Who Do They Work For?

In my opinion, we have Senators and Representatives to vote and make decisions because it simply isn't feasible to ask every citizen to vote on every item that needs to be decided. Especially back at the beginning of the nation, when mail took days to get from one city to the next. So our founding fathers decided that all the citizens would vote and pick the people who would represent their interests. Those people would meet in the nation's capital to discuss, debate and decide on the various items that came up.

Over the past couple of centuries, that method has gotten off track. Big businesses lobby, persuade and donate big bucks, and in return, Congresspeople vote the way those big businesses want them to vote. For instance, the US is still giving subsidies to big oil companies that are making billions in profits each year. Those companies feel entitled to that money, even as the US struggles to find ways to balance the budget. "Take away our subsidies, and we'll raise your gas prices," seems to be what they told Congress. I say, so what? They're going to raise our gas prices anyway. Have you noticed that price shoots up 10-15 cents/gallon every time there's a whiff of possible bad news about the supply? But if there's definite good news, like the price of oil has come down $40 a barrel, the price of gas might come down 1-2 cents/gallon, if it comes down at all.

In my opinion - and I told my senator this - the US should stop giving that money to the already gluttonous oil companies and use it to make other types of energy available to the general populace. I would love to have an electric or hybrid car, but I can't afford the initial purchase price. Raise the price of gas too high, and those companies will just push us towards other fuel forms that much faster. So there.

But my senator didn't listen to me. He voted to continue the subsidies. After all, the paycheck he gets from big business are much bigger than anything I can offer him. They aren't working for 'the people' any more.

Where Did Spring Go?

More than 6 weeks ago, my friend and I drove south, looking for spring, and started noticing flowering trees and bushes right around the border between Tennessee and Georgia. We were sure that meant spring was just around the corner, and we considered washing our winter coats while we were in Florida, since we wouldn't need them again until November or so.

We came home at the end of March, happy to have those coats after all – so cold and wet! For most of April, we asked each other, "Why isn't spring here yet?"

Apparently, it did feel like spring to the plants – local trees and bushes flowered, lawns greened, and tulips bloomed. Still, some of them were uncertain; the locust in the front yard only had the tiniest of leaf buds.

It was chilly, overcast and wet so many days, it seemed more like autumn than spring. And since I get crabby in the fall (anticipating that cold icy winter), I've been rather crabby since returning home.

Suddenly, May arrived. And within that first week, the weather went from chilly-and-cold, 'when-do-we-get-to-turn-off-the-furnace?' to 'open-all-the-windows,-where-are-my-shorts-and-it's-too-early-for-air-conditioning!' Jeepers, did I sleep through spring?

Observing Precedence

Somehow, I caught a piece of last night's news. The speaker was blasting President Obama for 1) sending air strikes against Libya without consulting Congress, 2) saying we would only be involved in Libya for a few days, and it's been almost two months, and 3) saying that no Americans would set foot in Libya, and they have.

It always amazes me how short some people's memories are. I pay little attention to the news, but I can definitely remember those same things happening at least twice within my memory. The last time got us involved in two wars, where we are still involved. Somehow, those times seem to be 'okay'. I can't figure out why.

There may have been other presidents who did the same things, but I was paying even less attention back then.

I'm not saying President Obama was absolutely right for getting us involved in the Libya mess. I'm just saying he was following the example of previous presidents. Since we let the previous presidents get away with it, why are we so outraged when this president does the same thing? Why weren't we outraged when it was done the first time?

One of the problems of being a president is that everything you do could set a precedent. Including the color of socks you choose to wear to a certain meeting.

No Room for Discussion

Once upon a time, I wouldn't be caught dead making anything that might be construed as a 'political' statement. I hated confrontation, arguments and anything like that, so I refused to comment on politics and religion. Sometimes, even weather didn't seem like a 'safe' subject.

But I've gotten cranky as I've aged. Politicians have gotten even more outrageous, and the sheep that blindly follow one party or the other have gotten even more woolly.

I consider myself an Independent. I pick and choose which way I want to lean on any given subject. I even occasionally express an opinion that might not agree with that of those I'm with, exercising my right to have my own opinion.

Hard-core sheep don't like it when you aren't flowing along with the rest of the herd.

I recently found myself on a chatlist, the purported tenants of which I agreed with – showing support for our military people fighting across the seas. I expressed my support, and was about to skip back to whatever website I'd been on, when I realized that most of the comments on this chatlist were actually an unimaginative bashing of a politician I currently admire. I lost my temper and caustically bashed an entire political party, blaming them for a great deal of what I saw wrong in the country.

