Today, is October 9, 2008, Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement in the Jewish Religion.   I am glad that this High Holy Day is today of all days because it is falling just two days before both political candidates descend upon our illustrious state seeking support and votes from the electorate.

They are both seeking support without the benefit of having atoned for anything.   The candidates representing both parties are both suffering from amnesia each are forgetting that they share responsibility for the financial crisis and social discord that has caused Americans to have sleepless nights and restless days wondering whether they will have a home to wake-up in or a job the next day to go to.

Why did this happen?  Well, Robert J. S. Haris attributes this to the lack of oversight, regulation, greed and avarice on both sides of the isle as well as Wall Street and K Street.  You see, greed is not synonymous to one party or another or one political group or another, greed is the blood that flows through the veins of antipathy.  When you do not care to answer for your actions when you do not care to atone for your transgressions then you cannot comprehend the damage you have caused.

As part of a representative government it is the moral and ethical obligation of its representatives to be consciously aware of the collateral damage they cause by the decisions they make, the actions they take or the inaction of their antipathy.  Americans are not just votes they are human beings; they require food, shelter, healthcare, jobs and happiness.  You say happiness?  Well, our Declaration of Independence promises the pursuit of such does it not?  Why has our elected officials opted out of their responsibility for ensuring this for all people? 

The answer is very simple!  They don’t have to atone for their failures!  But, we the 25,000 Knights know that they should and we the 25,000 Knights will in the future insure that they do!

The concept of representative government created in the Great City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is not passé or archaic it is what our Republic guarantees.  What is then the problem with our society where everyone concentrates on the abstract of illusion rather than the reality of disillusion?   The American people are disillusioned with our Republic and they are lost in an abyss of confusion about who they are and what their country is today!  The guarantee of the American dream is all but gone.  The dream of an America where all people are guaranteed the magnanimous right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is fading away.  Americans know that the only thing that is guaranteed to them is that they will struggle and that struggle may or may not produce the dream and promise of a better tomorrow.

That is not what our Founding Fathers envisioned when they crafted our great Constitution.  They never intended for our representative government to become a group of selfish, self-serving group opportunists only interested in their own political positions rather than the lives of their constituents.  Why the idea of ethical and moral integrity is something that will label you as fringe or far right or in the alternative the idea that government has a social responsibility to its people is far left and liberal?  

The problems facing Americans cannot be labeled Liberal or Conservative, poverty, homelessness and lack of healthcare is not a political ideology is it a state of tragic survival.  Political ideology has nothing to do with unemployment, healthcare or quality education.   When a child is born in this country they have the right to expect that hard work will pay off for them and with a good education they can and will prosper.  The truth is if this became true again, then all of us in America will prosper.

Prosperity has to be the common goal of our representative government.  Prosperity is not abstract or obtuse it is a necessity. When Americans prosper the world prospers.  When Americans are productively employed, pay a fair share of taxes, and happy the whole world benefits.  When the goals of American children are realized then the world is rewarded with the bounty that they produced.

It is in the best interest of our representative governments that Americans are employed, have affordable quality healthcare, homes they can afford, and find quality education for their children.  It is in the interest of our national security that neighborhoods prosper.  When your neighbor across the street loses his or her job and their house is foreclosed on, then your security is threatened, your home value plummets, and your luxuries are dangling carrots for crime. 

America’s national security is threatened because our people have been neglected, persecuted, and dejected from a country that they love and believe in.  The heat is on! The American people are rejecting greed and demand that we all speak truth to power calling for accountability.  Our very way of life will change for the worse if we get it wrong this time.  The election of our new administration is so important and pivotal that we may never get the chance to get it right again as a Republic. 

If we fail to elect the correct right-minded leaders with integrity and chutzpah then we will lose America, as we know it.  We must be bipartisan in our vote and must be American in our choice.  Remember that whomever you chose as our leaders this time we will either prosper or will be destroyed by their decisions.  The choice is ours to make and GOD help us if we get it wrong!

Julie Harris McCrey
Chairman
25,000 Knights