Gentle Reader: I am a confused individual at the moment. Exactly what is going on currently in the world is a matter of: a.) Great Concern b.) Some Concern c.) General Hysteria d.) Preparing for the End Times e.) Hiding One's Head in the Sand f.) Fiddling While Rome Burns g.) All of the Above h.) Some of the Above i.) Physician Assisted Euthanasia. I have gone from being 18 years old and knowing everything to middle age and knowing absolutely nothing. Is this common, or is it just me? Or is it the times we live in? Surely people have lived through worse and not been quite as confused. World Wars, death camps, a sinking ship (the Titanic for example), and much, much, more. These situations were quite clear as to what was good or bad or desirable or not desirable: sinking for example or being quite angry about all that business at Pearl Harbor. There were Guys in White Hats and Guys in Black Hats. Once in awhile the enemy was Us (see Wikipedia: Watergate). Mostly the United States was considered one of the, if not The Biggest Good Guy and all around Good Buddy in the whole world. At least this is what we learned in 6th grade history class. Is is just me or is the United States so busy arguing amongst itself that nobody can figure out who the Good Guys are anymore? Are the unions bad guys or good guys, are cell phones fundamentally rude? Did the Supreme Court really decide in favor of corporations to contribute unlimited financial funds to political campaigns? Where has all the employment gone? Was the woman who painted her son's toenails pink on a national ad really trying to push a transgender agenda? Are we actually bombing not one but three countries at the moment? Well, at least we know Glen Beck really IS a nutjob...even Fox News can't tolerate him. (Heavy sigh of relief...) It all gives this writer pause and a bad case of heartburn. Brave New World, indeed. But we are a Brave New World divided. A country divided almost completely in half. In the meantime wealth has seen the greatest transfer from the lower and middle classes to the upper income classes this country has ever experienced. It wasn't a secret. It's been happening for several years. It has even been noted in national newspapers in small articles on the back page from time to time. Nobody noticed. Thousand of jobs were leaving every month. Again right there in the newspaper. Nobody noticed unless it was their job going to Southeast Asia. We were being fleeced. Fleeced on a grand scale I might add. It's looking grander and grander all the time, from Savings and Loan scandals to Enron to Wall Street bonuses despite huge government bailouts....and let's not even talk about Madoff. That one REALLY hurts. Is it just me? Or have multi-national corporations gotten control of the government while we were busy running up our credit cards and buying things we didn't need and couldn't afford. How did they think we could keep buying all that stuff if we didn't have jobs? In addition: I. A sitting President no one can agree is a US citizen, won a Nobel Peace Prize and bombed Libya without anyone's permission including Congressional approval. II. Congress wants to cut Medicare out and still get full health benefits for life after only serving one term. They get 100% salary for life and military lifers only get 50% of theirs. What exactly is it that they do for work? (rumor: very little) III. The Supreme Court has ceased being a check or a balance in our government and has leapt onto the multi-national bandwagon with it's decision concerning corporations and elected officials. We should have seen that one coming when they called the Bush-Gore election BEFORE the recount. Arguments about the recount aside, they intervened before the recount was over. A little foreshadowing there, methinks. Is it just me or is the heartburn giving me a bad dream? I can usually wake myself out of a bad dream...
