Hey Nation -- How Are You Doing?

This is an interesting question for a day when the stock market dropped another 600 points.  Note to self:  don't open my 401K statements for a year -- just like I did from 2008-2009.  The Brookings Institution has an answer and, shockingly, it's "not well."  There are some really smart people over there who looked at a variety of factors over the last five quarters to assess the state of the nation in terms of a) the general welfare, b) the common defense and c) the blessings of liberty.

If those words sound familiar they should.  They're from the preamble of the Constitution.  What I very much like about this report is the connection between the statistics surrounding current events and what we originally set out to do as a country.

Yeah, I'm not going to lie.  According to these figures the news is not, ummm, great.  But at least we know that if we're all depressed about the state of the nation, there's scientific evidence to back us up.

And, of course, I would not be the Advocacy Guru if I did not point out that there's something YOU can do about it!  Remember that another part of the Constitution (first amendment, one of my favorites) secures to us the freedom of speech.  So speak!  Find out who your legislators are at http://www.congress.org/, attend their townhall meetings this August, get on their Facebook pages, sign up for their Twitter feeds and politely, but firmly, share your views.