Time out for America

How much longer can we bear religious conflict in the 21st century. Certainly educated men and women will tire of the controversies. The original liberalism in America was based on freedom from religious coercion -- freedom of and from religion. Perhaps the recent mosque controversy is a result of a hot summer and no exciting news.

I'm already fed up with the controversy. If American Muslims want to practice their faith within the rule of law in this country, then more power to them. It's just not that important in the grand scheme of things. We have much more important problems than worring about whether this imam or that one is moderate or radical.

It's a huge distraction which the media is playing up. Our primary problems are economic and in foreign policy. The Democrats have passed a healthcare law which could cause the economy to get worse. Unemployment is at around 15% when you consider those who have quit looking for work. We're still in two wars.

But this has all been discussed over and over. Perhaps America needs to be put into time-out so that we can regroup. The coming midterm elections might balance the power and slow down legislation long enough to get a grip on the economy and foreign policy.

Our solutions, though, will be only partially political. The real solutions will come from the public taking personal responsibility and demanding that government intervention cease. We can no longer use government as a goodie factory. We're broke and government is corrupt. It's time to fix the fundamentals and start over. We'll have to work our way out of debt and quit relying on government favors.

People out of work might not find the same type jobs they had previously, but any job is better than relying on unemployment. It's going to take a long time to dig out of this hole, and it will take retraining, ongoing education.

We need to stop thinking the good days are around the corner and that by some miracle the government is going to turn things around and restore the economy to what it was a few years back. This is what it is and this is where we have to begin, and the government can't do it -- only individuals in the private sector can do it.