|
Jefferson owned slaves. Jag's hit on it, I think he would have been pragmatic about it.
One of my points is skew to the politics involved. The big picture is what's really important. We can always find faults and we perceive some problems as being just enormous... when perhaps they aren't, and it's just our perception that's at fault.
Look at surveys of public opinion and you see that lists of the "most important issues" change constantly. One year the economy is the most important issue. Next year the war is the most important issue. Next year the environment is the most important issue. Next year crime is the most important issue.
9/11 was a perfect example of this. Clearly, the most important issue in the USA in the year 2000 was terrorism. In surveys of public opinion it would not have made the top 100.
We are not immune. Right here on the cellar is a thread asking whether we "feel safe" - I might have asked the question, even. But the question is silly. On 9/10/2001 100% would have answered YES. Everyone felt completely safe. The real question is ARE we safe, not do we FEEL safe.
Each and every one of us here is perfectly convinced we know the most important issues to our nation and the world. A third of us believe it is the environment, another third believe it is military/governmental overreach, and another third believe it is following the will of their god. Two-thirds of us are wrong!
Sorry for the threadjacking...
|