Good Morning, Bruce

I understand your anger and frustration. You aren't the only one distressed. Those who see the degradation that has overtaken our nation have two choices: We can whine and rant, or we can do something about it ... but doing something about it doesn't mean waving our arms, raising our voices or running amok. There may be a time for that ... but it's not now.

Now is the time for careful thought and planning. If we want to do something about the state of our nation, we must start by carefully examining how The Noble Experiment went awry. If we don't understand the forces that led to the political structure we have today. we are foolish to imagine we can build a better system. There is no shortage of people who think they know the answers, but there's a severe shortage of people who are willing to do the very hard, the very slow, the plodding work of improving our government. There is nothing simple about the problem and nothing easy about creating a more democratic government.

Your closing comments trouble me. First, you say, "If I were to hire a person to lead me, I want to be able to choose the destination." That's fine for you, but what of the rest of us? You may want to choose the destination, but you are only one of several hundred million people, some of whom may disagree with your choice. Indeed, I might be one of them.

For my part, I prefer to leave the choice to someone with the intellect and integrity to make the best possible choice for all of us ... provided that person is chosen by a system that seeks out and elevates the best of our people to make such decisions ... not by the corrupt system that controls our nation's politics today.

After that, you say, "With Initiative and Binding Referendum, we can choose our destination." It is not clear how you get from "I want" to "we can". Neither is it clear how you think Initiative and Binding Referendum is going to empower the people. Do you imagine that the "initiatives" will not come from the same vested interests that direct our nation today? What reason do you have to think the public will, in the future, be immune to the floods of propaganda that have influenced them in the past?

Initiative and Binding Referendum is a tool. It should, in my view, be a basic right of the people in any political system. It is not, however, a system itself.

Would you be willing to take a time-out to look at how our political system came to be dominated by vested interests? It will probably take a while but it will help us understand how we can avoid the pitfalls that destroyed The Noble Experiment.

Fred