by Garrett Anderson

Created on: November 24, 2009   Last Updated: November 26, 2009

Of all the things I've written about, this seems the easiest. Yet for many and perhaps most, it would be impossible to define what is needed. What this country desperately needs is a leader with great moral courage, with a plan that he or she is willing to fight for and perhaps, even die for. A President of gratitude and humility. Does such a leader exist?

As a nation, we have shed blood on foreign soil as well as our own. We can find any number of events to fear and thus engage our "new" enemies. What if the greatest enemy of all was ourselves? Is that possible? Are we our own worst enemy? Of course we are.

In fact, the single biggest problem any of us will encounter on any given day is ourselves. It is well past the time to look inward rather than continually outward. The idea that we can continually control our exterior world is a mirage. It is fleeting and irresponsible.

Ignoring our own problems, not unlike an obvious symptom of cancer, will kill us. Perhaps it will be a slow death, but it will be death.

Prioritizing our worst problem is easy. We have dug a crater of debt. In fact, without swift and selfless commitment, debt is that cancer symptom we can no longer ignore. Our fear, coupled with greed and wanting, make this cancer undetected and nearly incurable.

In the 80's and 90's, many US companies began to "lean" out their structures. That is to say, they re-organized and eliminated top heavy corporate structures and flattened them out. They eliminated high paying and duplicitous positions at all supervisory levels.

They improved efficiency, eliminated wasteful spending, improved margins. Eliminating those costs allowed companies to hire those people that actually do the work. Real people attaining measurable and definable results.

Our government is the most wasteful and inefficient company ever created. It is the most unwieldy, top heavy structure in the history of man. Nearly 1/4 of all employees in this country work for government in some capacity, while many others derive their income from government contracts. Think of all the local school district employees, police, firefighters, EMS and hospital workers.

What about all those federal agencies such as the Forest Service or the U.S. Postal Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms? What about all the jails, prisons, staff, and the 4 million Americans contained therein? Think about college and universities. Who pays for the outrageous costs of tuition and government sponsored grants and

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