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Health & Fitness

The "Reality" Is, We Are A Nation Wrought With Apathy

Too many if us would rather bathe in champagne fantasy than swim against a current of sobering truth!

Below is a pop quiz for you to take….if you dare!  I hated these educational teases as a student and still find them annoying in adulthood, but play along with me for the heck of it. Here goes:

  1. Who is the author of the “California DREAM Act”?
  2. What is the name of the Republican presidential candidate who’s mantra is “9-9-9?”
  3. What does the acronym “PIGS” refer to with regard to European Union countries that are near fiscal insolvency?
  4. What is the name of the dufus who married and promptly divorced Kim Kardashian?
  5. What is the name of the most recent winner of “American Idol?”
  6. Name one of the four judges on “The Voice?”

Before I provide the answers to the quiz questions, if you can’t accurately answer any of the first three but know the name of even one of the latter three, congratulations!  You are a prime example of why this country continues its dangerous slide into economic and moral decay.  I realize the accusation is insulting, but it’s true! Unless the majority of the citizens in this country pry themselves away from the mindless “reality” shows on television and start paying attention to the serious issues that are negatively impacting the American way of life, then plan on having to pay yet higher taxes and the percentage of unemployment remaining well into the mid-teens for years to come! 

The last three decades of information technology advancements have blessed the public with limitless resources with which to educate themselves on political, judicial, and legal decisions which effect every-day life.  Cable television, social media, and blogs, coupled with enactment of The Freedom of Information Act, have granted the public transparency into facets of our government that previously had been virtually covert. However, most of us have chosen instead to dive into the seemingly bottomless pool of Hollywood fantasyland in a vain attempt to escape the “reality” of, by our own admission, boring and mundane life.  Nothing exemplified this claim better for me than the day this past October when Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assemblyman “One Bill Gil” Cedillo’s California DREAM Act.  The bill allows illegal immigrants to tap into institutional grants while attending the University of California and California State University systems, and to get fee waivers in the California community college system. I was in attendance at a friend’s birthday party the day of Brown’s decision. A half-dozen adults nearby who were discussing the new season of “Fear Factor” overheard my discussion of the topic with a buddy of mine and inquired as to the source of our dejected demeanors.  When informed of Brown’s signature which legalized the DREAM Act, every single one of these people stated they had never heard of the bill, let alone the fact that it had just become law!  Sadly, I wasn’t surprised.  After all, what’s the big deal over $65 million of our taxes being diverted to the education of non-citizens rather than to United States students…..when the state is already $6 billion in debt?  Sorry, did I distract you from “Real Housewives of Atlanta”?

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By the way, the answers to the quiz are as follows:

  1. Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, Democrat, 45th District
  2. Herman Cain
  3. Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain
  4. Kris Humphries
  5. Scotty McCreery
  6. Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Blake Shelton

If I may be so bold as to quote Ryan Seacrest, “Out!!!!!”

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