From 10 years ago, not much has changed.

Have not really been talking politics. Probably because other things have been going on and I have not been able to, or wanted to, pay attention. What I want most is positive change, and I have no idea what or who is going to do that. Back in '92 I wanted a change from the 12 years of Reagan/Bush and voted for Clinton. The past 16 years have certainly brought about change. A change in our culture into such an apparent split and void in our thinking and beliefs. There is a great divide out there, greater than the one Studs Terkel uncovered in the 80's. The culture of fear has risen. The questioning of patriotism has risen. Dissent is seen as a terrorist act instead of an act of questioning decisions and the accountability of our leadership. It's gone crazy, and it's infected the core of our society.

The media has abused our language, deliberately, providing programming that does not report, but exposes and celebrates the divide between us. It is not fair, balanced, or intelligent, but appeals to the lowest common denominator - our base emotions and knee jerk reactions to hot button issues and other cliches that I'm spewing out.

Celebrity culture has become the easy story. It's cheap, easy to put a camera on, and does not ask important questions. Why pay someone to dig out a story on city hall when Britney's entourage is speeding by?

So I'm left out here, along with, I suspect, many others, who feel lost, powerless, tired of knowing they are being lied to, and unable to do anything about it because they do not have the savvy, be it political, social and most importantly, financial - to get anything done for themselves. We continue to go to work, and try hard to be satisfied by that, but it's not enough. It's not even close when our infrastructure has fallen apart.

My head remains in the sand, coming out from time to time to notice the stink, and feeling quite unable to provide anything to remove it. Is November going to bring about four more years of the same, a shift into an improvement, or a further decline?