Lights Out on America?: The multi-state catastrophes of Hurricane Irene are self-evident. Our country is in trouble. We are seeing why the equating of government with family tighten-your-belt-on-spending is utterly ridiculous. The “small” government Republicans and even a few Democrats are killing our nation. The people entrust government to protect its security in war and in war with Mother Nature. Our Founders had NO idea what the size of this country would become nor could they EVER have understood what would befall a nation of 350 million, 50 states plus its territories. They created a government with only 13 colonies and did not even know what west of the Mississippi looked like until Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition. 300 years later the metamorphosis of this country into not only one huge nation but into a world power never could have been foreseen by them. It is why, I believe, they created a Constitution as a flexible document and not a stagnant one because human beings and all that they create do NOT stand still.

There is no way on this planet that 50 singular states could ever be responsible on their own for repairing the gargantuan damage these utterly catastrophic disasters created. There have been 67 of them this year alone. Who could have predicted such a thing?

FDR knew when he took office in 1932 and saw the scope of the economic mayhem private enterprise wreaked upon an unsuspecting populous that the definition of federal government and the powers that it could assume HAD to be redefined and expanded. He knew he had to create nearly out of whole cloth a NEW idea for the role of government and he called it, of course, the New Deal. It was a new deal because the government had never taken on such grandiose power to perfect economic change before.

And so it is now except in triplicate. It is incumbent upon government -- OUR government -- to be there when it is beyond the singular control of a state or a people of that state to do so. The issues that befall us today will, in the future, determine IF there even is a United States of America left. Is it possible it could simply crumble? Well, other empires have crumbled and if one looks downtown in my small town or on the highway it looks like an asteroid hit.

The federal government and ONLY the federal government needs to figure out a way to repair not only our infrastructure but our psyches as well and by doing so create jobs. Creating jobs will create the additional tax revenue we desperately need. Moreover, a change in the tax structure MUST occur. It should mean that the rich who can most afford it pay more. I would gladly do so if I could! There are lights out all over the northeast. Is this a metaphor for America? I surely hope not but we are in DEEP DEEP trouble and only the federal government can dig us out!