FOCUS '08

Barack: "I am white, working class"

Geoff Gilson — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:20:56 EDT

Barack, in light of Wright, the 'bitter' speech, and the not-so-good Pennsylvania debate, and in light of the fast approaching North Carolina Primary, may I suggest a speech along the following lines?

"I am a white, working class, American. I'm also a black, working class American. That's my point. They are the same.

I'm not elite. With considerable sacrifice from my white family, and my own hard work, I made the Harvard Law Review. Isn't this the American Dream? Isn't this what we all want for ourselves, and for our kids?

But I've not forgotten my roots. That's why I spent 19 years working on the south side of Chicago. That's why I'm running for President.

I want the same dream for all Americans. I want them to realize Martin Luther King's Dream, too. Walking hand in hand.

The only thing that makes me angry is that instead of unity we have division - first in our Party and then in this Country.

We need unity to achieve the Dream for all.

But I will not become 'bitter' and distracted. I will not escape into the political equivalent of 'guns and religion,' what you know as negative campaigning!

I want a campaign we can all be proud of. I want a campaign we can all believe in. I want a Party we can all believe in. And I want a Country we can all be proud of. Whether we're white, black, red or brown; working class, or not. And we can do it!"

A little over-simplified, but you get the point. And Barack, you've made many of these points already. But perhaps you've been a little too scatter-shot, a tad too discursive?

It's time to get to the point. To get out of the classroom, and into the pulpit. To speak to your target audience in their own language.

You're a clever guy, surrounded by other clever people. You can fill in the gaps. If you need some help, I've got the full speech. Drop me a line in North Carolina. You know where I am.

FOCUS On America's Working Families [NCEF]

Geoff Gilson — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:31:25 EDT

[What follows is an open letter to Barack and his team of Economic Advisers, that I will be taking with me to the Chapel Hill, North Carolina meeting of Barack's North Carolina Economic Forum.]

Dear Barack,

Better than 'Bitter': "FOCUS '08"

I will be attending the Chapel Hill meeting of your North Carolina Economic Forum on April 15, 2008.

There, I will be urging you and your team of Economic Advisers to adopt into your campaign policy my proposition, FOCUS '08, a simple, yet powerful proposition that offers comfort to all working families who currently live in fear of losing their homes and jobs, or who feel they can't make ends meet because of rising food and gas prices (www.focusonpoverty.blogspot.com).

FOCUS '08 declares that:

'Every man, woman and child in the United States should have access to adequate food, clothing, housing and healthcare.'

I am registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina, and frankly, I consider myself to be undecided until the moment my pen hits the ballot paper. However, there is much about you and your camapign, Barack, that attracts me. Not least your obvious empathy with working people.

It is, therefore, as a friend of your efforts that I write this letter, and although painfully blunt (and something tells me you won't mind that!), it is offered solely in a spirit of helpfulness. So, to business:

It is a brave man, Barack, who advances an honest analysis of dire economic conditions, without immediately accompanying it with a concise summary of the uplifting policy that will address resolution - wrapped up in language that enrolls rather than offends.

This last point, in particular, should now be crystal clear in light of the temporary hiccup that has followed your 'bitter' speech last weekend.

Mind you, what you said was spot on - as an incisive checklist of the frustrations of working people in America. I should know. I am one of America's angry working poor.

It is only those who are truly elitist and out of touch who would suggest our anxieties do not exist, and who would deny that it is all too easy to find unhealthy ways to vent those anxieties - and that there are those who would feed on the latter fact.

Goodness knows it's nice to have a politician who has the guts to be honest and straightforward. But, to be equally honest, what was a little unfortunate, Barack, was your language, and the fact that you chose not to accompany the analysis with a simple breakdown of your recommended solutions.

Without wishing to appear too presumptuous, I hope you won't mind if I use the opportunity of the Forum meeting to help you out a tad, and offer a couple of ideas that might assist you in addressing both of these issues.

