Are we up to the challenge?

Like most Americans, I have been shocked and devastated by the tragedy in Newtown.   Who can ever forget the death of 20 innocent children at the hands of an unbalanced young person?  
As I listen to the discussion these senseless deaths have engendered, I am appalled at the suggestion that the solution to gun violence is more guns.  America already has an unhealthy obsession with guns.   With 5% of the population of the globe, we have about 50% of the guns in private hands.   There are more guns in the US in private hands than in the Russian army.  Does this make sense?
I believe in the second Amendment whose purpose was to prevent oppression by another unjust government, such as the one that the colonists had experienced.

That does not mean that assault weapons should be in private hands.   I remember when I was young and TV was young, there was already dismay at the violence on TV and its possible effects on children.  The violence then was tame compared to the violence now in computer games, films, and TV.

It is time for us to pause and reflect on what we are doing.  Is this a nation bent on suicide?  Is this a nation bent on self-dsstruction?   No one needs an assault weapon.
We need to have more than a conversation, the euphemism one hears again and again on television news.  We need to take leadership in solving a problem.
In this season of healing and peace, let us take a giant step forward as a nation and show leadership in facing our own problems and solving them so that there are no more Newtown tragedies in your town and my town.

The Fiscal Cliff and Leadership

If the nation goes off the fiscal cliff, it is unclear what the economic impact will be.  Some think it will adversely affect the stock market, whereas others think it will slow down US growth.  But, the more obvious impact will be political.  The failure to resolve issues relating to the fiscal cliff are a potent example of the failure of leadership. 

On Sunday December 9, former Secretary of State and Presidential Chief of State, James Baker, presented a rational way to approach the fiscal cliff.  I thought to myself:  why isn't he at the table, mediating between Congress and the presidential administration?   
Baker presented careful, thoughtful approaches to resolving the fiscal cliff.   Who is listening?

It is clear that the US needs to cut its addiction to spending and needs to raise more revenue.  No matter how it is carved up, we shall all be asked to contribute in some way either through increased taxes or lower deductions.   

The gamesmanship of not wanting to raise taxes is symbolic on both sides.  Everyone involved knows more revenue has to gathered, and we have to reduce spending in some significant areas. 

Everyone wants to appear as a fiscal conservative but  has there been a true fiscal conservative in decades?  Even some of the most famous supposed conservatives in fact spend liberally for their own districts or their own states.

Pledges not to raise taxes are a kind of blackmail to hold over the head of Congress.  They are meaningless and should be abandoned.

A realistic approach to the fiscal cliff is necessary.   Congress and the administration have only a few weeks to wake up, or we all pay more taxes without any decisions being made.   That is the easy path.  Then Congress can blame the President, and the President can blame Congress.  That will be a failure of leadership and an invocation of "blame" as a substitute for rational decision-making.