I see the sun settin' over America

There is no sense and no sanity in objecting to the desecration of the flag while tolerating and justifying and encouraging as a daily business the desecration of the country for which it stands
..."Waste," Wendell Berry, 1989

We've just a little over a month until the election--an election that is, arguably, one of the most pivotal this nation has faced.

The quote above is included in an anthology of essays by Wendell Barry, a noted agroecologist (albeit before the term was coined). To me, it sums up some of the imbalances and overreactions we see during the campaign season. Why is it that we get worked up over a flag pin rather than noting the true offenses being made within this country?

I'm not a huge patriot. Yet this quote resonates. Why are we focused on the tiniest details rather than that which impacts us the most? Our nation is sending out a horrible reflection right now. Most of the world sees us as incompetent, lazy, childish and unwilling to compromise. Our economy is racing against itself to hit rock bottom. We're refusing to surrender our pride or our desire for "stuff" in order to create a more sustainable future.

In the midst of all this, we have a woman running for vice-president who has never been involved in high-level foreign policy meetings, who cannot name more than one Supreme Court case, who can't even name a newspaper she reads--she is on the ballot as the person who will step up if the president dies while in office.

This is not a joke. This is not a time to play politics. We are desecrating our nation with this absurdity. Sarah Palin is not fit to lead. John McCain knows it. Anyone within the political arena knows it. Everyone reading the news knows it. I'm fairly sure even Ms Palin knows it.

The United States is in crisis, economic, environmental, foreign affairs, and more. Why are we wasting our time ferreting out the inadequacies of our potential leaders rather than standing up and finding the solutions?