For some years now, America's working folk - whether in the cities or in the country - have watched helplessly as power-mongers and the elite in political and financial circles have caused the American economy wildly to ride the waves, and then to crash into the abyss.

Why helplessly? Because all this has meant for us is more jobs lost, more plants shut down, our homes under threat, prices rising, the bar continually raised and our lives constantly squeezed.

Democrats, to whom I have spoken, have openly wondered why, through all this, more and more of my working friends have found themselves turning to the likes of George Bush, and now John McCain.

I tell these Democrats that, at a time of seeming inability to cope, at a time when all seems so weak, it is easy to turn to the appearance of strength and experience - however false the promise of that strength and experience may be.

When you sense that your country has abandoned you, and there is little point in trying, it is too easy to find paths of escapism. One of the easiest is a political philosophy that says it's ok to take that anger and convert it into hatred and envy and revenge.

When we are told that the real problem lies overseas, it's all too easy to respond to a pseudo-call for patriotism and sense of duty, and to cheer on a war, even though we now know that war is both futile and dishonest - and, moreover, it is killing a disproportionate amount of the sons and daughters of our working familes.

And where have the Democrats been, to offer we working people an alternative? Why, trying their hardest to pack themselves into those same Republican clothes - but without packing any conviction.

The problem is, when you're a sheep in wolf's clothing, it's a bit difficult to look anything other than…well…sheepish.

Until you, Barack, came along.

I'd had a bad feeling about voting for some 20 years. You are the first American politician in that time who's making me look forward to voting in November.

Now. We've hit a glitch. It's not the end of the world. And this is what I suggest to you and your Economic Team going forward:

1) Adopt FOCUS '08. The working folk of this country deserve a rallying cry that offers them a safety net, while preserving their dignity.

This is true, not just for those of us who already struggle below the poverty line, but also for those who, through no fault of their own, feel that they may be next.

We did not create the housing and jobs crisis, or cause gas and food prices to rise.

2) Enroll these same good people, Barack, in the campaign to sell you, your policies and FOCUS '08.

Do not pity us. We are a proud people. Appeal to our better nature. Challenge us. Turn the tables on your opponents, and make an appeal to genuine patriotism and a real sense of moral duty.

Go so far as to put it in military terms, if necessary.

Offer us a deal - "A New Compact." Tell us boldly and bravely: 'You take care of your business at home, and we'll back you up, by taking care of our business in Washington.'

[I expand on this approach in a separate document of talking points, which can be found as the next post in this blog.]

Call on America's working men and women to support a "Citizen's Code": family, country and honor.

'We take care of our family first; then we help our neighbor; then the folk around us. Not because of a political slogan or a grand economic strategy, and not for personal gain or ambition, but because it's the honorable, the right thing to do.'

Meanwhile, holding up the other side of the compact, you, Barack, have to clean up Washington. Clear out the logjams, get the necessary bi-partisan support, prioritize action, and get us the help we need to support what we're doing on the home and family front.

FOCUS '08 can be a part of that. Take George Bush's slogan, and turn it against our opponents. Make that slogan ours - and make it apply to all Americans under a Barack Administration. 'We will leave no-one behind.'

I have my own political line for all of this: 'Taking Care of America's Family Values.'

So, Barack, come one, why not give it a try? Visit the web-site (http://focusonpoverty.blogspot.com), sign the Petition (www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/483881699), even buy the T-shirt (http://197491.spreadshirt.com).

But. Most important of all. Adopt FOCUS '08, and enroll America's working folk in its implementation.

FOCUS '08: Talking Points

Geoff Gilson — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:10:05 EDT

[What follows are talking points for Barack in support of FOCUS '08. If you want a prettier hard-copy, please feel free to write to me at the e-mail addesss at the end.]

The proposition - FOCUS '08:

“Every man, woman and child in the United States should have access to adequate food, clothing, housing and healthcare."

The Rationale

No politician likes to be told upon whom they need to focus their attention, and how. It betrays weakness. I’m assuming you’re [Barack] as different as you say.

