We could do better.

We've been brought up in America with notions. Weird notions. Of right and wrong. Such as socialism is bad. Well, it ain't always bad. Few of us would want to eliminate social security. That's socialism. Good socialism. Some of us also believe that America can do no wrong. Well, that's stupid. Ain't so. Every nation. Every being. Does some wrong. Best thing is to recognize it. And then do something about it. So many of us also have the notion that capitalism is good. Yes, some of it is dandy. But also, it goes awry. When greed takes over. As we're so rudely learning as we analyze the sad state of the economy. Also, some of us bellow, love America or leave it. That's utterly stupid. The true patriot tries to fix what's wrong with America. Often, we can't agree on the fix, or even over what's wrong. But that's all right. Let's talk about it. We still have freedom of speech. Don't we? Or is that going, too? Looks like we have freedom to bear arms. Each and every one of us. Even machine guns. To protect ourselves from perceived enemies. So apparently we still have the freedom to feel paranoia. But then I suggest we get a decent health care system. Maybe with the help of socialized medicine. To treat the paranoia. Then there's the weird notion that our two party political system is a blessing. When really, it's gawd awful. We don't have enough diversity, enough give and take in the realm of politics, economics and social matters. We're too static. Our constitution could be modernized. After all, it was adopted in the 18th century. When times were quite different. Maybe we should have a constitutional convention every now and then. But we have a weird notion that the writers of our constitution were so smart, so perceptive that they could create a document that would last forever. That's foolish. Nonsense. Times change. The world changes. Our constitution and form of government was good for its time. But we could do better. --Jim Broede