The President Speaks: Veterans Day

Here in Washington and throughout the land, we commemorate our million or so soldiers, sailors and marines who perished so we might be free. Even with these horrific numbers, America is lucky. We are not just celebrating our heroes. We are thanking God and them for our good fortune.

One of the great things about America is our faith in God and the principles of our nation, however imperfectly enacted. Another great thing about America is our faith in the future.

When American soldiers fight, they do not fight for a king, a leader, a crown or a government. They fight for their love of liberty, the glory of the future and to retain goodness in the world that would die if America were to fall.

What will make the future glorious is when we have perfected the ideal of liberty, that everyone can walk the streets without fear of being arrested, spied upon or looked at suspiciously. We have to fight that battle mainly at home.

But the ideals of liberty, freedom, privacy, free speech, equality, opportunity and innocence until guilt is proven no matter how much they are threatened and weakened here, are such powerful ideas that most of the world still fears them and will do anything to stop them from thriving.

Our soldiers have been brave. This is to be expected, for there have always been gallant soldiers. The good guys and bad guys have both been brave fighting to preserve their country or to destroy someone else’s, to prevent themselves from becoming slaves or to take slaves home with them, to save their family or bring glory to their king.

So often people glorify war. The reason is that war allows young men to devote themselves to a cause greater than themselves.

A cause greater than oneself is a noble goal. But usually the cause which people die for is organized by selfish people.

These selfish people have young truth seekers and young men longing to be needed dying for a group that is not greater than them, nor willing to sacrifice for others. Any pain or inconvenience the initiators of war willingly bring on themselves is done with the expectation that they will attain more power no matter how many people die or suffer.

In World War II, two of the countries received ghastly losses. One country’s government was supposedly in service to the people. But the people were actually enslaved to their leader.

The other country’s people loyally served a dictator because they thought he would restore glory and prosperity to their ancient culture.

In America we do not fight for the president. Americans fight for the ideals embedded in our constitution. Our government exists to make sure Americans never have their rights taken from them.

The recent leaders of our nation have behaved like tyrants. At best they have sent young men to die for a mistaken cause. At worst they have sent our young men to die to satisfy the egos of the president and his cabinet and advisors.

These actions relate to what I said earlier about our biggest battle for freedom being at home. This struggle is greater the more the government lusts for war.

When a government lusts for war, that means war is not necessary. It means the need for secrecy that is essential in a defensive war is concocted, increased and abused in a war of selfishness.

All these actions lead to fear. There is the fear that is instilled when an enemy is claimed to be more dangerous than it is.

There is the fear of criticizing the proponents of an unjust war, for people fear what might be done to them if they complain. There is the fear of each other too. We cannot help but fear each other when the world is demonized and the government lies and demands the right to be secretive.

What does all this mean? It means we lose civil liberties. It means we lose the freedom that comes with trust, good will and confidence.

It means the future looks anything but glorious. And it means the goodness that has been essential to America has gone.

When we celebrate our heroes today, we must realize that there is no foreign threat to the United States. The threat to America comes from politicians, business leaders, professors and attorneys.

The war that must be fought is here against your government. Americans need to risk their career, property, love and bodies to free America. What I am saying is that parents and grandparents have to risk jail or death for their kids and grandchildren.

This is scary.

Americans do not look like a free proud people. We look frightened and timid.

America needs to rise above this fear. American citizens need to demand the end of the surveillance state, of guilt until innocence is proven.

You must make my fellow politicians and bureaucrats and business leaders terrified of you and your lust for freedom. Now you are afraid of them.

For those with a religious or philosophical bent, who believe in noble causes, in something greater than oneself, this is your challenge. It is an opportunity of a lifetime far greater than the challenge of a young soldier fighting for a cause and leaders he does not understand.

You Americans at mid-career, at your peak, enjoying your wisdom and retirement. You understand. This is a cause greater than yourself.

God wants people to be free. In no other country is God and freedom intertwined like here.

America is being sabotaged. If you do not rise up then our soldiers, sailors and marines will have died in vain.

The President Speaks: Art and the government

I want to thank everybody for inviting me here this evening. I have always loved art and am very aware of the influence it has upon people.

I am also aware of the arguments art raises in society. What qualfies as art I do not know. Like so many Americans I feel I know art when I see it. Also, like so many Americans I am concerned about who decides what is art and what role the federal government has in subsidizing art and artists.

If we allow artists to determine what art is, anything passes as art. If we allow traditionalists to determine what it is, hardly anything contemporary will pass as art.

What every one agrees upon is that art can be very powerful. It can change opinions. It can change habits. It can be mainly a diversion – which might be good for busy people, but bad for someone who needs to be focused.

