American Jobs

The world is moving along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

Helen Keller
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Hello Sandy
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Here is a word to the wise and the otherwise. Have you ever heard of Spencer Silver or Art Fry? No? They should probably be almost as famous as Thomas Edison. They invented the Post-it. A thing some people use every day. The were two honest workers for the 3M Corporation. You've heard of them. I'm fairly sure Silver and Fry were compensated for their work, but it was 3M that walked away with the millions the Post-it has earned in all it's various forms.

"There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. (Ecclesiastes) 9: 14,15)

Think of all the nameless workers who have made things happen. The part time tutor who makes sure the kid passes her math exam. The typist who finds a mistake in the legal document and corrects it. The fireman who rescues the boy and his dog from a blazing building. The engineer who finds a more efficient way of moving the traffic through a busy city. The technician who gets two parts to fit together properly that allows the space shuttle to fly. We never know their names, those poor wise ones. Why are they poor? Because what they earn is never as much as their efforts are worth. But it doesn't matter. They have jobs.

Honest American workers want honest American jobs. If you are out of work the unemployment ratios presented on the TV News don't mean a thing. They just mean that you're a statistic.

Hence there is Occupy Wall Street, young people standing in the rain, shot at with rubber bullets, tear gassed and mustard gassed, arrested, beaten and sleeping in tents. Ecclesiastes also says, (4:13) "Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning." That wealthy corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes is an absurdity. They say they need the money to provide jobs. I wonder what the honest American unemployed worker thinks of that, when he can go through his home and see all the things that say "Made in China." Recently one of our rich Congressmen complained that he couldn't afford to be taxed because he would only have $200,000 left to feed his family. I wonder what the single mom who feeds her family on less than $20,000 thinks of that. They can out source jobs to Asia, hire temp workers so they don't have to pay for health care and vacations and squirm out of collective bargaining to fill their pockets and Maximize Shareholder Value. But now they have been warned. Will they heed the warning?

All the talk about economic policies, national debt reduction, stimulus packages and fiscal responsibility is, as the old farmer whom no one remembers said, all a lot of "hog wash." America is a poor country. The number of poor people who live here far out weighs the number of rich. The answer is to pry the money out of the hands of the greedy who don't even know they are greedy and spend it on a gross national product that people can afford. Honest American workers want honest American jobs. Now.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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WEEKEND CONTEST

This is easy.

A farmer son loads some pumpkins in his pick up truck and goes out to deliver them to various markets around town.

At the first market he delivers Half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the second market he leaves half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the third market he gives them half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
At the forth market he delivers half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
Then he drives his truck back to the farm to get more pumpkins because he's run out of them.
How many pumpkins did he have in the truck to begin with?

I await your clever answer.

DB
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AUTUMN QUESTION
This is not a contest

What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?

Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

I eagerly await your answers.
DB
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Weekend

Wise Man

Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Ecclesiastes: 9:14 - 17 There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.
Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools.
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So have we yet had ten thousand fools proclaiming themselves through the halls of Congress? Or are there more to come? What more damage can be done?

We have a Patriot's Act which has nothing to do with patriotism. We have a Tea Party which has nothing to do with the original Tea Party. We have No Child Left Behind which encourages giving passing grades to failing students, closes schools and leaves a lot of children behind. We have a War on Terror which will never be won. We have a duly elected President who can't be
President because he's the wrong race. We have freedom of worship as long as it's Christian. We have squeamish proclaimers on Wall Street who arbitrarily lower our nation's credit rating. Congress has erected bulwarks against the American people. Our economy is besieged by the super rich. We have two very expensive battles going on in Asia neither of which we will win. We have labor unions to protect the rights of working people which are being eroded and closed down. We are "one nation, indivisible" except we're not. We are the "land of the free and the home of the brave" except that we're not. We have a comprehensive health care plan that is being torn apart and ultimately destroyed. We have seen the unadults of the House of Representatives bang the gavel down on the results of undisguised gloating hatred.

A patriot is one who stands up for his country even if it means standing up to his government. Where are the patriots? The goal of the original Tea Party was "No taxation without representation." If the wealthy are not paying their fair share of taxes why are they so strongly represented in Congress? "No child left behind" means that the entire nation should be focused on making sure American children ore getting the best education possible. We have road rage, racism, mothers killing their children, students killing their teachers. Terror is alive in this country and there are root causes for it that are not being investigated and addressed. We have never won a war we fought in Asia except when we dropped two atom bombs. There are those who are dedicated to getting President Obama out of office for no other reason than he's black and they've been doing that from the very start before he could even do something they didn't like. Freedom of worship means the Muslims can build a mosque wherever they want to. People fought and some lost their lives to establish the labor unions in this country. Without them workers will be exploited, and there will be slave labor. The kings and strong men of Wall Street are the biggest bunch of flip floppers in the country and they have convinced themselves and most of us that their figures represent the realities of economic life. We are not one nation, indivisible anymore. We are the Conservatives against everybody else. We are not a land of the free and home of the brave. Some of our freedoms are being eroded as the clock ticks and we have spawned a large group of cowards who sit in seats of power. Many American people are fed up with the government for just that reason. Why have many Americans even lost the consciousness of being an important people? Why have they lost self respect? Why have they lost the moral high ground? Why have they lost a sense of values? One group of Americans has been tricked into taking sides against another group. We are on the cusp of another Civil War.

