Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Growing Pains

When my son Andy was about 12 or 13 he used to wake up in the middle of the night agonizing about the pain in his knees. His cries would of course bring dad to the rescue with little to offer in the way of relief and I would say "Andy, you are having growing pains-meaning that someday you will not be the height you are now but much taller. In order to become your full potential you are going to have these pains now and then." Later on I came up with a novel idea called "The Magic Towel" that I created and insisted to both kids that it held the secret to pain relief. When the pains came I would take out the cloth that was nothing more than an old kitchen towel, and wrap it around their knees until the pain subsided and then it was back to bed for me.

I am reminded of growing pains when it comes to the current (current meaning ongoing for the most part) budget "crisis" in Washington. We are all in pain on many fronts, at the gas pump, at the grocery store, in our schools and in no longer foreign lands as we remain in Afghanistan 11 years and counting not to mention ongoing operations in Iraq and support in Libya. The pain felt by our soldiers and their families is the same pain they has always been dealt with by those who serve. Woulda been great if the "War to End all Wars" had actually worked but once humans found out how much can be made off a government contract (uhh 7 billion dollars for an engine on an airplane the does not exist) the war thing became a profit thing... America is in serious debt with more zeroes than I care to count. The last time the checkbook had some extra cash in it was in 2000-when Clinton left office (Bill not George.)There are of course are those that cite somehow the previous administration of Bush (George H) had a ripple effect making wild Bill look good for the 8 years he was in the big chair-but the bottom line is that the jobless rate was about 4% and there were more jobs than humans to take them when Willie left. The next 8 years GWB rode in like a Texas Tiger and by the time he left 2009 we had deficit of 1.3 Trillion due in large part to 9/11 and chasing down the still at large Osama Bin Laden (how does a 6'5 bearded turban wearing kidney dialysis patient who is the most wanted man in the world still run amok?) Afghanistan-Iraq and a host of other wonderful joy filled excursions (main street bailing out Wall Street) that all have to be paid for by US. So Pres O enters the fray 24 months ago and tries to bring some sort of civility to the squealing two legged that we elected up near the Potomac and despite his intellectual yearnings the kids on both sides of the aisle have decided not to play nice and the government as we know it might end up shutting down...or it might not. Both sides of course have "THE RIGHT ANSWER" and blame throwers on are full blast. All this is causing pain for our soldiers, their families whose paychecks (meager as they are) might not be worth the paper they are printed on and not to mention that if they shut the lights off in DC most of the animals in the national zoo will not get fed (lions and tigers will I am told-so they don't end up eating the zebras in the next pen.) So as MSNBC and Fox line up their respective go-to talking heads on how both sides are right- I had a thought....

Lets get a magic towel! Yeah we could go out and buy a bunch of towels and head off to the nation's capitol..march past the Washington monument.. "I cannot tell a lie.." and right past Abe in his really big chair "A house divided cannot stand" and then over to the Senate and House and in the midst of all the "the other side is causing the American people undue pain" blather simply take the towels (not big ones-a hand towel will do) and gently..ever so gently shove the towel into the rear anal area (or ass) of our elected officials. This will do one of two things immediately.. 1) Won't have to hear anymore "America is bankrupt and I KNOW HOW TO FIX IT BUT YOU DON'T" crap and 2) It will force them to stop speaking out of their asses in use other parts of their anatomy-perhaps their ears to listen twice as much as they talk.

There are no easy answers here. It took alot of incidents-some unseen-some foreseen and even more behind the scenes (how many mobile homes purchased at triple the going rate for Katrina are still unused?) to put us in the financial pickle we are in. What is needed is a commitment from both sides to find common ground and chip away at the debt in a way that causes the least pain possible. For every government cutback-someone loses a job. For every social program that goes unfunded someone misses a meal or after school program. For sure there is waste enough to go around but the biggest waste is the time spent by Democrats and Republicans trying to use this issue...and come to think of it every issue- as a proving ground for their ideology.

We are a very young country by world standards-and growing up as previously mentioned is not without its pains....but one day we have to learn to stand on our own two feet and get past what hurts and accept the fact that the only way to become a grown up is to start acting like one.

No comments:

Post a Comment