What I hope everyone can agree on is the right of every American to create, buy, look at and talk about any art that they want to. But this is not the case, even without government funding.

Yet is is government funding for the arts that is the reason you invited me to speak tonight. What is the federal government’s role?

The federal government must support art. It must support art because art forces people to feel. Unfortunately, our society is destroying people’s ability and desire to feel.

When people talk about things the government should do to improve the lives of Americans, it is usually health care, raising the minimum wage and funding more education that people mention. Nobody mentions emotions.

We are at an emotional weak point. I know the government should subsidize art programs in public shools and on public television. Our country desperately needs to feel more and deeper feelings.

What should be subsidized? Art created more than fifty years ago. I say this because contemporary art forms are thriving – movies and rap are examples of this. We do not need more of these.

We need to study art from the ancient world and from America’s past which seem so distant. They seem distant because we are distant from history, our past, each other and powerful troubling feelings that challenge us to be silent and motionless.

We need to stir and stew, marvel, ponder and think about what we are seeing, reading and listening to. When we can have a dialogue with ourselves rather than a monologue, we will need others to have a dialogue with.

Now we usually avoid one another. When we speak it is usually a monologue. We are not interested in hearing what someone feels or thinks.

What government subsidy of old and ancient art is implying is that there are other points of view that need to be experienced, if for no other reason than to appreciate the comfort, convenience and casualness of our times.

However our comfort, convenience and casualness make us soft. But the antidote to softness is not a continuation of the reckless speed with which we live and work to make ourselves decadent.

We need to slow down. We need to rejuvenate ourselves. We need people under 25 to be exposed to and challenged by the past so they can revitalize Americans to seek something vastly greater than hedonism, an unusable number of things and an unspendable amount of money.

What will result from this I won’t speculaate. I know though that there is much to be learned from the past.

There are the short simple profound awkward stories at the beginning of the Bible. There is the stillness and fluidity of a sculpture of Buddha and Aftrican busts. There is the eloquence of a song by the European composers. There is the cacophony of color in primitive and peasant art.

America desperately needs more color. One time driving across Washington I saw a word on an underpass sprayed in pink and white. It said TENSE.

The work was quite attractive, very troubling and very accurate. We are indeed tense. Like all great art, this work had tension. The viewer felt this tension – this oasis of art surrounded by tons of ugly concrete.

Obviously the government cannot subsidize art like this because it is illegal. But what is admirable about these type of artists is they take a risk. They might get shot or arrested.

Another thing admirable about these artists is that they work for free. They do not ask for a government subsidy.

They are truly independent spirits, the kind of people America needs to shake us. So artists must ask themselves if they want to be free, if they want to be rebellious.

Are you willing to risk getting fired, going to jail, being laughed at, being unable to marry and have children because you cannot afford to?

Are you willing to have to resort to giving your unsold paintings to friends, to playing music by yourself in the kitchen because you do not have the strength to join a band and travel, to rereading your poems that seldom get published because there are too many poets?

Art is not a way of life in America. Artists must accept their rejection and try not to be bitter as they vow to create better work.

I have faith in art.

Rather than subsidize artists, I seek to help them in two ways. First, a four year college degree will be paid for by the federal government. This will allow young people, as well as older people who desire an education, to expose themselves to the ideas that have shaped the world.

Second, my administration is seeking a government subsidized health plan. Such a plan will allow people to be insured no matter where they work. This will allow artists to seek a job that will best allow them to create their art.

Art is a wonderful thing and a demanding thing. America needs more art.

More importantly, America needs more proud artists willing to pay the price, to set an example for America to turn from its softness.

Thank you.

The President Speaks: Depression

Because of the seriousness of the problem, I feel it necessary to speak during National Depression Week. I also feel that here at the Golden Gate Bridge is an ideal place to talk about depression.

At the western end of our continent is this mighty bridge, a symbol of hope for those heading to the land of opportunity.

People come here knowing the future will be theirs, that mild success in the middle of the country will be a big success here, that failure in the competitive east can be transformed here in the Golden West.

But things don’t always turn out as planned. Trying with all your might doesn’t always bring you success, happiness or love.

For those born on this magnificent West Coast, they expect to have a grand life. But assumptions do not always turn into reality.

It is no wonder then that people committ suicide from this bridge. They came to the end of the continent and failed. They grew up in paradise and failed. Life passed them by so they could not continue anymore.

Failure. It is a big part of our American experience. This is so because our expectations are very high. Whether one physically heads west, success as a result of hard work and big dreams is expected.

But even without a desire to be rich, Americans dream about greater freedom or a stupendous love life or an awesome something. We always want a lot and we always want more.

