Toastmasters

 James Madison said "History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."

Madam Toastmaster, Fellow toastmasters, Comrades  Lest we fall victim to the civilizations of old. Lest we pass into the dust of time, we are quickly nearing the knife edge of defeat when we could be at the apogee of victory. Why must we be brought to this point in time? Why must it be us today and this next generation of people who decide the fate of the future for so many years to come.  Indeed we always decide on our future, but this time, there is an urgency which will not wait for us.  We are facing problems on a scale unprecedented and our systems of governance make sure, that all remains the same to keep the gears working. Not a single system is untouched, some are merely damaged, others in total disrepair.

Often we look through history and exclaim on how backwards a past people were. The trick which we today, must accomplish is, avoiding future generations exclaiming how we were a nation that had everything, and squandered it all away in pettiness.  Our disputes are not beyond reproach but it is the people we have let come into our charge that are.  These people, our elected officials, have wrestled away control of our arguments from us.  They form the debate topics and they put sound bites over the air as truth.  They have taken a hold of us and it is time we recognize this so we may begin to push back.  So what do we do and how do we affect change in our government and within ourselves?

We can start with campaign finance reform.  Who here does not see the inherent conflict of interest, of having business' give money to our elected officials?  Does anyone here not recognize how our votes are diminished by dollars, dollars which then go into the pockets of the powers that be. Corporate controlled news agencies owned by these same money donators only discuss politics with two parties in mind and only their own interests at heart.   According to the Center for Responsive Politics on Mitt Romney's super-pac, the top 100 donors have totaled 80% of all contributions, with an average contribution from all donors at $83,000. They sure do keep the horse race alive.

We can start with American exceptionalism and rabid nationalism.  A new contentiousness is developing which sees the Earth as one living organism, that which what happens on one part of it has an impact on another, environmentally and in regards to our foreign policy.  We are not free from history and that of the rest of the world.  We may be unique in some ways and even better in others but we are not superior in all things.  In fact we lag behind in many areas.  For instance we are the number one jailer in the world . We imprison more than 2 million people compared to China's one million even though they have four times our population and they are a police state!

We can start with refusing to treat money as a commodity in and of itself.  Thomas Jefferson said quote; “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies”, unquote.  Since when did the creation of an item out of nowhere, give that item an intrinsic value?  We need to look at our monetary policy with a critical eye and ask; Is this a system geared towards abuse and control or is it simply altruistic? In case you haven't noticed, the owners and architects of these financial institutions which set up our system to crash in 2008, have gone completely without legal notice.  How many people have they harmed and how much pain have they caused without a single summons being issued?  One can rob a bank for $100 and spend 20 years in jail and yet crash the western worlds markets and get away with record bonuses! They are protected by our so called elite who have no interest in us, beyond pushing our dollars up the pyramid.  Their greed is insatiable.

Lastly,  we can start with ourselves.  We have become entrenched in our ideologies in total disregard for the ideas of a new generation.  There are good ideas out there and there are bad.  We can engage in rational discourse, separating out the bad, and refrain from pure opposition, and embrace views and policy that benefits everyone. Up until  1900 it was said that the accumulation of knowledge doubled every century. At the end of World War 2 every 25 years. Now the doubling is every 2 years and the internet will continue to decrease this time.  With all this new knowledge gained I ask you to break free of your shackles that they have put us in, free you mind, free you choice, and don't listen to them, listen to your heart, your intuition, not their hate, not their propaganda, not that which will bind you servitude.

In refining this speech I was distracted by a recent supreme court ruling that said prisons and jails now have authority, without cause, to strip search you for weapons, drugs, contraband, whatever.  People have been strip searched for minor offences such as too loud a muffler, not having a audible bell on their bicycle, walking their dog without a leash, and other minor offences which should not yield an arrest at all.  Police will use this to humiliate and harass and I advise you to research this further as it is quite infuriating.  We are in trouble in this nation and it is getting worse.  It is no wonder our society is becoming more violent for when a government treats its citizens like animals you get uncivilized behavior.

My friends I don't always know what to do, or what exactly to say but I do know that I can make an impassioned plea for your rationality. To unbind you and myself from fear and desperation.  I implore you don't let them decide for you. There is still hope yet and all is not lost. We can still pull out from this !IF! we pay very close attention.  We need to join hearts in unison and exclaim "If we are not free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" We will throw ourselves onto the gears. We will revolt with our very existence. We will not go away quietly, we will not be ignored!