The demographic battleground in this election may well be the white working male – the ‘once upon a time’ Reagan Democrats. Reagan lured them with an appeal to their pride and patriotism. You need to appeal to the same pride, but to a different sense of duty.

Many are today scared of losing what they have. Of joining the millions of already working poor. They fear losing their jobs, their homes, but most of all their dignity. And there is the rub.

As much as they worry about rising food and gas prices, they are too proud to ask for help; to be considered part of any grand plan for the poor. So, you can’t openly offer them a helping hand.

Instead, you should ask of them that they be the ones to offer the helping hand to those of their neighbors who are already working poor. This gives them the opportunity to be selfless. Yet, see that there is a safety net for them too, if they should falter.

Whereas Bush takes their fear, and turns it into anger and envy and revenge, you allow them to be truly courageous, and change that fear into a determination to help themselves and their neighbors.

I call it A New FOCUS.

When you come to North Carolina, you are not going to be able to avoid the subject of poverty – not in John Edward’s backyard. FOCUS offers you a way of addressing the fears of working people, without telling them what they already know – they might be about to join the ranks of the working poor.

What follows is not so much a speech, as a series of possible talking points, to flesh out these preliminary thoughts.

“A New FOCUS”: Taking Care of America’s Family Values

1) A Safe and Strong America

I [that would be you, Barack] want a safe and strong America.

I don’t mean one like the Republicans want.

I want an America where every man, woman and child feels safe.

There are a lot of scared people in our country at the moment.

Scared of losing their job or their home. Scared of not being able to feed their children because of rising food prices. Or buy gas. Or put their clothes on their children’s backs, and pay to keep them healthy and strong.

There are millions of our friends and neighbors who already live in that nightmare. Working families who struggle every day with dignity and grace, but still fail to make ends meet.

You may be one of those brave folk. Or you may know of one. Or more. Indeed, and perhaps more to the point, you may be scared that you will be next.

This is not good enough. Our citizens. You. Your friends, your neighbors. Our servicemen fighting bravely abroad. Their families who remain at home. Our firefighters. Our teachers. Our friends who keep the lights on, the water running, and serve us at the gas station and the convenience store. All of us, we deserve better than this.

We all deserve the right to feel safe. To feel secure. To know that there is an adequate safety net if we should stumble for a moment.

And we politicians need to find the strength and willpower in ourselves to help you help yourselves and your friends and neighbors.

And it’s not just down to we politicians.

You know the hardest thing is to ask for help. To have the strength to ask for help. To have the inner courage to set aside false pride, and admit to oneself that one needs help. To have the courage to ask for it – so as to keep you and your family safe.

Now, I know a thing or two about asking for help. Some xxxxxxxx million of you have responded generously to my request for help with this peoples’ campaign of ours to make change a reality for all working Americans.

That takes almost as much strength – the willingness to respond. When you are facing difficulties of your own. To set those to one side. Recognize that there may be those of your friends or neighbors whose need for a helping hand is greater. That takes generosity of spirit, and true strength.

Helping them, without the need for them having to ask; without the need for a government program; or a political slogan. Just helping because it’s the decent thing to do. That takes real strength.

And here I don’t mean strength like some do. I don’t mean taking fear, and turning it into anger, and calling it patriotism. I don’t mean taking frustration, turning it into envy, and calling it duty. I mean real strength.

Real men don’t get angry. They get busy. They don’t find easy targets to attack. They do the truly difficult thing. The selfless thing. The less glamorous thing. They stay at home, and take care of business.

They take care of their families. And then they take care of their neighborhoods. And then they help to take care of the less fortunate around the country. That’s what real men do.

Now, our country can help. We politicians can help.

We can find the strength to speak the truth, to take bold action and to hold out a helping hand – not a handout; a helping hand. Offer all working folk, not a tax break – just a decent break.

The working people of America – ordinary folk, like you and me – we are proud.

We want to be able to look after our own.

We won’t beg. And we shouldn’t be made to.

I can’t promise to fix all the problems that are causing so much pain and fear today. Although I will address them if you give me the chance.