It is not surprising we are depressed. If our current assumptions continue to be held as the global marketplace creates a greater number of poor people and a greater number of unhappy angry people, America will have more cases of depression and more suicides.

Reducing depression and suicide is essential. We cannot though, because of our market economy and its inherent unhealthiness, eliminate them.

The federal government can do its part. As I have said before, we are working on affordable health insurance for Americans. We are funding drop-in no-questions-asked clinics for those seeking psychological help.

Equally important, maybe more important, are the efforts of my administration to be a much more honest administration than recent administrations and to focus on peace rather than war. It is common sense that dishonesty in government and a belief in unnecessary violence creates ramifications such as a depressed citizenry.

But Americans also have a big role to play in reducing depression and suicide. You must take proper risks. You must not want more than a job that pays well and one nice house in a nice neighborhood. The high expectations of financial success and gratification that advertising and business bombard our nation with must be rejected.

I want my fellow Americans to think for a minute. My recent predeccessors often talked about patriotism while doing little or nothing for the average American. To them patriotism entailed unblinking allegience to disastrous and dishonest government actions.

I ask you to think of patriotism in a different way. I ask you to think what you do to your country when you are greedy, when you want three pieces of property, several vehicles and unlimited freedom to be selfish.

I want you to think of what you do to yourself and your family when you accept the exhortations of the advertising industry to buy more than can make you happy and more than you can afford. People are depressed because they want more than can make them happy and more than they can afford.

I know Americans complain a lot about unjust practices of business. This is a great time for Americans to put their money where their mouth is. Spend a lot less money on people who have gotten rich on your willingness to be unsatisfied.

The real problem is a question: Do Americans want to be happy? Does America want to be satisfied with necessary comforts as it seeks tremendous happiness with an ordinary spouse and ordinary friends?

I hope by the end of my term there is a lot less depression and self-inflicted death in America.

I hope that thirty years from now the suicide barriers on this glorious bridge have come down, because we as a nation have stopped committing spiritual suicide.

The President Speaks: Crime prevention

It is crime prevention week in America. I am sad that so many Americans are victims of crime. I am even sadder that so many families have sons, and to a much lesser extent daughters, who committ violent crimes.

Our law enforcement works diligently to do what it can to arrest criminals. The nation is improving in its ability to prevent crime.

Neighborhood watch groups are a part of this. There are many fine studies of what can and should be done to prevent crime and create fewer criminals.

There are issues though, that usually are not addressed. I will address them.

One is that Congress, as well as state and local politicians, love crime. It is safe to talk about.

It is also easy to talk about because if we have not been a victim of a crime, we know somebody who was, or we know somebody who is or was a criminal or we are enthralled about the crime show we watched last night.

Talking about crime and fearing crime have become two of America’s biggest pastimes. I keep hoping for the day Americans have the pride and confidence to stop emphasizing crime, to stop glorying in the brief sense of power they feel ranting about it.

Politicians prey on your fear, yet as more jails are built and more young men locked up we feel no safer. Our fear increases.

Few Americans are standing up to claim they are sick of being afraid and sick of all our jails and so many young men locked up.

I tell you that as president I know Congress has no intention of doing anything to end crime. Even if Americans loudly opposed the construction of so many prisons, Congress would not budge. We remember NAFTA.

I want you to think about what I say next. Today in America we for the most part, have meaningless lives. Look at our depression, our alcoholism, our promiscuity, our drug addiction, our suicides, our credit card debt, our expressionless faces.

Fear is our bond, our meaning. Crime is the catalyst for our fear.

I ask you: aren’t you sick of being afraid? Aren’t you embarrassed living in fear? A nation cannot be great if it lives in fear of almost everything like we do.

Sure there is crime. Of course you should be cautious. Since politicians have no intention of ending crime, American citizens must take steps to end it.

I do not encourage everyone to go out and buy a gun. I do not oppose it either, for it is an effort to prevent crime and it should be considered an appropriate response.

The things I suggest are not exciting but they will reduce crime. They will also make communities more solid and create trusting fearless Americans.

America needs to stop thinking more is better, that the purpose of life is to shop. How will this stop crime?

There will be fewer items to steal because people buy less. There will be fewer items flaunted, which means there will be less envy and less burglary.

Because there are fewer flashy cars and less flaunted jewelry, there will be less resentment and less bitterness and therefore less robbery and fewer assaults.

This is not rocket science. Americans lust to have criminals incarcerated. We claim they have to be responsible for what they do. But so do you.

Nobody will steal what you don’t have. Your car will not be stolen if you park it in your garage.

