What’s Next

Tags

baby boomers, history, identity, NOTHING is FREE, self-reliance

The pundits are scrambling to explain what happened Election Day in America. Dozens of articles written to analyze the anemic turnout, the technology flop, and the “Evangelical flu” that spelled defeat for perhaps the most qualified candidate to run in decades! There are dozens of reasons for Obama’s victory, but the most significant is … HISTORY!

Until the time of FDR, Americans prided themselves on SELF-RELIANCE! HISTORY! Americans worked as long as they could, then families took care of them until they passed. People did NOT retire, they just did something less strenuous. It was understood adults worked. Adults took care of their homes, their family, and their belongings. If they wanted a new car or TV, they saved their earnings until they had enough. Then, and only then, did they make the purchase. HISTORY! It was general knowledge that NOTHING is FREE in this life! True, there wasn’t the constant barrage of temptations from TV and movies for more stuff, and there was a greater sense of “neighbor.

Some pundits explain Gov. ROMNEY’S loss in terms of identity, his inability to “connect” with the average person. With the inexcusable help of the mainstream media emphasizing the negative (which is always easier to believe than the truth,) Romney was billed as an “evil” Bain Capitalist – an image he was never able to overcome while the President, though he hobnobs with the Hollywood elite, never played baseball or bowled, was raised & mentored by card-carrying Communists, was billed as the guy who empathizes with the downtrodden and poor. Go figure!

This Election was billed by some as a choice in the direction America should go in the years to come. So exactly what does the re-election of Barack Obama indicate about our true direction? 

America must decide … and quickly … who she will be in the decades to come. Will we permit an arrogant, elitists government to pick away at our individual liberties as in the recent years? Or will we …

• Identify our priorities. I believe we must back up & regroup, looking inwardly first and get our own hearts, mind, and goals situated. Surely there are a handful of issues that outweigh the others. Prioritize!!!
• Overlook our less vital differences. What blew this election was our inability or unwillingness to organize. It is actually a characteristic of “conservatism” that we must overcome if we are to take back any ground. Evangelicals didn’t get behind Romney because he’s Mormon. Libertarians were reluctant to get behind him because he wasn’t far enough to the Right. Too many Americans bought the lies of the media that fractured the “anyone but Obama” crowd. We MUST get past our differences. We MUST accept there is no such thing as PERFECTION!
• FOCUS on our goal of re-establishing our Constitution as THE rule of Law in the land. The single most fundamental issue to my mind is the re-establishment of the Constitution as the “absolute” Law of the Land! This must be the driving force behind our work, our prayers, and our words.
• Raise up leaders from the local level to rise through the ranks (We must train the next generation for the battles to come). How many of us have never missed an opportunity to vote? How familiar are we with those running in local elections – for city council, school board, etc? THIS is where we can start. Locate the younger men and women with a passion for our nation and encourage them. I’ve met many young people to understand what’s going on. When I hear them complain that a candidate is too old, too left, too moderate, I say then YOU run! if you are not satisfied with those seeking office, consider yourself! Are you willing t make the sacrifice?

As I see it, it is us, the “baby boomers!” We messed things up in the 60’s by tearing down all manner of authority and leaving a wave of irresponsibility in our wake. We are reaping the rebellion we sowed! It’s on us, my fellow boomers, to do all within our power to turn this great ship around, or, at the very least, stop the downward spiral! Can we do it? I am most certain we can, but we must want to …

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence

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Greed belongs to those who have NOT … not to those who have!

Tags

baby boomers, Capitalism, Existentialism, greed, the "ME" generation, Union bosses

There sure are a few angry & uneducated Americans out there who haven’t a shred of understanding how Capitalism works. I’m not sure I should be the one to attempt to rectify that situation because I have a tendency to over-simplify things … like reducing them to their lowest common denominator >>> Anyone remember that? The lowest common denominator? I digress …

For many of us growing up in America, our first brush with Capitalism is the Lemonade stand we do for girl or boy scouts or helping out with a school or church (or synagogue) bake sale or rummage sale. Yup! THAT is Capitalism, my friends, pure & simple! Create a product or service, find a market, sell your service or product at a price the market can bear, reap the rewards, use some to continue or build the business, the rest is PROFIT. Please notice, profit is NOT a 4 letter word! You worked for it; you earned it. If you sell enough lemonade that you need a helper, then you share the PROFIT with that helper in some way (this is “overhead” – the cost of running the business). If you have a good product/service and if the price is right, your business will grow and more helpers will be needed. If, on the other hand, the product/service is NOT good or the price is NOT correct, your business will fail. From Main street to Wall Street, this is how capitalism works. On Wall Street, however, the business has achieved huge success because the owner has made good decisions, provides a Good product/service at an excellent price, but the concept is the same.

What happened somewhere along the way, is really not as complicated as many have said. It’s simple GREED! Union bosses, notoriously corrupt for decades, charge Union members DUES – meant as insurance in case of strikes, to cover the cost of … uh, Union bosses, etc. The vast majority of Union contracts include pensions. The Union members never knew when the pensions started that funding them would soon be a very real issue, but … no worries, every Union member deserves 30 days vacation, full medical benefits, dental, 401K … etc! Again, the majority of Union workers never gave a thought to where all this was coming from … who was paying? Then sometime in the 70’s, people started to ask.

