I think I am angry at the hypocrisy. Our leaders do not know what it means to be poor. They don't know what it means to live from paycheck to paycheck. They do everything they can to line their own pockets at the expense of their fellow citizens. The streets are filthy and full of homeless people who survive because of the charity of churches and those few who see the need to care for them.

These same leaders stand at the podium giving speeches patting themselves on the back for leading the greatest nation on the planet. They have no concept of history or reality.

And it extends to many different zones of life. Our infrastructure is falling apart but we do nothing about it. Our oil based economy is threatened but we do nothing more than try to find more oil fields. We face the potential of a flu pandemic and the response is to cut funding for other health programs to fund the preparations. There is an overwhelming sense that the leadership at all levels thinks that all is well. That they are blind to the reality around them. If they could be persuaded to step out of the limousine and speak to the common folk that wander ragged through the streets then they might get the idea that Iraq is not as much of a threat as ignorance and poverty.

I am fed up with our own version of the aristocracy. There might even be parallels with the last years of France before the revolution. Yet they are so happy with their own version of what lies below their feet they cannot see the mob gathering. "Let them eat cake." was supposedly Marie Antoinette's reply when told the poor were starving. Isn't that what our leadership is saying to people now? Do they understand that people who cannot afford bread will not be able to eat cake?