The Image

 

After World War Two, America came into its own and seemly could do no wrong at home or away. We started printing paper money in the 50’s, with “In God We Trust” and most American’s started to live the good life in retrospective too having a good job, owning a car and home and sending their children to school and afterwards to college to receive some of the best Education of the time.

 Religion was at an all time high and close to 95% of American’s believed in God; and why not; we had just won World War two and our image and our way of life was the envy of many the world over, loved by all hated by few; which made us feel safe knowing we set the standards for the rest of the world to follow.

 In 1952 we elected Dwight D. Eisenhower as our 34^th  President; after all he was a graduate of West Point in 1915 where he was number one out of a class of 245 officers and in World War two, was a 5 star general and our top military commander that led us to victory.  He represented what The American image stood for, God and Country with strong family values with honesty and Justice for all.  He served two terms and to this day he is held in high regards as one of our better Presidents.

 Dwight D. Eisenhower was married and had two children. It was also rumored he had an affair with a one Kay Summersby over a period of time.

 Our 35^th President elect was John F. Kennedy who was assassinated while in office in Nov 1963 and served less than 1,000 days and accomplished much in such a short time. He was considered by many one of our fondest and loved Presidents. 

 He was married with two children and it is alleged to have an affair with a 19 year old White House intern in his wife’s bedroom and rumored to have had a short affair with Marilyn Monroe and a few other women.

 Richard Nixon was our 37^th President and served 5 years until Aug 8^th, 1974 when he became the only President to resign from office over his involvement in the Watergate Break-ins and cover up.  He was implemented by a tape recorder he had placed in the Oval Office after becoming President.

 Bill Clinton was our 37^th, President and could have gone down in history as one of our best Presidents ever, if it hadn’t been for his well publicized affair with Monica Lewinsky in the White House, while being married and lying to the public about it on national television.

 The upside (which were many) of Bill Clinton’s Presidency was when he acted in good faith in 1995 and re-wrote the Community Reinvestment Act; in order to help the poor obtain

housing which led to America’s financial meltdown in 2008 due to the greed of a few financial institutions and the failure of our Government watch-dog groups, which led to millions of Americans’ to losing their homes to phony bank foreclosers’ with led to a settlement offer form said banks of 1,600 dollars per household that lost their homes under this criminal act (gee; thanks guys).   

 Unless we bring The Speculators under control along with Wall Street and raise our interest rates up from zero to keep investors from taking high risk; we are headed for another financial meltdown.

 The point of all this is because of the failure of so few, the many have to suffer. We are a nation of over 310,000 million people run by only one percent of our population which according to a recent Gallup poll, still believe in God after all these years.

 There are over 355,000 churches in America with 5 or more religious images enclosed within to remind the faithful why they believe, while there are millions of non-religious images outside the churches, why they should not ; starting with our Government Institutions, our Americas Financial Institutions, to our Educational Institutions to the homeless, jobless, and to our 1 and 4 children going hungry daily, to our over crowed prison population that keeps growing larger every day; to Religious Organizations that are in violation of their own beliefs:  the 2^nd Commandment “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images”, after all, if religion is asking the right questions, why are the answers wrong?  

 What I’m advocating here is not a revolution but a suggestive change in how we elect our leaders and our policies towards the well-being and care of the majority and not the minority and the overhaul of our Educational, Financial and Health Institutions so that everyone in America both rich and poor benefit, as well as the overhaul of our foreign policies which have led us from being loved by so many to being hated by everyone (of course it didn’t help much that for years we used 64% of the worlds resources and left the other 36% to everyone else) to how we address our military options when it comes to those countries who have done us harm, to those who would like to do us harm. 

 The Roman Empire was once the most powerful nation on earth that was destroyed from within and unless we change as a people and a nation we shall go by the way of the Romans.

 Peter Kovak

 

PS: “In God We Trust.” I don’t believe it would sound any better, if it were true – Mark Twain.