Get rid of your junk in the garage. If there are not streets filled with cars, there will be little for criminals to be on the prowl for and to use as cover for their stealing.

Do not scoff at this. In an urban culture, even at its most just and confident period, there is going to be stealing and there is going to be violence.

My recommendations decrease injustice and increase confidence. As I said, politicians will do nothing to decrease crime and have no intention to.

America needs to ask itself: does it want to continue to be relentlessly and needlessly acquisitive? Do you want to have motion detectors, burglar alarms and surveillance cameras on your property to protect all the things that do not make you happy? Our security makes us less secure, more fearful, more bitter, more vengeful.

Ours is supposed to be the land of the free. This is still true to a small extent politically – you probably are not going to be arrested. But it is not true psychically or spiritually.

I ask you America. Do you want to be free? Are you willingly to do with a lot less so you can love each other?

In closing, I have been talking to you with the same sense of toughness you have when you rant about crime. Unlike you, I feel no false sense of power and am heartsick there are so many young people in jail.

The President Speaks: Death penalty

I arranged the time this evening to talk with you about the recent murders in various parts of our country. What I want to address is our reaction to these murders.

It is true these crimes are horrible. It is also true that those who committed the murders should be arrested, tried and convicted.

What disturbs me more than the murders is our assumption of guilt until innocence is proven and our lust to give the death penalty to the convicted individuals.

I have often wondered why Americans lust for revenge. It is true that we have usually imposed the death penalty. It is also true our domestic barbarism was balanced by a sense of justice in foreign policy. Following World War II we helped to rebuild Germany and Japan, not gloat on their ruin.

However in recent years America lost its balance. In the seventies we gave up on jail and prison as places to rehabilitate offenders. We have built more prisons. We refuse to give up the death penalty.

When the Twin Towers were destroyed we sought revenge on two countries. We were not content to even the score, but wanted to wreck havoc in those countries that do not have the money and knowledge we have to recover from attacks.

With the aid of Global Positioning Systems and a deceitful concern for children, we sought to socially destroy sex offenders after they served their sentences. Our eagerness for revenge does us no good. What it does is reveal our lack of confidence, good will and faith in the future.

What has traditionally set America apart from China, India, the Middle East and Europe was our faith in the future, our good will, our confidence. It was our Yankee Ingenuity combined with the exuberance of a new nation that made us separate from the old worlds and their ancient fears, hatreds and rivalries.

Unfortunately, we have aged more than our 250 years. We are filled with our own fears, hatreds, rivalries. We are a nation of 250 going on 1000.

Rather than rehabilitate our criminals, punish our enemies only to even the score and roll up our sleeves to find out why we have so many perverts, we have taken the easy road. Like bitter elderly who missed out on their youth, we as a nation wish the worst for others whenever things go badly.

This must end.

In the media there has been a lot of talk about healing. But the healing process, as important as it is to those who are lonely, isolated, betrayed and grieving, has not carried over to the nation’s politics.

We as a nation do not grieve for children without fathers. We are not grieving for all the young men in jail. We have not sought to heal ourselves from our betrayal by the federal government beginning in September of 2001. We have not recognized our lust to punish as an evil that needs to be remedied.

We need to be healed, though we do not want to make the effort to heal ourselves. Fortunately, those few committed to prohibiting the death penalty and ending revenge are some ot the most committed people in America.

With their help, I am trying to persuade Congress to pass a law forbidding the death penalty. It is important to outlaw the death penalty because most of the people who receive it are poor. They could not afford the representation they needed to protect themselves from so serious a sentence.

Another reason to eradicate the death penalty is because too many people who receive it are not guilty.

Without the death penalty, a lot of steam will be taken out of our eagerness for revenge. But that does not heal our ill will and it does not solve the problem of what to do with rapists and murderers.

Justice must be served. We must protect ourselves from the most dangerous and unapologetic criminals. We must also save ourselves from revenge and the feelings of powerlessness that make us seek revenge.

We must seek a just punishment. A just punishment is given in confidence with as much good will as possible. A just punishment is a punishment that seeks to punish and rehabilitate at the same time.

America needs to regain its confidence, to punish and rehabilitate at the same time. America needs to believe in justice once again, to believe in the future once again.

I am pushing for a new punishment to replace the death penalty. I expect my proposal to be laughed at. However, my proposal challenges America to see how seriously it wants real justice.

The proposal is life imprisonment in solitary confinement. That seems punishment enough, however life imprisonment in a traditional setting does not rehabilitate a criminal.

My proposal calls for a setting that will allow a criminal to have a new perspective on the world and himself. Each cell of the lifetime prisoner in solitary confinement will have a view of nature.

