Bright Red Bedroom Door

@Marie Le Corre: Reality need not be sad - yet this one certainly is. Thanks for checking-in.

@eddy: The problem isn't a lack of words - it is an absence of heart. No society as wealthy as the United States should deny the possibility of a safe and secure roof above the heads of all of its people.

@Observing: One of the saddest realities of this life I'm experiencing - is that I grew up in America before there were homeless people. Sure, there were small clusters of (mostly) men - who lived the life of the hobo - who traveled the rails. But they were a very small, nearly invisible minority, who chose their lives outside of society.

The flood gate opened in California when the lauded Ronald Reagan was governor. He closed all but two of the mental health facilities in the state - turning the patients over to so called 'homes'. Privatizing was born. The facilities were inhuman and short lived. We've had broken souls on the streets ever since. He became president of these United States - and expanded the trend. I don't blame Reagan. He was the leader of a populist movement. The numbers were many. The Silent Majority was silent no more. These self-righteous, anti-tax, anti-government, folks would have their way for the next three decades. I don't like the wasteful, consumptive, shopping mall nation they've delivered us. Empty, homogenized blandness.

I fully appreciate all of the complexities of 'globalization' and being competitive. Yet I've watched as huge private fortunes were created on the backs of workers and the poor. Corporate welfare has robbed this nation at far greater costs than would have been required to maintain quality health care and human services for the poor and the working class.

The top one percent of the population owned 9% of the wealth of America three decades ago. That figure is now between 21 and 22%. We are a neurotic and unhappy people by any measure. We spend vast sums on escapism. We are imprisoned. We are judgmental. Our founding fathers would be sickened at our corporate rulers. They fought against the corporation and much was written on this fact at the time.

Republican Dwight David Eisenhower - on leaving his presidency warned America about the industrial-military complex. The men who led us into Vietnam - and now Iraq. Who lined their pockets with our young blood and called any who stood against them, unpatriotic. Dick Cheney and Halliburton - how could I not be sick. He is but one of thousands of greedy, tyrannical monsters who scoff at our freedoms from seats of power in our land. We have been systematically raped - over and over again by these evil men.

We are the wealthiest nation that has ever existed. We are bullies. We are hated. We have failed to carry the mantel of the gift we were handed 232 years ago. That gift requires the elevation of the highest of humanity's nature and spirit. It requires leading by example - not by sword. It requires love and respect - of all of our people - and of all of our neighbors.

Despite all of this - I remain an optimist. I have faith in our young people - they see. They have been outside of the system for the system sickens them as it sickens me. And we have a system that can correct itself without bloodshed. Yes, we need change. We need leadership at the level of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Franklin, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. Such greatness exists. There is a void of human spirit in our American leadership - and nature abhors a vacuum.

@alex centrella: Indeed, Alex. Thanks.

@Mirko Herzner: Thanks, Mirko.