Of The People...

Has America lost the art of compromise? Have we adopted the "them vs. us or somebody loses" attitude as the only solution to our problems? If we listen carefully, we might be surprised at how well we can work together. Again, I write... "Nothing can be sliced so thing, that there are not two sides"... think about it

Politicians... come election time... we will be singing... "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" Every American should have this song on their minds when choosing the next politician. There is good and bad in both parties... choose who is working on our behalf... right now, not what they promise to do later... WHAT ARE THEY DOING NOW?

Ask yourself America, why you are dissatisfied with the way things are now... is it because no one is trying to make things right or is it because you believe everything you read and hear? Ask yourself, does every one of your plans work as you planned? What part did you take in creating the situation you find yourself? Was there something you could have done and did not?

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."" ... and that government OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, shall not perish from the earth." If we keep blaming our politicians without stepping up to the plate... if we wait until election time to make...

...America as we have known it will perish from the earth. Our complacency is the reason America is in the state it finds itself. We have relinquished our lives to politicians based on clever marketing at election time. Where were those people leading up to November? What were they doing for us? Spend the next couple of months asking this question. Know before you go… and vote.

Lastly, everything takes time! Nothing (effective) happens overnight. We learn by trial and error, even our politicians. No one can plan so well that positive results are guaranteed. Acts of God, acts of man, either will disrupt our plans. Every family has at least one “Black sheep”, even our government. No one can control every member of its family. They can only try.

It is ludicrous to blame all the Democrats or all the Republicans because of something that does not go as planned or because someone turns out to be inept or dishonest. Blame the person, not the whole party. This is the year 2010; before we realize it, elections will be here, use your brains America... before you vote, think! I have too many “skeletons in my closet” to run for office, this is not my purpose for this writing.

About the President...

If I am not mistaken... it takes about nine months to have a baby; to build a house, for the foundation, one must use cement, (even quick dry cement takes time to dry); even with the help of grandparents, new parents make mistakes with their first child; get the point?

No President could come into the White House and fix the chaos we were in… by this time. No President, Black, White, Democrat or Republican could come into the White House and fix things by now. The state of the United States will take creativity and bold moves to make things work. We Americans expect too much too soon. We expect perfections when we ourselves are not perfect. As President John Kennedy said, (to paraphrase) stop complaining, do something! If you have a better idea how to get out of this quagmire we are in, say something, do something. Complaining does not count as something. It is the fool’s way out.

Our President is doing something that he believes is good for all of us. Abraham Lincoln said: “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.” Just as important, President Lincoln said: “I do the very best I know how the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

America was on a downhill spiral. Every day you turn on the television you see a commercial for an attorney ready to sue on the behalf of the myriad people afflicted with a new disease. I have never heard of most of the diseases. Apparently, the diseases were brought on by employers and pharmaceutical companies that did not place our best interest at heart. They only cared about profits. Fixing what was wrong so that we would not get sick, was not a priority. Now millions of Americans find themselves sick with what could have been preventable diseases. We will pay for the sick one way or another. The difference is that we the American people will not bear the weight alone. Sick and ailing people do not make good employees. Without insurance, if they do not win the lawsuit, how will they survive? Do any of us know for sure we will not be next?

Give the people a chance to get well. Next, provide jobs and opportunities for the people to sustain themselves financially. A sound body makes a sound mind, or so I have been told. If I am not stressed out worrying how to get proper medical care for a family member, or myself I can spend that time concentrating on doing a better job or creating a better job. We have a wealth of clever minds in this country. We invented and created so many wonderful things that improved the world. If the job bill has even the least bit of merit, it will open doors for us. Then, once again, we can proudly say, “Made in America”. We must use our brains and stop depending on corporations to “feed us”. Let us go back to basics, build something, design something, do something that no one else is doing. If you cannot sell it, barter it. We were clever enough to make and sell such wonderful things as “Pet Rocks” and the all-time favorite… “Plastic Doggy Doo”.

Stop being so pessimistic! Believe we will arise out of the flames more victorious than ever. If we do rise, what it cost to get there will not matter in the end. Most of you have probably quoted, “you must spend money to make money”. Buck up America, optimistically working together, we can pay the financial debt. That is not the problem. We the People of the United States… can do anything, if we stop acting divided and start acting more UNITED! See the glass… half-full!

Paradoxical...

The word Paradoxical is defined as Inconsistent, Absurd, Ironic, Contradictory, Enigmatic, and my favorite… Illogical.

My observation of the world in which we are living is that its people are paradoxical. We say one thing and mean another. We trust and believe in things, people or ideas without clearly considering the validity of that thought… Paradoxical.

