Domestic Violence

I wish he had never done it, or at least is alleged to have done it. I wish I didn’t have to force myself to delete his songs from my iTunes or step off the dance floor when his latest –and greatest – song comes on. I wish that picture of her had never made its way online. I wish I could just ignore this one and let someone else speak up; there are always enough people to speak up, right? I wish that were true.

I thought about writing this post when I first heard about Chris Brown allegedly assaulting Rihanna. Then I told myself that he’s only accused of laying violent hands on her, so I should wait and see. I thought about it again when I saw the picture from TMZ with her battered face close to tears. Then I told myself that the blogosphere would be so saturated with commentary that my voice wasn’t necessary. I thought about it again when I watched the women on The View –yes, I was watching The View– discussing the incident and how shocked they seemed that a multimillion dollar “man” would do this to his multimillion dollar girlfriend. Then I told myself I didn’t know what to say.

I guess I need to find the words because clearly the message isn’t getting through. In a survey of 200 Boston youths aged 12 to 19, 46% said that they thought Rihanna was responsible for Chris Brown beating her. 46 percent; that’s 92 kids out of the 200 surveyed. An additional 44% said fighting is a normal part of any relationship. The article says that “women blamed Rihanna as much as men did.”

Now, there are a few excuses that can be offered here. First, the Herald was surveying people 19 or younger; they just don’t know any better. Second, it’s only a sample of 200 kids. Third, we don’t if they survey meant violent fighting or simply arguing when it asked if fighting is a normal part of a relationship. Yet, as I said, those are just excuses and so are questions like “What she did she do to deserve such a beating?” or suggestions that he may have been drunk, stressed, or otherwise not in his normal state of mind.

Let’s remind ourselves that Brown is also 19 and just like the 200 persons surveyed, he too seems to be confused. Somewhere in their lives, he and the 92 kids surveyed missed the lesson that it’s never alright to hit someone. It’s never alright to use physical violence against a person. It’s never alright. Full stop. Period. End of story.

Yet, it continues. According to the Center for Disease Control, 1.3 million women in America are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. Women make up the majority of violence, reports the Bureau of Statistics; 73% of family violence victims are female. Looking at states across America, there were 54,010 reported cases of domestic violence in Georgia in 2006. New York counts 50,088 in the same year. In California, there were 43,911 domestic violence arrests in 2006. Of the women who sought assistance in Nebraska, 80% claimed that their children had witnessed the violence. According to scholars, boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their partners when they become adults. Sometimes it happens even before then. 10% of American teenagers reported being the victims of physical violence in 2007, according to a survey done by the U.S. Department of Justice. Keep in mind, those figures only represent the number of reported cases; the actual figure is likely to be higher. In addition, the American Institute on Domestic Violence estimates the health related costs of domestic violence to be more than $5.8 billion each year.

Clearly this is a problem. Yet, we are often happy to push it aside believing that it affects no one we know, will be dealt with by someone else, or is simply too big for us to do something about. Indeed, this is the case with many problems we as a society face today. However, we are only letting ourselves down if we allow domestic violence to continue. By not speaking out, or even by allowing ourselves to sometimes resort to violence, we are chipping away at the things that make us decent people. No woman or man deserves to be abused by the person whom they often love the most. No one should live in such fear that the website for the Violence Against Women Online Resources program at the University of Minnesota must have a box with red letters and exclamation marks that gives links for persons afraid of someone discovering that they visited the website. No one should be beaten down by any person, either mentally or physically, so that they are made to feel inferior. Most importantly, no one should bear the blame of violence when he or she is the victim.

I understand that we are only humans. Many persons may argue that violence is part of our nature; that it is sometimes inescapable. Others will say that men are more prone to violence and, therefore, it is enviable that they will sometimes use force. As a man, I can only share my story. I have hit other men and been in shoving matches while arguing with my older sister when we were younger. Yet, I can remember two instances quite vividly that highlighted that that violence was never acceptable. The first came too late when my sister and I were growing up. I had aged to the point where any sort of altercation was no longer a fair fight. During some insignificant argument, I pushed her into a corner. I will never forget the look on her face, full of shock and fear. I will also never forget the sounds of her cries as she told our mother how scared she was when I got mad and how I was worse than our father when he was drunk. Her words stopped me in my tracks and put me at the beginning of a long road. It is the one I have walked everyday since; the one that keeps me off the path of violence, violence that I learned as a boy.

