The beginning of an end

Much change is going on these days in the USA, I think.

The end of governments (local, state, and federal) involvement in charity is coming to an end. My guess is during hard times the taxes we still pay for basic services, like police, fire, clean water, and waste water will bubble to the top of spending priorities. My guess is that is if it doesn't happen where you live, then it will be based upon the votes of those we elect for our future where we live.

Now this idea is not that complicated. If our taxes we pay only offer so much for our elected politicians to expend, just what is their priority. If it means I have to suffer to support some deadbeats, then I have a problem.

All this premise assumes we can still vote to influence our future. If that does not happen, by various means I know about, then maybe we are going to have a revolution, which is a painful process. I sure hope this does not happen.

What galls me, is that where I live on the Cumberland Plateau in east Tennessee, there is a whole class of humanity that now depends on living on the government dole of the last decades, either directly, or indirectly. And when I use the also local charity methods that are more tough love, they, the government dependents, still have choices that avoid tough love, and use them (like the once a month government check). Now that hacks me off, though that is just how it is around here.

Especially when they are so drugged up I have to hear one of my favorite old time movies in French because of their drugged induced boo boo. Even then they could not speak English...mumbling was the best this one fellow could do at 0200 (2 AM), and woke me up to boot to help him. He was one of my charity cases I booted out later. In the end, this fellow just does not want to go to work, like most of us have to do. This, I hate to report, does happen a lot around here. Like I said, I am a tough love kind of person.

Much change is coming...I hope. Why it had to get to this state is another story that will often be reported, I think, and later.

Maybe we have screwed the pooch?

I think most of us in new world America are doing OK. After all we have warmth and food, and public electricity to boot. Even the Kings and Queens of our European ancestors probably did not have it that good even when they were at the top of their food chain.

Now I am beginning to wonder about the classical dilemma of democracy in America. It is when the have nots can vote themselves benefits from the haves, then we are in a pickle.

Here's why I think about this. I, by my personality, believe in and do local charity. So do my local county and state governments, of course using my tax money and the votes they get. I think I am more tough love than the local governments, but of course, that is just me.

What can be frustrating is dealing with those who are deadbeats, that is those who will compromise their integrity in order not to work for a living like most do, and still survive, and even breed. Whether they are born poor, or just choose to live that way, is of course an individual circumstance, in my view. There are just as many females like this as males, in my opinion, and where I live in east Tennessee.

What really galls me is the question I ask? Am I enabling their drug habits, which is my recent experience in east Tennessee. Have you ever heard the old time movie Jeremiah Johnson in French, for example at 2 AM, 0200 in 24 hour time. Or wake up with some drug induced idiot (mumbling to boot) failing to use the remote control for the DVD player, and wanting me to help him. Just so you know, I sent him packing to camp in the barn.

Now I have "consulted" with his local relatives, too. And they pretty much concur, and have done their best too.

Sometimes you just to have to let go, as much as it hurts me to say this. Send them packing I would say. Heck, they might even want to get minimum wage jobs just to survive.

I had a dream, too

I recently had a dream which I actually remember, which is unusual for me. Usually, the dream just disappears in front of me, and I cannot remember it, as much as I want to.

In this dream, I caught two yard invaders, who actually shot at me first. Well, I shot back, and actually killed one, I think. At least he did not shoot at me anymore. The other I deliberately aimed low when shooting back, and still hit him, or he faked it, I just don't know in this dream. Then I called the police. I was shooting a pistol (where it came from I do not know) in this dream, and I consider myself a pretty bad aim, though sometimes I guess in this dream I can hit home.

Two principles follow.

Tell this dream to local criminals and their friends, who I hope will blow the story up, and hopefully keep them away. After all I have about a square mile and a two house compound to protect in rural east Tennessee.

Wish for the best as how our today's elected politicians have their dreams, too. And dang, I sure hope I can vote in the future about who they are.

Are not we humans fickle?

Times do go on, as much as it hurts my feelings.

And much of the hoopla over the terrible earthquake in NE Japan is one thing that is a big deal. But don't leave out other human caused things, like the problems in the USA, or the probable other human caused things, like the bus accident in Brooklyn on I 95.

How about we brag about ourselves? Especially like how we react to a very bad earthquake in a rural part of Japan. Messing with public electricity is a big deal, for example. Most of us depend on it.

Having lived in Japan for about two years, I would rather be a USA citizen (new world) , than this really great group of people who deal with it in their way.

Our New World America

And it is not too shabby.
Like invest in America today, or it may be too late tomorrow.
This photo I think is from the Williamson County Square (TN) circa 1941.


I suppose most of the people in this picture are dead from old age.
Yet they did things seldom reported these days.
Now it is your choice these days.

Suppose public electricity goes out where you live

Forget all the arguments and politics of why. This post is imagining the impacts if it should happen.

If we don't have public electricity, then things will get pretty hard. After all, our USA was created without public electricity, but I suspect most who use public electricity don't want to go back to that standard of living. But, in turn, those who still live in rural areas may find many relatives from urban areas coming their way. Who knows.

I still use the USMC standard of marching 4 mph, including a 10 minute break every hour. That seems to work pretty good.

