Call To Citizenship

I often think of how extremely lucky I was to have been born an American and to be living in what I believe to be the hay-day of this great land. It is humbling to consider the freedoms, privileges and blessings we the “common people” of these United States of America enjoy in our day.

As we celebrate Independence Day, with Memorial Day still fresh in our memory, we are reminded of our debt to heroes and patriots in former generations. These blessings and freedoms that we seem to blandly accept with a sense of entitlement are ours because of the sacrifice of others who understood their duty as citizens.

Our country has been incredibly prosperous and has a proud and honorable history. Ronald Reagan referred to it as a “shining city on a hill”. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said that America was “the last, best hope of the earth”. However some of the luster has faded from our national image and it is not as easy to be hopeful today.

The stock market may be setting records while unemployment and inflation are low, but most of us know in our gut that things are not well. We have gone from the world’s largest lender nation to the world’s largest debtor nation. We see our family farms and rural communities being devastated, our vast manufacturing centers becoming rust buckets and we are increasingly becoming dependent on shaky offshore sources for our energy, vital manufactured goods and now our food. The laborer has failed to receive his fair share of increased productivity and accordingly our middle class is shrinking.

We won’t trade with Cuba because they have a communist government, yet the largest transfer of wealth from one nation to another in history has occurred between this country and The People’s Republic of (Communist) China. China looms as the world’s emerging preeminent economic and military power; thanks to their propensity to cheat and our government’s acquiescence to bad trade deals and rule breaking.

Lori Wallach of Public Citizen Trade Watch recently called attention to the ill effects of our trade policy before a congressional committee when she stated;

“The summary of the damage thus far? Before Fast Track we had balanced trade and rising living standards; since then the U.S. trade deficit has exploded as imports surged, and now we have a deficit equal to 6 percent of our GDP. A deficit of this magnitude is widely agreed to be unsustainable, exposing the U.S. and global economy to risk of crisis, shock and instability. The average American worker is only making a nickel more per hour in inflation-adjusted terms than in 1973, despite impressive productivity gains, while income inequality has jumped to levels not seen since the Robber Baron era. During the NAFTA-WTO era, we have lost three million U.S. manufacturing jobs, one of every six in that sector, devastating local tax bases on which our schools and hospital rely and undermining our ability to produce the basic good essential for our national security and infrastructure. And now, we are even becoming a net food importer!”
No doubt about it, we were sold a bill of goods on foreign trade. Few if any of the promised benefits have showed up. Recent events have clearly shown our government to be more concerned about profits for the transnational corporations than the interests of this country and its citizens.

There has been an avalanche of defective goods and bad food imported from China. The melamine contamination of pet food called attention to a longstanding situation relative to food for people. (Isn’t it ironic that people seem to get more exercised over harm to pets than to people?) Finally, after a massive number of rejected food shipments and a loud public outcry, our government suspended import of certain selected seafood items. However, they failed to have these items which were already in the system recalled. (No doubt, an unacceptable expense to global traders.) It would seem that if there was enough of a health threat to suspend importation, there would be sufficient grounds for a recall. Again, consideration seems to have favored the interests of the transnational companies rather than the health of American consumers.

Folks, it takes active participation to make democracy work! I believe it has been our apathy and denial that has allowed things to get so out of hand. Maybe learning just how bad things are will be the shock therapy needed to make voters hold their elected leaders accountable. We in OCM are trying to do our part in telling the rest of the story and I believe it is having some effect.
There was the import suspension and Fast Track Authority, sometimes called Trade Promotion Authority, was not extended and thankfully expired June 30th. We have had enough of this and other administrations absconding with the constitutionally mandated authority of the congress and ramming dumb trade agreement through.

There are a number of pending bills in Congress that would address trade inequities such as currency manipulation, unfair tax schemes and other forms of illegal and unfair trade practices. Perhaps, most notable and important among these is “The Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act of 2007” (HR2942), authored by Representatives Duncan Hunter and Tim Ryan.
There also appears to be increasing concern in the congress over our trade balance, foreign debt and the hollowing out of our manufacturing and agricultural base. Hopefully, there will be legislation and other actions to address these matters.

There is a good chance that Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for food will finally be funded and implemented. In the face of bad food imports from China and elsewhere, it preposterous for the American Meat Institute, the big meat packers, NCBA and NPPC to continue claiming that COOL has no food safety implication.

The likelihood of Congress doing the right thing is considerably improved when we send lots of emails, make telephone calls and write letters informing those we hired to represent our interests that we want things fixed.

Alexis de Tocqueville said; “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” The American people are still good. In recent years we may have lost a bit of our moral and ethical moorings but we have noble and honorable instincts. We all know that our generation has jeopardized the future for this country and succeeding generations. I believe we will ultimately do our duty and fix the mess we have made. This country has had lapses of character before and later rallied to its former greatness. An example might be the roaring 20s and our later resurgence to greatness during and after WWII.

I believe the inherent character of our people will force a turnaround. I believe that when it becomes clearer that all the current trends lead to a very bad outcome for our country and future generations, voters will fire their failed leaders and hire a new crew. In the meantime, OCM will continue to try to get the word out and pursue its founding principals. FS

Keep The Faith!
Fred