But I can pledge to you today that my Administration will live by the proposition that every man, woman and child in the United States should feel safe.

I call it our “New FOCUS”.

It’s central theme is that every man, woman and child in the United States of America will have access to adequate food, clothing, housing and healthcare.

2) What is Too Much to Ask?

Let me begin by telling you how I [that would be me, Geoff] came to FOCUS.

For two years, I lived with a working girl, let’s call her Toni, and her three children, who were 8, 5 and 2 years old.

We lived in Seneca, South Carolina, ironically the birthplace of John Edwards. Toni’s parents still live near Charlotte, North Carolina.

Toni lived every day in a cocktail of emotional and physical pain. Her husband of 10 years left her after promising that once he had finished college he would stay at home and look after the kids while she completed her degree in computing.

Never happened. Instead, two weeks after her third child was born, her husband upped and left her and the kids. He then spent 5 years trying to take the children away from her.

Toni went back to work, as the manager of a video department in her local supermarket. Her body had a chemical reaction to child-bearing that left her in so much pain that there would be days when I would find her hunched over on the floor of her department, labeling videos, the tears running down her face.

But Toni never, ever gave up.

She bore the pain. She fought for her kids. And won. She struggled at work. Against supervisors for whom disability and family commitment were one-line jokes, not rights guaranteed by American law.

I wondered so many times why she never gave up. If there would ever be a moment when she thought that this was all too much to ask.

And then, on a quiet Saturday evening, I’d peek in and see her singing gently to her 2-year old, as she washed him in the bathtub. I’d laugh as she yelled at the other two to stop fighting in the front room.

And I realized, with stunning clarity, that nothing would ever be too much to ask of this working parent. Everything was worth the struggle, if it meant that she had these few moments each week with her children.

So, what is too much to ask of each of us?

Toni is the strongest and bravest person I know. Braver than me. I didn’t have the strength to stay with her. That honor resides with her new husband, who works 2 to 3 jobs to try to help Toni make ends meet.

Toni is too brave, too proud to ask for her help. But I’ll ask for her. And for the millions of other working families who struggle with pride to make the world safe for their kids.

What is too much to ask? What is too much to ask to keep Toni and her husband and children, and every man, woman and child in America, safe and secure? Free from fear?

Of course, the naysayers will jump up and down and declaim that this will cost money.

Let’s be honest. Of course it will cost money.

If anyone out there knows of a way to guarantee that each of our citizens has the basic necessities of life without it costing money then I [Barack] will guarantee that person a job in my new Administration.

Ideological rants from talk show hosts won’t put clothes on backs, food in bellies, stop foreclosures or bring down the cost of gas.

Only money will do that.

And public money – your money. I will never forget that each and every dollar that government spends is a dollar that has come out of your pocket, the product of your daily sweat.

Your tax dollars have to lead the way.

Do you know that an increase in tax of 1% across the board – that is, 1% on every tax, from income tax, to corporation tax, to capital gains tax – 1% would raise some $200 billion a year.

$200 billion that we could use to begin the job of offering a helping hand to Toni, and all the working people like her, who currently live in fear in this, the richest country the world has ever known.

Is 1% really too much to ask to keep working families safe? Our friends’ families? Our neighbors’ families?

We can find the money to rebuild a country half a world away. Are we really saying that we can’t find the money to rebuild our own country?

Is this really too much to ask?

There are those who will claim that this is all 'their' fault. As if working families caused the housing crisis. As if working families caused jobs to move overseas. As if working families caused gas and food prices to rise. The Social Security fund to fall. The dollar to collapse.

C’mon. Government did this. And government has to lead the way in finding the answer. We can not and we will not pass the buck.

And anyway, enough of this finger-pointing and blame. I’m so tired of being told there’s only so much we can do – when ‘so much’ is so often just not enough; just too little.

We are a people of boundless generosity and unlimited vision and possibility. We overflow with optimism and hope. We have allowed ourselves for too long to be sold a bill of goods. We have for too long bought into the message of despair and pessimism.

