Sense of Relief

Listening to All Things Considered this morning, unctuous relief rose out of my chest and relaxed my mind and body. First there was a quote from Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton: ""I will do all that I can, working with you, to make it abundantly clear that robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long-term tools for securing America's future." This was followed by a story of Obama appointments. One of the worst things of the Bush administration was filling positions with sycophants and incompetent fanatics. Realizing that we now have an executive branch that will faithfully execute the duties of the office hit me with cathartic relief. I must ask myself every hour, "what can I do to help?"

Complacently hopeful

I've not felt compelled to blog. I felt no particular elation or relief inauguration day, just a simple sense of hope and a fair amount of resolve. What I can do best for my country is parent my son effectively, do my job faithfully, and save money. I plan on planting a garden for the first time in my life. Anything I have to say in a blog is likely being said better by another. I do enjoy the process of writing, and will occasionally post here, like once or twice a week, I intend to put my writing energy into songs, and correspondence. I have this notion of randomly selecting somebody in each of the 50 states, and hand writing a letter addressed to them asking for their participation in addressing the problems of our nation. I've got the concept, but the letter's not drafted. My basic goal is to advance hope in the notion that we can make this a better country. Now that I've stated this goal here, I will be more motivated to draft the letter. What is it I want to say? Once I decide that, the rest will be work, but it will be easy.

fertile or futile?

I've been commenting on the Times Standard Forum. In particular, I've posted several comments to this forum. A fair number of posts in these forums are...hmm, what shall I call it? Fallacious discourse is probably the most accurate, and diplomatic. Ad hominem occurs quite frequently. Some posters do not appear to have even read the article they are commenting on. Still, there are some thoughtful and apparantly informed posters, and I appreciate many of the ideas I've read. I hope that I can find meaningful and worthwhile discourse that somehow increases public awareness and involvement, or at least mine. May the posts like this:

Parents need to take more responsibility. I am on Power School once a week checking on my child's progress and if I need to, I call teachers to find out what's going on. Parents need to be at Back to School Night and have the Teacher's email addresses and be more pro-active.

and less posts like this

I think the tard should be graduated anyway. Someone has to man all the local business that tarsd obviously run anyway. Any kid with a future has already left Humboldt anyway, except for the gangsta growers of course.

I will comment on, and see what comes of it.

I was half listening to talk radio as I drove, and the guest was an insider from a collapsed mortgage firm who'd written a book. I tuned in when the guest was saying that it was a gray area between the lenders and the borrows where the responsibility for the mortgage crisis, and that the financial institutions were following the rules. The host disagreed with the point that the financial institutions spent huge sums of money to manipulate the political process to change the rules. I was grateful for the alert and insightful talk show host. I was angered by the guest's comments. Who's more at fault, the addict or his dealer? When the dealer uses personal influence to manipulate somebody into becoming an addict, the dealer is responsible. In the case of the bad loans, if reasonable rules are in place, and enforced, those suckers willing to take a loan they can never repay would never get the chance.

Appeal for conscience

I filled up my gas tank today, and the price was $1.989. Does anybody believe that the high prices we experienced the last few years were from uncontrollable market conditions, or were we soaked by the oil industry people? I certainly cannot answer definitively, but I suspect it was the latter. It's indisputable that the California "energy crisis" was caused in large part by unscrupulous business practices. Desire for financial gain gets out of hand, and the addictive behaviors of corporate officers damages the health of our markets. Regulation provides minimal protection from the scoundrels intent on amassing wealth. We must also appeal to the conscience of the people in positions of financial power. How can the general populace ensure that the officers of industries conduct their business in a fair and reasonable manner? Certainly we must have thoughtful and effective rules. We must also build and maintain a sense of community in all our citizens. When the powerful gather at the Bohemian grove for their forays into hedonistic release, they engage in a ritual that "symbolizes that members are banishing the 'dull cares' of conscience." How can we convince those with power to begin a ritual to welcome the meaningful responsibilities of conscience, and to ban from their ranks those who lack a healthy conscience? Without people of healthy conscience in positions of influence and power, we cannot improve the human condition. This is a concept I'd like to hear daily in the dialogue of the nation.

Think whole house, clean one wall

I easily get overwhelmed and projects get left unfinished. I find myself expending time and energy on inconsequential activities. I must gently return myself to the goals on the list, and keep myself motivated and focused on finishing. And when the inevitable setbacks come, I must process my discouragement in a healthy and effective way, then return to the task at hand. The possessions of my life are in ill repair and disarray, and the outward condition reflects an inward state. So I go now to tune mind and body by scrubbing walls with dreams of finishing the whole house, but getting one wall done now.

speck and log

To change the world, change yourself. This is the wisdom I must embrace and implement. Late last night, I ate excessive amounts of greasy food at a chain restaurant, then went home and got in bed. I woke hours later, and forced myself to vomit. As I write this, I'm still paying the price of that foolish decision. Add to that the cigarettes I smoked, and the insufficient intake of water, and I'm one miserable stomach owning dude. And due to poor choices of activities, posture and too much inactivity, my back is throbbing with pain that shoots into my hips. I started this blog with the idea of inspiring myself to get active in social change, and it's working. I'm the first issue I must take on. If I don't improve my health and habits, I'll be of no use to any movement, social or bowel. I am my cause.

need to believe

"That will never happen." This is a response I often get when I'm suggesting a course of action to address the ills of the world. For example, to address the financial crisis, I suggest we make the people who stole the money, either give it back, or at least invest it in ventures that put us back to work with decent jobs. Why can't our justice department fine the offenders, and the money be used to fund public works projects that rebuild our infrastructure? I'm hoping that the Obama administration announces plans that the enough of the nation gets behind with a yes we can attitude. We need to believe in a plan, and support it in word and deed. I'm ready. I'm hopeful.

A new year, a new blog

I still hope to develop flipitoff, but I have a new desire to post regularly with my thoughts on the current political and economic conditions, so I've created this blog. I'm setting a goal to post to this blog at least 5 times a week. And so it begins.

I visited with my family for the holidays, and we of course discussed the economic crisis. I suggested some idealistic solutions, and my mother replied, "give it up, it'll never happen." I got to thinking that we the people have to believe that something will work. We have to have hope that leads to action. The election of Barack Obama inspired hope in me. I believe that he is a leader that can move us in better direction. I believe that his election is a statement by our citizens that we want something better. For the Obama dream to achieve success, we the people must participate. We have to do the work of shifting our nation, our world, to a better condition. We must find common ground on which to work together, and demand of our government effective leadership. I'm seeking inspiration, and I'm seeking a cause for action. I'm asking myself, "what can I do? What will actually help?" I have not yet found an answer. I intend to keep looking and to take action when I do find what will actually help.

I'd like to team up with people interested in demanding that the players in the financial debacle are held responsible for their crimes. They lied. They stole. And then we bail them out? Shouldn't we jail them first, bail them out later?