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Spiritual Climate Newsletter JANUARY 2007 PART 2 ~ THE UNHEARD VOICES by Adam Crosthwaite

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 The Unheard Voices

By Adam Crosthwaite

The adverse effects of poor policy practices in this country are at an all time high. The tax payers of this country are beginning to stir and the politicians are finding reasons to squirm. New faces and new voices with new tactics are in the initial stages of effecting major changes in those policies, however there are many voices that are not heard; millions of faces and voices that have no say because they are too busy fighting too survive the fall out from the politically correct white collar genocide in this country that has been perfected over the past five decades. Due to sophist attitudes and the favorite argument of victim precipitation by those who quietly pull the strings from behind the scenes to manipulate policy in this world many voices have been stifled.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been tripped up by the system that was in place to save them from falling between the cracks. Children who see little to nothing of their parents because they both work two jobs in order to keep a roof over their heads and clothes on their child’s back. The parents, single parents mostly women, seem to be most affected, who are full time students as well as full time employed who are slipping through the cracks just as quickly as their non-parent counter parts. Most of these parents have been working since early teenage years and paying taxes.

In Denver there is a mom who has worked for the biggest telecommunications company in the U.S. for over thirty five years. After decades of service and sacrificing time with her family to travel across the country for weeks at a time she will not have the option of retiring with full benefits for another decade. She is fifty seven years of age this year and has little if any hope to enjoy a retirement in this life. She has spent the last three years undergoing surgeries and traveling as far as Ohio to the Mayo Clinic for treatments for an ailment. Her doctor finally decided to remove her tail bone as a last ditch effort to save her life. The doctor wants to put her in the hospital again in three weeks because she keeps losing weight even while she eats relatively healthy meals. Unfortunately she may not be able to visit her doctor much longer on account of the fact that in order to keep her benefits she will need to return to work before the end of January.

State benefits are out of the question because her husband makes enough money to keep them just barely above poverty level and that is enough to keep them from being eligible for benefits. Benefits that have been paid for are due to run out, there is little hope to maintain the mortgage that had been paid along with all the household bills for nearly thirty years. This is a family that has been paying taxes for over forty years, yet there remains an out of pocket cost of five thousand dollars that is being paid by the long term disability purchased over the thirty plus years of service which is due to run out in a matter of days.

About twenty five miles across town, a single mother with two boys has to fight to spend one weekend with her children because the city she works for can not keep enough people on the payroll to maintain snow plow shifts. Instead of spending time with her sons during the Holiday season last month she was out on the roads for twelve hours at a time clearing snow and ice so the others in her community could get home safely to their loved ones. She was home with her children on the weekend for the first time in almost a month.

In another city approximately 999 miles away there is young boy thirteen years old who sits in middle of a classroom hiding his head under his jacket, falling deeper into depression by the minute. A year ago he was in a fight with another boy at school. The other kid was hurt. The student who was hurt is still in the same school and attending regular classes. The boy who sits in a “self-contained class room” for Emotionally Disabled, ED for short, students was sent to this classroom in another school after a year of completing every program the district could throw at him. I was informed by his teacher that he had completed over four different programs in one year. This child has proven himself capable of not only complying and adhering to the rules of the district, but has surpassed them for over a year. All he wants is to get back into his regular school and attend class in order to complete his education. He cannot attend general education class in the school he was transferred to due to policies adopted by the district which were a by-product of the State policies as influenced by the federal program NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!

This young man is one of millions of kids in this country slipping through the cracks every day. Those who preach to them about the great evils of gangs and street life are setting the stage for the streets to become the only apparent option for a decent life. After all, the family members who joined the gangs do stand by their word, though they may have other motives regarding the welfare of the community, they still do as they say and will never turn their backs on the members of their gang.

Jobs continue to disappear by the thousands and the demands on the service workers who remain continue to increase. As for the few production jobs that exist in the United States, many of those workers are either training people for their position to be out sourced to foreign countries or they are at the mercy of increased productivity demands in order for their employer to remain competitive with manufacturing in other countries. In 2006 domestic automobile manufactures lost over one thousand dollars per vehicle sold in the United States and are projecting further losses and deletion of jobs before the hopeful turnaround estimated to take place in two to three years, of course that is assuming things don’t terribly worsen before than.

Children in this world every day see the future they were promised melted into a pool of sludge in the flames set by the hands of those who promised them that future. By the time they grow up to be old enough to work full time and even vote the world they live in will have no place for these practices. Instead they will learn to fight with their hands and weapons in order to maintain their positions of stability.

This country has seen a glimmer of light in the midterm elections last November, as well as with the opening of the 110th congress this year with the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. There are some big changes on the way. This change is as equally overdue as it is needed. It was during the opening ceremonies for the new Congress that the gauntlet was thrown down when Pelosi decided to make history a second time in one day. After she was sworn in and the gavel was passed to her by her predecessor to the position of Speaker of the House, she called the attention of the world to the children. Every child on the chamber floor was called to the front to remind each man and woman about to be sworn into office that they are accountable for the future of the children. And each and every legislator in that chamber had to stand there and look those children in the face as they swore to uphold the principles of liberty that are in place to ensure that very future. Judging from some of the expressions in the room that day I’m not too sure how many of those people understood the importance of that moment. While the Constitution stands to ensure the rites of freedom, it is a privilege to be part of the system that protects and upholds those freedoms. In the days to come we will see just how impactual that moment of TRUTH was on the chamber floor that day.

The good news is that the voices of sound judgment are being heard in the committees that followed the State of the Union Address and first 100 hours of the 110th Congress. Voices demanding accountability from peers echo from both sides of the aisle are directed at everyone, not just a form of mud slinging.

Policies are being rewritten in this country and help is on the horizon, but I pray that in the haste to save the future our law makers do not miss the mark by forgetting the mistakes of their predecessors as well as those who remain in office shed their fears of the past and make the right decisions to save the future of this country.

It is in the humility of the moment when truth is honored and self preservation takes a backseat to accountability. It has been written that without humility there is no honor. It is the humility of honoring the truth regardless of the sacrifice that may be demanded in return that true honor and real strength are forged. However humbling ones self to the truth of a situation does not equate to acceptance of the situation. The State of this Union has been suffering long enough, it is time to honor that truth and let it be known that it will not be tolerated by those who pay for the mistakes of the privileged. There is no privilege without consequence and there is no reason for a nation to be turned inside out over such matters. There is a way for a peaceful and quick resolution to this situation that America is faced with.

There has to be accountability in this world, and for that the voices must be heard, the voices that have yet to be discovered. The voice of the child that slowly slips further away from a world that desperately needs his input has got to be heard even if only through the talent of the art work he pours his emotion into every day, the voices of children that can’t be heard by mommy and daddy because they are out working two or even three jobs just keep a roof over their heads.

Each of these voices is as precious as the tears that go unseen by those who give reason for their existence. These are the voices that are the missing colors in the mosaic of freedom. They are the foundation for the landscape of peace, for every day they go unheard a seed goes unplanted. How can there be any hope when the sun never shines on the young?

May the future be bright and clear for our country as the mistakes of the past are corrected by the courage and honesty of those who step forth to lead.

Blessings,

Adam Crosthwaite

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