I’m tired of a government that tells us it’s ok to have an economic policy based on greed; a social policy based on envy; and a foreign policy based on hatred and revenge.

Other politicians may tell you that we can be better. I say that we are better, right now [oops, back to being you, Barack, again!].

In my travels around America I have seen only warmth and generosity and hope towards all the people of this land.

I don’t think there is one caring American who would say that this is too much to ask.

3) What has Happened to Honor?

My [Geoff’s] Aunt in Grand Rapids, Michigan just died at the age of 84, after a 26-year battle with breast cancer.

Every day of her life, she was a practicing liberal, Democratic, Catholic. But ‘liberal’ in the old tradition. Before the Republicans made it a cuss word.

‘Liberal’ in the sense that she was brought up to believe that you cared and you gave back, without needing a political slogan or a government program to prod you. She gave because it was the decent thing to do.

What has happened to that sense of decency? That sense of duty and honor? When you do something because it is right; not because it brings you material reward or political kudos?

When we didn’t allow a bigot or a talking head to convince us that it’s all too much to ask, or that everything is doom and gloom?

We seem to have forgotten words like: honor, loyalty, responsibility.

We do terrible things, because we can, and because we can get away with them. Where is the self-control? Where is the little voice inside each of us saying, this is just plain wrong? There is a better way. It’s not too much to ask.

We do things to gain an advantage. For profit. For personal gain. For political gain.

So, we lie, we spin, we torture, we break our own rules. For that extra advantage. And we convince ourselves that’s it’s ok. Because of that extra advantage.

We do it for today. And we let tomorrow take care of itself. Without realizing that we have mortgaged all the financial 'tomorrows' of our kids and their kids. And we have held their consciences to ransom.

Yet, when that 'tomorrow' finally comes, we feel bad about ourselves. And we’ve been feeling bad about ourselves for a long time.

It’s time to start doing the right things. Just because they are the right things to do.

It’s time to start feeling good about ourselves. It’s time to cast away the doom merchants and say, it’s not too much to ask.

We see a friend or a neighbor in pain – someone like Toni – but we don’t help. We are still tempted to listen to the mean voice that says, ‘this is all pennies out of your pocket.’

It’s time to stop listening to that voice, and to start again to listen to the voice of our conscience – the voice of my Aunt – speaking, the voice that says, ‘it’s not too much to ask.’

To all those sensible voices that talk of ‘ the common good’ and ‘social responsibility.’

We have become a country of division and exclusion. When we are, in fact, a people that naturally includes.

That is the basis on which this great country was founded. That we welcome the poor and the huddled masses from other countries, and we include them in our society.

Let’s be no less inclusive of those who already live in our country.

No-one should be left behind. Not one man, woman or child. There should be a safe home for everyone in our country. We deserve no less.

It’s not a question of whether it’s too much to ask. The question is how much is too little to deliver.

It’s not so much that we need change, as we need a return to America’s true values.

Values based on social conscience and selfless good works.

Warmth and generosity that flow from the American heart, and the wisdom and intelligence of its working people.

Good deeds that are undertaken by good people – with a little helping hand from our tax dollars. Because it's not too much to ask.

4) Where are the Real Men?

[FOCUS arose out of a series of programs we did on our local community radio (WCOM 103.5FM Carrboro/Chapel Hill), following the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. One of the questions posed to me was, how do you sell FOCUS to working stiffs who think it’s ok to vote Republican because George Bush is a ‘real man’ who straps on his boots and brings the oil home? This was my response. Like most of what I offer, it’s blunt.]

FOCUS: How to sell it

To whom are we selling “A New Reality” and FOCUS? First, to Merlot Democrats, who need to re-learn three things:

· The Democratic Party is supposed to represent the interest of ordinary Americans, who, more and more, are also America’s working poor.

· America’s working poor do not always want the same things that enlightened and educated 'Merlot' Democrats think they should want.

· The Democratic Party should, once again, become a Party of listeners.

