Kids today

Is it just me or do others see an apparent failure on the part of families and schools to prepare today’s youth to survive in the world?

More and more I seem to encounter young people who lack what would have been basic skills when I was growing up. They can’t write a check or balance a check book. Thanks to ATM machines and debit cards they may not know what a check is. They can’t properly address a letter, mend a tear in their clothing, or cook a meal without a microwave oven. In short it seems that while they may be book smart they have failed to learn basic survival skills.

My mother taught me to sew, my dad showed me how to cook, and in high school I learned to balance a check book and fill out a tax form. Growing up I learned such lost skills as phone etiquette and respecting other people and their property. Basic things that allowed me to live in and survive as I made my way in the world.

Not only have we let these young people down, but we have let ourselves down also. Remember these are the people who will be running our world in the future.

Anniversary

If you are looking for words of wisdom, you will not find them here. I am wondering down the road lost in the fog. Each day I find myself busy dealing with the little surprises life throws at me; the hopes, the dreams, the frustrations, and tribulations that I stumble through on a daily bases. The roof needs repair and we need to borrow to pay for it, dreams of where we would go if we had the time and cash, how to deal with this pain in my back, and the list goes on and on. It would be enough to make one through up their hands and shoot “I give up”, and I would if I had to face it all alone.

Thank God that thirty eight years ago I joined my life to that of a beautiful and intelligent women who has been there by my side ever since. For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health she has been there sharing the good and the bad and I don’t know how I would have made it without her.

I’m not much of a poet but here goes.

“We stand apart, yet walk together through the dark and stormy weather, yet in my empty hand is yours and I love you. I thank the lord each and every day for bringing you my way, and once more I say I love you.”

I just want the world to know that on the eleventh of June nineteen seventy two we were married and I would not change a minute of the time we have spent together.

Happy Retirement Ronald McDonald

I saw in the news that a group is protesting McDonald's Corporation. It seems they want Ronald McDonald to retire because he represents unhealthy foods and eating habits that are causing obesity in children. Like the Pied Piper he has lead the children of this country into a world of junk food and health problems.

The last time I looked the children eating at McDonald's were paying for their food with money they got from some responsible adult and the younger ones were transported there by that same adult. In other words the blame lies not with Ronald alone, but with also with the child’s family. Blaming the character of Ronald McDonald for the problem of childhood obesity and its related health problems is just shifting the responsibility away from the parents and the lifestyle they have chosen for their family.

One could ask what is next. Should we blame the Easter Bunny because of all the candy kids get in their Easter baskets? How about the Keebler Elf, the Trix Rabbit, or any of the other advertising icons that represent sweet, fattening, and unhealthy food and snacks.

It is easy to blame someone or something else; it is much harder to shoulder the responsibility that is rightfully yours.

Fire Season

Spring came early this year and here in Michigan it has brought with it tinder dry conditions. There has been no rain to speak of for the last month and we have been blessed with above normal temperatures. The result has been very high fire danger postings for the State, most areas are not issuing fire permits, and people are getting out and doing yard work.

Yard work that unfortunately often leads to burning brush and trash, and that can and does lead to grass fires. It only takes a spark with the wind behind it and someone’s field or house is burning.

In a normal year there would still be patches of snow around and things would be wet from spring rains, but this is not a normal year and it won’t take much to start a bad fire. Until things green up we need to be as careful as possible. A camp fire, a cigarette tossed out the car window, burning that pile of grass and leaves you raked up in the yard, any of these things can and do lead to out of control fires that burn hundreds of acres every year.

So please be careful out there and as Smoky says “only you can prevent forest fires.”

Buidget Cuts

The State is does not have the funds to cover the cost of running the government, so the thing to do is cut services and raise taxes. There isn’t enough money for road repair so they want to cut repair and maintain programs and add four cents a gallon to the gas tax to help pay for road work. A smart move when people can barely afford to pay for the gas they need to drive to work each day. At a time when we depend on tourists to drive up north to see the scenic wonders of our wonderful land, bringing their much needed dollars with them. Truly one of the greatest ideas our elected leaders have ever come up with.

Unemployment is the highest it’s been in years so cutting budget costs by letting people go is truly leading by example. Let’s hope our leaders keep up the good work. Perhaps instead of laying people off they could be finding ways to put people to work. A few government sponsored jobs in the State park system or cleaning the streets and parking lots in our towns could go a long way to getting those much needed dollars flowing though the economy.

Whatever the answer we need to streamline the budget, but not at the expense of the little guy at the bottom.

