We the Who?

To ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth, “We the People” need to be alive and well. Are we? To set the tone, a fictional television news anchor delivered a prophetic tirade about America in the 1976 MGM movie Network. Depending on your age and if you saw the movie, you may remember these excerpts from his iconic outburst: “Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. … we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be … I don't know what to do about the depression, and the inflation, and the Russians, and the crime in the street … I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore [italics added]!” (Finch 1976) Replace “depression” with “recession,” “the Russians” with “Afghanistan,” “North Korea,” or “Iran,” and “inflation” with “unemployment,” his outburst could hold just as true today as it did in 1976. If you agree, getting “mad as hell” would be the first step necessary to regain our collective identity and ensure America’s continued growth and greatness. The next step would be to do something about it. During the 2008 presidential campaign, then-US Senator Obama’s campaign motto was “Yes We Can.” Yes, we definitely can, but it is now 2013 and we need to get it done so we can finally proclaim “Yes We Did,” and I can finally stop asking the question “We the Who?”