To the Editor:
Way back in grade school, I remember a student giving his oral report, mentioning at one point, “Oh – you know what I mean.” The teacher replied, “You know what you mean, I don’t. Tell me what you mean.”
It looks like political campaigning is never-ending. When it isn’t actually hot, it’s spoken of and speculated on by the media relentlessly and there’s always that “you never know what I mean” somewhere in it.
Now, I know that some slogans, such as “integrity, values, family values, bible-based,” etc., are sometimes used by candidates and their supporters. They “know” what they mean, but what about the rest of us? We all should be numbed by now to “the way forward.” What about “the taxes and debts our children will have to pay for,” forgetting the benefits they will inherit?
Everybody is appealed to in a candidate’s platform of cutting taxes while the voters want to keep government benefits, and meanwhile, the cost of goods rises. No one talks about the elephant in the room – the costs of keeping two wars going and the fact that only one first-world nation, has making wars part of its policies; the fact that the U.S. still supports corrupt governments, wasting billions.
Surely, there are voters out there nostalgic for a golden post-WWII society where America became a giant power, the world became safe for democracy, housing, jobs, consumer goods were all made in America. Trying to repeat those ecstatic and secure times has cost us many lives and billions. Has not our own Dept. of Defense been transformed into a U.N. or self-appointed police force for the world? Not one candidate talks about this and yet – this is our children’s future, too.
More taxes? I, and probably most people, would not mind paying more, if those monies are used wisely, and the rich should pay more, as Warren Buffet says – they benefit more.
Bible-based? No thank you, because we live in a civilization, not a tribalism. Time travel any one Bible author to the here and now and he’d go insane trying to apply his “wisdom” to a 21st century world. Maybe all I’ve written is clear enough so that you know what I mean.
Carl Scheiman, Walpole