It was that road that I stayed on ten years later on a street far from home. A few friends and I were walking home after a night out. The girls in our group asked us if we could say something to the guys who had been following us ever since we’d left the club, as they were uncomfortable having strange men around. Two other guys and I went to talk to them and before I knew it, one of the guys in the other group got angry and punched me in the face. Each man in both groups seemed to stop breathing in anticipation of what was to come next. It was obvious that no one on either side wanted to commit to a fight, but it was also understandable if I chose to fight back. It was only seconds before I realised how stupid it was to hit him back despite the fact that he was smaller than I was. I thought about all the things I stood lose if I did. Then it occurred to me how utterly stupid the whole thing was and how unnecessary violence would have been. I told him to get lost and, with what seemed like a great sigh of relief, his friends led him off. I walked home that night relieved that, despite how difficult it had been to control my temper, I had been man enough to know the right thing to do.

I just wish Chris Brown knew that feeling too. I wish all men could revel in that feeling of relief, knowing that they are not animals, but men. I wish those who hit others could escape the torturous moments of violence by their own hand –moments that their minds will force them to relive over and over again. I wish that those who were violent did not find themselves voicing empty apologises because, all too often, they will only do it again. I wish we understood that violence hurts not only the oppressed, but the oppressor. I wish we understood that by being silent we are allowing the violence to continue. I wish it would end.

Our Disease

I’ve been working on this post ever since the election and, given the Attorney General’s speech last week, I finally decided I must put something to paper. Initially, I began with an entire page that served as little more than a disclaimer explaining how, as a white male, I basically don’t understand racial problems, nor can I ever hope to. I came to the conclusion that often times, I am the worst kind of discriminatory person there is: the one who thinks he’s above it, yet upon closer inspection, actually harbors some attitudes that only serve to further the problems of humanity. This is certainly true and I doubt that I am the only one who, at times, subscribes to racial beliefs and outlooks based more on what I think is the case, rather than what is fact.

In the wake of the election of America’s first black president, there are those among us who would claim that we have reached a point beyond race. We are now living in a country where all persons can finally be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Today there are numerous African American individuals who have risen to heights unimaginable a generation ago. Yet, we can still point to those same children Dr King spoke of when he painted a picture of black youth growing up in places like Harlem and Alabama wondering why misery seems to haunt them. Yes, Obama made it. Yet, he is but one man, not an entire race.

When looking to the future of a post-civil war America, Frederick Douglas told us “Verily, the work does not end with the abolition of slavery but only begins.” I believe we must take a similar position even now. The work of overcoming our disease of racism not only in America, but throughout the world does not end with the dawn of the Obama administration.

I believe this was the core of Eric Holder’s speech last week. As a nation, we have reached a critical point. Without a constructive dialogue on racial issues, not to mention the many other surface issues that divide us such as orientation, gender, religious beliefs, or heritage, we cannot hope to live up to our full potential as Americans or, more importantly, as human beings. We must begin to try and understand one another so that, in my view, we can discover that we are not so different.

Now let’s stop and pause right there for a moment. The phrase “we can discover that we are not so different” strikes me as an empty cadence that only echoes into the night. We have heard these words before, but have often failed to apply them. In fact, doesn’t it seem that, sometimes, we are so different in our views of the world and the people in it, that we are actually different? What would a white man from the suburbs have in common with the black women from the inner city? How does an Asian American man from San Francisco relate to a Puerto Rican woman from San Juan?

There is no overarching answer. We will each have different opinions and sometimes these differences make the chasm between races or people impossibly wide. Yet many of these views have been shaped by our backgrounds. The way a white child of the suburbs sees public schools will be different than the perspective of a black child who grew up in South Atlanta. Yet, it is not the color of their skin that creates their divide, it is their experience.

