Wednesday, February 24, 2010

OUR BRIDGES ARE TUMBLING. OUR HIGHWAYS ARE CRUMBLING

Thousands of bridges in the USA are in an advanced stage of decay or are candidates for catastrophe, crumbling or tumbling down like that span in London Town.

Millions of roads and thoroughfares, highways and byways between here, there and everywhere, are not worth saving and need more than repaving or pothole filling. They need millions of willing workers, unemployed, who would be overjoyed to earn their pay rebuilding the USA.

Politicians agree, but insist first we must plan carefully, assessed by trained technicians. When conditions improve we will move in that direction. Experts say it will take two years or more before work can begin.

Why two years? Why not now? How much planning do you need to come to the determination our transportation system is facing ruination? When an overloaded bridge caves in and riders cannot be saved from watery graves? When a bridge is fifty years old and mold sets in? When its trusts rust and it groans and creaks, it’s weak, a span that no longer can do what it used to do when it was new? It must be repaired or replaced. Until then it’s a tragedy waiting to happen.

When roads grow old, worn out by overuse, abuse and winter’s cold, the incidence of accidents with serious consequence can result in events of death at great expense.

Emergency facilities, power, sanitary and related utilities, education, recreation and communication services. all are vital to survival of a modern civilization.

They must be repaired, but only if there’s money in the budget to cover that expense. The investment all depends on dollars and cents, not need and common sense.

Isn’t it funny that an economy that can always find money for wars. exploring stars and foreign aid can’t afford to invest in what is best for American communities? Our quality of life must not be sacrificed to support others needs or corporate greed. While we assist our friends in foreign lands. we cannot abandon taxpaying citizens in our own backyard.

We look to Washington to decide. how to endure these troubling times we’re going through, sure they’re aware and care about
the nation’s need.

The wisest of the wise said, and all his colleagues. agreed: “WAR will reinvigorate the economy. That is sad. but that must be. We will win. of course, the strongest. force always does. will until...”


“Until?” the leader of the Minority asked.
“Until history must repeat itself.” the Wisest of the Wise replied.

Friday, February 12, 2010

IN THE HARD TIMES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

After the crash of 1929 there were hard times everywhere and cash was measured in nickels and times. There were soup lines.
rampant crimes. Selling laid off execs, derelicts, drug addicts. Thousands of men down on their luck, willing to kill or steal just to make a buck

Homeless slept on streets wrapped in newspaper sheets, ate crumbs of bread spread for birds. In Europe the count of deaths began to mount. Hitler’s power was growing fast. How much longer could it last?

Meanwhile, our nation was on the verge of starvation. Like our neighbors abroad we all prayed to God, but He apparently didn’t hear. We had faith He’d come through when the end was near, but feared we’d never live to see prosperity return to our Land of the Free.

Mothers cried, children died, politicians lied. Good men tried, sighed in their sleep. How long could they go on until all hope was gone. Many knew what they’d have to do.

But how could man abandon his wife, his daughters and his and his sons, give up a family life hardly begun?

“Am I going mad?” dad asked the Voice that lived inside their heads. The Voice replied: “When you are dead their hope will die. Try again, again, again...” They couldn’t silence the echoing Voice repeating, repeating, repeating endlessly.

Many a troubled soul regained control and returned the knife to the kitchen drawer. Knew what it was for. They began to weep, realizing what they might have done in their troubled sleep. They did what the Voice told them to do.

Who knew what tomorrow would bring? It was the first day of Spring. Flowers blooming, birds singing. A new beginning? They’d wait and see. Again. Again, Again.

As 1941 neared it's end new troubles began. December 7. Pearl Harbor. War with Japan, Germany and a conglomeration of nations on the axis and the allied sides. Tides of war grew. Death, too.. Profits in the trillions by the ammo industry and manufacturers that turn out tools for wars instead of cars. K-rations instead of candy bars. Everything cost more in every store. Shortages galore. But there were jobs, wages soared and workers bought war they could afford with ease while GIs died overseas.
Millions died. Trillions cried. Survivors wondered why it took the insanity of humanity to regain what had been lost.

With blood-soaked prosperity the world forgot. Wall Street again was on a roll. Corporate profits increased all because of the magic and the tragic word: PEACE!

Monday, February 08, 2010

HAITI: WHAT IT HAS BECOME. WHAT SOMEDAY IT MIGHT POSSIBLY BE

Haiti is a lesson in democracy where those in nations blessed help those oppressed and in distress.

Kindness plays a role. So does the soul of a nation, used and abused, which in the past refused the aid that might have paid rewards and paved the way to more hopeful times. But that was then an this is now.

