America is a slave to its laws at grave expense to decency, ethics and common sense. What will it take to restore balance?

Forgive me. I’m a bit off-topic on this post, but I think it’s imporatnt, so here it is:

America is a slave to its laws at grave expense to decency, ethics and common sense. Weighing heavy at the top of this list are patent laws, particularly involving living organisms. Let it be known that neither the people of the United States nor any member of Congress have ever voted on such laws, rather they have been established at the sole discretion of the US Supreme Court (similar story in Canada). These justices deliberated on the First Amendment and arguments brought forward, and laws were ruled “Constitutional” by majority rule of opinions of justices sitting at the time. As it stands, any individual or more likely corporation can own a patent on a seed, gene, or many other parts of living organisms and claim ownership of anything that contains that part of the organism. As far as humans go–there is a majority percentage of the organism that must be non-human for the patent to be held. Terrifying to think of in theory. In reality, the injustice served to many farmers who have been sued and forced to destroy their own seeds due to these laws is simply horrific.

For those of you who know me well, I am very far from a conspiracy theorist. However, what I am witnessing in America is that corporations are ruling our government and ferociously infringing on the rights of all Americans to earn a successful living in many industries. Agriculture is being exploited by big business in insurmountable ways. Other industries are not immune. Additionally, big business has been infringing upon government with exponentially increasing influence. At the very top of this list is the insurance industry. Take a hard look at American healthcare reform. Special interest groups, lobbyists and namely those representing the insurance industry are running the show. Who gave them all this power and permission to control our government and destroy lives?

There are myriad documentaries, movies, articles and books produced on this subject–all with conclusive evidence of this. Please search out information on this topic on your own, and that way you will have personal buy-in regarding your own position on this topic. The more informed you are, and the more original sources you can cite to back-up your claim, the stronger your argument will be and the more convinced you will be regarding your own beliefs.

Personally, I am at the very core a capitalist. I believe in free-markets and that competition works for business and consumers, ensuring that supply and demand set pricing along with competition ensuring that quality remains high and prices reasonable for the marketplace.

I also believe in a balance of some socialized systems to help ensure human rights in a compassionate culture: access to housing, healthcare, social services, food, clothing, education (including higher education and public libraries) and just laws are human rights that a developed society has a responsibility to make available to its citizens so that they may have the opportunity to live healthfully and have resources to create an improved live for themselves and their children.

Who cares and what do I know –what authority do I have to speak on such issues? I care, and you should too, because it affects all of is in many ways–all citizens of the United States and those who would like to live here. And, I know that having the majority of wealth and power, in obscene proportions, accumulated by a minute fraction of the population by individuals and corporations who wish to do little with this wealth other than to accumulate more wealth and power and ferociously abuse this power for the sole purpose of accumulating even more wealth–this is a perfect storm of disease–an aggressive, unstoppable cancer eating away at America, preventing individuals’ inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

I do love the United States and all of its rich history and successes and stories–everything that makes it what it is–good, bad and inbetween. But, I fear it is broken. In a big way. And instead of holding its position as “the land of opportunity,” it is becoming a wasteland of insatiable greed juxtaposed by hardship and suffering. I know that America will find balance once again, and I have great faith that we will have a stronger, more resilient country as a result. But at what cost in the interim? Can we afford the cost? How many will not be able to survive the transition?

[My apologies for run-on sentences, spilt inifinatives, etc. My purpose here is content and communication. Style and rules have suffered in this post, possibly more than others.]