Sunshine will stream into the cell. The windows will be openable in order for the prisoner to hear birds and crickets, to smell scents from the garden. He will be allowed to be alone outside for three hours a day.

Psychologists claim that under such conditions a violent man will have the opportunity to come to terms with himself. He has no opportunity in a standard prison.

It is my hope that as these prisoners live out their life in a beautiful setting, they become filled with peace and beauty that they never had or that they squandered. I hope they ask God, the victim and the family of the victim to forgive them, for now the criminal knows all the peace and beauty he deprived the victim and family of the victim of.

He knows something else too. He knows how much he longs for people. He has this beautiful garden and peaceful cell to sit in, but nobody to talk with. He hears the music of the birds and crickets, but has nobody to dance with. He smell luxurious scents from the garden, but does not smell the scent of perfume and never will.

He might be tortured by his beautiful punishment and go mad. He might be content to live out his days listening to birds. He might not benefit at all from a punishment given in good will, but wish he was dead.

Some men receiving this sentence will eventually be found not guilty then released. Their pain will be immense because they know how much they have missed.

Fortunately they will be healthy. There will be no nightmares from prison. They will be able to start their life again, attempting to bring out and experience the beauty they’ve been overwhelmed by every day.

At the very least, they will realize they received as just a punishment as is possible with an unjust conviction.

There is a possibility to be healed with punishments like this. Such punishments indicate a faith in justice. They show that American ingenuity is returning, that we are recovering the maturity we had for such a short time after World War II.

I ask you my fellow Americans to become strong again. Purge yourself of your weakness and revenge. Show the world we are a nation of great women and great men.

The President Speaks: September 11

It’s our 23rd anniversary of September 11. I stand on this boat looking into the magnificent skyline of the most dynamic and creative city in the world.

From the ashes of terror a wonderful building has risen. It is a monument to freedom, not just for those who died here but for those who get to look at it, and most especially for those who work in it.

America could easiy have built a fortress of mistrust, ill will and arrogance. Thanks to the cosmoplitan vision of New Yorkers, we have a building which oozes confidence and lightness, inviting one to marvel from a distance or to linger outside for hours and feel relaxed.

When I strolled the grounds today I wondered what the deceased would think seeing a free-flowing garden filled with people who have no fear.

I was assured by several of the families that though nobody can know what the victims would think or feel, the families are pleased that the grounds are vibrant and free, that the interior of the building brings one’s spirit to life and that the building’s owner and manager are determined not to have cameras recording everyone and police intimidating everyone.

There’s an inscription in the lobby. It reads We are Americans. We will not live in fear. It disappoints me that the rest of the country does not feel this way.

I dearly wish my countrymen refused to live in fear. I wish too that my countrymen lusted for freedom. I wish my countrymen hated having police, cameras and security guards everywhere.

We need to think about what 9-11 means. It was an attempt to make Americans live in fear. The terrorists knew that the Justice Department would attempt to limit civil liberties and that most people would accept the limitation.

The terrorists were correct. We are afraid. We have no problem living in a police state.

I wish you, my fellow Americans, would become arrogant and belligerent, demanding that the Patriot Act be repealed. I long for 300,000 people marching loudly on Washington for an end to our police state. It would show that all your concern for the victims of 9-11 and your claims about America’s greatness are more than the puffery they have been.

We ceased to be great with the passage of the Patriot Act and the invasion of Iraq. We stopped being great as a government and as a people.

That is why I speak to you today – to inspire you like this skyline and this building inspire me.

This skyline and this building can propel our nation back to greatness, to rise from the ashes of cowardice, conformity, gullibility and the betrayal of our Founding Fathers to be a fearless, intelligent, magnificent people.

This new building I look toward does not lose its appeal when you see it up close or enter. It’s appeal increases. This is rare for buildings.

This building was not constructed to be only a photo-piece. The intention was that the building be substantial, that it have soul, that humans in it and outside it feel vibrant, beautiful, proud, confident; that they increase the size of their soul here, that they begin to feel free and freely speak with accuracy and with meaning.

There is a lightness here that we Americans desperately need. But you have to ask yourselves how badly you want your souls back.

Would you rather risk a violent death because you trusted yourselves and others and felt beautiful, or do you want to continue to live the metaphoric death we’ve been living since October of 2001?

The inscription in the lobby – it does not ignore the potential of evil. It is saying that police states make people live in fear so this building will not be like a war zone. It is also saying we know what could happen but we will take our chances.

It is time for you to stop living in fear, to expect police to do their job of protecting you without assuming you are a criminal.

Rise up my countrymen. I ache to lead a great people.

