What Next?

So, now we have a new president-elect. He hit the ground running, trying to put his new administration together. I wish him well.

The economy is still falling along with the markets….one gloomy report after another. To me it is clear that creating jobs and keeping people in their homes are our top priorities. If the economy is based on people buying goods and services, then it seems to be a “no brainier” that if people are facing layoffs and foreclosures, then they sure as hell are not going to go out and spend money on anything but the necessities of life. The more people cut back on their spending…the deeper the recession gets.

So how do we create jobs? Well, what do people need? They need housing, transportation and food. They need heat and energy to run their homes. So start with those basics. Each of these basic needs can turn into thousands of jobs.

We need alternative fuels so that we do not have to be hostages to countries that hate our guts and seek our destruction. I cannot wait for the day when we can turn off the foreign oil spigot and say thanks, but no thanks. We have the technology to reduce our dependence on foreign oil right now with wind, geothermal, solar and biofuels. (Forget nuclear until we figure out what to do with all the radioactive waste it generates.) We are just getting started on these, but there has not been a national commitment made. What if each house and building had solar panels, wind turbines, and geothermal heat? What you do not use goes out into the power grid. Picture factories making those panels and turbines. JOBS!

Transportation! My god, what has Detroit been doing all these years? They have been cranking out the big gas guzzling hummers and SUV’s that keep us tied to those Middle Eastern nations that hate us. Get rid of the internal combustion engine! Hello! We have the technology to go with hydrogen cell, natural gas, and electric and yes even water engines. Make it a national priority. If we can land a man on the moon, we can invent a new type of engine to run our transportation network. We have just never had the political will before. The oil lobby has held our congress in the palm of its hand for decades. New cars, new trucks, new engines…JOBS!

Related to transportation, what about our nation’s infrastructure? We have crumbling bridges and highways that need our attention so that we can get our goods from point A to point B. Perhaps we need an updated version of FDR’s WPA to put people to work fixing not just our highways, but also our schools, parks, zoos and public works. I guess that might just create a few…JOBS!

Growing food and biofuels…hello Farmer Brown! Do not grow your corn, wheat, and soybeans to be burned up in some gas-guzzler. We need that stuff for food around the world. By using it, you are starving people who can no longer compete with our cars for the grain they need to live. Do your homework and think about things like switch grass with more bang per gallon. It grows free with no chemicals and fertilizers needed. While we are at it, let’s buy our food and produce locally. We use so much fuel to export what we can grow right here. All of these extra agricultural potential and new crops mean…JOBS!

Our homes! Let’s find a way to keep people in their homes. Did it ever make any sense to put people into more home than they could afford with adjustable rate mortgages? The greedy bastards that thought up that scheme should be hung. All those failing banks caught up with these toxic loans should now use the federal bailout money to put people to work restructuring these loans into fixed rate, 30-year mortgages that they can afford. If they cannot afford that then work out a rental agreement while they search for housing they CAN afford. Foreclosing on families and evicting them from thousands of homes that now sit vacant, subject to vandalism and neglect makes no sense. Everybody loses. The banks lose big time when the value of this vacant property they are forced to acquire drops like a rock in a market where resale is unlikely. Put people to work in the banking industry restructuring mortgages. You guessed it…JOBS!

Therefore, if we keep people in their homes, if we become the innovators and create new jobs, if we make transportation fuel efficient and affordable, people will go out and buy goods and services again and the economy…it recovers and grows. It is a “no brainier” folks. All we need is a national commitment and leadership. The technology is there, but do we have the political will to get started and see it through?

FOOD for THOUGHT...

Voting For

Well, by now we know that Barack Obama has won the election and will be our next president. Some of you are very, very disappointed and some of us are elated. Some of you are very afraid and some of us can now breathe a sigh of relief.

My wife made an interesting observation last night. She said that in the last two presidential elections we voted AGAINST Bush rather than FOR Gore or FOR Kerry. When I thought about it, it dawned on me that in both races we were not excited about either candidate. We saw each as the lesser of two evils. However, in this race of 2008, we felt inspired and hopeful by this articulate man who has lived in two worlds, one white and one black. We were inspired by his words of hope after eight years of Bush and Cheney and their Neocon comrades. For the first time, in a long time, perhaps…ever, I voted FOR someone.

Our country is in shambles. In all fairness, it was not the fault of any one party or any one administration or president. God knows there is enough blame to go around for all of us. President Obama has inherited a deep pile of dung created by years of self-centered greed and short sightedness. Partisanship between the liberal Left and the conservative Right has brought this country to its knees. Power politics has blinded us to the beauty, the true strength, the fairness and the common sense of this nation.

Some of you may be tempted to say, good, let Obama fall flat on his face and the “other side” will be back in four years to clean up the mess (he?) made. But you see it is not his mess alone. We all had a hand in it. If we can somehow get past the partisan, political bickering and finger pointing, if we can get past our fears and yes, even our prejudices… we might just discover that we all have work to do. We all have sacrifices to make. BUT, if we all pitch in, help our new president…, and help each other, we might just climb out of this stinking hole that we dug and breathe fresh, clean air again.

So, it really is up to us. We can continue to be a nation that looks at the things that divide us or we can come together, roll up our sleeves and get to work. God knows, we have plenty to do, but for the first time in a very long time, I have hope. I have hope that we will see that we are ONE people, one nation and that together we can realize a tomorrow filled with promise. We have this moment in time. What will we do? What will you do?

As for me, I voted for…not against.

FOOD for THOUGHT...