Our national system must change. All the major changes in our culture have come from the people, not the govt and its back-up, the military. Today, we have exactly the same problems we faced 50 years ago during the tumultuous 1960s: unpopular war, stagnant wages, racial divide, a populace divided, extensive poverty, poor education, lousy health care, an in-active Congress. Women got the vote in the 1920s by marching and protesting for it. Blacks got the right to be considered human beings, by marching and protesting and dying for it.

It makes no difference which political party sits on the throne. The system itself is corrupted, by the rich who have all the money, who buy off the politicians, who lobby Congress with dollars un-interrupted, who replace college professors whose courses and versions of fact they dis-agree with. The bankers and corporations who influence Congress and the courts to pass laws favorable to only them.(How many bankers went to jail in the housing crash?)

Folks can go on about either party in a never-ending debate. Until we change our govt. system, nothing will change, indeed, nothing has changed. We remain a war-based economy, feeding the arms dealers and stirring up problems around the world, still attempting to influence which people lead which countries, while ignoring those tyrants whose resources we need (the Arabs of Saudi Arabia, for one.)

We are bogged down in Afghanistan going on 17 years now with zero end in sight. The Russians were smart enough to pull out of there ages ago. We have soldiers in 70 countries around the world. Why? We have some 40m of our own living in poverty. Why? We have over 30m children on a federally assisted school lunch program. Why? Wages have stagnated for about 40 years. Why?

Our national "defense" budget is close to one trillion dollars, certainly headed that way. Who are we defending ourselves against? Every dime spent on "defense" is one not spent on our infrastructure, our health care, our electrical grid, our schools. We put a plaque on the Moon in 1969 claiming that "...we came in peace for all mankind." Now, we want billions to start up a Space Command to prepare for space war. From who? Martians?

Where's all the wealth? Why aren't American workers better off materially? Why are farmers losing their farms, the dairy industry chief among them? Someone has all the wealth. Why do basic pharmaceuticals cost so much, out of the reach of too many of us? Why do we have to choose between utility bills, and health-maintaining drugs? The gap between the haves and have-nots, which has existed since the Puritans landed at Roanoke and Jamestown, continues to widen and is un-sustainable. Our national debt is reported to be about $20 TRILLION. That's a number I cannot comprehend.

Stop fighting among ourselves, stop pointing fingers at each other, and let's figure a way out of this ourselves. Because our govt sure isn't going to help us.