A COMMON SPIRIT?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Was there ever a time when all people in America valued sharing and giving to the next generation?  Probably not, but I believe there was a time when many people felt that we had some responsibility to those who have less than we do and also to those who are yet to be born.

Through the 1970’s, even early 1980’s few Americans would have thought it was a good idea to undermine public education.  Few would have considered it  "good for business" to deceive people about their ability to buy a home. Only a small minority of Americans would have acknowledged the belief that folks in poverty were there because they deserved to be.

In those days, people believed in the American Capitalist system, but understood that if you had made it, you shared at least part of your success with others for the general good.  If fellow citizens received a good education, everyone benefited because it could lead to more innovation, more jobs, more progress for everyone.

Somehow, we have lost a common spirit.  Instead of lifting others, as we lift ourselves, it is now "I’ll get everything I can and everyone else can get what they can.  But, I will do everything I can to be sure they don’t get even the smallest part of what I have."

We want to fight a war, no problem, let someone else fight and pay for it.  We’ll just make money from it.

We need roads and bridges?  Let the states and locals pay for them, they’re not really "National", you know. 

"I got an education and I worked hard at it," they say.  "If someone wants an education, they can get one and we’ll make money from it, and I don’t mean the teachers, who aren’t worth what they are paid anyway."

"Health care?  I’m healthy, I don’t need to worry about that.  Besides, insurance companies should have the right to decide who they will cover and for how much.  That’s how the free market works."

If those people took out a mortgage they should have known they couldn’t pay for it.  I’m not responsible for their stupidity.  

When one percent of the population has the bulk of the resources, and they can’t relate to the 99%, it is hard to see our society successfully coming out of the current recession or dealing with the other challenges that face us:  military spending, public education, collapse of the housing industry, infrastructure, health care, our children’s future.

After all, the 1% can go to another country if this one falls apart.  Money is money and they keep theirs all over the world.  We’re just tools for their use.

We have somehow decided that’s OK.  When did we do that?