How then do I relate to someone of another race? The answer I continually return to is that I am not trying to relate to a black person, an Asian person, a Hispanic person, or any other race, I am simply trying to understand the individual before me. Yes, race has played on the minds of each of us and it has likely shaped our perspectives. However, each person has their own experience. How one black person experiences being an African American will be different to another black person. Though I have been shaped, in part, by being white, I would not expect to relate to a white person from Kansas based on our skin color. In fact, having grown up in and around Atlanta, a city where 61% of the population is African American, there were times, for good and bad, when I was uniquely aware of the color my skin. I would not expect a white person from the Midwest to have a similar experience or to fully understand my background simply on the basis that he or she shares my pigmentation. Instead, I want to be seen for my beliefs and actions and how both have shaped my experience.

We must, therefore, see race as only one aspect of our experience when we approach one another as individuals. I am not a white man, I am simply Tom. There is no black blueprint spread across the minds of forty million Americans, rather there are forty million Americans who are black and have been shaped in part by that experience. Yet, each is different and must be seen as such. What’s more, we must create a world where race need not be a factor that shapes us. Our skin color should not and cannot be a variable in our American experiment.

However, we cannot ignore basic facts that reflect so poorly on our society. If being African American is simply one aspect of a person’s personality, why then do we see such discrepancies in our culture when it comes to race? Though our Attorney General has paved the way for a new dialogue on race, he must also be conscience that he is head of the most racist system of our government. We all know that in America, the only system where African Americans are the majority is the prison system.

For too long we as a society have allowed race to permeate our decisions regarding the poor, the uneducated, the hungry, and the sick. If we are to create an America where we are no longer shaped by our race, then we must create a level playing field for all persons. We cannot let the desires of the majority white population outweigh the needs of our minorities. If the exasperated cry for help comes from the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, it cannot be drown out by the Upper East Side of New York. To cure the vile disease of racism, we must finally admit and address the inequalities that exist between black and white in our country.

We must also recognise that discrimination hardly stops at the line between black and white. This disease of ours has spread its venomous tentacles across many other aspects of American life. It has poisoned how we see women, homosexuals, Hispanics, and many others. Worse still, this sickness does not stop at the borders of the United States. Like any plague, it is not beholden to our constructed borders and instead it passes freely among all persons of this Earth.

Though Frederick Douglas understood that the abolition of the slavery marked only the beginning of the long struggle, he also gave us wisdom as to how we might continue to fight for the principles of equality, liberty, and justice. “Agitate! Agitate!” he said. Today his words are still filled with wisdom. If we are ever to overcome the horrible disease of intolerance, than we must continue to work against any individual, system, or society in which it manifests itself. Generations may pass away before we are ever rid of it, but the hope of perfecting our world is reward enough to continue our efforts each day. Discrimination based on race or anything else is an affront to our undeniable equality as human beings. It is our duty to rid ourselves of this malicious malady and the cure can be found in the decency that exists in each one of us.

The Issues 2008: Wrap-Up

As this long election draws to a close, this will be the last of The Issues 2008 series. The series began in January while I was back in Atlanta. It has travelled across the world with me and happened alongside two semesters of graduate school (which is why some of these posts were so spread out). It has proved to be a welcome distraction and researching for it has taught me more than I ever dreamed. Above all, it showed me that anyone has the ability to become well versed in any of these issues and all they have to do is spend one or two hours online to have a truly informed opinion based on facts, not rhetoric.

First, here’s a list of the issues I touched on in the last few months:

▪ Abortion
▪ Healthcare
▪ Gun Control
▪ The War in Iraq
▪ The Economy (Part 1 Part 2)
▪ Experience
▪ The Bailout

In addition, there are three other posts I’ve written outside the series, all of which still have some weigh in this election:

▪ Education
▪ Gas Prices

Making History

Let us step back for just a moment, forget the politics of this election, and really see just what an amazing election this has been. With the exception of the 1864 election between President Lincoln and General McClellan, the election held in the midst of a four year civil war that truly proved our strength as a nation, I believe that this has been the most rigorous, unprecedented, historical election process ever held in America. There is no doubt that the elections of 1796, 1828, 1912, 1932, and 1944 were standouts in their own right, but this whole process has been more amazing than any of those.