The President Speaks: Labor Day

As we in Washington observe the Labor Day holiday, I cannot emphasize enough the contributions labor has made to the well-being of our nation. It is labor that pushed for a forty hour work week, time and a half for overtime and holiday pay.

It is labor that increased the standard of living for such a large percentage of Americans. It was members of labor unions who got killed, beaten and were not allowed to work so that business would share its profits and future workers would have a comfortable income.

These are turbulent times in America. But the turbulence is comfortable. Even without health insurance, Americans live well. Most people have plenty of food. Most people spend a lot of money on goods that are not necessary.

During the rise of organized labor in America, life was not comfortable. There was seldom plenty. There were no credit cards. If people wanted to buy something they had to pay cash. That means they had to save.

Saving was not only essential to a household. It was considered a religious obligation as taught in the Old Testament.

As those working people scrimped, struggled, hoped, feared, dreamed and planned they were angry that their employer made so much money, but paid poorly. The workers noticed that their employers were proponents of religion, but did not exemplify the generosity of the founder of their religion.

It wasn’t just toughness that allowed these labor leaders and their followers to organize, risk and strike. They were savers. They, if they could, had money in the bank so they could strike. If they all saved they could help each other. It was not only an obligation to save, but a religious duty to help each other, even if you get killed.

These workers followed their religion by sticking up for what’s right and by opposing greed. This religious sense of justice is gone from America. There is a sense of justice within various churches, but the American people do not have this sense of justice, this sense that their religion and the courage of its founders be taken into the workplace.

Why is this? One reason is because people generally, do not save. By refusing to save people are putting their desires before their future needs.

This means that they take themselves too seriously. It means that the bond they have with each other is one that emphasizes getting.

Getting is an unhealthy competition. It creates envy and resentment. People do not look upon each other as friends or neighbors, someone to ally oneself with, fight for justice with, get beat up for with.

If Americans expect to share in the increasing profits of America’s business, they will have to struggle for it. Americans must face the fact wealthy people are happier to the extent working people are poorer.

The nation needs to realize that all the comforts we have would have been created with or without labor unions, but that the sharing of these comforts to such a large extent is a result of the sacrifices of the people working between 1870 and 1930, not a result of generosity on the part of business.

There is an advantage business has today it did not have 100 years ago. People spend foolishly. This foolish spending combined with decreasing compensation has business sitting pretty.

Business knows Americans are selfish. Business knows that Americans only sacrifice to obtain a job that allows them to squander a lot of money every weekend.

Business knows Americans do not like or trust one another. Business knows Americans will jump up and down about a war, but are afraid to risk themselves for their family or each other. Business knows Americans today are soft and afraid and have only superficial religious beliefs.

My countrymen, America’s businesses are not being fair to you. 2/3 of our economy is what working people spend.

Your employers do not return 2/3 of their profits to you either through cash, improved health plans or safer and more relaxing work places. This should drive you absolutely wild. But it doesn’t.

Tomorrow I will meet with business leaders of our nation. They will frown at me for what I said today.

I will laugh. I will tell them that they have nothing to worry about.

I sincerely hope you, my fellow Americans, prove me wrong.

The President Speaks: The draft

Tonight I will speak to the nation about the proposal to draft young men and women 18 years old and older into the military. As it stands, I reject the proposal.

18 is too precious of an age to be sent to war. Women shouldn’t complain about the barbarism of men, then seek to be part of the barabarism.

It is unfortunate that middle age men prey upon young mens’ desire to be passionate, physical and of service to others by sending the young men to war. An 18 year old is too young to understand that he is being used. He is too proud to refuse to serve because he thinks everything will turn out well.

A proper minimum age for the draft is 25. At 25 a man knows when he is being used. He is able to judge if the war he is told to serve in is a legitimate war, or something undertaken to benefit rich people and distract Americans from issues such as poor wages and a lack of health insurance.

At 25 soldiers might rise up against an order for an unnecessary war. That kind of threat to politicians, business owners, investors and the military is necessary to keep our leaders honest, to save taxpayers money and to prevent unnecessary grief for the many so a few can have unnecessary wealth.

Raising the age at which people can be eligible for the draft helps to do something that parents can’t seem to do or will not do. It keeps the youngest men out of war.

Parents rightfully want to be proud of their sons. Parents understandably do not want to encourage their sons to break the law. But parents should, and don’t, criticize war enough or risk the ire of their neighbors, employers or the government enough.

I am acting as a parent when I make this proposal. I am acting in the common interest of the country by saying the youngest men must be spared from military service so they can properly develop their hearts and minds through love relationships and education.

War must not be considered a good thing. It must be considered the worst way to serve your country and to prove your manhood.

