That's $700 billion... with a "B"!

There has been a lot of talk lately about the financial meltdown taking place in our nation's financial sectors... i am just wondering if the vast majority of folks are really taking notice of the whole deal? A $700 BILLION dollar "bail-out"?!? Whoa!

i don't pretend to have any real great knowledge of the issues that have caused what has happened to happen but i do know this... the continual pointing of fingers is getting pretty darn old. At some point don't we ALL just sort of roll up our sleeves and collectively say let's fix this?!?

i subscribe to a book summary deal, where get regular emails with book summaries attached and one i received not too long ago had this book attached to it, The Post-American World by Zakaria Fareed.

In this book Fareed makes the following astounding but accurate observation...
"The…American political system seems to have lost its ability to create broad coalitions that solve complex issues. The economic dysfunctions…are the consequences of specific government policies." "The American political system has lost the ability for large-scale compromise, and it has lost the ability to accept some pain now for much gain later on." "The United States…has developed a highly dysfunctional politics." "[It] has been captured by money, special interests, a sensationalist media, and ideological attack groups."
Now don't get me wrong there is a ton of other stuff i read in the book summary that i have a few problems with but in this regard... this inability to create "broad coalitions and solve complex issues" within our own nation... should be a "Houston... we have a problem..." wake up call!

What is our problem? Why can't we disagree without getting all nasty and stuff? Or why can't we drop labels and do the right thing, when it's time to do the right thing? i know what many of you are probably thinking... Hey that's what being an American is all about!!! i am not too sure about that but i do know if ever there was a time to try our very level best to be ONE nation... i think this may be it.