Think back months ago when pundits were pitting Clinton against Giuliani. Remember when no believed Barack Obama or John McCain had even the slightest chance. Recall Edward’s downfall, Romney’s dominance, Ron Paul’s unending campaign, and Kucinich’s… well, his Kucinichness quite frankly. Consider then the hardest fought primary in recent memory that came down to the first African American candidate or the first female candidate to ever represent a major political party. Then, for the first time in history, an African American was on the ticket of any major political party, at the top spot no less, and whose nomination was presided over by the first female Speaker of the House.

Then think about how the campaign shifted once the two nominees are assured. This election marks the largest age gap ever between two candidates, the first time two senators are running against one another, and one of the only times when both candidates are left handed. We also saw a woman placed on the ticket of a major political party in only the second time in history. In terms of states, Obama represents the first person Presidential candidate to be born in Hawaii, while Palin is the first person from Alaska ever to run.

What’s more, think of all the external circumstances surrounding the election. Russia’s invasion of Georgia marked a major international crisis that created even more discussion around foreign policy, which up to then had focused mainly the wars in the Middle East. Then consider how the candidates addressed natural disasters along America’s southern coastline. There were also the numerous personal questions the candidates had to address ranging from their health, their faith, and the habits of their children. Last, but certainly not least, note how both hopefuls had to completely focus on the economic future of the country in what has the potential to be the second worse recession in our history.

Combine all that with the rise of new forms of communication, such as YouTube, which have allowed the most up-to-the-minute information to reach homes across the globe and then be commented on in only seconds. Look at the incredible ability of both campaigns to fundraise with only a few clicks of a mouse. Remember Saturday Night Live skits, text messages telling followers about Vice Presidential decisions, the role of Drudge Report, and, of course, the ability of the media to place Joe the Plumber in every living room in American within 24 hours.

Make no mistake; this has been the most incredible election in modern times. No matter what the outcome, we should look back at this time period and see this time as nothing less than historical.

Looking to the Future

However, there are negatives we must remember when thinking back on this election. Clearly, there are still lessons to be learned. As I pointed out in my most recent post, our election cycle is rapidly becoming a circus with twenty month campaigns, an increasing role of money, intense negative advertising from both candidates, and obnoxious displays meant only to draw attention (such as Greek columns and campaign suspensions). As a nation, we still have a long way to go in perfecting our political process.

That change starts with each of us. Every four years, we seem to divide ourselves along political lines that are so intense that we steal yard signs, berate one another in public, and even physically assault opposing supporters. Such actions are nothing short of insanity. Chris Rock said it best when he told people to quit getting caught up in which camp they belong to, let the issues swirl around in your head for a while, and then decide where to stand. Even though it comes from a comedian, we might do well to remember such advice. You can agree with liberals on some topics and conservatives on others. Even on certain issues, you might even see the benefits of both parties. Mark Twain once said that the mark of intelligence is being able to hold two conflicting thoughts in one’s head simultaneously.

More importantly, once we do make up our minds, we must avoid that smug sense that those who disagree are wrong and deserve to be ridiculed. Such sentiments lie in shallow understandings of the beliefs from both parties and ignore the basic premise that while you might believe you are right, some one else will not. All too often, we allow ourselves to become so divided that we begin seeing each other as enemies, not fellow Americans. It is time to break the bonds of animosity bred from discord and finally begin to treat one another with respect regardless of opinion.

What I hope you’ve taken from this series is not a persuasive argument to vote one way or the other, but instead a better understanding of the issues surrounding this election and the ability to make your own informed opinion, based on your own values. If we all vote based on good, solid information, then the winner of this election will have been voted in fairly and we can all rest assured that outcome came through reason and nothing else. Come November 4th, an informed opinion is all we can ask of America. Armed with information, go and cast out your voice with your vote.

From the Outside Looking In

I am constantly amazed at how people outside the United States are following this election. It’s not that they simply know who's running and maybe where the candidates stand on certain issues, it’s the fact that they are following it just as closely as Americans are. I’ve seen pictures of the candidates in all major newspapers, both here in Australia and in Europe. In Canberra, I’ve watched every debate, along with convention coverage, live on television. Virtually any news site I've visited will have some information on the election, if not an entire section devoted to it. From Al-Jazeera to the Australian, this election is big news all across the world. Plus, it’s not just the day to day updates of the campaign; it’s serious in-depth looks at the candidates’ backgrounds, families, policy advisors, and more.

