Watching and listening to commentary about the state of American affairs can be painful.  Not because of the subject matter, but rather the people presenting and responding to it.  Whether its Shawn Hannity or Bill Maher, the extremes on both sides of the political scale seem to be taking over.

In an effort to give full disclosure, let me first explain a little bit about myself.  I’m a white, heterosexual male, in my early 30’s.  I have a wife and a child.  I grew up in a very small town in Appalachia, and currently live in the suburbs in the Southeast.  My childhood was pretty typical, mom and dad both worked, we were and still are very middle class.  After high school, I went to college, and graduated in four years.  As for my beliefs, I consider myself mostly conservative, and am a registered Republican (However that is due to change soon.)

By no means do I consider myself an expert on the happenings in Washington, I do try to stay informed and up to date on current events.  Usually the evening news works, but 6:30 is not always available to sit and watch the news, in which case one of the 24 hour news channels will do.  However, the cable networks have gone to giving substantial air time to news shows hosted strongly opinionated anchors.  I’ve watched bits and pieces of each of them, and really can’t stand any of them!  It seems to me that these shows (along with talk radio) are the force behind the widening gap between left and right. 

Case in point, this week’s speech that President Obama gave to school children, which turned out to be nothing more than a stay in school, dream big and try hard  lecture that was no different than past presidential addresses.  Parents and School officials on the protested and we got a lot of noise about an unimportant issue.  If my child were school age, I would have gladly let her watch the President speak, even if he used his first draft that included a page asking kids to jot down notes of ideas to help him.  What could it hurt or help, really?  Have we all forgotten about when we were in High School?  When I was 16 I had many other things on my mind other than what video was being shown.   In fact, me at 16 would have found any excuse to get out of watching the president speak, not because of him, but a young guy in school has halls to roam and girls to see.   

By far, though, the biggest dividing line across our country is the looming healthcare issue.  Both sides are equally guilty in pushing this to extremes.  Between the screaming hotheads at the town hall meetings and Nancy Pelosi’s snide remarks about the opposition, its no wonder that some version of this bill can’t get passed.  What I really can’t understand is some of the Democratic leaders are so insistent ensuring they won’t be re elected?  Much like the war in Iraq, healthcare overhaul is not very popular in its current state, and when the polls open again you can bet there will be another big change in congress.  Change is not a bad thing either.  My hope would be that after a few more years of this back and fourth between Democrats and Republics a viable third party will come to power and balance out the two sides.  Until that happens I have my own ideas about changes I would like to see at the top.  I believe all sides can agree that measures need to be taken to balance the budget, improve the economy, defend our country and give all Americans the chance to succeed among other things.  If given the opportunity to speak to congress, I tell them the following…

First things first, learn to compromise.  George Bush did some good things for this country, but he also screwed up royally as well.  Guess what, Obama will do some good things for this country and he will probably have a major screw up also.  The sooner you are willing to admit the good and bad in everyone, the sooner we can get to compromise.  Let’s also vow to get rid of the words “liberal and conservative agenda” as well as the stereo types of what the other side looks like.  Not all conservatives are uneducated, backwoods hillbillies and not all liberals are pot smoking, tree hugging hippies.  

Now that we have agreed to get along, let’s fix some things starting with government spending.  Ross Perot once said something to the effect of, if he ran a business like our government is run he would be bankrupt within days.  Any large corporation that is losing money first looks at ways to cut costs and work more efficiently.  Why not do the same in Washington?  Are there not layers of management that can be done away with, or how setting up limits for what elected officials can do away from their home state or office?  When was the last time anyone looked at the millions of dollars spent on goods and services for the White House?  Can we get rid special interest money for services that will have the least effect on the population?  Social Security and Medicare are a financial mess.  Why not look into ways to cut out fraud and excessive abuse?  One final thought on spending, if we are in the middle of a recession, don’t give yourself or your staff a raise. 

Would it also be unfair of me to ask that not spend a lot of time on things that are unimportant to people in their day to day lives.  I am glad we got steroids out of baseball, but how much time, energy and money was spent during those trials that could have gone to more deserving efforts.  I remember years ago when rap lyrics were investigated, was that really one of the most important things going on at the time?  I doubt it.  I am not saying these examples or ones like them are unimportant, but could limit the time you spend on them?

Even if you can’t agree on global warming the fact is that the planet has a limited amount of resources.  Oil, our favorite natural resource, will run out eventually and is controlled by OPEC.  It’s time that we start looking for new ways to make oil production and refining in the United States an achievable reality while developing and streamlining new alternative energy solutions right now.  Windmills, Solar Panels, Clean Coal and the Electric Car would do wonders for getting out from under OPEC and cleaning up the environment. 

When it comes to healthcare there is a lot that I just don’t understand.  Mainly, what’s the rush and why not look at other measures before you make such a big gamble?  The first news of healthcare overhaul came out in February, a mere 7 months ago.  Most experts agree that the bills in front of you are severely flawed in one way or the other.  Why not form a panel of experts from areas of the private sector along with government officials and select interest groups to really study what can be done to fix our healthcare system and give them the proper amount of time to do it.  In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to look into making our current system better. 

If our children are our future steps have to be taken to ensure they have a fighting chance by giving every kid a proper education.  Don’t confuse this with saying all kids need to get the same education but a child from a low income family should come out of high school with the same basic skills as one from private school.  Make college more affordable for everyone.  As I stated before, I grew up middle class, when it was time for me to go to college we were stuck.  My parents were not wealthy enough to pay for school out of pocket but made enough to knock me out of contention for most grants. Finally, it’s time to ease up on the regulation of teachers in reference to test scores.  I love for someone overseeing education to tell the nations parents that part of the solution to the education puzzle takes place at home.    

I could go on about securing our borders, immigration control and drug reform but I want to keep this fairly brief and leave anyone reading this with some final thoughts.  We are part of the problem.  We have to take some responsibility for our lives.  It’s time for us as a county to start looking big picture.  All of this noise out there has clouded our collective judgment and it seems like good natured discussions have been taken over by screams and uninformed name calling.  Take a step back, don’t believe everything you hear, and do some research on both sides of any issue.  In the end, our quality of living is not determined by government policy or what party is in office, but rather what we do to make the most of what we have been given.