Once that hurdle is negotiated, we need to focus our attention on winning back NASCAR Democrats, who are the working backbone of America – they keep the shop running.

My view is that you sell “A New Reality” and FOCUS both as tough love and as the ‘Real Deal.’

Bush Democrats think real men, real heroes go down to the VFW on a Friday night, down a few beers, and sing along with Toby Keith as he knocks the stuffing out of a few Arabs.

A ‘real’ Democrat would stand up and say that real men, real heroes stay home on a Friday night and take care of business.

They don’t steal their wife’s rent money, or skip out on child support. They take care of business. They buy the food. They help around the house. They give their hard-working wives a break.

They offer a helping hand to the guy down the street who’s fallen on hard times. They help the neighborhood, by looking after the environment. They take responsibility for their lives, their families, their neighborhood and their country.

The Marine motto is that no-one is ever left behind. Bush stole it for his education program. Democrats should take it back, and make it their war-cry for 2008 – in a Democratic America, no-one will be left behind. FOCUS should be the first shot in that battle.

It is being reported that 2005 will see the single largest leap in State revenues from tax since 1990 – some 7.2%. Already, Governors are talking tax cuts. This is nonsense.

1990 was the herald of the coming economic expansion. If we are about to undergo another economic growth period, then Democrats need to develop sufficient guts to say: enough of cuts; we will use that extra revenue to ‘invest’ in people in America.

That was the message that Tony Blair used in Great Britain to overturn 18 years of tax-cutting Conservatives. He had to promise that there would never be any tax increases, but that spending cuts and increasing tax revenues would be used to invest in people.

I think Democrats should take the Robert Kennedy approach, and go one further. They should say, irrespective of any increase in tax revenues, they would increase the rate of taxation, on both individuals and corporations, across the board, by 1% a year, for the four years of a Presidential administration.

America’s working poor, NASCAR Democrats do not want a tax break; they just want a decent break. They don’t want a hand-out; they merely ask for a helping hand. It’s not too much too ask.

We are the richest country the world has ever known. We have also regularly proven ourselves to be the most generous nation the world has ever known. If ever there was a time to rise, once again, to that challenge, it is now.

America’s people deserve more than an economic policy based on greed, a social policy based on hatred, and a foreign policy based on revenge.

It is time for the government to take care of its real business; for corporations to take care of real people; and for the people to take care of their real responsibilities.

That’s how you sell “A New Reality.” That’s how you sell FOCUS.

One final point: Rahm Emmanuel, the Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has predicted that it is highly unlikely that Democrats will regain control of Congress any time soon. There are simply not enough marginal Republican seats ups for grabs.

Change will come, therefore, only with a change in the White House. And Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain are looking more formidable than anything the Democrats have to offer – at least with their existing message.

[Oops. Remember, this was written in 2005. Mind you, I didn’t do too badly on the John McCain prediction!]

Ideas submitted by Geoff Gilson. No copyright attaches. Have at it. Use as you will. My concern is only that the right thing is done, not that credit is forthcoming.

These ideas flow from my thoughts on FOCUS On Poverty 2008. But you can’t enroll working people into the concept by scaring them with the specter of their own possibly impending poverty. Instead, better to appeal to their sense of duty and honor. Hence, the morph into ‘A New FOCUS’.

You can find more at:

www.focusonpoverty.blogspot.com

www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/483881699 (to sign the Petition)

http://197491.spreadshirt.com (for the stylish T-shirts!)

And you can contact me at: 200 Barnes Street, Apt. B-18Carrboro, North Carolina 27510 (919)923-0096

geoffgilson@hotmail.com

FOCUS On Immigration

Geoff Gilson — Tue, 01 May 2007 08:48:53 EDT

We are all witness to the increasing focus in this country on how to renew the American Dream for those of our friends and neighbors struggling below the poverty line.

May 1 is a good time to spare a thought for those around the world who also live in poverty, and whose dream of improving their circumstances is to join the melting pot that is this American nation.