Wind Farm

Right now there is a major debate in the state of Michigan about putting a wind farm off the coast of Lake Michigan. The company that wants to build it is in the process of holding public hearings about it and as expected people are opinion is divided about it. The facility would consist of a large number of wind turbines placed two to three miles off shore to generate electricity.

One group says it will make jobs and the other says they won’t be local. They fell that the construction will be done by specialized companies and the plant will be run by outsiders. While there is something to said for that theory, even if outside crews do the work they still need to eat and sleep somewhere and that means local jobs. The people who would run the facility are not going to commute to work, they will most likely buy or build homes in the area and that also means jobs.

Then there is the issue of esthetics. The not in my back yarders say it will be ugly and hurt the local tourist business. They think it’s probably a good idea but it would work better further up or down the coast. They need to realize that while the locals might see this as ugly there are others who would go out of their way to see it. Those people mean money spent in the area and that local jobs.

All and all it has the potential to be both a good or bad thing for the area and the State, but like so many things when and if it is built we will find a way to live with it. Who knows people might even find it something to brag about and remember they come to see the Hover Damn don’t they?

History 101

A funny thing about history, its maintained by a handful of people and their view is the one we grow up believing is true. What we are taught is what we know, making are teachers the custodians of the truth. When the generation that has lived through events is gone, only the teachers are left to keep the true history alive.

That said we must realize that the true history of an event depends on how you view it. It is said that the winners of a war write the history of it, but if you were not the winners does that mean your version is wrong? If both histories reflect the same events seen from two points of view the answer is no. The trouble comes when events are forgotten or whitewashed to change the way one side or the other is seen by the observer.

As we grow older we have an obligation to make ourselves aware of what today’s youth are being taught. The text books of today include events we have lived through and we are the ones who know what may be omitted in an effort to edit information that will reach today’s youth.

In the end when all is said and done it is our responsibility to make sure the past is passed on to today’s youth, least we should forget some event that should live on in history.

New Year's Resolutions

In the year 2010 I will do my best to improve my life by doing the following things.

This is the time we look at our life and resolve to change things for the better. For most of us the list is made up of things like losing weight, stopping a bad habit like smoking, or starting a something new like a job or hobby. No matter what we put on the list we promise faithfully that we are going to follow the list and become a better person.

Unfortunately most of us never manage to live up to our list. Try as we might we fall short of the lofty goals and expectations we have set for ourselves; and in the end we watch them go down in flames. The fact is we make the list based on the shortcomings we see in our life and fail to realize that if we could change we would have long ago.

For this reason I’m suggesting that we all should resolve to look for things that are not so hard to change. Things that would make a difference in the little corner of the world we live in. Things like saying I love you to those we care about, telling others thank you when they do things for us, or looking for little acts of kindness we can perform for people we meet along as we travel down this rocky road we call life.

I’d make that a resolution and add it to my list, but then it would never get done.

Mortality

Something about sitting alone at a computer in the middle of the night makes one think of mortality, old age, and losing one’s loved ones.

As we get older it seems that our warranty begins to run out, our parts give out, and we discover our body is subject to recall by its maker. We look around and discover that the multitude of people that surrounded us at twenty has shrunk to a handful. The question becomes not if but when someone else that we know will slip away to that quite place, that great unknown that waits for all of us in the end.

The wonderful world of medicine is working overtime to find a way for us to live forever, but I wonder who would want to. In the end if we live long enough we will find that the things we knew have ceased to exist and we are living in someone else’s world. Technology will have dragged us into a future that that will leave us longing for “the good old days”. A future populated by things we never dreamed possible and run by children. Pushed out of our comfort zone and striped of the familiar faces and places of our youth, we look for places where we can gather with our fellow survivors and remember the past.

Mankind was never meant to live forever, this life is but a step on the road we must follow as the true person inside this shell grows and becomes one with the universe.

To Smoke Or Not to Smoke

To all my friends who smoke I would like to extend my condolences. The world just got a little smaller, now you can’t go out to dinner or the corner bar if you want to smoke while you’re out. With a few exceptions you have to go out in the cold cruel world outdoors to comment the slow suicide you enjoy so much. I feel your pain and frustration at not being able to inflect the odder of your habit on those of us who just want have a nice dinner out or share a drink with our friends without choking on the gray cloud of your addiction.

There are those of us who do not wish to smell the stench or breathe the second hand smoke that results from wrapping a leaf in paper, putting that in your mouth, and setting fire to it. The world will not end nor will the economy of our state be destroyed by the act of banning smoking in your favorite bar or restaurant. Indeed you may find that the experience of dinning out may actually be improved by being able to savor the smell as well as the taste of the dinner you are eating.