So greed drove Union bosses to levy contracts with pensions without funding. OOOOPS! In the meantime, Corporate CEO’s, with an eye on the bottom line, began to get wise to the unreasonable cost of Union employees, and began to move jobs overseas. Union bosses drove the price of steel, for example, significantly beyond what the market could bear. As a result, steel mills shut down, jobs were shipped overseas because the product could be made cheaper there. It is CAPITALISM = all about the bottom line! Now, if the Union bosses had the foresight to promote EXCELLENCE in the product or service, a slightly higher price wouldn’t have been an issue, but most of us realized that Honda, and Suzuki, and Panasonic, and Sony … actually put out a better product AND cost less – at least in the 60’s – 70’s.

What has happened in the last few decades? More of the same. the Rich get richer because they know how to do it, they know how to provide a product, how to market a product, how to price a product. They are willing to work long hours, in odd places around the clock and around the nation, or even the globe to push their product/service. At some point, it is no longer about the money, but about the “deal!” The high rollers, as we might call them, are all about the “deal,” the bargaining, the trying to out-smart, out-think, out-gamble the other players. GREED? Not really! Greed belongs to those who have NOT … not to those who have!

The turmoil now … the unrest, the angst against the RICH? All based on … you guessed it, GREED! Because Existentialism has been the religion of choice for colleges and universities since the 60’s – maybe earlier, a large segment of our population had their heads filled with the hopelessness and purposelessness that fills what some call good literature. People, however, cannot survive long without a purpose, so … ENTER … well, we can call it SELF-pity, SELF-loathing, or SELF-destruction. After all, we were the “ME” generation. We were ripe for re-programming! In creeps the socialist “fairness” theories. In walks the misplaced anger. Frankly, I think maybe some of us were moving in the phase of indestructibility, thinking America had become indestructible! America could handle our angst no matter how we screwed things up!

Whatever our thoughts, after the “Establishment” was been torn down, we found out there was some value in that Establishment! We wanted the peace and serenity our parents knew. No, not world peace, but inner peace – peace with ones SELF!

Found it yet? If you’re chasing your tail for a bigger bone, or bigger piece of the proverbial pie, I can tell you it will not satisfy! Nothing, no fancy car, no mansion, no gorgeous clothes can FIX what’s broken until you and I come to grips and admit something IS broken. If I am not content with who I am,

A> It is my own fault/responsibility, and

B> No one can make me content.

It is something You and I must do for ourselves. If we manage to conquer this, GREED will not be an issue any longer. And that’s my 2 bits for today!

One of the most dangerous beliefs in western thought is that STUFF and the accumulation of such is the measure of success (or contentment!)

Success consists of going from failure to failure
without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill

Where did we go off track? What happened to our America? What happened to us?

Tags

"life lessons", anarchy, baby boomers, chaos, character training, discipline, establishment, hippies, Human nature, love children, order, reasonable boundnaries, spiritual

“Where did we go off track, Barb? what happened to that America? What happened to us?”
This was a response left by a friend to a former post: Where Has America Gone?

Do you know? Here’s my take:

Where did we go off track? We have forgotten our ROOTS, our Judeo-Christian heritage and the common sense virtue that came with it. It seems to me everything fell apart in the 60’s. When we were busy tearing down questionable and corrupt authority, we were naive enough to disregard basic human nature, which in my estimation, is selfishly corrupt. We mocked and rebelled against organized education, religion, family, … just about everything “organized,” but replaced it with only chaos or anarchy. People simply cannot thrive without reasonable boundaries. Today, parents don’t know how to establish ANY boundaries, let alone reasonable ones. Discipline, self-control, and self-reliance are a dirty words, as are responsibility and accountability. Boundaries and discipline used to mean, “I am loved enough to be taught the RIGHT way.” Now it is abuse! But that is where I always return … the disintegration of the family – the nucleus family: 1 dad, 1 mom, 2.5 kids, 1 dog or cat! Again, now, anything goes. I don’t have a problem with same-sex unions, but they are NOT “marriage.” As a WORD person, it concerns me deeply that the militants don’t want to create their own word for same sex unions, they want to re-make the standard definition of marriage to include … ANYTHING. It’s from order and establishment to chaos in 40-50 years. It’s one thing to replace a set order or establishment with another design, but we didn’t. We just “let the chips fall where they may.” Now we’re reaping the consequences of rebellion and chaos. Anything goes.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold
is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
~ Thomas Jefferson ~

What happened to our America? Without structure, the “essence” of America began to erode. Was this intentional? No clue! But I don’t think at this point it really matters. The damage is done. Self-indulgence and greed rule the day from Wall Street to Main Street. We gravitate to our private “den’s” and bemoan our sorry state, loneliness as the #1 national illness. Until WE THE PEOPLE emerge from our sleep, and re-take the reins of our present, we have no future to offer our children and grandchildren. At least, not a future in a FREE America.

Liberty is the great parent
of science and of virtue;
and a nation will be great in both
in proportion as it is free.
~ Thomas Jefferson ~

What happened to us? Somehow, as the moral fiber of our nation was slowly compromised, the population at about the same pace, became lazy, uninspired, and unmotivated. We have grown increasingly dependent on the government for just about everything from food to jobs, to our education, our information (via the gov’t backed media), to our homes. While our individual independence and self-reliance made America great, our dependence, fear and compromised morality lulled us to sleep while the “bad” rolled over us like a moral fog blurring our vision and understanding.

When the people fear their government,
there is tyranny;
when the government fears the people,
there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson ~

This may be a simplistic way to see the overwhelming decline is all things solid, moral, trustworthy, and sacred, but it puts the blame where it needs to be … on me, my generation, the hippies, love children, … the BOOMERS! It’s OUR mess! God, give us a way to deal with it constructively!

Americans now are overtaxed, over-regulated, and overly dependent on the federal government! These things must change for America to thrive again.

The price of freedom
is eternal vigilance.
~ Thomas Jefferson ~

What have you done for FREEDOM?