No person in this world is perfect and yet we expect perfection from people in authority, our neighbors, our family and our friends. We expect people to accept our foibles and yet, we will not forgive others for theirs. We disappoint others but expect people to understand when we do it to them. We waste other peoples’ time but expect punctuality of others.

Physicians cannot heal themselves because they are too close to the problem… “Can’t see for looking”. They say people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Does that mean to throw stones at other houses or from within their home? I am sure that means there will be corollary, repercussions. If we throw stones at others, they could retaliate.

In the “good olde days”, maxims; axioms; mottoes; proverbs; adages; sayings, were a part of our lives. The enticed us to think about life from a different perspective or point of view. Today it seems we do not have time to think except “on the quick”. This reminds me of another adage, “haste makes waste”. We waste time, energy and money repairing the damage of thinking hastily. I imagine that about 70% of all recalls, malpractice, excessive waste, is caused by impetuous thinking.

Unless one lives in the suburbs, there is little chance to literally “stop and smell the roses”. There are no wild roses growing along the roadside in the city to smell. If you live in the city and stop to smell your neighbors’ roses, they may phone the police for fear you are casing their house. How many of us go to the botanical gardens? Roses in flower shops are meant to be observed, not sniffed. No wonder we do not use that axiom any more. That one comes from an era when air, water and nature were free to enjoy.

How many wished for “free time” to enjoy doing things? Layoffs and cutbacks have left many of us with free time but we cannot enjoy it because everything we want to do cost money. Either we do not have enough of it or what we do have we must be frugal. In the “good olde days”, we created our own enjoyment; it did not come from Netflix, Best Buy, or The Home Shopping Network or found on EBay. We played games with real people not avatars. We sat on the porch to watch a sunset and listened to the birds singing. If we are lucky enough to have a balcony, most likely we cannot hear the birds because of the din coming from the street below. The sun has set by the time realize the day is ending. If we are outside walking towards the sunset, we must hurry so that we do not miss the traffic light, our bus or train that will take us home.

It seems people today go home to houses or apartments but not home in the aesthetic sense of the word. In the “good olde days”, home was where the hearth was (notice this word contains hear, ear, and heart??). Hearth is synonymous with inglenook, fireside, family life, home… hearth. The average person (probably) does not know what an inglenook is other than the name of a wine company (Inglenook). Inglenook is one of those words we rarely hear any more.

Another question I have is what is so bad about “old school”? Compared to “new school”, old school taught is far more than just the basics of a subject… what we need to know to move on to the next thing. “Old school” was inquisitive about life not just the latest gadgets (technology) or the latest “reality show”. “Old school” was searching for something and discovering. “Old school” was a well-rounded education, reading (from books inspired the imagination); writing (clear thoughts and penmanship); Arithmetic (the ability to do more than add and subtract); and science (how things worked individually and in harmony). The average person (operative word, average) I have spoken with is grossly deficient in at least one of those subjects. If one is not Anglo-Saxon and enunciates clearly, they are assumed to be from another country instead of America. Here is a real paradox. In America, we profess to have an excellent school system. What good is it if the students are not expected to gain anything from going to school? Is it only in Chicago that public school children are not expected to learn what is taught? Hmmmm….

The average person I have spoken with claims not to be prejudice. In spite of this proclamation, they will judge without benefit of actual experience people as a group. It could be race, religion or sex; people of like kind are judge because of the few people one has come into contact. Sometimes there had been no actual contact just hearsay or media interpretation. When I was a little girl, I assumed that all rich people must be beautiful because they could afford to look better than the rest of us. When I grew up, I found very many rich people who looked like the rest of us. Some even considered to not to be beautiful. My association with “old money” taught me that commonly, the rich were just like us… except they had less financial worries. Their children were not better students or model citizens; they were the same as other children. The only difference was that they wore better quality clothing. It seems that today, grandchildren of the “old money” sect feel they must prove themselves the same as children of ministers. You can run, you can hide, you can reinvent yourself several times but eventually, you (if you live) grow up and into your parents.

The “trust no one over thirty” generation is now trying to get us to trust them. Their children have learned nothing from this. They too are distrustful of anyone over thirty. History is a great teacher if one would take the time to look back and then forward. We could save ourselves a great deal of angst. History does not need to, but more often than not, it repeats itself. The reason is that the next generation, same as the one that preceded it assumes they have all the answers and they can change the world. They dress it up but they still go down the same trodden path. In the end, the results remain the same.

If I could offer any advices to anyone who would listen if would be to think for your self, remove your blinders and look around you, purposefully take time to breathe, look back before you begin your journey to gather the wealth of information that was left for you, and lastly… never lose your childlike faith and wonderment. Life is as good or as bad as you believe it is. The lesson here is that life really is about choice not about destiny. Our choices determine our destiny. Paradoxical!