How can we, today, raise the spirits of a nation stripped by a killing earth quake of its homeland, its homes, its loved ones, its population?

What we are doing now can renew the spirits of those who have survived, help pay the cost, to restore a nation to a better homeland than it was before the quake roared into town and turned their lives upside down.

We must help them rebuild their schools and homes rapidly, their infrastructure and industry, the churches where the faithful pray, the parks where little children play, the highways, byways, bridges, too, structures that can withstand weather’s assaults on the land.

All this will not happen overnight. But it must be soon and it must be right, according to code, according to rigid, enforceable laws, guarded against building flaws because tragic quakes and hurricanes, flooding rains and winds could begin without warning at alarming speed. This is why Haitians need to heed the possibility and build anew accordingly.

We must help the Haitian people destroy the beasts of graft and corruption that even now are in command. Somehow they must be made to pay for what Haiti is today and what it someday might possibly be, a thriving vital member of the world community. A tropical paradise free of cold, snow and ice. where there’s peace and love, brotherhood, all things good, to ease the ache the sudden quake left in its wake.

And for goodness sake, no more quakes. No more shakes. Give this stricken land a break!

Sunday, February 07, 2010

A TRILLION TRILLION YEARS AGO

For better or for worse, God created the universe and everything on and in it. He knew He hadn’t created anything new except a few stars here and there and air where they could twinkle away. But this Planet Earth Project would be the greatest real estate He’d create since Heaven a mere trillion trillion years ago when even He didn’t know what brand new gods were supposed to do.

Creation was a revolutionary, scary innovation in the planetary profession of self expression. Could He be trusted to tackle such an undertaking, creating what never had been created before? Was His idle dream just a young god’s scheme and nothing more?

God stared at the rendering of His mental meanderings and wondered what they meant, but since He was sent by Up On High to prove his worth, Planet Earth would be his test and unless He wanted to be unemployed in the void, he’d better get going showing He had stuff enough to convert this clump of moon-dust into fertile fields of Earth’s rich earth.

God closed his eyes and visualized colors He didn’t know existed, vistas, hills and dales, winding trails, trees and flower. warm spring showers and cold winter snows. Fields of corn and wheat and rows of roses that rose from clover scattered over lawns that spread far beyond a sparkling pond to lakes and steams and mighty oceans in God’s dreams. “If this is the Earth that I perceive.” said He, “then it shall be my gift to Eternity. ”

But what God’s mind’s eye hid from view were waters red with flesh and blood, warriors, lying dead in mud, children crying for something to eat, bums in slums begging for crumbs and parades of devils beating blazing drums.

The smell of death and despair filled the air.

Listless, lifeless eyes stared everywhere. Voices asked for love but no-one cared.
No-one shared and no-one dared to reach out to the down and out or heard them shout, “Please God, save me!”

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

ARE DREAMS AND FANTASIES LONG FORGOTTEN MEMORIES?

If you believe dreams and fantasy are long forgotten memories, perhaps by far more real than reality there is hope for humanity.

If you believe in popcorn clouds and ice cream skies and everybody wins first prize, that blind eyes see and death's a distant memory. If you thrill to fairy tales and dancing whales and honest scales that tell you what you weigh on a given day you'll be okay.

If you believe bugs and bees and monkeys live in trees in a land free of disease and there's no such thing as calories or fattening cheese and that snowflakes float on wintry breeze until they melt and join the seas, then you'll agree we were meant to be.

If you surmise owls are wise, cows who moo tell you their greatest joy is giving milk to girls and boys to sip with plums and sugar cakes, if you know what it takes, bulls and bears to share their lairs, that when chicks clickity clack and ducks quack, quack, they're hungering for a midnight snack, that birds in flight on a moonlit night know why angels cry and bees compose those melodies and symphonies, you'll never want for wealth and luxuries.

There's so much to see, so much to hear, so much that soon will disappear that you should stop and reflect on what you expect will thrill you so. Before it's time to go back to the world we know, let's take a break to remember all our memories and thank the Lord who granted us the right to stay and enjoy this sunny, carefree day.

The nights are long, the wind is strong, the day will dawn as the world goes on long after all of us are gone the trees and flowers will bloom to dispel the gloom, thunder will wonder why it should boom as clouds make room for sun to shine on an earth where gold and money have lost their worth, where stocks and bonds and blue-eyed blonde have lost their charm, where falling down will cause no harm and warring nations all disarm, there’s hope the world will live in peace without the military or police, and brotherhood will rule the earth as well they should.
A wise old Guy who rules On High in the sky knows why it must never again happen to our cherished land. Will He tell us why?