Guhor!

 

 

"I am not sure, but I might be afraid of the dark...."

Back when I was on active duty in the Navy, the Russians were known to use a word on occasion called Guhor. Guhor was a radio term which meant either "I can't hear you" or sometimes "All is darkness". It was a word used infrequently, as it was usually used out of total frustration.

Most of us prefer light to dark. It is the way we are wired. Most of us are up during the day, and sleep during the night. Lightness illuminates, darkness hides or conceals. Some kids (even some adults) are afraid of the dark - not too many people are afraid of the daytime.

I will now speak only for myself. Most of my life, I have been able to peer into the future with some degree of clarity and hope. I could plan. Like most of us, I could not predict the future, but the path to the future was clear enough to allow most of us to do some amount of planning. As of late however, I see more darkness than light. I have lost the way forward. Financially, politically, socially - all are clouded. For me, it is Guhor, plain and simple.

This morning it was reported the Speaker said he would not default on the debt. In other words, it sounds like he is going to acquiesce and agree to raise the debt limit without conditions. We will come out of this shut down with nothing to show. Obamacare will remain to be unfair and broken, and our unchecked spending will keep us on the road to Greece.

More and more Americans are asking "Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?" Most people are not stupid. When they look at their retirement accounts, paychecks, and mortgages, they know something is not right. We send people to Washington every two or six years to REPRESENT us - not themselves. We ask them to do one simple thing every year - pass a realistic budget. Just like most families sit down on occasion and plan their spending as it relates to their income, we expect the same from Congress. Once they get to Washington, they seem to lose their way. They have aides write behemoth bills that nobody can or will read, and then every September, pass a continuing resolution to fund the next year's governmental operations.

Even some members of Congress can sense the growing darkness. Washington is indeed broken. People in power do not have the will, nor the wisdom to fix it. For many in Washington, the people's work has become just going though the paces rather than effecting positive change for the electorate.

One of my former bosses would use the word reclama when things got really screwed up. Reclama is a seldom used word which means "complete change in direction". In other words, a reset. What is happening now in Washington is not working - not at all. We need people with vision who shun the status quo and desire a total reclama. We need to be able to pass yearly budgets, write meaningful bills people can understand, establish a FAIR and non-political tax code, and RUDUCE our debt.

Until we can do that, we will continue to live in darkness. We will have total guhor and then some.