I really feel sorry about the poor folk in Japan. I can't imagine how it feels to be trapped on an island with the horrific quake and then tsunami and then to top it off, Nuclear plants spewing radioactivity.
I admire how the people there hold up and act with dignity and
restraint. No looting or panic there. There is a sense of selflessness in Japan. People are willing to sacrifice and feel it is their duty to work together for the good of the community and for the nation.
They call it Gamon. We could sure use a bit more of that in this country.
http://mmauchline.wordpress.com/2011/03/...I have no doubt that the Japanese will pull together to get through this latest challenge and in the end even prosper. It might even be that since they will have to rebuild, they will construct even more efficient factories that surpasses all others in green technologies.
Americans used to be like that too. Our grandparents told us about the shared sacrifice during WWII. Everyone sacrificed. Most of the men fought, the women took over in the factories, the children pulled wagons through the streets collecting scrap metal. Everyone had victory gardens. No one thought it strange that there was a 94% top tax rate, and the president proposed a maximum wage of $25,000 ($300,000 in today's dollars) with a 100% tax above that level.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/shared_...We are no longer the Greatest Generation. We are embroiled in three wars now, but no one is asked to sacrifice for the war effort except the soldiers and their families. Our soldiers are mainly the poor, who join up for the benefits, the rest of the country is asked to shop, not sacrifice. Instead of a war tax we borrowed to pay for the wars and additional tax cuts. This was the ME generation where greed was considered good and Millionaires became Billionaires.
The gap between the haves and the have-nots is greater than ever before, and while much of the country is suffering with 52 million unemployed, and without health insurance, millions homeless and many more loosing their homes, there are a record number of millionaires and billionaires, and this new generation of robber barons control 90% of the nations wealth.
Today our nation's National Debt is a threat to our stability and to our future. It is the greatest national crisis since WWII.
You would think that everyone would want to draw together for the good of the nation as the Japanese do and as our grandparents did. We desperately need that sense of Gamon now.
But instead of shared sacrifice only the poor and the middle class are asked to sacrifice. The 14% of discretionary spending that makes up social programs has been under attack for 30 years is now being asked to foot all of the bills. Infrastructures that are crumbling, schools that are already suffering and substandard, and services to help the poor, homeless, and unemployed, are being gutted. Those that are suffering the most are asked to suffer more, and food is taken from the mouths of famished babies while the real gluttons are further fattened.
Where is the shared sacrifice? No one on the right is encouraging Americans to stand together and support the president, to solve this massive problem. Instead they are dividing the country and criticizing everything done by the president and the Democrats as they try to solve our problems.
Why aren't the oil companies, who are making greater profits than any industry ever made in the history of the world, asked to give up their $45 billion in subsidies? Why isn't the bloated military that is 2-1/2 times what it was in 2001 asked to cut 10 to 20% of it's budget to reduce it's legendary waste? Why are we giving the Nuclear Industry $35 billion instead of waiting to increase safety standards? Why are the richest billionaires only paying 16.7% while 80% of the people think they should be paying much much more? Why do half of the corporations in the country paying no taxes at all while they sit on trillions of dollars while refusing to hire more workers?
Why after a horrendous Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, does the Republicans want to cripple our own defenses and warning systems? Why are the Republicans, after the horrific meltdowns at Japan's nuclear plants, gutting any alternative power support while pushing through support for nuclear and fossil fuels? Instead of standing together to do what is best for the country, many of the politicians are trying to do what is worst for the country.