I am sorry that you might feel that your rights are being crushed by the cold hard heal of the government. No one has said you can’t smoke, only that you can’t do it where it will infringe on the rights of others to live in a smoke free world. We set limits’ on where and when we can drink in public, why should we not do the same with smoking.

Everyone Talks About It.

Everyone talks about the weather, but there’s not blasted thing any of us can do about it. The first big storm of the year is headed our way and by morning we could have over a foot of snow. The snow blower is ready to go, the shovel is by the door, and the ice melt is ready to spread. All there is left to do is wait for it to get here.

They say we are suppose to get less snow over all this winter, but what they did not tell anyone was it was all going to come at once. There is a point in a person’s life when it does not matter how much snow there is, you still have to go out and clean it off the drive. The real question is what kind of snow it is. If it’s heavy and wet it can give you a hart attack and if it’s light and fluffy it can whip into drifts that can block roads and take twice as long to clear away.

Only the kids like a storm because if it is bad enough they will get a snow day and not have to go to school. Still if it’s too bad they won’t be able to go out and no one wants to be stuck in the house on a snow day.

In short we would be better off if the storm never happened or at least it only snowed on the grass.

Snow

It came in the night. I knew it would happen, but some how I had hoped it wouldn’t. Yet there it is outside my window, mocking me with it deceptively beautiful looks. Soft and fluffy, carpeting the dead browns and grays of fall with a blanket of white it has come. As a child it filled me with joy. It meant sliding and skiing, snowmen and snow forts, winter with all the fun of playing out in it. The snow at last is here and it no longer makes me want to go out and play.

The only playing I’m doing these days is with a shovel and the snow blower. Keeping the drive clean so we can get the car out is now my goal on a winter’s day. Still I can’t help enjoying the soft beauty of a blanket of new fallen snow in the moonlight smoothing out the ruff edges of the yard and covering it in a clean white landscape of moonlit shadows and drifts.

It is here, it is not going away, enjoy it.

Christmas

Tomorrow is the first of December; we made it through Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping and now its four weeks till Christmas. It does not matter if you treat it as a celebration of the birth of the Christ Child, or just a time to share in the love of your family and friends. What is important is that it is going to be here before we know it.

It’s time to get out the lights, put up the tree, and start shopping for gifts. The kids have long since made up their minds and are hinting (no begging) for that special toy. Their world filled with dreams of wonders to come they have visited Santa at the mall, or written their letter to him at the North Pole. Either way they have made sure that he knows what their hart desires under the tree.

As we get caught up in the madness of the next few weeks let us not forget the reason Christmas is even here. At this time of year we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, the Son Of God who came to save us from sin and grant us life eternal if we believe in him. It is the time when we should think of those less fortunate then we are. Time to give of our bounty to those who are in need of shelter, food, and the reassurance that some one loves them.

In closing, merry Christmas and may your life be filled with the blessings of the season.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is upon us, the holiday season is here. This day and Christmas are the two big family days of the year. Time to get together, share the joy of the season, and give thanks for all the wonderful things that have come our way. It does not matter if you treat them as secular or religious holidays; they still the two biggies on the list of days to celebrate.

Thanksgiving Day; parades, dinner, Football on T.V., and calling friends to wish them a wonderful day. The smell of turkey cooking in the oven and freshly baked pie cooling in the kitchen. The laughter of children playing, the buzz of voices as everyone seems to talk at once, and the joy of catching up with people we have not seen since last year.

May your day be full of excitement and love, may you have way to much to eat, and may you be truly thankful; for all the good things in your life.

Our Fellow Man

There was a song in the sixties that had a verse that went like this. “The whole world is festering with unhappy souls, the French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Polls. The Polls hate the Yugoslavs, the Yugoslavs hate the Dutch, and I don’t like anyone very much.”

Watch the news, cruse the internet, listen to your fellow man and you will see that our world is driven by prejudice. Don’t say you aren’t because down deep we all feel threatened by people who move into our life, turning it on its ear by being different. They don’t speak our language, they don’t dress like we do, they have different customs and beliefs then we are used to. In short they make us feel uneasy and afraid. They have no right to be the way they are, they need to change and become more like us.

Our world is fueled by feelings of distrust that shape our government, our social life, and the way we interact with our fellow man. Through out history these feelings have lead to laws aimed at forcing “those people” to conform to our way of life. What we fail to remember is that one time we were the ones who were different. Somewhere in our past there were people who spoke the wrong language, wore the wrong clothes, and acted different.

We each think of ourselves as enlightened and able to except people as they are, the truth is we can only do this when they are trying to be like us. When they are being their self we become the one who is different and that is the one thing we will never be able to deal with.

Health Insurance And Care

It’s been a while but I’m back. Due to events in my life I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about health insurance and the medical system in this country.

