MARIE WUJEK MORE COLUMNS Advertisement

Remember when there was a federal usury rate that controlled and capped all loan and credit card interest rates? Remember when you could deduct all the interest you paid -- not just the interest paid on your mortgage -- on your tax return?

Remember when you had disposable income? You know, money left over after you paid your bills and you could put 10 percent of your earnings in savings?

Remember when the bank charged you $5 a check if you overdrew your account, not $39? Remember when you made a deposit into your account it credited immediately instead of showing pending for two or three days? Remember when you didn't have to have a minimum balance in your checking or savings account, instead of being charged $5 a month for not maintaining a minimum balance?

Remember when you could buy a new car and pay it off in 36 months instead of 72 months? Remember when home loans were 15-year loans instead of 30-, 40-, or 50-year loans?

Remember when you received a cost of living raise from your employer based on the government's cost-of-living index?

Remember when every working stiff contributed to Social Security regardless of where they worked, instead of private sector employees covering this ever-increasing burden? For your information, all county, state and federal government employees are exempt from paying Social Security.

Remember when welfare and food stamps were a temporary assistance to those down on their luck instead of a generational employment program?

Remember when "American-made" and built with "union pride" were labeled or stamped on nearly everything we purchased?

Remember when you would call any business, bank or government office and a real person answered the phone, instead of "Press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish"?

Remember when public education was a top priority and being a teacher was something to be proud of?

Remember when young men and women enlisted in the service because they wanted to, instead of having to so they could provide for their families? Jobs with benefits are hard to come by.

Remember when fresh fruits, vegetables and meat were a dietary staple instead of specialty items? Remember when you had never heard of E. coli and salmonella outbreaks only occurred in third world countries?

Remember when people could take their young children to a park or mall and feel safe, instead of having to put a leash or monitor on them to protect them from predators?

In the last three or more decades a lot has changed. I often sit and wonder what the hell happened. Greed happened. Manipulation of truth happened. Lies and corruption happened. Total and complete fleecing of the American people happened by our own government and big business.

During the presidential debates last year, then-Sen. Barack Obama accused the Republican party of taking its eye off the ball by invading Iraq and not targeting Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group, Al-Qaeda, responsible for attacking our country Sept. 11, 2001. These bad folks were in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Instead, we start a war based on bad intelligence, beginning with Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction and ending with Iraq being a safe haven for terrorists, none of which was correct.

Thousands perished in the World Trade Center attack and thousands upon thousands have died in the war in Iraq. Thousands more will die or be severely injured before this conflict ends -- and Osama bin Laden is still out there, plotting his next attack.

Saddam Hussein was a bad guy who needed to be dealt with, no doubt about that -- he was murdering Iraqis by the thousands. Hindsight is 20/20; we took our eye off the ball and now are paying for it dearly. We should have concentrated our efforts and resources on bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, and then with joint effort and resources from other countries, gone about liberating Iraq and eliminating the Hussein regime.

Millions of people are dying in Darfur; genocide and ethnic cleansing are a daily way of life. So we turn a blind eye or hold a telethon on their behalf.

I sit here today, accusing all of us, myself included, for not just taking our eye off the ball but of being in the wrong ballpark for the last two or three decades.

Our government has gotten so large that "we the people" don't count anymore, except to pay the bills incurred. Anytime I hear, "This will be good for the American people," I start to shake because I know somewhere down the road we will figure out, "Oops, sorry, not so good," or "We should have gone in a different direction."

Hindsight is 20/20. The invasion of Iraq: thousands of lives lost and billions of American taxpayer dollars spent. Free trade: millions of Americans out of work and companies who send jobs overseas receiving huge tax cuts. Deregulation of the banks and lenders: legal loan sharking, bankruptcy and foreclosures at record highs. And the hits keep coming.

I hope like hell this new administration can deliver as promised. Get rid of the rip-off artists both in government and private industry, fix our severely broken programs and rebuild American pride and faith in the system.

I really want to believe in "Yes, we can."

I need to believe in "Yes, we can."