I was told by someone that following the American election is almost like following a Soap Opera; it’s on everyday and there’s always some surprise just waiting around the corner. I was talking to a Canadian friend and asked her what she thought about the Canadian election going on right now. She told me that she didn’t real care and that she follows the American election much more as it’s “more interesting.” My Norwegian roommate once described the whole process as a circus that is unlike any other in the world.

I think foreigners are watching this election for two reasons. One is that, like I said, they are fascinated with it. They see it as something so unlike their election process that it immediately grabs their interest and they are in awe just watching it unfold. Now, I don’t mean that in the sense that they are impressed. Instead, I think they are often stunned by what they see and spend some of their time trying to fathom why Americans act they way we do. Take Sarah Palin’s nomination. Not to knock Palin, as that’s not the point of this post, but for weeks, I’ve been asked just how in the world she got put on the Republican ticket. I tell them all the things I’m sure you’ve heard (she draws very conservative votes that McCain might have alienated, they’re hoping she’ll take votes away from Obama because of the Clinton issue, her inexperience can be spun to make her seem like another agent of “change,” etc.). Yet, in the end, everyone always shakes their head and says that it’s crazy. They wonder how Americans would stand for someone like her, someone who draws God so far into politics and someone who cannot answer simple questions in news interviews. In the end, people who ask me questions on the election often walk away saying “only in America.”

The other, more obvious reason that foreigners are so caught up in this election is the fact that it has it will largely affect them. America’s policies make the world shake and everyone is tied into the United States in some way. The outside world held its collective breath as Congress voted on the bailout, knowing that whatever action was taken, it would soon reach their markets. Every class I’ve been to outside the U.S. that discusses the modern world has at least a whole session just to talk about the United States. In trying to convey just how important the U.S. election is to the rest of the world, a friend of mine, a Canadian/South African/Australian (I know, right?), once told me that he doesn’t think Americans alone should be allowed to vote in the election, as it doesn’t affect just them. He then laughed and said “besides, no one trusts Americans to make the right decision.”

Though it was said in jest, I have heard similar sentiments from many others outside the America. Many of them are simply worried that America will make what they believe is the wrong choice, John McCain. The overwhelming majority of people who talk to me about the election here and when I was in Europe support Obama. To be honest, I have yet to meet a single McCain supporter outside the United States, even my friend from Georgia (supposedly the country with the most McCain supporters outside the U.S.) supports Obama. In fact, I’ve meet a few people who’ve told me “I wish I were American so that I could vote for Obama.” It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

However, I’m not writing this to tell you that, because the rest of the world supports Obama, so too should you. On the contrary and as always, I welcome anyone who supports either candidate when it’s based on good information and rationale thought. I think there are plenty of Americans who will vote for John McCain based on those things. John McCain is more in line with some Americans’ beliefs than Obama will ever be, no matter what the rest of the world says.

That brings me to my next point: we as Americans are different. We are but human beings like everyone else (and we would do well to remember that, as before we are Americans, we are simply men and women), but when it comes to politics, Americans often think differently. We do share many beliefs, values, and goals with the outside world, but I believe that many times, you simply must have grown up in America to really understand what we’re going through every four years. It’s difficult to explain to a Brit why we still talk about abortion so much, just as it’s hard to tell a Norwegian why we still have guns. Yet, those are some of things we still talk about every election. As Americans ourselves, we may not even know why we are still harping on about such things, but at the end of the day, we know that such issues are still important and therefore must be given consideration.

In addition, the outside world still fails to understand what is actually going on in the minds of Americans. This is different from what I said earlier in that foreigners often want to know what Americans are thinking. In this case, people outside the U.S. sometimes seem convinced that they know what Americans are going to do, only to be surprised when we do the opposite. I was talking to an Australian a few weeks ago who told me that he’d finally accepted that he will never be able to predict whom Americans will pick as president. In 2000, he said, he predicted Gore would win. In 2004, he thought it would be Kerry. Then, in 2007, he was positive that Clinton would be the winner in 2008. “Obviously, there’s something I’m missing,” he told me. In addition, many have told me they are convinced that Obama will not win because he is black. Such sentiments have been reinforced by both the British and the Australian media ever since Obama’s battle with Clinton over the nomination. To be frank, it seems as though many outside the U.S. will be one hundred percent stunned if Obama is elected simply because they believe we are still rooted in racism.

