"Ask not what your country and do for you, ask what you can do for your country".

I miss that kind of call to action.

I volunteer for my various causes that I hold dear, but wouldn't it be really neat for someone in authority to call upon the American people to help fix things, pitch in or just do what needs to be done?

I just can't think of a single authority figure who could do that. Can you? :sarcasm:

I'm really getting tired of being talked to like we are unable to help, that we can just sit back and let those "in charge" fix things. It's really a bit insulting.

I don't know about you all, but frankly, from the start of this whole mess in the gulf, it seemed like a golden opportunity to call upon the American people to pitch in and help.

But alas, my tinfoil hat signals me as to why they don't, so I'll keep my mouth shut.

It's really once thing to give money to a cause, but it's another thing entirely to give your time.

This is really a golden opportunity.

I know many people can't afford the time or the money, that's okay, but many others can.

I live close enough to the gulf where I can drive there and spend a weekend helping to clean. However, it seems almost at every turn we are discouraged from helping.

Think of the commerce it would bring to those areas? Motels, restaurants, etc would all greatly benefit in a time when they really need it the most.

It's as if it has become a political liability to call upon the citizens of this nation to help.

Isn't that weird?

I look at the great presidents of the past and all of them have one thing in common, they weren't afraid to ask the people of this nation to sacrifice their time, or to give up something for the greater good or pitch in, etc.

moron' told us to go shopping, Obama tells us what? He gives us a status update and a push for new alt energy tech?

Call me kooky, but I was really expecting from this speech, either a major statement regarding BP or something really basic like asking the American public for its help.

We got neither. But then again, even though I said I was "expecting", it was more like I was hoping. Hoping that the hope that he told us all to hope for would materialize.

This speech of his, to me, was the defining moment. A moment in which he could have risen above and called upon the American people to take a part, to get involved, but instead, what did we get?

A portfolio prospectus on his energy platform.

More now than ever, I suspect there will be someone new in the WH come January 2013. And it won't be a Dem. That scares the crap out of me.

(I'll probably get flamed for this. Oh well, I'm just writing how I feel.)

in raising funds for the wildlife. Get kids involved.

president lent his words.

It was a missed opportunity.

they ask nothing of us, us who are willing to do when asked.

they just treat us as consumers and not as citizens.

and it's playing out more visibly now.

The feeling you have is genuine, imo.

industry clean it up and pay for it. Hold their feet to the fire and enact enough regulations to ensure it doesn't happen again.

As for the hand-wringing over the elections, don't worry about it. The Democrats will still be in power in 2013. Hopefully we will all be further to the left than we are now.

we would rather sit by the sidelines and allow others to clean up a mess that effects us all.

Yes, the industry should clean up their mess, but what is wrong with helping?

I visit those beaches, I have no problem with helping them, even in my small way, recover.

you can surely find some way to help.

What exactly are you doing to assist in the clean up? I (like you) am involved in several volunteer activities. I didn't wait to be asked to volunteer, did you? The need was there, and I have been fortunate enough to be able to participate in making a difference-

We shouldn't need to be asked to help Javaman. That says more about 'us' than you seem to realize. After 9/11 people looked to help in all kinds of ways, I know of some neighbors who traveled down to NYC to assist, and who were turned back once they got there. Many of those who did work hard in the rubble have gotten sick and died as a result of things they were exposed to.

Pres. Obama could have asked us all to look at our personal responsibility for the amount of fossil fuels our lifestyles consume- even those of us who try hard to have as small a carbon footprint as possible. THAT would be the best way for us to help in reality- and he did in a round-about way address this 'elephant' that none of us wants to acknowledge.
How about Lieberman's suggestion that a $150yr. increase in fuel costs for the average family which would encourage and fund renewable energy? Are we willing to 'give' that as a nation? If not, I don't put much hope in the notion that some call to "do for your country" speech having any genuine impact.

Those who would answer the call you say is needed, don't need to be reminded- or asked... at least in my experience, and opinion.

peace~

sadly, many people do need to be asked, why? because many people still hold the unfounded belief that everything is under control.

We here at DU stay on top of things, but for the vast majority of people in this nation, they do not.

So therefore, they need that call to action.

And if you had read my original post, you will see that I said, "I live close enough to the gulf where I can drive there and spend a weekend helping to clean. However, it seems almost at every turn we are discouraged from helping."

I will be helping so, jesus christ, back the fuck off.

I responded as I did.

NO ONE that I know holds the "unfounded belief that everything is under control". Where do you get that? and even if you do know people who think that, what fucking difference would telling them to "help" make???

I'm glad you'll be helping- if you wanted to say that in a post, it would have been fine, but it seems to me you were simply looking for a way to say *Obama fails yet again* and cloaking it in some kind of nostalgic double-speak.

Maybe we all need to back the fuck off??

Are you willing to change your fossil fuel consumption? That IS the most effective step all of America can take to minimize future disasters like this one.

:shrug:

1) I don't have to explain anything to you.

2) you know nothing of me.

3) I try to make a simple fucking statement and you piss all over it.

4) fuck off.

I don't block people who say things I don't like hearing. But it's your right to do what you think is best.

:hi:

if what I write doesn't suit your bizarre narrow set of life's criteria, then that's just touch shit.

I offer up a concept as to what could have been a golden opportunity for Obama making a call to action and you accuse me of being anti-obama? As if that is a fucking crime to begin with. That is a disgusting accusation.

Go away. You and your ilk would be better suited living along side those who praise saint sarah and her moronic spewings. toeing the line and never questioning anything.

I'm neither for or against obama, he's an elected official. period. Once we raise our elected officials to anything other than representing us, then we all lose as citizens. And given our current atmosphere regarding how we perceive our officials, we have lost much.

someone worth having a discussion with. Do you think your angry words equating me to Sarah Palin supporters is justifiable because I disagree with you and offer my opinion in response to your rant? If so, then I guess I must be talking to someone who refuses to hear anything other than what they want to hear and can only respond with personal attacks and insults.

And I won't 'ignore' you or claim to block you, but I'll try and remember this when I read your posts in the future.

thanks.

boo hoo.

I don't know what to do?

who cares.

you may now get the last word, because frankly, I don't care what you think or believe any longer. Why I cared up to this point makes me wonder.

Because it's not your country anymore. It belongs to multinational corporations.

Personally I think Kennedy had it all wrong. We should demand everything they can possibly do for us. They should be saddled with so much social responsibility they don't have the time or resources to start wars.

no power.

so we demand nothing of them.

And since we are now consumers instead of citizens we demand everything and are so surprised when we receive nothing in return.

Gore Vidal in which he said that he couldn't support Kennedy after that statement, because to him it said that Kennedy was basically saying that the individual exists to serve the state, and not the other way around...almost as crystal clear an embrace of fascism as you could ask for.

be considered a "right-wing" ideology.

NWO Update.

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what your country can do for BP
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what your country can do to fuck everything up
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what the fuck your country is doing in other peoples countries
Ask not what your country can do for you, it doesn't give a fuck

If the government did that, I have a feeling many posters would be snidely saying the government had no right to make demands of ordinary citizens; they have to go to work to feed their families, etc.

I am appalled at so many on a liberal board needing authority figures to tell them what to do. If you really wanted to help, you'd be leading a charge yourself.