THE NATIONAL FAMILY

We are a nation of families.

No other social, economic, or political model is as important as the one found in a family. The wants, needs, and aspirations of our families hold the key to every problem we will every have to solve, every war we have ever fought, every issue we will ever have to address as a united people.

We experience our common history in our families as siblings, as workers, as parents, as consumers, as taxpayers, as grandparents, as military personnel, as breadwinners, as policy makers, business owners, and as leaders and representatives. The family is our most sacred and revered model of authority. A single head of household serves a family for better or worse just as a democracy is meant to serve its people. A government by the people and for the people is a government by our families and for our families.

However they are not represented as they should be. It is the lack of accountable representation that has failed our families and the problem is insidious and elusive. Taxes are traditionally designated for our common social infrastructure, but the collusion between big business and government circumvents any real assignment of responsibility regardng common social/family needs that do not produce taxes or business revenues.

Our nation will never be fully united until each and every household in America is represented under foundational policies.

The economics of raising a family is known to all. Forces that we sanction as consumers, as business owners, and as a society continously impinge against family unity. Sixty-five percent (65%) of the nation's families are single parent families, 25% are step parents or blended families, and the remaining 10% are traditional nuclear families. We are breadwinners, taxpayers, and consumers all in one and major interests in these relationships do not serve to keep our families bonded to each other much less a united nation.

The most clever and innovative ideas of American commerce come from the world of business and finance to get the most revenues out of the fewest workers. At the same time our common social infrastructure is passed to government powers who are out of touch with common social and technical possibilities. They cannot express a vision sufficent for our smaller businesses to plan and compete much less invest our tax dollars the way they should. We are seen as economic units and the Judeo Christian work ethic has been replaced by Harvard business models.

The familiy is caught in the triangle between business and government. Real, imagined, or designated responsibility regarding who is responsible for what is never illustrated, debated, or defined in terms comprehensive enough to act as a standard blueprint. Confusing, incongruent, and ineffective policies (domestic and foreign) and lean and mean economic profit models are the rule of the day.

Without definitive policies that analyze and illustrate the economic and social considerations that affect our families, no new program, no new technology, no new tax plan, no new cultural shift, will reflect our wishes or effectively unite us in a common national mission.

The only answer to the excuses passed back and forth between business and government leaders is a comprehensive domestic and foreign policy that is illustrated by history, drafted and defined by present circumstances, and promoted in a populist vision for the ascendancy of both family members as well as private and public commercial endeavors.

Today our military is used as a method of replacing missing policy. The accountability between our government policy makers and our military families has been missing for decades. There is no greater moral obligatioin on the part of our enforcement leaders than that of defining policies that are congruent and comprehensive and see to it that our military is not used for economic or geo political positioning alone. Concepts of national self determination must form the basis of any foreign policy and these policies must serve to defend our service men and women from the battlefield itself.

When history is neglected in the analysis of any foreign relationship, those relationships become strained under the burden of poor communication and lack of trust. Ultimately the use of force is called upon in an ineffective manner and the world becomes less secure. America then becomes less respected and less able to lead the world toward peace.

Democracy is a high maintenance form of government. It takes diligence, sincerity, vision, and courage from all of those whom claim to have a stake in its progress. Those who claim to love this country must begin to do the hard work necessary to maintain its ideals and precepts. We must communicate our values and see to it that they are represented and actualized. Finally, we must understand that our democracy will only be as good as our own self interests will allow and our children will inherit the results of our actions or inactions.

We endeavor to elevate the role of the American family to a higher positions of authority by providing representation on the issues, policies that express vision and demand leadership, and accountability for currently existing efforts.

Mark Ahearn, Director
March 7, 2008

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