Let Me Think About This!

OK, so I finally got off my stumps and created this blog. What spurred me to do it? I like writing and I love this country; in my experience it is the best in the world, but could be much, much better. Au contraire, mon cher! It is not getting better.

Of course I have concerns. But I won't let them drive me. I also have my dreams and aspirations, but I am not entitled to them. Yes, I can have my dreams, but the universe is uncaring. I'm just another bug on a big rock hurtling through space. If a comet were to obliterate the earth tomorrow, do you think anyone in the next solar system would care? Would it make a difference anywhere but here?

So how to balance the very short view such as dealing with the jerk in the next office, with the long view? How to make a difference and honor and respect my fellow human beings, even if they want to dwell on getting the latest Iphone and watch America's Got Talent, or BET?

Life is living in the question. There is no answer.

So, getting back to the here and now, as I was driving home tonight, from work of course, I was listening to NPR. The topic was the Democratic Convention. The correspondent was discussing the booze that was available at the bar, and the bar keep was describing Johnny Walker Blue Scotch.

Now, I first was made aware of this very fine scotch whiskey during a trip to Saudi Arabia, a "dry" country (my experiences there could be the subject of another blog). So here I am driving home and I am listening to this tongue in cheek lecture about what is essentially another political excess. (Hey, I spent a good part of my life thinking that Johnny Walker Black was an excess).

Arriving home, I tune into C-Span because my spouse was still at work. There is the Honorable Dennis J. Kucinich from Ohio, lambasting the opposition because of they have supposedly destroyed the Social Security trust fund.

OK, so I have heard enough for one day. I assume Kucinich saw or heard about the movie IOUSA and was using his best spin to pin it on “somebody else”. About the movie: Mr. Walker, former Comptroller General of this USA was stumping for years about the “immoral” situation with the SS trust fund.

Surprise! The trust fund is broke. (If you don’t know this, you are probably under 20 or in denial, asleep or brain dead). Despite the implications of Rep. Kucinich, this did not happen because of the Iraq war. It happened because American citizens believe their politicians when they speak. Think about it; the politicians in this country have been raiding the SS trust fund for years. The last time, as I recollect was during the Clinton Administration. Good ‘ol Vice President Al Gore cast the tie breaking vote to raid the trust in the name of “balancing the budget”, as in, spending more than we could currently afford.

So why would this be considered immoral by the Comptroller General? Well, because the IOUs in the trust fund will be paid by our descendents. So we are basically strapping our children and grandchildren with trillions of dollars of debt, so we can party today. (How much debt? Well, something like $53 Trillion or about 50 Iraq wars worth of debt!)

Now, I pointed this out to associates when Mr. Walker was stumping around the country, and you know what? It fell on deaf ears. I've always wondered why they would they be deaf? I can only guess. Some possibilities: General apathy is first. Possibly those under 30 see it as a problem in the distant future. Those in the age group 30 to 60 are simply "too busy" dealing with today’s issues. And those over 60? They are possibly unwilling to admit they are robbing their children of their inheritance.

So I decided to “put it out there” in the universe (or at least the blogosphere). So here goes!

As for this blog, I probably won't be telling you about the pets, or describing the lint in my navel. I'll save that for posting somewhere else!


http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_o_u_s_a/?nopop=1#synopsis