Most of us use public electricity routinely, like don't even think about it. Hence, our thermostats always work, and even when we turn on the switch for artificial light, that is expected. And even when we pump gas for our cars, of course all these pumps are electrically powered, too. All of this amazing stuff is less than 100 years old. What a country!

I assume any recovery will happen many ways, but of course there will be a priority system (that is what I would do). I assume the rural area I live in will be last on the totem pole. Hence I just want to use all the old time things, like making acorn coffee, which is pretty good, to me. Anyway, our USA ancestors did OK in their time, and I suspect we USA Americans will do OK, too. I also suspect many adults will not be happy, but most kids will survive just fine.

The unintended consequences of change

The status quo of the last 100 years is changing. The USA federal elections of 2006 and 2008 were good indicators, I think.

The rise of an American third party was obvious to many as a symptom of this coming change. Even where I live in East Tennessee, the often answer to who are you going to vote for President in 2008, was, I wish I had another choice.

Even now so many media people expect the general public to join or let a party represent them, as in somebody else can speak for them. But many just want another way to do things. This idea is a good example of the unintended consequences of change. Ah, the times they are a changin'. And all most people want is to hear the news. Opinions I can go to the local Hardees to listen to. Yep, would you like fries with that order is a joke I often hear about the change going on.

Even the deadbeats will learn about change. The era of the "government dole" will winnow as they have to either go to work for a living at minimum wage, or otherwise try differentiate themselves from the otherwise poor people. Even their relatives will probably give them the boot as the various governments sort out the differences between their role in charity, and the private sources in charity, whom I think are more tough love in their practices. Even where I live in East Tennessee, many present deadbeats think living in a room with common bathroom down the hall is a hardship. Boy, their lives are going to change when they have to live like so many other Americans already live today, and even work to upgrade that standard of living if they don't like it.

One other obvious idea is this change is mostly due to our present hard economic times. I think it is way past that, like the old status quo of having good intentions and voting money towards that intention is now going to be judged by another standard, like performance. Only the voters at all levels can decide that.

This begs another obvious question. Will the USA's Constitution survive in today's times, or will we revert to other ways of government, like royalty. I suspect that it will be the people's way of doing things. Lord hope it doesn't take another revolution, so popular until one has to go through one.

And all I can report is what I think and where I live. I expect there are many more unintended consequences where you live.

And I am a baby boomer, too.

It's fun getting older

First, the obvious downside. I will die before most people younger than me (I am age 62), or so I hope.

By the way, I can be an ungrateful wretch, too. About three years ago I died in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Cookeville, TN, and some well meaning people saved my life and my brain. Good on 'em. But now I have to go and die again, and I just hope the next time will be as quick and painless as the first time. Like I said, I can be an ungrateful wretch, too.

One thing that hurts my feelings is this. When young people ask me what was it like in the "old days", it is both an honest question and reflects my getting older. Even in the last few years I have lied about fighting a dinosaur raptor on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, and the young children then challenged me around the fire. I used as a reference the movie " Jurassic Park", and they all said what is that. Now in fairness, they all knew about the movie the next year. But right then I knew my time had come and gone.

So good luck being a parent in your own right. After all, you will do it your own way. And listening to your own ancestors will help you, I think.

Last getting older comment. I presently live in an 100 old time place on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. My mission statement to myself was to make it a living museum for my descendents, and provide them an opportunity for them to live like fellow Americans lived even 100 years ago. I suspect most adults don't like it, though kids will thrive. After all, just being able to turn on the thermostat is a pretty good deal. Plan B is to put in wood into the wood stove, which is an imposition to most these days, since one has to maintain the wood stove heat overnight.

To put things in one's perspective, I personally have lived in a canvas tent with a dirt floor in Korea up near the DMZ (for months) when it never got above freezing for over a month. Hence I think where I presently live is at least better, like more comforting, than fellow Americans who live in Nebraska, or New England, for example.

These are times to write home about

The times they are a changin'. This title of an old Bob Dylan song it seems has changed to less liberal themes than I think he intended when he recorded this song back in the early 1960's.

And I think change is constant. What I note is that the rate of change is increasing, and at a faster pace. Hence somewhere in the future, like 2050, when some young people then ask you what it was like in the old days, you are really in a good position to report what you observed and lived where you lived at the time.

At least that is my method. And using this method, I am worried about the next 5 to 10 years of change. The main good news, is that you can report it as you see it, either now or in 2050.

Here in the USA the obvious usual worry is about our budget (federal, state, and local). But I have another question that is seldom reported. What happens when inflation goes back up to like the 18% it was under Carter, and our pay remains frozen? Does that mean people won't loan us money to finance our federal way of life? And what happens let's say in 2025 when our young people then have to work 2 or 3 months a year just to pay the interest on our National debt?

I am age 62, and hopefully will check off the net before then. Call it avoidance if you will, which is pretty much what it is.

I am particularly galled by those who call for USA military action in the present Libyan debacle. When I hear people say the USA is the most powerful nation on the earth, which it still is I think, don't they know that the USA has much less military resources than, say 20 years ago. So when the USS Kearsarge, for example, sails towards Libya, the USA is losing an asset in the Afghan and Iraq areas, and that will hurt there. And these people have families, too. So dredging up another group of Americans to deploy there from the USA has impacts, too.

Like I said, these are times to write home about.

The status quo has changed. And we had a lot to do with it.