Someone Call an Indonesian Plumber! This Country’s in the Toilet!

Some days we can tell, even before our eyes are fully open, what kind of day it’s going to be. For me those are usually not banner days.

Yesterday I ascended from unconsciousness and looked through half slits at my cat, Buddy. Buddy’s a girl cat with a boy dog’s name. My son and his girlfriend thought she was a male when they got her. She’s always looked like a mad scientist and they all seem to be male so there you have it. Anyway, she was staring at me when I began to wake up and I went into instant panic about the cat and dog food thing. I decided, before my top eyelashes completely disengaged from my bottom ones, that Buddy wasn’t feeling well and it was because of this whole pet food debaucle and that, along with everything else, is George W. Bush’s fault. I was amazed at how conveyer beltish my thoughts can be.

Once I got up and around I realized that, for the moment, Buddy is fine. And, this time, my mood improved. But, had it actually been one of those days, I can’t say where my thoughts would’ve taken me. I do know this…if something happens to any of my animals because of this ridiculous, irresponsible, nonsensical mess acceptance, serenity and forgiveness are out the window.

How have we managed to get to this point in this country? Hardly anything is manufactured here anymore so countless people don’t have jobs. Obviously quality control of the products we (and our pets) consume is more than slightly non existent. As much as I want to blame the smirking buffoon for all of it, he simply suffers from rectal glaucoma and has trouble seeing because of where his head is. And he’s not nearly powerful enough on his own to screw things up as badly as they are. Mere dumbness never produces circumstances this complex–good or bad.

 I love this country. I guess that’s why I (along with millions of others) am so mad and so discouraged. We’re throwing it away. We is all of us from the top to the bottom. And I believe it’s this simple–greed and self-centeredness. The pet food travesty is only one example. But it’s a glaring one. Corporations, groups and individuals have become so “me” oriented, focusing only on individual wants–not needs and not deeds–that saving a dollar is more important than preserving the greatest country ever. It’s more important than the collective good that our forefathers sought when this whole thing started, not that long ago.

Think about it. This is a young country and, at the rate it’s going, there’s going to be a big, fast flame-out. People who’ve worked hard their whole lives for major companies have been kicked to the curb in retirement. But most of those oranizations (euphemistically speaking) are able to regroup and proceed toward their goals with impunity. The individuals are left on their own, barely surviving in their later years. Delta Airlines is just one of too many that comes to mind. Where’s the protection for the employees whose pensions were snatched away?

Other major corporations get to increase their profit margins by shipping the work to foreign countries, leaving tons of Americans unemployed and broke. I don’t want to hear that it costs too much to produce a product because of what our citizens demand to be paid. I don’t see the price of these products dropping when they’re being made overseas for 5 cents an hour. The people of this country must make more because prices of goods here rise meteorically and it costs all of us a fortune to live. 

This isn’t a new subject. I’m obviously not an economist. And I’m not paving new roads with this tirade. I don’t follow politics much because it’s too frustrating and I’m powerless to change things. I try, and fail, every time I vote. So answers and proposals I don’t have. I do know that I’ve recently learned a new phrase, “the gift of desperation.” That’s when you sink so low emotionally and physically that you do whatever it takes to make things different. I fear that’s what’ll have to happen to us before this nation gets turned around. And that’s the optimistic view.

And for the bad news…we’re raising an even worse generation of self centered, spoiled brats who care more about their ipods and computers than they do about their family members and are being taught absolutely zip about respect, community and compassion. So, it aint lookin’ good folks.

All I can say is it does begin with me but not what I want, what I can do as an individual–even in little tiny ways–to put someone else first. John F. Kennedy was on to something when he said, ”Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” God, what if he’d lived?

 If every single American focused on what they could do in their circumstances to turn away from themselves and toward someone else, it would be like ripples in a pond. Do we all remember what that looks like or are we too busy washing our SUV’s and obsessing over college sports to think about how a single morsel affects an entire body of water?