I.O.U.S.A. and other political happenings

Mark & I went to the movies tonight for our weekly date. Not your typical cinematic feature, we went to the premiere of I.O.U.S.A., a documentary designed to enlighten and engage American citizens to fight for the adoption of sound fiscal policy by our elected officials. The film is great, easy to understand, full of important information, and I would encourage everyone to check it out. Don't worry if you don't want to spend your precious entertainment fund on this type of flick, you can catch it for free on PBS in January. I do not, however, endorse the panel discussion we witnessed afterwards. I'm pretty sure that was a premiere-night bonus but some of the comments from the "esteemed" panel really undermined the message of the film or were just plain inaccurate.

I haven't written much lately on the political front. Did you think my activism died with McCain securing the Republican nomination? Well, it didn't. Mark & I have joined in Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty, who's mission is "to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity. " So I guess attending tonight's movie & telling you about it counts as forwarding that cause, though they are not directly related (just the "sound money" part). And we now own all the teaching materials for the Constitution Class that we participated in at the beginning of our political awakening so that we can offer the class in our own home (someday when we can find the time).

We've also become members of The John Birch Society which entitles us to a subscription to their magazine, The New American, and provides us with a bulletin of current, concise information about the bills before Congress and the Senate so that we can decide what we would like our Representatives in Washington to do, and let them know.

Tonight, an article on the JBS website caught my eye which led me chasing crumbs around the internet (did you hear about the PETA scandal?) and I ended (before coming here) on an essay by Selwyn Duke entitled "Why John Edwards' Affair Matters". It is a fabulous argument on why our politicians need to be persons of character. Sad that there needs to be an argument, don't you think? Here's an excerpt:

Many people will defend the character-doesn’t-matter position by self-assuredly saying that the only relevant factor is that a person is competent. This is a nice fantasy; it’s a bit like saying it doesn’t matter if a computer has corrupted files as long as the hardware is top-notch. An auto mechanic may have tremendous talent in his field – great “raw material” – but it’s all for naught if you can’t trust him to render honest diagnoses, only do necessary work, install new parts when you pay for them, and ensure the job is well done. Ability isn’t the only prerequisite for competence; conscientiousness and perseverance are two others. And what are they a function of?

Character.

[...]If some scoff at this, I submit that their sense of shame is sorely lacking. There was a time when children often heard the admonition, “Don’t bring shame upon the family.” But you only have to surf YouTube, MySpace or some other juvenile den of iniquity to know that the “Hey, hey, ho, ho, guilt and conscience have gotta go” movement has been largely successful. No, we’re no longer “repressed”; we’ve regressed – to a state of licentiousness reminiscent of the ancient Roman ignobility. And don’t mistake it for the freedom of having shed shackles; it’s the bondage of having shed morality.

I hope that hearing about some of my beliefs and activities encourages you to 1. educate yourself and 2. become involved in the political process. Because truly "we, the people" have the power to change the course of things and keep America the great Land of Liberty, but it's going to take some work people!