Having said all that, I’m sure there are still some of us who will not vote for Obama because he is black; race is an issue in this campaign, but it’s important to remember that is not, nor has it been, the only issue. What’s more, there are many times that even as Americans we may not understand why any election goes the way it does. Perhaps that is the most important thing we should take away from this process every four years. Though choosing a President should be no small undertaking, it might be time that we stepped back for a moment and considered if such a decision truly warrants, to borrow a phrase from my Norwegian friend, such a circus. Though we have reasons to be separate from the rest of the world when it comes to elections, do we want things like the role of money, lobbyists, indecisive recounts, spin doctors, celebrities, lawyers, or twenty month campaigns to be among those reasons? I believe that, although the outside world may not understand exactly why we are the way we are, there are lessons we could learn from them. For example, having shorter campaign periods, reducing the role that money can play in elections, using the popular vote instead of an electoral college, or simply reducing the insane amount of hype we go through could all be things we could take from other democracies. Though we are a nation like no other, we are by no means perfect. While the rest of the world tries to better understand us, let us try to understand how to better ourselves.

The Issues 2008: The Bailout

As I watched President Bush address the nation this week, I couldn’t help but notice all the things he wasn’t saying. I saw how the lines on his face had been etched deeper as if to mark the severity of the past week. How he continually wrung his hands together in an anxious manner, as if he knew how awful this all is, but couldn’t begin to see how it might get fixed properly. Above all, how beyond him, this madness stretches back years through past administrations, congresses, and economists. For decades, we have been walking down this path and now our actions are coming to fruition. Rome is burning and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

In my post on the economy in this election, I said that the Office of the President has little power to affect change on an economical level. However, I ignored one critical role a President has when it comes to economic affairs: the power of influence. We have seen past presidents guide the economy with that power. We have seen trickle down theories, deregulation, and the beliefs that the economy will either solve its self or we can adjust at through the power of the Federal Reserve. All these ideas have played a part in the Presidential policies from both parties.

This week, in the midst of everything else, we witnessed an historical event. President Bush met with the leaders of Congress, certain members of his cabinet, and the two Presidential candidates, only weeks before the election, to discuss what can be done to find a bipartisan solution to this madness. Never before have so many leaders sat down at the same table at a time like this. Though little seems to have come from that meeting, it still shows the power of the Office of the President. Imagine the influential power either John McCain or Barack Obama will receive on January 20, 2009. Not since Roosevelt has one person been able to cast such a shadow over the affairs of the economy.

Again, as I said in my previous post, in terms of the economy, when it comes to choosing the next President, it all depends on which course you would like to see our nation travel. How will Obama or McCain influence the current state of our economy? If their current positions on the bailout are any indication, it’s hard to tell an exact difference between the two. Both have come to favour the package so long as it helps everyday homeowners and not just Wall St, limits executive compensation, and has some form of oversight process in determining how the money is spent. Therefore, we need to look back at their previous stances on economic issues in order to gain an insight into how they will influence such issues in the future. Traditionally, McCain believes that the ability of the market to stabilise itself will prevail and the benefits of that will work their way into the lives of all Americans. Obama disagrees; instead he believes that such policies have not worked in the past and, in order to provide for all Americans, the government must guide the economy in the right direction. These views are not too different from somewhat traditional values of either party.

However, I then question why McCain, with his policies being more market orientated, is supporting the bailout plan. Perhaps it is because he believes that this plan is out of the ordinary and such a plan is necessary in the midst of this madness. However, once this bailout is behind us, will he then return to his traditional policies of letting the market solve its own problems and, in a sense, monitor itself?

Personally, I cannot hide my opinion on this issue. Long before this madness began, I have believed that more oversight of the corporations that are owned and operate within America is absolutely essential. I believe that companies in this country have increasingly operated outside the realm of responsibility on several levels of accountability. For example, we have seen CEO’s paid retirement packages that are several hundreds times the amount an average worker makes in the same company. Something must be done as these companies have proven that they are unwilling to monitor themselves or their peers.

