podium and introduce themselves. As I listened I was truly moved at the eagerness and commitment each candidate expressed. True, some were more skilled speakers than others. You could easily tell that some of the old timers had been stomping for votes a long time. But regardless of experience, each candidate impressed me as one who was speaking from their heart and really wanted to make a contribution to help others. Each candidate wanted to work to make their communities, state, indeed, their nation, this land of liberty that is America, a better place.
After listening to a number of fine speakers who often moved the audience with jocular tales, I wished I had turned my tape recorder on to capture those precious tales. Why I did not even take notes. I did, however, collect a handful of finely printed, glossy cards, each which carried a photograph of the candidate and a brief statement about them or their platform. Well, all but one. One of the candidates for Commissioner of Agriculture & Commerce graced his card with a cotton ball saying, "You may not be a farmer, but you've probably worn a T-shirt." Now I don't know if that means this candidate is too ugly, shy, old, or humble to put his face out there or what? But according to his son who made a most admirable and complementary speech in his place, hid Dad is the most experienced person running for that office. Why just listening to the fine words and praise expressed made me wonder why this candidate did not put his portrait on his card? I would imagine a picture standing in a cotton field, speckled with a thousand, thousand puffs of white inflorescence, would have made quite an impression for this fine gentleman who has already devoted so many years of his life to public service, and no doubt, raised a son who is his pride and joy. Why after listening to his son speak so admiringly of his Father, I'd vote for that cotton ball! (By the way, after writing this article, I saw a TV commercial he is running promoting Mississippi farmers as the best farmers in the world. I don't think he is at all ugly; he looks to be a senior citizen and a southern gentleman, with a personage akin to that of the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Perhaps if he has his pic on a card he will send one to me along with some of 'em paid political advertisement dollars, that I may post it on-line.)
Of course after listening to all the candidates and reviewing their glossy cards, the only problem is which cotton ball of all the cotton balls to pick? Who will actually get my vote or your vote? Quite frankly I was so impressed by each of the candidates that i might vote for them all. Only problem is some of them are running for the same office. Ah, that's why they have these rallies, to put their cotton ball out there, to put their face in front of the public, to tell you who they are, what they stand for, and why you should vote for them. I guess it is better to have a bushel of pure white cotton to pick and choose from than just one cotton ball. That lady on the glossy card with the cows and dog, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, is also running for Commissioner of Agriculture & Commerce. She makes a more pretty pic with husband and daughter than does a cotton ball. So maybe I'll vote for her, even though I was very moved by what the son of Max Phillips had to say about his Dad. Darn, now I don't know who I like best of these two fine public servants.
I guess that's these gatherings of fine folk running for public office are all about -- putting your best foot forward so that everyone can come to know who you are and decide if they want to vote for you or vote for someone else. At least after having listened to each of these candidates I know one thing: they all have my vote! The cotton balls king running for the Agi Comm and his opponent with the beautiful family; the bright young lad running for the county commission (what was his name ... he didn't give me one of 'em nice glossy cards), the SWAT team officer running for sheriff up in Meridian (well, guess that's not even in my district, though with the crazy way the lines are being drawn maybe he is), the various candidates for Treasurer, Senate, House, Governor ... and other county offices ... they all have my vote!
Perhaps it is too bad we do not have a system where each of these fine people could serve working together as a committee, instead of just one person to do all the work of each office, have three or four people, and divide up all the work. With as complex a society as we have and so many people wanting to do public service, perhaps we need to look at reforming government. Why cannot we the people put all these public servants together and make the political parties have to work together, instead of fighting among themselves? Why can not we reform government, from the county and the state all the way up to the US Senate and House of Representatives, such that we get these people who want to do public service to work together so they will get the job done and build a better future for ourselves and our children.
You see, the impression I walked away with was that each person who spoke expressed from their heart and their soul a genuine desire to serve and help make their communities, their state, indeed, our nation, a better place through their service. So why not reform the entire political process such that this can be done. For example, after an election those who do not win the top post would come together and work with those who were also running, forming committees, forming work and task forces, such that more people could become involved in doing all the work that needs to be done to make our cities, counties, states and national government function to solve problems and create a more perfect union?
Why can't we all work together to create a more perfect union? Now please don't get me wrong; I'm not a communist or a socialist. I like the representative form of government upon which our Republic, these United States of America, is based. It is just that when I look around at the world, at the poor state of affairs with so many people unemployed, with so many people who have lost their homes, with a nation indebted to China and other foreign nations, I wonder why we can't stop fighting among ourselves, stop all the political bickering, and come together and do the work that needs to be done! Why can't we put everyone to work who wants to make a contribution to their nation and start solving all those problems which our nation currently faces?
I suggest that at all levels of government we establish a Citizen Tasks Force which will employ everyone who wants to work to do those important tasks at hand. This would be funded through a National Public Service Work Program, much like the Jobs Corps or Peace Corps, but at a bigger level. The various levels of government would employ large numbers of people to do everything for repair and build infrastructure, to operate programs to build homes for the homeless, who would also be put to work cleaning up their neighborhoods or participating in other public work projects. This would be akin to jobs program President Hoover created during the Great Depression. We would create a national work force to build and repair our nation's infrastructure, to provide housing for everyone, even to revamp health care, such that doctors and medical professional would do public service, to bring down the cost of health care, such that not one child, not one elderly person, or not a single citizen would be without adequate health care -- all paid through public service.
