The Second American Revolution

Read the paper, watch the news on television or go on the internet to find out what is happening in our always crazy world. There is a never a shortage of things that make us so angry that we want to just spit.

Case in point: Awhile back, The Houston Chronicle ran an editorial which decried the fact that our government officials, elected and not, have begun to view us as their customers, their clients. When I read that, I became absolutely incensed that these officials, especially the elected ones, have forgotten that you and I put them into their positions. We are their bosses, we pay their salaries and we can damn well fire them or remove them from their positions if they even begin to think about doing something that crosses the line of ethical behaviour in any way or if they don't do their job.

As much as that idea that you and I are customers of government upsets me, something else made me even more upset. Too many Americans are very willing to accept the notion that they are clients of the government... that the government is essentially there to provide certain benefits and services to them. The main thoughts running through the minds of such people, who even think about government at any level, are "What can the government do for me?" and "Look what the government did to me!" It isn't really difficult to see why that kind of thinking is probably much too prevalent. We are too busy, too tired or just plain too stressed out by everything that goes on in our lives, to do much more than grouse about the sloppy and ineffectual way that our governmental bodies function. Most of the time, we have precious little time to play our rightful roles as citizens of what is arguably still one of the greatest countries in the world. We hardly have any energy left over at the end of the day to actively speak out against the injustice, the inequities and the almost incredible lack of commitment among our representatives to solving the problems of our communities.

If you are like me, you want to just scream out loud and clear, " I am not going to take this garbage any longer!" But too much of the time, that is all that we end up doing. We all know that something "should" be done about this unacceptable situation and we all agree that "someone should do something" about whatever our not-so-noble representatives have done or have not done, to our satisfaction. And we leave it at that, "should" being the key word here. It is easier to vent our frustrations every day and then do nothing at all, than to actually do something about the mess that we are witnessing. It never seems to get any better.

So maybe now would be a good time for a second American Revolution. The first go-around, the American colonists were so spitting mad, that nothing short of throwing out the bastards and achieving self-rule was going to be acceptable. Now, we need to do whatever it is going to take to empower the stressed-out man and woman on the street to stand up and make some serious noise. It is time that we let the boys at city hall and the governor's mansion and the White House understand that we know the the political machine is badly broken and that we expect them to fix what's broken asap. They need to know that if they don't, we will throw them out, just like we did to the bastards that were around in 1776. Not so very long ago, the people of California did just that when they recalled Gray Davis, half-way through his term in office. One is not sure if they got anything much better, in Schwartzenegger, but hey, at least the folks in California made the effort. My hats off to them, no matter how it turns out in the end.

The American system of government certainly isn't a perfect system. But it sure as hell beats any of the other alternatives around today. It is the only one we have and the situation in the US is at a critical crossroads. We had better get busy fixing what is wrong with the machine, before we lose whatever rights we have under the law and the blessings of freedom, a little bit at time. Folks, that is already happening and if we learned nothing else from 9/11, it is that even the most unimaginable of things can happen here. So join me now and let's get the next revolution rolling.

On the topic of "Stuff"

Like most people, I collect things... lots of things. And I fall victim to the situation that George Carlin lampooned. When I get too much stuff, I get a bigger place. My wife and I have just moved and in making the move, we discovered how much unnecessary junk we have. Tons of it.
And most of which we no longer needed or wanted... and probably never really needed in the first place.

A lot off the stuff we buy somehow seems like a good idea at the time. Then we get it home and voila, it goes on a shelf, in the original box, and remains there unused until we decide to give it away or sell it, in it's original box in pristine condition. The sad thing is that most of us do this over and over again and never seem to learn that if we don't need it, don't buy it. And if there is no room for it, don't just try to squeeze one more thing in. Bite the bullet, and don't buy it nor bring it home.

My wife, Marilyn and I decided that we are going to kick the habit of being consumers who fly on autopilot, when it comes to acquiring things. We looked for a local chapter of Mad Collectors Anonymous. We figured if there was such a thing as Weight Watchers, there had to be an equivalent for "stuff" addicts like us. Would you believe, as hard as we looked, we couldn't find one.

So it looks as if we are going to have to do this thing cold turkey. Do you have any idea how painful it is not to keep some of the things I have had for a very long time? It hurts. But it gets easier, after awhile. Our new credo: If there is no room for what is in the boxes or in our 10 x 10 storeroom [which we have not even had a chance to go through yet!], it goes. Donate it, give it away. Sell it. Or trash it. We are becoming almost ruthless now.

Who would have thought we could do it? People are saying, "Who are these people and what have they done to our good friends?." So we are becoming reformed collectiholics, and we can proudly say that we have been almost junk free for two weeks, three days, twenty-one hours and six minutes.

So keep us in your prayers. We have been told that once one becomes a collectiholic, one is always a collectiholic and that it is a particularly American addiction. The pushers [advertisers, dept stores, television ads..... [silent scream]] are everywhere, tempting us and trying to get us to buy some new stuff and have a relapse. The stats are pretty high for falling off the wagon. As I said, keep us in your prayers and we will try to keep the faith.

Welcome to my world...

I am going to be 60 years old pretty soon. Seems like as good as a time as any to have a forum for my thoughts on what is going on in my life and in the world. So I hope that as you visit my small corner of the internet, you are amused, entertained, inspired and in general have a reason to come back from time to see what is going on inside my world.

Welcome. You are my guest and I will try to make it worth your while to come and visit my BLOG.

HFireman