It Takes a Village

While I’m totally disillusioned with the President; and, I don’t think the Democrats have clue as to what to do to solve our economic problems; and, the Republicans seem to be consumed with being against anything the President, and his wife while at Target, do, there are some things they all could do, which they won’t

Quit the games.  None of you are totally evil, though there are days, weeks and months that I wonder.  Our national and global future is not a game of table stakes poker.  Quit acting like everything is a bet on what will get you re-elected and if it actually does some good is lagniappe.

Face up to the huge infrastructure problems that we face while at the same time facing huge social liabilities. 

We can’t spend billions of dollars weekly making the world safe for whatever it is we are selling, whatever it is being totally squishy.  Israel, while it gets money from us to fend off its regional enemies, doesn’t try to buy off its enemies.  If we are going to play a global game, and we need to, be realistic – spend money and lives only if and when it is absolutely necessary to protect us from the people that want to kill us.  And while you are at it, explain why you are spending the money.

The people in Afghanistan and Pakistan don’t like us and they aren’t going to become Western democracies in our great-grandchildrens’ lifetimes.  Figure out what is the absolute minimum we need to do to make sure they don’t come after us and set them free to do as they will.  When we are leaving, we should apologize for our part in what got them to the current mess.

Iraq, will get by, it always has and it always will.  The same is true of Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Given some time, perhaps there will be an Arab Spring in those countries.

North Korea – leave it to its neighbors, keeping an eye out for really crazy stuff.

China?  Let it figure out how to deal with its rigid and structured economy in the face of the rest of the world’s economic meltdown.  It and we need to figure out how to be major players in a world that won’t let either of us dominate.

What to do about Europe and Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the next countries on the economic block?  I don’t have a clue.  But I suspect the solution to their problems is similar to the solution to the problems we have here that could earn us a place in the queue for defaulting country of the year.

I’ve said this before, but people are cussed.  The “free market” doesn’t work if it is rigged.

I could go on and on with this.  I think I’ll end with the thought that Hillary Clinton had a pretty good book title:  It Takes a Village.  Small groups of people can have their problems; but, when faced with having to live with each other, they can usually figure out a way to make the experience bearable. 

We’ve spent the last century or so doing everything possible to eliminate the personal relationships inherent in a village.

Think about it.  We get mad at our friends and family on a regular basis.  And we get over it.  Not always, but most of the time.  If we can’t handle the issue, the larger but still small group steps in.  The remaining problems are few.

Perhaps the solution to the world’s ills is to figure out how to replicate the process of a community on a large scale.

Not happy with this post overall; but, I’m not in the mood to polish it.  Bottom line, we need to figure out a way to talk not shout, reign in the rogues, not bail them out.