January, 2006 - Nr. 1
Letter from the Editor
Dear Reader
I hope you had wonderful holidays and started the New Year in good health with not too many unobtainable resolutions. Personally I am not making many plans other than getting the move accomplished that I announced already in an earlier issue. Because of the moving we did not even have a Christmas tree or a goose this year, but good friends had us over to their house and that meant a lot to us.
Some performances of music, opera and ballet kept us cheerful, and the nasty election news was held at bay. But in that department I think the worst is yet to come.
Everywhere I go I am asked for my opinion on who will win this one. My answer is always the same: People will get the government they deserve. And the rest will be written by history.
As long as the quality of the people in and out of government is not changing there will be no change in the quality of the government. We live in times when blame is assigned to others, instead of looking for what one can do to change things for the better. Individuals are no longer willing or able to discern what their part of the mutual responsibility is in being part of a nation.
Clearly, better answers to our problems are not to be found in any different party in government, but in making sure that the most able, capable and sane individuals are stepping up to the plate and do what needs to be done, regardless of popularity. In that department anyone can do something.
We
know that our healthcare system is in poor shape. What can individuals do to
change that? Perhaps it starts with the lack of abusing it for every tiny
complaint!
Our school system is in need of an overhaul. It is up to us not governments to do that. Perhaps parents and teachers need to demand that kids need to be honoured by demanding of them a bit more instead of condescending to them by asking less of them.
Perhaps a better and sugarless diet and more athletic activities are better solutions then Ritalin from the resident school shrink.
Perhaps we should stop arguing about how we pray where when and with whom, and instead we grant everyone the right to do as they chose, I mean actually doing it, not just reading it off from a charter or constitution without meaning it.
Maybe
we have to learn again to give a damn about our neighbours and have a look
see if anyone needs some help. I dare say if one really looks then one can
see a lot needs to be done in a way we have always done it, and done it
without the help of government.
We must take back more of our lives and not assign responsibility elsewhere.
If our kids are not doing well then it has something to do with what we are doing or not doing. Blaming something or someone else or taking pills are not the solution.
Why can we not get back to basics and take care of our own house, clean it up, make it more efficient and then help someone else to do the same who is not as capable and then another and so on?
I mean there is a lot that can be done to improve conditions in our area of influence. No one is asked to change the world, just a very small part of it close to home. That is very doable: I know, I practise it.
I certainly am not saying that a lot of folks are not doing just that, but if we were doing it more then the few that oppose anything that decent people do will not matter as much.
We certainly need a bit more actual activities in our lives, a few less gadgets, and certainly a lot less guns. Doing something productive lifts morale, not loafing in a mall and consuming things one does not really need.
Somewhere in all this we can find a tiny bit of change we can produce ourselves, and this tiny bit of change can make a big difference in the long run.
How about that for a New Year’s resolution: Find something in your life to improve that will benefit you and someone else. Let us not wait until legislation is necessary to curtail our bad habits, of polluting for instance. Every time legislation comes into play we loose a big chunk of our freedoms.
Last year was not the best for an awful lot of people on this planet. We can sincerely hope that this will change for the better and do our part to make it so.
I thank all our readers and sponsors for helping us to do our part and count on their continued support.
Happy
New Year
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
Comments to: editor@echoworld.com
