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American's
Ten Biggest Worries
by
Jack Anderson
When
the letters pour in to Jack Anderson’s office, here’s
what Americans say are nagging at them.
From the complaints
that pour into my office, I have compiled a Worry Index-those things
that gnaw at Americans and leave them with a nagging sense of uneasiness.
I was going to call it an Anger Index, but anger involves heat and
we are not fired up enough to do much about most of these things.
According to my mail, here are Americans' ten biggest worries. See
if they match with any of your frustrations.
1. The
Altering of America
The elitist and
correctors among us are changing America for the worst. They're
redefining our beliefs, revising our standards, rewriting our history
and uglifying our heroes. The elitists can be found in the ivory
towers of Wall Street, Hollywood, and academia where they have succeeded
in establishing what is politically correct and what is not. Already
this dogma has been given priority over what is morally or patriotically
correct. They seek to level and control the masses by their vision
of a new world, but they aren't interested in the feedback of the
facts. For instance, against all evidence that the stability of
society has rested upon the foundation of solid families, they seek
to discount and undo marriage, sever the ties between parents and
children, and jackhammer the traditional moral foundation. They
raise their arguments in the name of "we the people", but they really
think in terms of "they the people." They think of themselves as
the "anointed" who have a special, politically correct vision they
want to thrust upon the rest of us.
2. Moral
Standards are Declining
Across an America
that was once a safe and sane place to live, the root cause of crime
has been identified as a lapse of the enduring values that used
to undergird our country. Our schools no longer teach right and
wrong. They merely point out the risks, of drug abuse or sexual
promiscuity. Our right to think and act independently does not transcend
our obligations to society. Freedom is not a license for unrestrained
conduct. It is obedience to voluntary moral standards. Conduct that
is legally tolerated isn't always morally permissible. The surest
source of morality, our Founding Fathers agreed, was religion. Their
speeches and pamphlets made it clear that they believed the colonization
of America was guided by the hand of God. During the founding era
(1760 to 1805), the book most cited by early Americans was the Bible.
Still the founders stressed that religion should be dictated by
conscience and never by the state. They established freedom of conscience
as a fundamental, individual American right. In this spirit, the
First Continental Congress established public schools for three
purposes: to teach religion, morality, and knowledge. These basic
values are listed in that order. They are "necessary" declared the
First Congress "to good government...". Now two centuries later
our schools have abdicated their responsibility to promote religion
and morality-with dismaying results.
3. Law
and Order
Across
America, people are triple bolting their doors, installing security
systems and purchasing guns to protect themselves from marauding
criminals. They are concerned that the government is more concerned
about protecting criminals than their victims. Big city governments
are losing control of some urban neighborhoods-where murder has
become a common place response to trivial irritations. The violence
in these neighborhoods is beginning to spill into the cities proper.
My mail shows
that law-abiding citizens have had it; they lay most of the blame
on the courts for pampering criminals.
4. Government
Malaise
Americans
are losing confidence in their government. They've been shaken by
a series of federal quakes which has caused a deepening distrust
for government-all the way from the White House down to the local
court house. An El Paso talk show host listed the top three frustrations
of his listeners as: first, city government, second, county government;
and third, state government. People are fed up with all government;
they're turned off, yet they feel powerless to stop official misconduct
and mismanagement.
5. Health
Care
Complaints
are churning up against the spectacular cost explosion for ordinary
illness; the mass reductions in health insurance coverage by employers,
the mounting refusal of deficit-ridden hospitals to treat those
who cannot pay; the mushrooming of money-draining diseases such
as aids, crack addiction, and ailments of the aged. The insured
plead that the combined costs of insurance and non-covered expenses
has reached the breaking point. The uninsured complain that they
can't collect Medicaid, that the whole healthcare system, if I'm
any judge is in trouble.
6. Abortion
Uproar
My
mail shows the national uproar over abortion has become deep and
divisive, loud and bitter. The arguments have degenerated into shouting
matches, shootings, and bombings. The clamor is drowning out the
moderates who increasingly are tuning out the debate. Some newspapers
and talk show hosts will no longer accept letters or calls on this
subject because they've become so vitriolic.
7. Tax
Burden
Downward
mobility in America has been accompanied by upward taxes. The result
is that the average family income won't buy as much satisfaction
as it used to. This has caused a simmering anger that could boil
over. Most Americans sense that they can't continue to finance their
government services and living standards on borrowed money, but
they are finding it painful passing from the illusions of receiving
through the cold-turkey of paying back.
8. Government
Waste
As
chairman of Citizens Against Government Waste, I have been deluged
with protests that reveal a seething anger over federal splurging.
Americans are fed up with wantonness of waste, overcharges and outrages,
$640 toilet seats and $659 ash trays, weapons that don't work, and
contracts that should never have been signed. People understand
that it will take higher taxes, spending slashes or devalued dollars
to really balance the government's books. They want Congress to
begin by counting waste and extravagance-a simply exercise in fiscal
surgery that will hurt no one except those who waste the taxpayers'
money.
9. Crumbling
Infrastructure.
My fellow
commuters resent the wasted time and depleted vigor that drains
away during their protracted commutes. This has become a dreary,
daily ordeal that's imposed on us by inadequate road systems and
overwhelmed mass transit. Americans are fuming over daily hours
lost in gridlock traffic, the extra miles of detours to avoid bridge
repairs, the delays in congested airports; the cancellation of proposed
projects because local infrastructures can't accommodate them; the
breakdown of municipal water systems; the arson and vandalism by
poor people to express their inner anguish.
10.
The Learning Decline
Americans
are alarmed over the failure of our schools to educate our children.
American youth consistently place last or near last among the industrial
nations in basic subjects;. Their SAT scores actually show a decline
year after year. Only a tiny fraction of young Americans are technologically
literate. The result is a workforce whose poor performance is beginning
to decline. President Clinton's first Secretary of Labor Robert
Reich has been repeatedly been told by foreign executives. "Don't
quote me, but we have to simplify our machinery and dumb down our
training programs for workers in the United States."
The worries
that nag at Americans can still be dispelled. The approaching troubles
can be averted. It is not too late. But it will take all the toughness
that built America in the first place. We cannot escape responsibility
by entrusting our consciences to our leaders. They have been unwilling
to make unpopular decisions-unwilling to take unpleasant actions.
This country belongs to "we the people" as our history so eloquently
testifies. If something worries us, we must be responsible to find
solutions.
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© 2001 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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