Let me start by saying that the system needs fixing. We need a health care system that allows doctors to prescribe the treatment they fell is best for their patent, not just the one the insurance wants them to. A system that would allow everyone to have insurance regardless of income or any preexisting conditions. If you can no longer work you should be guaranteed coverage until you can get another job with coverage or qualified for Medicaid or Medicare insurance.

Medical treatment should be based on what is best for the patent, not what is most cost efficient. Giving the best care possible should take president over saving a buck. There should not be one plan for the rich and another for those who are less able to pay for that level of care. Fair and equal medical care should be a basic right of every American just like freedom of speech and the right to vote. It should be “life, liberty, and equal medical care”.

There should never be someone denied help because his or hers insurance leaves them with such a high copayment that they can’t afford it. If it’s good enough for our Senators and Representatives in Washington then it should be good enough for everyone without regard to race, gender, income, or age. I don’t care about a “public option”, I just want the security of knowing that come what may I can have the care I need when and where I need it.

HOW SAD

You have to get to work in the morning and you don’t want to leave the kids alone to get the school bus so you r neighbor says they can stay at her hose for an hour every day. Great now you don’t have to worry and you don’t have to hire a babysitter. It’s a no brainer the kids stay with someone they know and you know they are safe, thank God for good neighbors.

Wrong, at least in Michigan where the Department Of Human Services told a woman that she was breaking the law and running an illegal day care for doing just that. She is not getting paid; she is just keeping an eye on them and giving them a place to wait till the bus comes.

Does this mean that if you let the neighborhood kids plays at your house while their folks go to the store your breaking the law? When we were kids no one gave it a thought if we stayed at a friend’s house because our folks had no one to watch us.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33068650/ns/today-parenting_and_family/

Progress

Don’t throw the baby away with the bathwater. Be carful that in the name of progress or expediency we don’t get red of things to quickly. Just because there is a better or cheaper way does not mean that what it’s replacing is no longer needed. In the rush to do things faster, cheaper, and easier let us not throw away completely what we are replacing. Once something is gone, it’s gone for good.

As the pace of progress increases the everyday things we take for granted seem to disappear faster and faster. Be it a tool, a toy, or an integral part needed to repair or replace some thing we have come to take for granted. If it is no longer made or made differently because it’s cheaper or easier than the way things used to be there is no way to tell what the result might be.

It could be anything from empty “box stores” left abandoned as whole new buildings rise up else where to make them super stores, to the disappearance of pay phones. We rush off in pursuit of that which is shiny and new and fail to realize that old does not always mean outmoded.

If it’s not broke don’t fix it. Keep it simple, the more complicated a thing is the more there is to go wrong and harder (and expensive) it is to fix.

Good by

The truly sad thing about getting old is seeing the things you grew up with disappear. From “church keys” to pay phones, big things or small, the things we take for granted just disappear. If you don’t know a “church key” is a bottle opener and pay phones aren’t economical any more because of cell phones. New technology has forced many things to disappear, lack of interest has been the death of others, and lack of funding has killed the rest.

The Michigan State Fair is about to become the next victim. After 161 years the longest running State Fair in the country is seeing its last year, when it ends on Labor Day it will truly end. Founded in 1849 it is a victim of the economy. The Governor says the State can no longer afford to fund it.

At a time when fairs and local festivals are propping up the business community of the State, it’s a shame to see it go. One wonders if it is a sign of things to come. How many county fairs and local festivals are going to dry up and blow away? We are a tourist state and without things to draw people here they and their money won’t come.

Insurance

I’ve been reading all about the health care debate. Turn on the news and it seems like that’s all you hear about. Should we have a government option, or should it all be private insurance programs? Should there be a choice for the underinsured and uninsured and what about those who don’t have an employer backed plan? What do you do if you are losing your job and your insurance or can’t afford to buy any even if you are working?

I find myself caught in the middle, to young for Medicare and dependent on my wife’s insurance at work. Her health and mine are both shaky at best so what do we do if she can’t do her job any longer? If we don’t have “good” coverage how are we going to afford to see our doctor or buy any medications that we need? If you’re poor enough or old enough you can get Medicare or Medicaid so why not an option for those who are not? There is no question that the system is broken, or that it is unfairly weighted tin favor of those who have good jobs or are more affluent. Lord knows that the government is great at screwing things up, but the system is not fixing itself so what should we do?

There are no easy answers, but right now it all boils down to “how is it going to affect me?” Are we going to have insurance, should my wife keep working at a job that she is leaves her in pain from standing at a machine all day just because we need the medical coverage? Good or bad I would at least like a choice that would allow us some options and if it’s a government backed one so be it.