Peevish on Spending Packages

There, I went and did it. Politics AND religion, and all in the same post.

Run, run away now....(
I already hid the rotten fruit)

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I've written and written. And deleted and deleted.

Here's what's left...(if you're feeling prickly or might be easily offended, just skip this post) ;-)

We're a spoiled nation and not used to working together.

We're separated by an ideological Mason-Dixon dividing line of differing paradigms.

We're being told as a nation that our future survival is an End Justifying The Means scenario...we are bidden to close our eyes and take a leap of faith into a morass of further debt in order to save the economy ...for the purpose of further bouts of spending???

Does the word Trillion even have a meaning? I can remember when people could not conceive of the term Billion.

Somewhere in here is a lesson we have not learned yet, and may be destined to keep repeating till we change at some very elemental levels.

I'll tell you this, though. I'm not comfortable with our extremes.

And I'm not enjoying seeing people being pressured to drink the Koolaid. I'm enjoying even less watching so many enthusiastically queue up for their turn at it.

It's too early for anyone to be an expert...we've never been down this road before. Some humility is in order. Some caution, trepidation, admission we're all on shaky ground together.

Stop the guilt appeals, the loathesome analyst-and-expert parade, and the hero worship. We need to LEARN the lesson rather than wallow in despair. If analysts and experts were always right, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. And we don't need to start speaking in tongues and falling down in worship whenever the word Obama is mentioned. I somehow think he would agree.

There is business to get down to doing just yet.

First, we have to refuse to turn our brains off. We have to make decisions based on what is wise and right from our own experience, not because of manipulation. We're not always going to agree.

I do not care what movie star gushes Hollywood's version of unity sermons; those people do not live in my reality but in an artificial high-school popularity-contest world. I don't make decisions based on "peer pressure." I voted for whom I wanted, and you were not my deciding factor either way. Do you honestly think I listen to you?

Grow up, Hollywood. You don't represent me or my views no matter how much Botox you've had or how young your latest husband is.
So tired of them.

And the other extreme? (Can we never agree on anything?) The Far Far Right..IS there even a far right any more, anyway? I feel so burned out by Bush. Burnt. Crispy. And am wary of those who would still have voted in someone like him. And anyone who would have led on with Business As Usual in his footsteps.
So very tired of all that, too.

I'm not fearful, or hopeless. But I'm very concerned.

I'm tired of the media blitz sensationalizing fear of this and fear of that, when the average family is already combatting the daily fear of how to keep their house or pay the bills after losing a job.

I feel like our nation is being offered immature solutions to adult problems and there is no wise elder to turn to for sound counsel.

The good news? I see so many of us forging deliberately toward self-sufficiency, simplicity, and responsibility...don't underestimate this resolve, this spirit, this foundation we're building against the tide. We're a small group, though, a minority as yet. But whether through necessity or desire, a growing group.

I see the majority of Americans still chasing an illusion that a leader or an economy can be their security, instead of their own choices, values, and self-sufficiency being the primary factors. I don't see our president insinuating himself into that role, but I see plenty of disciples in a misplaced messianic frenzy rushing to ascribe that sort of power to him. And speaking of things in this vein, God takes a bad rap. It's so popular today to bypass any mention of God and His role, too...or on the other hand to claim Him as a political endorsement. No one wants to claim Him when it's not politically correct, but His titles get used a lot to put the shine on speeches or public addresses.

Well back to presidential promised lands....No American president is my messiah. And he's not my pariah, either.

I do disagree with the spending package being put forth. I am bewildered at how I will be asked in the future to help pay it back. I reject embracing the bad advice to bankrupt my country further by borrowing more. Stock market, housing market, banking institutions, insurance companies...are not our salvation. I know no one wants to hear that.

I'm peevish about my nation rushing headlong into further financial disaster.

There are no easy answers for a nation or any network of interconnected world economies dependent on constantly consuming more and more. At some point growth hits a ceiling. Even the earth's own atmosphere has a ceiling. Even the fabled magic bean in the tale of Jack-and-the-beanstalk achieved its fullest height.

My Jack and I have to deal with reality, not risk-it-all experiments, in our own personal finances. I resent any outside force taking on exorbitant debt and expecting us to further "pay our dues" when we didn't contribute to it in the first place. WE did not leave any of our creditors unpaid or do things irresponsibly. Here at home, no matter what, we have to remain resolved about staying the heck out of further debt and paying off what we have left. Yes, with losses. Even if we lose it all.

We'll still learn and operate differently. But in time, I am confident come what may, Jack and I will have the payoff of freedom rather than the futility of a perpetual spending cycle we have to waste our efforts and life to maintain.

Well, enough of my little mood. I feel like someone just took all the hard work we've been doing trying to get out of debt, and mortgaged us back to the hilt and then some.

Oh, did I mention our lifelong insurance company just bailed on our ENTIRE STATE? Thank you so much, State Farm. I'm not sympathetic to your lame excuse that you'd have to increase our premiums 47% to stay solvent. I'm glad Charlie Crist told you to not let the door hit you on the way out. You should have factored the potential for natural disasters in before you ever set up shop hin this state...which is, after all, Florida, and we DO have hurricanes, hello??

I go now, to do as many of us are trying to do, and see if I can squeeze blood out of a turnip.

I am ready for self-sufficiency, simplicity, and sound reason to be our nation's target GNP.

P. S. Be careful out there... don't be carried away by the lemmings rushing to jump over the Cliffs of Insanity...

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