Stuck in Neutral (Redux)

 

 

 

"I am traveling 100 mph and going absolutely nowhere..."

 

 

The rant is not yet over. As I was out sweating bullets in the backyard this morning, I continued to think about the concept of being "stuck in neutral". The post I did earlier today addressed the relative lack of progress we have made in race relations. However, there are other things we are making little progress on as well.

 

Get er' done - When my wife and I were in our twenties, neither one of us were rocket scientists. However, we were like a couple of straight arrows with a compass by the tip. After screwing around for a while after high school, I was able to finish four years active Navy service, get a four year degree in Business Finance from the University, get married, and start my first professional job less than a month after I turned 26. My wife got her four year degree, got married, and was working at her first teaching position before she was 22. In other words, we saw the path forward and attacked it with fervor. Many of the youth today who could, decide not to. The years tick by as if they were in stasis. Opportunities continue to abound in this country if you are willing to work hard and take a few risks. Standing still will get you nothing but run over.

 

Energy - I am not going to say much on this as I have addressed it countless times in the past. I will say this - it still strikes me as odd we are buying oil on the market from some countries who hate us when we have more than enough to supply our needs. Rather than wage a "war on coal", we should be waging a war on energy dependence as all it does is weaken our country. Bottom line - not much as changed (from a policy perspective) since the oil embargo of the 1970's. We are better than this - so, so much better.

 

National Debt - Yep, we continue to limp along from one crisis to the next. Oh by the way, the next crisis is really going to have teeth as the days of our free interest seem to be coming to an end. So what? Wait until you see how much it will cost to service our measly $17T debt if the interest rates go up only 1%. It will knock your socks off. But who cares? It is only funny money. Live for today mate - our kids (or grandkids) will take care of it.

 

Education - There is nothing "Progressive" about our education system except its name. It is a real mess right now. I am reminded by the old saying, "You can buy it better, but you can't buy it more expensive". That sums up our education system from top to bottom. Stuck in the last century, only teaching much less than they did a hundred years ago. The National Education Association, which as we all know is just a political hack for the Democrats, are now running commercials on "bullying". Not that our kids are not learning - no, we want to talk about "bullying". Stuck in neutral and slipping backwards.

 

Stock Market - Question: "How is the economy doing?" Answer: "Great! Have you seen the stock market?" It really fails the "straight face" test when someone on the news tells us the market is in good shape. It is not. Ben Bernanke hints the era of "free money" might be coming to an end by the end of the year, and the market tanks almost 300 points. The Bible talks about building your house on rock and not sand. Our market is built is not only built on sand, but it is fracking sand. Hold on tight - the bigger it is, the harder the fall.

 

There is more, so much more I could bring up - but I hope you get the picture. We have lost our way forward. We have lost the courage to effect positive change, not campaign promise change. We have allowed our kids to go into suspended animation just by allowing ourselves to go from drive to coast, and now to idle. We need to be brave, THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, and get the hell going! Time is not our friend. The world is waving goodbye to us and we stumble all over ourselves. Forget neutral - from now on we need drive and overdrive.