So what's next? What else can they do? They can refuse to enact an intelligent and equitable tax structure and continue to defer to the rich which will deprive the treasury of money it could use to help improve the standard of living for the rest of us. They can minimize Medicaid and Medicare so that only the select few can afford to get and stay healthy. They can take away Veterans' benefits thus making the military a less attractive choice for young people. They can abate Social Security thus rendering thousands if not millions of older folks homeless.

The country needs that poor, wise man who forgets himself into immortality to drive out the villains and save the city. Where is he?

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
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SUMMER QUESTION

Summer is moving along, people.

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

Only 14 answers so far.

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

DB
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WEEKEND CONTEST

4 Weird Songs
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Good luck.
DB
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Transitions

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change,

Thomas Hardy
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With apologies to Ecclesiastes:

There is a time to think and a time stop thinking.
There is a time to pick up and a time to scatter.
There is a time to remember and a time to forget.
There is a time to wonder and a time to decide.
There is a time to get dressed and a time to get undressed.
There is a time to consider our responsibilities and a time to be irresponsible.
There is a time to wash the dishes and a time to leave them in the sink.
There is a time to hope and a time to feel hopeless.
There is a time to cut the hair and a time to let it grow.
There is a time to give up and a time to try again.
There is a time to diet and a time to eat that piece of cake.
There is a time to spend money and a time to save it.
There is a time to bow your head and a time to lift it up.
There is a time to laugh and a time to weep.
There is a time to do the laundry and a time to leave it where it is.
There is a time to ponder immortality and a time to take a nap.
There is a time to pray and a time to curse.
There is a time to walk and a time to sit still.
There is a time to know yourself and a time to be confused.
There is a time to frolic and a time to meditate.
There is a time to resist and a time to relent.
There is a time to learn and a time to unlearn.
There is a time to work and a time to rest.
There is a time to turn on the light and a time to turn it off.
There is a time to speak and a time to keep your mouth shut.
There is a time to tend your garden and a time to let nature do it.
There is a time to play your flute and a time to leave in it its case.
There is a time to plan your future and a time to live for the moment.
There is a time to see clearly and a time to be bewildered.
There is a time to sleep and a time to stay awake.
There is a time to go out and a time to stay at home.
There is a time to write and a time to stop writing.


The Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

Only 5 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
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Guarded Genius 6/03/09

There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group, there is less competition there.

Indira Gandhi
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Hello. Are you there?
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To me one of the saddest stories in the Bible is Ecclesiastes 9: 14, 15.

"There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it; now there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man."

What the mighty king wanted with this little city is a mystery. Perhaps it was in a strategic location. Whatever, it was important enough to built great walls of defense against it. The king was obviously, and probably incorrectly, expecting the little city to mount a fierce counter attack. And why did he put it under siege, allowing no access or egress until it ran out of food and had to surrender. Why didn't he just overrun it if he was such a "great king"?

Nevertheless, "there was found in the city a poor, wise man." Why did he have to be found? Was he hiding? I doubt it. Was he the only wise man in the city? Being poor, was he living in a hovel down a back alley perhaps, barely able to feed himself and his dog? And how did he save the city? Did he come up with some scheme to frighten the mighty king and his army to make them run away? Did he go out and negotiate with the king? And why would the mighty king give audience to a poor man? Kings don't usually discuss things with paupers.

Well, whatever he did it worked. The kings army packed up and left, and the poor man went back to his hovel with his dog knowing that he and his neighbors could sleep in peace.

No doubt the self important mayor, being a good politician, congratulated himself and his fellow citizens for their courage and commitment in protecting their freedoms, their rights and their way of life.

We will never know what the poor, wise man did to save the city. He never stepped forward to claim the credit. Besides he was just a bum who lived in a hovel and wasn't worth a damn. So they forgot about him.

I have seen it happen in my days. I'm sure you have also. Someone stands up, takes the credit, the award, the appreciation and applause for something he didn't do, oblivious to the existence of the one who actually did it. And often the genius who was really responsible is sitting and applauding with the rest.

As President Harry Truman said "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."

DB - The Vagabond
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A blessing on you, whoever you are.
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