It is simply crazy that we have so many people who want to do public service, and only one spot for those who chance to get elected. If we start a National Work Program that would operate at all levels of government, we could provide Civil Service jobs to everyone who wants to work and turn this nation around. Unemployment could be dropped to close to zero; homelessness could be ended, the health care fiasco could be ended, and much of the in-fighting among politicians could be ended, as everyone who wants to do public service could be given a job for which they are qualified.
The enthusiastic expression of candidates I witnessed at the gathering in Clarke County, represents a snapshot of America, a picture of what the situation is throughout our great nation. There are plenty of people in our nation who want to do public service, many more than we currently have public offices available for them to fill. We need to change this. We need a National Public Service Work Program that will give everyone an opportunity to serve their country here at home. Sure, young men and women may join the military and go off to Iraq and Afghanistan and fight in those godless countries, many dying, others maimed for life, coming home often with brain injuries from IEDs or with limbs blown off. But where is this going to get us in the long run? It is destroying the best of our young people.
I propose instead that we end the War on Terrorism and create a National Public Service Work Program. I propose that we put all Americans to work who want to work, end the recession, build a new nation, pay our debt to foreign nations though creating a new generation of prosperity, provide all citizens with the best health care money can buy via the the public service doctors and health care professionals would provide, and in so doing leave our children not with a dark, gloomy future of unemployment and indebtedness to foreign nations who may be our enemy bent upon our destruction, but with a bright and glorious future where ever American citizen who wants to work can work! Where every American citizen who wants a job can have a job. Where every American citizen who needs health care will have health care as this will be provided through their Public Works Program Health Insurance Plan or via public service health care professionals will provide.
We have a nation blessed with many wonderful people who, if anyone bothers to listen, express in their heart and soul a desire to do public service, a desire to work to make our cities, town, counties, states and nation a better place. Yet we are failing to provide that opportunity to everyone who wants to serve. By creating a National Public Service Work Program everyone who wants to contribute to making America a great nation might do so and be paid well in the process, payment which would include health care, and such educational benefits as we offer to veterans, as college tuition reimbursement for public service done for America.
Our current system is broken because, quite frankly, it is stifled in the old way of doing things. We need to be thinking out of the box. We need to be creating solutions that take advantage of the fact that our most valuable resource is not oil, gas, coal or even solar energy -- our greatest national resource is our PEOPLE! Let's create a National Public Service Work Program. Let's put all American to work serving their country. Let's pay them well and give them benefits just as is done with the military. Let's give them good health care just as is done with the military. Let's move form a broken, stagnant economy to the fastest growing economy, to the most productive economy in the world. Let's fix what is broken. Let's end the recession! Let's move into a new future where not one citizen who wants to work is without a good paying job. Let's be once again the greatest nation in the world, indebted to no one!
Listing to my fellow citizens speak, sharing their hearts and souls, putting out their hands asking for the opportunity to serve, has opened my eyes to the fact that we can fix all the problems our nation faces, if we but utilize our greatest national resource, those who love America and want to do public service to help fix what is broken. There is much to fix which is broken, and one of the things to fix is how we are not currently utilizing that vast and great natural resource, the AMERICAN PEOPLE.
This realization represents an Epiphany! We have in every city, town and county in America a great national resource. The people of America are our greatest national treasure. Let's put American's to work for America! Let's start a National Public Service Works Project NPSWP on an enormous scale such that every American citizen who wants to work, can work. Let's put illegal aliens to work so that then can earn their citizenship through participation in the NPSWP. Let's pay working Americans a decent salary, provide health care, and even retirement benefits. Such a program would end unemployment, enable all working American to have a home, provide health care to all citizens, provide opportunity for an affordable higher education, and even solve the problems associated with social security, medicare and Medicaid. With one stroke of the pen, enacting into law the NPSWP, we could fix what is broken with America!
Now I'm not an economist; I do not know what such a program would cost. But I do know from what I have seen today, looking into the hearts and souls of my fellow Americans, that we are blessed with a great national treasure, the People of America! Let's utilize that national treasure. Let's put all American citizens who want to work to work. Let's rebuilt and repair the infrastructure of our nation. Let's build more perfect union, a union where the people of America are given work, are given health insurance, are given opportunity for higher education, are provided for in their senior years -- an America where no child is born into poverty or without a bright and promising future!
We can do this. We can build an America where no one who wants to work is without a job. We can build an America where all citizens have high quality, affordable health care from the cradle to the grave. We can build an America where all its sons and daughters have the opportunity for a higher education. We can build an America free from indebtedness to foreign nations. We can build up or economy. We can build up our nation through using our greatest national resource: the American PEOPLE!
Each and everyone of us has something to give to make our nation a better America. Let's create the opportunity for all Americans to provide public service through a National Public Service Work Program on a grand scale. Let's seize the day and march forward hand-in-hand toward victory for America, for all its people, for you, me and for our children and grandchildren. Let's achieve that dream which is the American Dream for all Americans!
I believe a National Public Service Works Program would, indeed, achieve the America Dream for all Americans. So I am asking all American citizens to support establishing the NPSWP. Let's begin by urging our representatives to establish the NPSWP. Let's enact legislation creating the NPSWP fully funded throughout every state of the union. Let's give every American who wants to work the opportunity to work by providing public service in their community and at every level of state and national government!
A National Public Service Works Program can save America for us and for our children's children. Therefore, please, take this idea and make it your own. Share it with our respective representatives at all levels of government. Adopt it as you project and goal. Let's save America by utilizing our greatest national resource: the PEOPLE OF AMERICA!
The Mississippi Town Hall |
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