I weep as we walk in the shadow of Big Brother… not the kind and nurturing type of big brother who watches out for your well being but, the kind of big brother who hides in the dark, waiting until you are vulnerable and unsuspecting, and then he trips you as you go down a set of steep stairs into the darkness.
 
Being a proud American, nearing the tender age of 41... I have always taken my responsibility of paying my bills on-time very seriously. I do my best to raise a teenage son. I find it difficult to give him proper guidance and teach him morals while living within a country which seems hell bent on manipulating and money mongering to the point that many of its people are struggling to put a balanced diet on the table. Somehow, I find the comparison of a kingdom to be more accurate than that of a democratic republic. As a woman, a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, and a friend; I beseech the men of this country to lift up your knightly swords and smite the oppressive kings.
 
I am scared of what has become of our nation. What happened to the police officers who were sworn in to service to “Serve and Protect”? Who changed their oath to “Law Enforcement”? I thought the States were supposed to be in charge of decision making for the each and individual States? Why are so many day to day operations and decisions laid in the hands of a Federal Branch of Government? Who died and made them God?
 
Why is a moral upbringing of being accountable to a higher power considered to be offensive in this country these days? Whether you are a “believer” or not, are the guidelines of being a good and accountable person so bad for a general population? How am I supposed to teach my child to have hope when hope eluded my heart many years ago? How am I supposed to make my child feel safe and secure when our diet is diminishing and we are scraping by without any savings and a very real fear of losing our home? Where will we go? Will we find jobs there? Whatever happened to the pursuit of happiness?
 
I look around at our nation’s youth. They lack direction. They lack purpose. They lack discipline. They lack the value of family. Worst of all? They lack hope. How could they be anything but lacking? What example in life has taught them that there is or might be anything better out there?
 
I think the times of raising chickens, a garden, and utilizing local resources, and the basic skills of our hands are long over-due to return. Do I personally want to give up the modern comforts of our high technology society? Of course not. I am thankful for the knowledge that is so readily available to me. I am thankful for the medical resources we have for our loved ones. I am just very very scared of what I see happening in my country. I am scared for not just the distant future but, for the very immediate tomorrow that will begin when I wake up in the morning.
 
Get the Federal Government out of my day to day life. Bring back the responsibility of our fellow human welfare to the local community. Let the people who live and work within a particular community be responsible for making decisions about where money needs to be raised and spent. Stop worrying about the welfare of other people in other countries until we have our own homes settled and secure once again. Stop paying people in political offices UN-GODLY amounts of money to make decisions about the lives and wellbeing of people and places for which they personally have no knowledge about and therefore not a care of the out-comes for those people. Please, America, take back our personal responsibilities. I am the 99%.

 
Author: Anne Marie Absher
 
Editors Note: "We the People are the 99%"

"Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!" --Thomas Jefferson

"While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill — little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago." --John Adams