By imposing this age restriction on the draft, boys out of high school can spend the next seven years proving things to themselves in ways that do no injury to others and do not entail mutilating themselves or giving themselves psychological damage.

There is much work to be done. America’s forests need to have the debris from logging removed. Trees need to be planted in the nation’s cities. Jobs should be established and reserved for this age group to use their bodies doing demanding tasks.

Young men can be encouraged to babysit, teach and coach four year olds, eight year olds, fifteen year olds, rather than go to another country to destroy children’s fathers and neighborhoods.

It amazes me that we are outraged at the violence of our young men at home, but have no problem sending them to kill people who are no threat to us. It amazes me that women fear to be on the street because of men, but demand the right to join the service and instill fear in foreign women.

Women cannot have it both ways. You cannot complain about rape and violence against women, then seek to wage war because you want equality with men. The logical things to do would be to stop complaining about violence if you want to be in the military, or refuse to join the military because of what war does to women and children, and to men too.

There is a double standard in this country. Men are discouraged from working with children because female policy makers say men cannot be trusted. Yet these policy makers have no qualms about women serving in the military and being indoctrinated to live in fear and to be violent.

One reason men commit violence against women is because men retaliate against being defined as criminals by nature. Another reason is men no longer see women as having a different and complementing role to men. Violence against women will not ebb as long as women adopt the worst characteristics of the male and men fear being accused of a sex crime when they exemplify the male’s best attributes.

What I am proposing to Congress is to set the minimum age of military service to 25, and to prevent women from being active in combat.

I am willing to have a draft because I think a draft keeps presidents and generals and politicians in check. As part of my draft bill, any time war is declared two members of the family of each senator and representative who voted for the war must serve as a combatant in the war. The same thing applies if the president supports the war.

To accompany this bill is a college funding proposal. Every young person in the country will have the opportunity to attend four years of college or career training at the expense of the federal government. An educated and prosperous work force will be more difficult to persuade that war is necessary than an uneducated poor work force.

Though war is something we must be willing to fight if necessary, we do not want America to be a war machine any longer. I highly encourage ministers, parents and teachers to tell their ministry, children and students that rich people benefit from war, not those who fight in it or have a war fought in their city.

I ask the nation to support me in this. When America gets back on track we will be able to breathe deeply, for more money will be going where it should have always gone, toward creating confident and principled young people.

The President Speaks: Re-elect me

Four months from now is the presidential election. As most of you know, I am eager to serve a second term.

Some of the things accomplished by my administration please me. The energy bill, the health plan, the infrastructure improvements, the cross-country bicycle and walking trails – these have made our country healthier and our travels faster and safer.

When I ran for president I hoped to make Americans freer. I hoped to reduce our lust for war and our fear of one another.

I have not waged war. But many people in Washington and in big business are eager for another one.

They do not want me re-elected. This is troubling, not because I fear defeat but because I fear the ruin of the country if we return to policies that were enacted at the beginning of the century.

Other things concern me. Advertising and the media continue to glorify violence. The media continues to instill fear.

Violence and fear are what I want to avoid. I was disappointed my proposal to establish free of charge no questions asked counseling clinics for those feeling violent, suicidal or depressed was rejected. I think it was a great plan to alleviate fear and to prevent violence that would create new fear.

Too many of America’s politicians, business people and special interest groups continue to make people afraid. The military does it. Police departments do it. Anti-crime groups do it.

I have been trying to persuade the nation to be leary of the police and the Justice Department. I have been trying to get people to stop fearing almost every stranger.

I have made some progress in civi liberties. A man can no longer be arrested for rape without evidence he committed one. That was a tremendous battle.

There will be more tremendous battles. Our surveillance state is oppressive. There are too many cameras. Law enforcement agencies have too much information on people. Media web-sites post names of those who have been arrested.

This last fact is frightening because many people are arrested for minor violations or something they did not do. For three and one half years I have said that anybody might be arrested for anything.

You might report someone as a possible terrorist. The next day you may be stopped by the police because you looked around too much as you passed through a neighborhood.

Better laws will make people freer. With new laws people will be less afraid and therefore not need to be suspicious of others.

Americans must take it upon themselves to stop fearing almost everything. Americans must ask themselves if it is right and fair to mistrust so many people and want them stopped by the police or arrested.

I have been direct. There will be no un-necessary war while I am president.

I will continue to push for programs that will make people healthier and less stressed, so there is less of an impetus to live in fear and then feel a false sense of empowerment by reporting someone to the police.

My fellow Americans, freedom and confidence are the most important things a nation can have. I can provide the leadership to regain them.

