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I'm so tired of things being done the way they always have been. Change is a good thing. We do it all the time as we move through life from birth to death, but somehow we are still so very averse to something so common.

Humanity, as a whole, is static. Our civilization seems to be stuck in a rut so deep that there is simply no way to get out of it. Why do we allow that to happen? How can our society function with antiquated laws, outdated sensibilities, and outmoded belief systems? Our country, as the most advanced and industrialized nation in the world, has fallen behind the rest of mankind. We are, all at once, the most closed-minded, backward-thinking, and conservative nation in existence.

The problem isn't inherent to the entire population of America. So many of us have changed with the times. Many of us have learned to cope with the changing times and adapt to the demands of the ever-more-modern world in which we live. The problem, however, is with the rulers of our country.

Our government seems to base its policies and beliefs on a number of fallacies that continue to hold our society back from the advances of the rest of the world. Our nation, founded on the premise of religious freedom, is now governed by a group of right-wing conservatives who love to live in the past and hold us to the dated and stringent system of morality of some of our more puritanical forefathers.

Have you ever wondered why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Ever noticed how our government is in debt but those that govern are wealthy? The reason is that the static hand of the conservative continues to reach deeper in the pockets of a continually evolving populus. There is money to be made in keeping the American people in a kind of moral straight jacket. We want to grow with the rest of humanity and change with the times but we just can't. When did our desire for self-government grant the governing body the right to legislate morality? When did the private behaviors of two consenting adults become a matter for politicians and judges? Who gave Uncle Sam the right to tell us what we can and cannot do in our own homes? I don't advocate anarchy, but one of the basic principles of our right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is that, as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others, then we can achieve that inalienable right however we choose. Unfortunately, our government doesn't seem to agree.

That is why our freedoms get taken away from us. Smoking is governed by ever-more-strict legislation as tobacco is taxed more every day. Gay marriage is banned in more states and localities all the time while unhappy heterosexuals clog our court system with divorce proceedings. Alcohol takes the lives of both the drinker and their innocent sober victims while smoking one single joint has proven medically harmless, doesn't cause accidents, and can still send you to prison. So many things need to change and yet the vast majority of Americans are held so tight by their political overseers that they are afraid to speak out any longer. It's a vicious cycle in which more and more of our freedoms are lost every single day of our lives.

How come the bank's automated system can change its options but the most powerful nation in the world is stuck in a downward spiral dragging it more and more into a very real, if unspoken, despotism? The powerful have too much power and we need to remind them that we are a democratic republic. It is time for us to remember how to use our voice.