Hi Oh well, life still goes on, right? G
Sour Grapes and Saddle Sores
George Hirst
‘Tis the season of depression February 27, 2009
There is an opportunity for a climate of hope and openness these days. Yet, I hear a lot of pessimism and, a lot of talk that amounts to fear mongering. There are tales of bad times, stories about other depressions and, talk about future days when things might be worse. I wonder what has happened to the hopes and the promises of the new day that happened last November. Both parties and every candidate talked about change and as part of that change, a bi-partisanship and, yet when the elections we over, we went got back to a divided political life.
We seem to have become disciples of gloom and doom. Already the talking heads are finding fault, nay, looking for fault, in the offices of President Obama. They don’t seem to see how hard he is working at being cooperative and open. We elected a Democrat to be the people in charge, that was the majority vote, why don’t we abide by it?
Well, I have something to say that is angry, why are we so greedy? Why do we expect a magic bullet that will give us what we want? Why can’t we see other ways to change? It is "us" not me! Yes, we are in a depression, it wasn’t forced on us, we made it. It wasn’t created by an evil force, it was because we forgot that prosperity is not permanent, and we lived it up and overspent. Prosperity is to be lived carefully. Just like depressions, they must be lived with and, lessons learned. So you can’t smile, so laughter is off on a cruise, we must work at living with depression until it is over.
In the days of the 1930-40 depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". The other half of the battle against depression ,besides an economic effort , is a need to have a firm belief in ourselves. The politicians keep running for office and, when they do that they keep the debates about my way or your way going. And, just as bad, the media over-informs us about the efforts of our governing bodies. They always have to analyze the "breaking news", not reporting the works of our elected officials. Maybe this is hard news but, we need good news that changes have come and the benefit will soon show.
We have become fearful and we have lost sight of the long history of a government by experiment. Not only do we not trust the efforts of the people we elected, we don’t trust each other. We have lived together as one nation for two centuries, does that not still apply? Live with these hard times, so that the lessons we have learned from the causes we have followed will help us avoid it again. Maybe!
Let me put it to you this way, I was a teenager during the ‘30s and '40's depression. I was in a place that I remember the measures that were put in place to relieve some of the difficulties. Those measures did help, but they did not make us prosperous. It makes me sad to realize that the ravages of the depression were only resolved during World War Two, then there were jobs that paid well for every person. Further, there was money to be made by the military/industrial complex owners. The well known Greatest Generation came into being, that created new things and new ways to make money, that evolved into greed. That whole scheme brought our civilization crashing down around us.
The trouble with the previous eight years or so is not a case of trying to spread democracy but a matter of profit and loss. Profit in dollars, and loss in lives and property. I need not remind you that the effort was financed through borrowed funds, and that the result is that we are in a depression. So we need to be sensitive to the predicament we are in from the position of the workers of our world. We are indebted to the middle class that does the work that produces the products for our gluttony and greed. Help must be given to the people who are the heart of the nation. We have to stop believing the naysayer and begin to believe in the heart of our world, the common folk who have long done the work and now are without support. We believe in our national equality so let us find ways to bring to the end of efforts that make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
More Sour Grapes and Saddle Sores
Sour Grapes and Saddle Sores
George Hirst
‘Tis the season of depression February 27, 2009
There is an opportunity for a climate of hope and openness these days. Yet, I hear a lot of pessimism and, a lot of talk that amounts to fear mongering. There are tales of bad times, stories about other depressions and, talk about future days when things might be worse. I wonder what has happened to the hopes and the promises of the new day that happened last November. Both parties and every candidate talked about change and as part of that change, a bi-partisanship and, yet when the elections we over, we went got back to a divided political life.
We seem to have become disciples of gloom and doom. Already the talking heads are finding fault, nay, looking for fault, in the offices of President Obama. They don’t seem to see how hard he is working at being cooperative and open. We elected a Democrat to be the people in charge, that was the majority vote, why don’t we abide by it?
Well, I have something to say that is angry, why are we so greedy? Why do we expect a magic bullet that will give us what we want? Why can’t we see other ways to change? It is "us" not me! Yes, we are in a depression, it wasn’t forced on us, we made it. It wasn’t created by an evil force, it was because we forgot that prosperity is not permanent, and we lived it up and overspent. Prosperity is to be lived carefully. Just like depressions, they must be lived with and, lessons learned. So you can’t smile, so laughter is off on a cruise, we must work at living with depression until it is over.
In the days of the 1930-40 depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". The other half of the battle against depression ,besides an economic effort , is a need to have a firm belief in ourselves. The politicians keep running for office and, when they do that they keep the debates about my way or your way going. And, just as bad, the media over-informs us about the efforts of our governing bodies. They always have to analyze the "breaking news", not reporting the works of our elected officials. Maybe this is hard news but, we need good news that changes have come and the benefit will soon show.
We have become fearful and we have lost sight of the long history of a government by experiment. Not only do we not trust the efforts of the people we elected, we don’t trust each other. We have lived together as one nation for two centuries, does that not still apply? Live with these hard times, so that the lessons we have learned from the causes we have followed will help us avoid it again. Maybe!
Let me put it to you this way, I was a teenager during the ‘30s and '40's depression. I was in a place that I remember the measures that were put in place to relieve some of the difficulties. Those measures did help, but they did not make us prosperous. It makes me sad to realize that the ravages of the depression were only resolved during World War Two, then there were jobs that paid well for every person. Further, there was money to be made by the military/industrial complex owners. The well known Greatest Generation came into being, that created new things and new ways to make money, that evolved into greed. That whole scheme brought our civilization crashing down around us.
The trouble with the previous eight years or so is not a case of trying to spread democracy but a matter of profit and loss. Profit in dollars, and loss in lives and property. I need not remind you that the effort was financed through borrowed funds, and that the result is that we are in a depression. So we need to be sensitive to the predicament we are in from the position of the workers of our world. We are indebted to the middle class that does the work that produces the products for our gluttony and greed. Help must be given to the people who are the heart of the nation. We have to stop believing the naysayer and begin to believe in the heart of our world, the common folk who have long done the work and now are without support. We believe in our national equality so let us find ways to bring to the end of efforts that make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
More Sour Grapes and Saddle Sores