Do I Feel Safer Now?

Just read - as my morning 'treat' - how my government is going all out to keep me safe.

(From an article by Chris Hedges published on Monday, April 2, 2012 by TruthDig.com)
"The Washington Post reported in a 2010 series by Dana Priest and William M. Arken that there are now 1,271 government agencies and 1,931 private companies that work on programs related to counter-terrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. There are 854,000 people with top-secret security clearances, the reporters wrote, and in Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2011. Investigative reporter James Bamford wrote in the latest issue of Wired magazine that the National Security Agency is building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah, as part of a secret NSA surveillance program code-named “Stellar Wind.” Bamford noted that the NSA has established listening posts throughout the country to collect, store and examine billions of email messages and phone calls.

So it is going on and on. Is that what "creating jobs" is all about? And, actually, I feel more threatened than safe ... go figure.

What is There to Hope for?

So much going on in my head. Raging debates with myself and anybody else who will listen. My poor wife is a captive audience. She gets to hear the raw ideas and the initial angry reactions. They need to be vented here.

What is the subject I am talking about? I chose the title because I am asking myself many times a day "what is there to hope for, for the rest of my life (not very much longer), for my children's life (a whole lot of living ahead) and for my grand children (whose lives have barely begun)?"

Where shall we start? Politics? Environment? Wars? Local Issues? Religion? Any of the currently debated sub-issues under those headings can quickly make me throw up, throw in the towel, explode in fury, or disappear into the woods. With the last option really being my favorite. But it does not answer the question.

Shall I hope that our current president or a new one will stop making war all over the world? Or give us all decent healthcare? Or come up with a budget that is sustainable and funds only projects which will help all of us to live decent lives? Or swing into real action on any one of his promises, like alternate energy development, cleaning up the lobbyist situation, get money out of politics, make the Supreme Court into a true institution of justice rather than an enforcer of one or the other political party, make all the Departments in his government be true to their charters, keep religion in all forms out of government ...

I have been made to believe that I as a citizen have an influence over how the people I elect will act on my behalf. The truth is, they act on behalf of who pays them the most money. I was lead to believe that political campaigns are about real issues and open debate not about who can pay for the most advertising that is either presenting an outright lie or totally misleading or plainly promising something the candidate has no intention to ever fulfill, if it is not all about the opponent's horrible record, horrible private life, horrible gaffes and horrible flip-flops.

Vote for the lesser of two evils? Evil is evil. War is war, greed is greed, lies are lies. Who do I turn to? Hope? Hope for What?