Elder Porter gives a great presentation. It is a bit long but in a nut shell he says 1. The Book of Mormon lands are "This Land" of North America and not Mesoamerica 2. LDS members, because of the warnings we have in the Book of Mormon, are particularly responsible (together with all people of faith) for protecting the Constitution and constitutional government from secret combinations that are overrunning our land. I particularly like his definition and description of what a combination is.
Elder Porter is not just saying 'isn't it interesting that Book of Mormon lands may be in North America, and that we have allowed secret combinations to overrun the land'; but he is saying 'it is imperative and critical that we recognize, understand, and believe these truths.'
But, Elder Porter talks so matter-of-fact on these issues, and I have had a terrible time expressing these same views at all. I get treated like there is something wrong with me. I also feel like I can't talk on these issues because the prophet and 12 have not spoken on them recently. (since Pres. Benson's direction that every LDS should read "None dare call it conspiracy"). It seems we are still in the Pres. Hinkley "be optimistic" phase yet Elder Bednar comes to Augusta and says "Right now is as good as its going to get". We are not in the "awake to your awful situation" phase. You can be awake and still optimistic, of-course.
Also, the prophet and 12 have been speaking in parables lately which communicates certain things to those of us who are awake. (ie "Are we prepared" setting fires put chickens in a molt", and "Summer with Great Aunt Rose"). I see the wisdom in not "setting fires" and preparing to visit Great Aunt Rose.
While Joel Skousen thinks its a grave sin to not be awake. I disagree and think many people are like Lehi who Nephi commented that his mind was too pure to see the "filthiness of the water". Ruth has a pure mind like Lehi and doesn't like to think on these things and I respect that. She wants to pass on an idyllic life and America to her children. But I am maybe more like a Nephi, whose eyes water my pillow because of my weaknesses and because of the suffering of so many of Gods children, and I also see the filthiness of the water. And like Nephi, I may spend some time talking about the filthiness of the water (eg Great and Abominable Church).
Some might think its not productive to bother with any of this. But, I may disagree. I think that by understanding the problem we can better understand solutions. For example, I was reading the Koran and if you spend a bit reading it, you immediately get a sense for what their "beef" is with the West. If the West would be a moral people and we would also reform our banking system (Safety Society System) and reject the collection of "usury" which is how we empower evil and how we join in the spoils of the secret combinations, then they'd have no beef with us. You may say, evil people will always persecute the righteous. But thats not what the scriptures teach.
Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
It seems like in each election the citizens do consider the virtue of our leaders. The candidates and media go to great efforts to appear that they are Christian and a family person and have forsaken any past sins. But the media covers for certain of these candidates making them appear devout Christian, and devout to their family. On the other hand, other candidates are victims of character assassination. I have been fooled many times on this.
So, we need a distributed, free and local media. (4th branch of government) Consolidation of the media breeds corruption. So, the antidote is decentralization. Via the internet, we could have a system of local reporters that upload local written articles and video to a central website (not unlike AP or Reuters). However, unlike AP and Reuters, reports on local stories could only be uploaded by local media. If there were a TV station that wanted to report on a non-local event, they wouldn't send out their own reporter, but upload a report and video by the local reporters only. Any media could pay for the reports which would go to the reporter, but a certified media outlet would get a discount for using the service exclusively. Since everyone gets streaming TV via the Roku box, every community can now have truly independent news channels without the control of the FCC or Big-media.
These are just a few examples of solutions that come when you identify the problem.