schizophrenic

So what, a bunch of people got killed in Wisconsin as a hate-filled sociopath terrorized Sikh Americans outside of a Temple. Why should we care?

Jared Loughner, another hate-filled sociopath (actually a schizophrenic who needed meds) who killed six and wounded 13, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, pleaded guilty. So what? Why should we care?

Below is a graph of unemployed plus underemployed Americans. Again, I will ask, so what? Why should we care?

I guess, to some folks, the answer is that we shouldn’t care. I, on the other hand, believe that America is about the balance of individualism and community. Every individual is responsible for getting up and going to work. If you expect me to get you out of bed and get you dressed – that’s not going to happen. You have to have the individual motivation to get up and get yourself dressed. It is our job as a community to make sure that you’re not gunned down by some crazy man.

Poverty is a man-made condition. (I think Nelson Mandela said something similar, so I will give him credit.) As a community, we should have jobs available for every able-bodied American who is willing to work. If one or two Americans don’t have a job, then that’s not a big deal. But when millions of Americans are out of work, it’s hard to label all of them as lazy. It’s hard to label all of them as undereducated and therefore not employable. Instead, this is a system issue. The American system needs to work better for more Americans. It is that simple. You should care because tomorrow the system might not work for you or your family. The system needs to work for everybody.