A few hours later, I received a message from someone on that chatlist, informing me I should educate myself before exposing my ignorance. Evidently, if I don't agree with them, I'm not entitled to have an opinion. Now, when was that right stripped from me? Somebody forgot to tell me.

Take the Time

There are two old sayings I've heard forever: "Wake up and smell the coffee," and "Stop to smell the roses." They both mean similar things, an urging for people to not be so wrapped up in merely existing that they can't appreciate the beauty and good things around them. I've spent years existing, taking care of my family, my employer, paying my bills.

Early in March, I took a trip to Florida with a friend. We drove, so we'd have a car to use while we were there. Early in the trip, with my family and worries left behind, I looked around at the scenery while my friend drove. The grass in Missouri was brown. The only thing in the countryside that resembled color were the fir trees, which were so dark a green, they were nearly black. I knew Florida would not look like this, and I wondered if I would notice the changes as we drove, or if they would happen too slowly.

Kentucky and Tennessee were still pretty bleak, although the grass was somewhat greener. As we approached Chattanooga, I saw some bushes – or maybe they were small trees – that had purple flowers. No leaves that I could see, but the splash of color was pretty. We drove around a curve, and there was a similar small tree with bright pink flowers. I could feel my spirits rise.

Then we were headed straight south through Georgia, and the landscape got greener and greener with every mile, it seemed. If I had not been looking for these changes, I probably would have arrived in Florida and THEN been surprised by the colors around me. But since I was being observant, I got to have my spirits lifted at least a full day early, by the sight of a few bright bushes and trees.

I've decided to look for those bright spots a little more often.

To Boldly Go

Went to Cape Kennedy a few days ago. Watched one of their Imax movies, talked to an astronaut and some of the staff. I wondered what NASA planned to do, now that the shuttles are being shelved.

This is some of what I found out:

Congress won't allow NASA to have more than one 'project' going at any one time. So if they want to send more people to the moon (and they do), they had to stop sending shuttles to the space station. Russia can take passengers and cargo for us, but the price for a passenger rose from about $20 million per person to $68 million. As you can imagine, that would dig a big hole in NASA's budget, so they looked around for other ways to get people there. There are 2 or 3 private industries that could be ready for fairly regular excursions to the station in 10 years … or as little as 2 or 3 years, with a little help. Whoever I was talking to at the time indicated NASA would help those industries, in order to cut down its dependency on Russia, because Russia could decide to 'pull the plug' at any time. And with more than one entity providing this service, the price per 'seat' would come down.

Out of every $100 of federal taxes, NASA gets 42 cents. It will soon go to 38 cents out of every $100.

NASA asked for an increase of 2.5 billion dollars in its budget and was turned down. What the public doesn't realize is that Americans already spend $35 billion per year in tips for the pizza delivery guys.

The tax dollars that NASA spends are not loaded up on the shuttle and blasted into space. They are spent on the ground, in the form of jobs and contracts. Our exploration of space has produced many discoveries that probably would not have happened without space exploration. For instance, some medical research depends on crystals grown on the station, crystals that cannot be grown on Earth because of gravity.

I've got some research to do. One thing I'd like to know is how NASA's budget compares to the subsidies provided to oil companies, who already make profits in the billions. If nothing else, people, the Earth is getting crowded. Time to start looking for new places for some of us to move.

The Other War

Everybody knows we have troops in Iraq, and in Afghanistan. They wonder how much longer we will be engaged in those conflicts, how much longer before we can breathe a sigh of relief as our men and women return home? And the politicians – no matter which party – keeps promising that it will be as soon as they can manage it.

What very few people seem to realize is that America is involved in another third war, one that was started far earlier than either one of those. No politician will acknowledge it, it will never be studied in any history class, but it is happening.

Back in the middle of the 20^th century, the government made a big to-do about its 'War on Poverty'. Now it has done a complete turn about, and has declared war on the Middle Class.

You only have to be aware of recent doings of the government to become aware of this war. In a recent vote to pass a short-term budget to keep the federal government from shutting down, most of Congress voted to continue giving huge subsidies to oil companies while gutting and eliminating social programs that so many poorer Americans need. Yes, they are giving money to oil companies, the same oil companies that use any excuse to jack up their prices to get more money out of our individual pockets, the same oil companies that already count their yearly profits in the billions.

In other news, some governors want to disband and ban collective bargaining groups – unions. Supposedly, unions make unreasonable demands that are too big a drain on their states' finances. So, if that is allowed, it won't be long before we're back to dealing with our employers as individuals, rather than groups. And history tells us how well that worked before.

But that's okay, as far as our government cares. Those of us who are not millionaires are merely cannon fodder.