Doing things in little pieces

What prompts the title to this post is the basic question about what to do about being in a bad situation. And the overriding concept to this particular human is that complaining does little good unless one can offer alternatives, i.e., solutions. And the idea is talking about politics, not divorce, for example.

And some alternatives are probably better than others, but the voters can decide that. And the idea of a vote is so good when the alternatives affect people’s lives and their families’ lives.

And so one can take the present situation in the USA, which is both enormous, and varied to boot. Now I try to avoid psycho-babble type analyses of what is going on, to include our present political leaders at all levels. Just what to do is what I mean and think about.

The obvious example to me is where I live in Putnum County, Tennessee, which is on the Upper Cumberland Plateau in eastern Tennessee. Now the County has much to do with my quality of life, as well as the State of Tennessee; so the typical reporting that usually tends to focus on the national government, and there is poor reporting even there, in my opinion; then that all needs to be “interpreted” by some local person like me so I can try figure out what is important to me. I can’t imagine someone from even the other side of the State being able to do that OK to where I trust them. Sorry for how convoluted the previous has been, that that is also my convoluted thought.

Now one more thought does come to mind. Many people “worse case” things, and that is often a prudent way to go. Some people “best case” things, and they tend to be disappointed in the long run. Most people think things are seldom black or white, but more typically grey.

I suspect we as a USA are in a grey area, again.

Now here is how I define “grey”. Much change is going on (compared to the last few decades). At the federal level, the USA has a decidedly leftist leadership, both in the Executive and the Legislative. Competency and experience and elitism have been called into question. There is an element of doubt that President Obama may try usurp the federal Legislature using his ancestors Executive authorities.

But the USA world is way past federalism,that is today I think we are still a United States vice one USA country. So the grey area extends to States and Counties that affect our quality of life, and our families’ quality of life.

Here in Putnum County are several hints things are changing already. The County Commissioners, all 24 have been just been changed by 12 new ones. The County Commissioners act like a legislature in my mind. Rather than raise property taxes, the School Board has “found” energy savings. Of course that begs the question, why did this not happen before? And even our County Executive is also a CPA!

Now nothing changes overnight. Here is one local opinion about our taxpayer money, and I also pay. For example they ok'd a 130,000 dollar elevator plan for our County Clerk Wayne Nabors. This elevator is only for his private use. Waste of county money. Also what makes us logical county Democrats and Republicans mad on this 130,000 dollar elevator is if the commisioners are so quick to pass the ok on it why couldn't they have put the money to use in actually bettering the county. My thought is that Wayne payed them under the table, which is what most think. But anyways it's just another political quagmire.

Now all this “grey” area stuff suggests like or similar things are happening all over the USA “in little pieces” from a USA point of view. The astute reader might think the emphasis is on “local” vice “national”, and they would be correct.

Back when our USA federal government began providing block grants of tax money decades ago, I even then thought that was a terrible idea. The obvious objection was that if the federal government had enough money to pass it back to the States, then we were paying too much federal taxes, and the states were not taxing enough. Let the voters decide, I thought. Now this present idea worked for decades, but now the consequences are coming home to roost.

Last, and truly last, the vote will truly correct many things, in my opinion. Mostly it will be the local votes and mostly those about “basic” services like police, fire, water, waste water, and public schools. Now there are so many good and well intentioned ideas, like even a fish ladder on a beach in southern California, but if that trumps public sanitation, for example, then priorities are going to change, again as long as we can vote. It will take new elected leaders.

What’s wrong with elected politicians doing their job? How about determining priorities and using budgets?

So doing things “in little pieces” is what is happening in the USA, anyway. I sure hope this idea extends throughout the world. And I sure applaud and thank all humans that are doing the difficult work to make all this happen today, as it is. They have a lot to be proud of!