I MET THE...AND HE IS US?

Most likely you have received an email sometime with a list of strange laws in the U.S. I was quite skeptical about many of them, so I checked snopes.com at that time and found their page about "loony laws." Snopes says there are thousands of websites churning out the nonsense and has checked many of the purported laws and found all they checked to be untrue. It has a page devoted to Arizona and lists some supposed law about camels there (Arizona did sport camels at one time). These mythical laws fall under another category of Urban Myth.

What I find more interesting to speculate about is the American pastime of castigating government. I have not been immune to this, by any means. But, I clearly remember my father continually disparaging government and especially politicians in his newspaper.

We, as Americans, must have some need that is satisfied by criticism of government and politicians. What's that about? Why are we so ready to believe the ridiculousnesses of governments? I imagine that it is not a recent phenomenon and might have begun just after the setting up of our government. If you answer that our several layers of government ARE ridiculous, I'd say you have not answered the question. My question is re WHY we are so gleeful and willing to believe the worst about government. What does this say about us as a people?

HOLIDAY WISH

That the American people would, with a sense of urgency, come to fully understand that their actions--how they live, how they spend money, what they believe, how they think, who they vote into public offices to represent them--have the greatest impact upon the world, even the very life or death and misery of many people and the very survival of the Planet. My wish is that the American people would wake up and understand the import of their everyday lives upon the Planet and their fellow inhabitants. Much has been given to us: incredible riches and power. Much is expected of us, the most powerful people--for good or ill--the Planet has ever seen. My wish is that Americans would wake up to their responsibilities.