Grow Up

The danger isn't so much in the economic structure of a society but in its intellectual structure.

Philip Kaufman
*********************
Almost ten years ago I wrote my Congressman a letter and in it I asked "Will there ever be a time when the country is governed by adults?" The current Congress has given me the answer. A simple "No."

It seems to be a fact that the members of the House of Representatives cannot represent the people because they have no idea how the people, most of them. live. In this last squabble (one can't call it a debate) issues were put forth and solutions offered that bear no relationship to intelligent thinking or understanding of the facts of life.

The nation is in debt. So what? So are most Americans. And some of them are now going to go further in debt until they find a way to restructure their financial lives. No one can put a ceiling on debt because no one can predict his future and neither can the country.

A Balanced Budget Amendment has been proposed by people who have no idea what it is to balance a budget. Ask the man or woman who feeds, clothes and houses a family on an uncertain job with an unsatisfactory income which is then taxed too much because the wealthy don't pay enough. That person knows how to balance a budget.

I worked for a few years at a small business. The owner faced up to and successfully met a payroll every two weeks. The Obama administration is trying to meet the nation's payroll. No one is telling the small business owner that he needs to cut back on heat and air conditioning and free coffee. Why is a bunch of amateurs trying to tell the President how to spend the money?

A Special Congress has been proposed to make recommendations for the full Congress to vote on without discussion. Why does anyone think that the squirming, dithering and unacceptable compromising that goes on in the big Congress isn't going to happen with a smaller group?

We hear of students being passed even though with failing grades and others cheating or being allowed and urged to cheat to pass so that a school will continue to be eligible for "No Child Left Behind." The child who dreamt that one up ought to have been left behind.

One of the big problems we face, and maybe the biggest, is unemployment. The country needs more jobs. When I became an adult it was a well known fact that the most important thing for a young person was to find a job. A university education was designed for that, vocational schools were designed for that. A respectable person had a respectable job. The country wants and needs to go back to work. That is the answer to our economic problems. If the huge corporations want a tax break then they should spend the money on creating jobs, not bonuses.

The regressive conservative ideas of shrivels, cut backs and cut outs, policies they would never apply to themselves, preventing the lower classes from even a simple attempt at a better standard of living, are slowly pushing the country in a direction they simply don't want it to go: more socialism.

It is said a revolution is underway. I don't know. I don't agree. I don't disagree. But big questions are being asked. Not who has the money, who has the power, who will get elected, who will get reelected, who's running? No. The big question now being asked is "Where is the intelligence?" "Where are the brains?" "Where are the adults?"

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
***************************
SUMMER QUESTION

It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you. Don't let the recent New York State decision rob you of your thunder.

Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

13 answers so far.

You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.

DB
************************