First let me say it was an enjoyable conversation and I respect his desire to keep his morning listeners engaged and entertained even though I do not agree with many of his positions.

This past week I had shared some thoughts via CNN on the attempts by Sen. Bunning and Sen. Kyl to depict we the unemployed as lazy and with no ambition to find work. I, like millions of Americans, found this an insulting assertion. Allman had me on to discuss my “slam” as he called it. (can we retire that word yet?)

Instead of discussing the real consequences of the economic crisis and instead of focusing on the realities that it has brought – Allman chose to focus on me and my year of unemployment.

Side note - last week I received the first call for work I’ve had all year. I have sent out many resumes and received no response. A friend refered me to a company he worked for and they called. We talked and I did not book the gig. Today I learned that my friend no longer works there and is himself unemployed.

Allman’s solutions for the unemployed seemed to entirely focus on part time jobs. He seems to be in denial about the severities of this crisis and seems to want to depict the victims of it as deviants. This is unacceptable and if the conservative community continues to be representated by voices like Allman’s I can assure you they will never be taken seriously again.

People are hurting. People are starving. And Allman doesn’t appear to care to offer up real solutions. He repeatedly brought up McDonald’s and Walmart as potential employers for the over 6 millions people currently unemployed. I am not certain if they are simply sponsors of his that he’s trying to cleverly place within an interview but I am fairly certain that they can not hire all of the unemployed and certainly not full time. And I am confused why conservatives seem to have communist ideals – they seem to think everyone has a right to a job no matter if there is a need for a job. Just because I want a job does not mean I just get one.

Now – I listened to much of the rest of his program this morning and found one bit of his opinion interesting and oddly confusing. He and his callers seemed to advocate neighbors helping neighbors rather than relying on the government. As if the government was some outside influence into people’s lives. (something I can somewhat understand given President Bush’s wiretapping habits) Allman also kept talking about how 40% of his income goes to the federal government and he thinks that if he was taxed less that he would have more money to help people. All interesting ideas – except for one thing.

Governement is just people helping people. That is actually it’s intent.

One of his callers asserted that the founding fathers were just people helping each other – good neighbors. And we need to return to that. I wonder if the caller understood that when Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and the rest decided to help each other – as good neighbors – they did something called forming the government!

It says in our founding documents “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” I think these words stand on their own but I think some folks should pay attention to “promote the general welfare”. I wonder what that means? I think it means helping each other have a strong quality of life. We are a united country, not a divided on.

We work together, for apart we are nothing but people bumping into each other trying to survive.

It is our governemnt. It is our way of helping each other and lifting our nieghbors up. It only works if we pay attention and take part. And it only works if we do not allow ourselves to be distracted by the voices floating out there in the airwaves on our morning commutes. We must be involved. We must get to know our representatives. We must know how to read the laws that are being debated and we must pay attention. We must in order for our country to function well.

Now I can understand why conservatives have such a negative view of government – I mean every time a conservative is in power our country begins spying on it’s citizens, launching us into dangerous wars and they always end their tenure with the country in a deep recession. I may be making a bit of a joke here but the facts do speak for themselves.

One reason I no longer vote republican (and I use to) is because I noticed this hypocrisy and it pushed me away from their party and my conversation with Allman today reaffirmed my concerns about their point of view. I’m not saying the democrats are perfect but they at least understand that government is meant to help, not hurt and intrude. For example I am always appalled that conservatives are okay with profiting off of the sick and the poor and whenever Democrats try to keep that from happening the republican party stands up and crosses their arms – protecting profit – no matter the morality.

I mean according to Allman all the unemployed should be denied unemployment insurance. I ask him this – what if the 6 plus million people currently unemployed just can not find work? Can not find permament work? What would that do to our country? What would the ripple effect be of 6 million people not paying their bills, not buying goods? How many more people would be out of work?

I think Allman forgets that for many of us this is life and death – it is not a joke. It is not a topic for a radio show to have fun with – it is serious. It is life and death. If we do not find work we die – especially if Allman has his way.

That is unless our neighbors help us stay alive – like Allman suggests. And given the sheer number of people that are unemployed and the ripple effect it would create – we would need to organize some body to help our neighbors. Probably elect some leaders to organize the effort. And very soon – neighbors helping neighbors turns into well….a government.

Which we already have.