Tom Kawczynski - Off the Record

I think people focus their efforts wrongly.  People spend so much time fixating on big problems they cannot solve instead of finding smaller ones that can be managed.  Even if you have the grandest of ambitions, you can only begin to reach those through a series of smaller steps.

I think of my own politics in this way.  In the largest scope, I think we've lost ourselves as people and as a nation.  America was built upon the idea that individuals could live freely, make good decisions for themselves, and come together as a community to accomplish something greater.  I can understand the myriad reasons people have to be cynical, but I think when we lost that idealism, we lost something special.

Maybe this is what the later days of an empire feel like.  We find ourselves with all the wealth, but none of the meaning.  We drape ourselves in the flag, in the memories of our ancestors, and their battles, and look at our future.  A super state, a military empire, a bunch of cheap goods, and prosperity.  Maybe.

We need a dream again.  I am not one who believes anything will change at the federal level, at any time soon, because there's a reason things are as they are.  There is much wealth, time, and talent invested in the status quo.  And yet, we know people want something different.

In what I will try, I will be different.  I don't really care about the traditional lines, and I don't plan on using the traditional words.  We haven't the time for that.  People just need to realize that the fundamental choice is becoming more polar each day:  Will we make decisions for ourselves or have them made for us?

The mindset that people cannot because they are too apathetic, too stupid, too lazy, or too ignorant must change.  We must change it, because if it is true, then I think there is no point and we might as well just select someone, on some goodly criteria, and let them decide our future.  I know many who believe we should do just that.  I hope they are wrong, and that somewhere in this town where I've chosen to live, I can kindle a spirit that will see just that.

Hope, when all else fails.