Lack of compromise will ruin us

Human history is littered with examples of nations and cultures that failed to adapt to changing conditions in their world and perished as a result. Whether the problem was building a village too close to a rumbling volcano, exhausting a critical resource, or succumbing to a stronger and more adaptive enemy, the failure to look into the future and make appropriate changes resulted in their demise.

Today, America is facing the same kind of seminal challenges to its strength, and potentially its very existence. The gravest and most immediate threat is economic. We have permitted greed and overconsumption to bring us to the brink of economic collapse, and yet there are those who resist even the most modest changes to make our financial system more stable and secure. We must recapitalize, reduce spending and, when necessary, increase revenue to put ourselves on a firm foundation. Our pattern of boom and bust cycles must be moderated or we will repeatedly be threatened with financial disaster.

Our failure to heed the warnings of the energy shortage of the 1970s and our inability to reach agreement on even the most modest changes in energy consumption and conservation has also resulted in a crisis. If the oil experts are to be believed, oil production has peaked and is declining while world while demand has increased dramatically. And, if the scientific community is to be believed, we face the prospect that our reckless consumption of fossil fuels is tipping the climate into a catastrophic warming pattern.

Although tens of thousands of our fellow citizens are dying each year from lack of proper health care, we have reduced the debate over reforming our health care system to intemperate political sound bites and town hall shouting matches. One side of the political equation has completely abdicated its responsibility to work for a viable solution, while the other is embroiled in internecine squabbling.

If we continue to approach the threats that face this nation as though they were the political agenda of one party or the other, we are doomed to fail as a culture. We must demand results from our elected representatives - that requires compromise, and a much different approach to political dialogue.

William S. Hicks

Carpentersville