Sharpening the Sword

    Let’s face it—life is a double-edged sword. You are born, you live a relatively short life, averaging 70 or 80 years, in a universe understood to be roughly 13.7 billion years old, and then you die; but is there something more to life than this Excalibur of truth? Honestly? I will have to say probably not; at least in the sense that this double-edged quality seems to be present in almost every conscience choice that can ever possibly be made. Nearly all aspects of life can be concluded to being double-edged. Even the time spent becoming knowledgeable can be considered to be time taken away from working for monetary gain--which as I mentioned earlier is what our current vision of success is based upon--or time away from a vast selection of trivial activities. But what is it that prevents us from letting ourselves advance as a societal whole? Can any amount of money truly buy knowledge?

     I propose that learning should never be equated in any way with the monetary system and it is a shame that it has become so enveloped by the concept. Financial aid and the educational system seem to go hand-in-hand. It is as though we are so consumed by consumerism that we fail to acknowledge the true significance of education for what it really is—a means to advance oneself for the benefit of society and the environment that sustains our very existence. (And even if we acknowledge the significance of these endeavors, it seems to take years of "bureaucratic debate” (if that is what you want to call it) to implement such a strategic action, if any at all. Moreover, if a plan just so happens to finally be put into action, it has been so warped and contorted by the influence of “monetary potential” that the goals originally set forth by the plan take a backseat to profit or propaganda scare-tactics--much like the current Health Care Reform disaster.)

    Two thousand pages? Really? Can it truly be possible that it would take two thousand pages to achieve the goal of providing for the Health Care of Citizens? Maybe we should step back for a minute and realize that in the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson compelled the colonies to separate in only a single page. Furthermore, the Founders established the very foundation of the United States government through the enumerations of the Constitution in only four pages. The list goes on and on. The point is that we can shuffle words and key phrases around all day, but at the end of the day we will more than likely have meaningless, deceitful nonsense--especially if the Bills' mission objectives end with the words "and for other purposes" as both the Patriot Act and the new House Bill for Health Care Reform do. Is it just me or is this ringing any bells with anyone else? Maybe the Liberty Bell? Anytime a bill should open with those words and then continue to ramble for thousands of pages that would keep even the most savvy scholar busy for days, weeks, or even months trying to decipher through referencing, the constitutionality of such a document should immediately be under intense scrutiny. What we need is to discard these exhaustingly large documents altogether and in perhaps only a few paragraphs illustrate the effectiveness of detailed yet extremely comprehensible vocabulary that in no way could be construed to oppose the explicit intentions set forth in the new document. It can be done but we have to want it. The choice rests in our hands so will we retain it, pass it on, or throw it away for convenience?