With my re-election Americans will know someone at the top believes in freedom, is willing to risk his career and possibly more for it. Therefore, I ask for your vote in November.

The President Speaks: 4th of July

Good afternoon my fellow Americans. It’s been 250 years since our Founding Fathers declared themselves and our nation free from the oppressiveness of England and its king.

I know today we seem to be free. Slavery is outlawed. We can for the most part travel anywhere in the country.

Police departments have extensive public relations bureaus and neighborhood outreach programs. Still, I cannot help but feel that something is not right with America and freedom. There seems to be no realization that those who signed the Declaration of Independence were bigger men than we are.

There also seems to be no realization that though they were free in a lot of ways we are, the signers knew something was not right and were courageous for taking an unnecessary economic risk to attain what they passionately believed was the most important thing – political freedom.

Our Founding Fathers were grateful for the sacrifices their ancestors made for them. They considered the Pilgrims and Puritans superior to themselves.

We offer little gratitude to our Founding Fathers for being courageous, declaring their independence, lusting for liberty and creating our constitution. We feel that they were hypocrites. We feel Puritans were anal and Pilgrims somebody to laugh at for their strict religious beliefs.

We see mostly negative things in our history where our Founding Fathers saw mostly positive things in theirs. Each of the groups I mentioned had a mission to create a society where people are free from government interference.

We are not inspired by our Founding Fathers or their ancestors. We seem not to know or care that something is not right, that we will not be a source of inspiration to future Americans, if indeed America still stands.

What isn’t right is that because of our mobility, we are enslaved to frantic busyness and buying things. We are too busy to appreciate the frugality, hard work and faith of the Pilgrims and Puritans.

We are too fast moving and cynical to believe there is really such a thing as freedom, that those who believe in it are not naive but visionary, and that those who fight for it are not opportunists but courageous.

What is not right is that we do not realize that we need to take a risk, that like the Founding Fathers we are materially very comfortable and that like theirs, our liberties have eroded.

I know a lot of Americans feel patriotic. You say you fought in Vietnam or the first or second Iraq war or in Afghanistan. I know a lot of people patriotically supported our troops.

But those were wars of arrogance and greed. America was not threatened. We became a less free, greedier, more arrogant, more unhappy and more unhealthy nation following each of these wars.

Neither of these wars are something America should be proud of. We should feel ashamed of them.

There is another war we should feel ashamed of. It is the war against civil liberties which has been going on to a greater or lesser extent since the nation was founded. The war is usually waged by the federal government against the constitution.

Today a person cannot be stopped and beaten by police for being poor or not white. But when somebody puts their garbage can out for the next day’s pick up, it is legal for someone else to pilfer through the trash to obtrain the person’s discarded papers.

If an adult works with children, the adult fears being accused of a sex crime they did not committ, knowing the burden of proof is on them to prove their innocence not the accuser to prove guilt.

Each of these instances is unconstitutional. Our Founding Fathers valued privacy and they believed in innocence until guilt is proven.

It seems these issues follow upon our warmongering. For war breeds fear, suspicion, secrecy, spying, lies and the passion to destroy others.

We have feared and distrusted each other increasingly since Vietnam. We built more prisons in the 80s and 90s. Rape consciousness has been preached at the universities and in the media since the 80s.

Then, after the attacks in New York and Washington at the beginning of this century, my predecessors created and supported the Patriot Act. The act could not have passed if Americans had not accepted more prisons and believed that boys and men are to be feared not respected.

The act built upon and expanded our fear of each other. This is not the attitude that makes for a free nation or a great nation, but a foolish and cowardly nation.

When Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense he knew the timing was right for a rebellion because Americans had an enthusiastic rapport with one another. Now the timing is terrible for a rebellion against our police and surveillance state. We fear each other and envy each other.

But still there is hope. Our Founding Fathers believed that ordinary people can acquire and preserve freedom if they read and if they speak up.

Before the revolution, John Adams wrote, and I paraphrase: We colonists aren’t as free or happy as we used to be. We will speak up if directly confronted, but while we slowly lose our liberties we are too polite or afraid or embarrassed to say anything or write anything critical of England’s police state. But we must read and speak and write and take a big risk.

When I was elected I was thrilled because I felt there was a mandate that America wanted to be free and great and proud again. I have done my part.

My countrymen, you must speak. If you will not trust your neighbors or fellow citizens, at least trust yourself. Tell yourself you are tired of feeling shame and fear. Tell yourself you are being surveilled with a smile and it is slowly killing you.

America. Declare your independence.

Speak and write and demand and fight until you are not considered criminals and perverts and terroriosts, until you are once again free, until you have restored trust in yourself and reaffirmed your faith in each other.