Proper learning required before the right action can be made

People cannot truly care, and cannot focus their efforts well, if they don't know what's going on. Proper learning necessarily comes before right action.

Many political movements today are far too narrow to do much good. They tend to cancel each other out. For example, the tea party is terribly concerned about big government but downplays issues within the business field — where it has strong beliefs and values.

Occupy Wall Street is terribly concerned about big business but shrugs off the threat of big government — an area it holds sacred.

Sophisticated study leads to the conclusion that the real problem is both of the above: big government working in cahoots with big business. This tidy little combination makes the people politically dependent upon a few politicians in Washington and further enriches the already extremely wealthy 1 percent.

But that is not the end of the problem. Big newspapers have the interests of either big business or big government at heart. They are not the independent voices they say they are.

Big religion is part of the problem, too, because large, institutionalized churches typically emphasize salvation in the next life rather than civic reform during this life. Their congregations are often unwilling to stand up and be heard in their own communities.

Knowledge is power. Stop what you are doing, and get an education first.

Kim Shinkoskey

Woods Cross