What better way to celebrate their ambition than to remind ourselves of the inscription to be found at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
a mighty woman with a torch
whose flame is imprisoned lightning,
and her name Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand glows
world-wide welcome;
her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor
that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands your storied pomp!"
cries she with silent lips.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

No mention here of green cards or financial qualifications. No hint of border fences or security patrols.

Only a simple invitation to come - penniless, but hopeful - to our shores, where all will be welcome.

No need even to say 'thank you,' because you were welcome even before you left your homeland.

Today is a good day to remind our leaders that we are still a generous nation, even though they may have become scared and selfish and small-minded.

Today is a good day to think about what we can do to reclaim our government. To renew our invitation to those of our friends around the world who still live poor and huddled, and who want so badly to join our Dream.

Virginia Tech: "Wake Up America!"

Geoff Gilson — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:28:20 EDT

Today, we are all Hokies.

No sentient human being can watch the images of despair on the TV news, and not feel the pain of everyone at Virginia Tech, and in the small supporting township of Blacksburg, Virginia.

But we must also wonder, in confusion, what has become of our country. What on earth made this happen? What did we do that was so wrong that it could bring this to pass?

I can remember the Sixties like they were yesterday.

At home, America seemed to be a land of plenty. And Americans sought to carry that good feeling to new frontiers around the globe.

My father was a part of that crusade. Which is how I ended up being born and bred in England, even though my family had made the initial journey to America with the rest of the pilgrims, on the Mayflower.

My dad helped to introduce the American Express card to all points north and south, on the other side of the Atlantic - in Europe, the Middle East and in Africa.

It's difficult to conceive of a time when such capitalist artifacts were not commonplace around the world. But it was an era of adventure, heralded by John Kennedy's rousing words from the steps of the Capitol in Washington.

And then it all went wrong.

Assassinations. Vietnam. Watergate. A loss of innocence. A loss of pride. The adventure just crumbling away. I spent my teenage years in Europe avoiding the graffiti on the walls calling for all Yanks to go home.

When you believe that your excessive bonhomie and good fortune are impenetrable, and that you are welcome wherever you go, it's a mind-shock to discover that you're vulnerable after all, and that your neighbors were just waiting for you to fall over.

America withdrew into itself. It dropped all pretence of genuine altruism, and turned instead to self-gratification.

Ambition and greed were the driving force at home, and where before America had prided itself on its spirit of outgoing generosity and charity when dealing with the rest of the world, now it was determined only to ensure that none got in its way.

The 'me' generations took over. Two stock booms. Corporate malfeasance. And a growing disparity between the rich and the poor.

An economic policy fuelled by greed; a social policy based on hatred; and a foreign policy driven by revenge.

These are the character traits by which America is recognised around the world in the 21st century.

But don't blame just our leaders. We have all cheered and encouraged the development of the society in which we live today.

It is not Congress or our Presidents who made us cynical and selfish. We did that to ourselves.

It is we who encourage the paparazzi, when we rush to buy the latest photo's of celebrity disgrace.

It is we who spend hours each evening delighting in the discomfort and embarrassment of ordinary people on TV reality shows.

It is we who think it is cute to be selfish and mean and intolerant and abusive.

And it is we who have determined that each of us, in our daily lives, will no longer think of what we can do for others, but rather that we should react to every given situation with prototypical Alpha American Attitude.

A wise politician in England once said, you can't legislate feelings.

There is way too much anger and intolerance in America today. But the answer is not to turn our cities and our universities into over-protected fortresses. Or to start another fruitless debate about the right to bear arms.

The answer lies in each of us.

Starting today, we can all make choices about how we act and react. What we watch and read. Whether or not we take the time to help the person we see has fallen by the wayside.

It is not government that will make us a less angry and a more tolerant country. It is each of us making better choices.

The political season is upon us. We will hear much from people telling us that we can be better; that we deserve better.

I say that we are better people - right now. And all we need to prove it is to start being better people in our dealings with our neighbors and our friends.

We deserve to get only that which we are prepared to give.