I am not denying that a chief executive shoulders far more responsibility than the average worker and therefore deserves more compensation. I am asking, when an executive drives a company into the ground, what excuses can anyone offer up as to why that same person should be paid millions simply to leave? In that same vein, I am not denying a business its right to profits. What I am questioning is at what point do we realise that the endless pursuit of profits can sometimes lead us into dangerous waters and will affect us all should something go wrong. The economy is not something that exists outside our daily lives, able to be guided by an invisible hand that does not touch the rest of us. No, the economy rests on the shoulders of every single American and the weight of that burden carries over into our daily lives. In good times and bad, we are linked to the economy outside the walls of our offices and, should it charge forward like a bull or lumber like a bear, we feel its ramifications each day.

For the moment, we must find a way to solve this madness and the most likely solution currently lies in the hands of Congress. Instead of trying to restrict Wall St in the future and bail it out at the same time, we must first do the latter. I believe that Wall St does need to be regulated in the future, however right now is not the time. Right now, President Bush and both Senators McCain and Obama must use their influence to get the right legislation passed and call on Congress to wait until later, but not much later, for placing so many additional terms of any bailout bill.

The Bigger Picture

Beyond that, there’s a bigger picture that we seem to be ignoring. The War in Iraq has seriously hindered our international standing. We saw that in the case of Georgia when the international community asked if we were even able to defend Georgia against Russia, should it have come to that. With our military power in question, we were still able to point to our enormous economical influence as the justification for our position as the sole superpower. America’s influence extends into every marketplace in the world and that influence gave us the ability to shape policies across the globe without ever putting boots on the ground.

However, without a strong military or powerful economy, what reasons do we have to call ourselves a superpower? Suddenly, the two legs of the giant have broken and our influence is falling from its shoulders. We have ignored, belittled, and undercut international institutions, such as the United Nations, which means that we can hardly rely on them to ensure our status in the world. If our economy falls off the narrow ledge from which it is tittering, our power in the world will fall away with it.

This crisis has proven that America will never stay on top forever. In the wake of our eventual demise, there can be two possibilities in a future that we can help shape. The first, though we have seen this example before from Britain’s’ colonial empire and witnessed its horrible consequences, we can continue on our current path, running the world as we see fit with policies mostly benefiting only ourselves. By ignoring other countries when they disagree and belittling the people of the world whom we use only for our own needs, I believe we are creating a world that is fragmented, polarised, and unstable.

Alternatively, we can accept that we will not be in power forever and the time we have today gives us a unique opportunity to shape the tomorrow of world politics. We can create a world that will never be based around one nation again, but is instead shaped by many countries, all of which have an equal stake in the outcome of the globe. This might seem like it goes against our national interests as it, in an effect, limits our influence in the globe, but I believe that for the long term, it will do far more good for both our national interests and the globe.

Charles Krauthammer argues this idea and rails against what he calls “liberal internationalists,” those who support the idea of lessening America’s power now in order to create a broader atmosphere of cooperation and mutual governance. He writes about these ideas in such a way that it makes the reader sick to think that such notions might be tolerated at all. He suggests that we should continue on our current path of sole dominance, of unipolar power, in the world. All this, of course, rests on the premise that we don’t “wreck our economy,” he says. Well, it seems as though we are about to do just that. Such vulnerability shows that unipolarity has its price: when Rome is burning there is no one else in the world to save it and the cost is now ours alone to bear.

This bailout means more than saving the futures of very irresponsible businesses; it means saving the future of America. Any bill passed must, for now, allow for the bailout process to begin and, I believe, we should save the regulation for later. However, I cannot stress the importance of creating of such regulations over Wall St in the near future. Perhaps you disagree and if you do, I invite you to use your vote differently. Come November, you will have the option to decide how the nation approaches its future economic endeavours. Choose wisely because, as I have said, the future of our country now lies in the very visible hands of the economy. Above all, remember that should we survive this madness, we must choose a path that will never again place such a burden on just America alone. We, as a nation, must see this as a window into our own mortality and realise that we will not be in power forever. With the time that we have left, let us create world that will be better for all, not just those inside our borders. If not, when we do fall from grace, we will find ourselves at the mercy of the next great superpower.