1,000,000,000 Birds…… Gone

This is disturbing.  One billion birds have disappeared from North American skies since the seventies…

One third of all North American birds are threatened with extinction….

It is time for significant action… We are past the time of stripping our  Earth for monetary profits.  It is time to use some of those profits to re-invest back into this business called LIFE……..

 

Tired

That was the feeling one got from yesterday… in general when it comes to the state of Delaware.  Everyone is just so tired.. A lot more than from other years…  Our legislature is too old.  The same characters have done it all over and over without change… Like week-old bread, the taste has molded, and the texture toughened…

There were moments of lucidity.  Legislators there for their first closing sessions provided some passion and freshness but they were frozen out of the mainstream by the lobbyists and legislators who’ve repeated this charade since the early 90’s.

I was reminded of many a small business, run for 40 years, where ideas fresh and invigorating 30 years ago like the merchandise, were still on the shelves, collecting dust. too young for antique dealers, too old for everyone else…  When one walks in banging the screen door, the owners stir, suspiciously watch you peruse their merchandise, standing at attention to ring up an anticipated sale, then shrugging their shoulders as you exit and drive away…

Our state has reached that point…  We are tired… We are tired of having no money.  We are tired of always cutting back. We are tired of not raising taxes.  We are tired of doing without…. We are tired of blaming prevailing wage. We are tired of sticking it to tolls and fee-payers to raise our revenues.  We are tired of this overbearing, oppressive, stifling , thick humidity crushing summer air that makes all move in slow viscous motion to avoid being smothered in buckets of sweat.

We are a tired state….

And why?

The answer as any CEO will tell you, is because we have reached our end of hope.. We have no new visions in front of us, which is accurately cartooned by the Rodel name changes originally in 2006 from Vision 2009 to  Vision 2015, to Vision 2025, which despite all the name changes, essentially remain exactly the same.

We are tired of going to work making less, then have to do with less to pay for our higher bills, since someone somewhere up there is making a lot more than what they once did for the same service they’ve always provided…

We are tired of being brushed aside, by those who have money and pull with legislators they’ve now sat at banquet tables for over one fifth of a century.  We are tired of not seeing change…

That is essentially it…   We are tired of not seeing change….

Oh, those who want the middle class as serfs again, don’t seem to feel this ennui… They are pumped up cheering as every earned right we’ve had for hundreds of years, gets stripped away…. But they are a thin minority… The rest, just muddle on, lost in their distractions of NetFlicks or Amazon shrugging their shoulders complaining how nothing ever improves….

There are bright spots on the distant horizon… Bernie Sanders may actually become a force of change even if not elected, by breaking the ennui on the playing field with something new.  Or we may go to war with an unknown enemy today, which always sharpens our focus even if upon simple survival…

The road map is clear.

Although two months too early to talk about football, I am going to break that rule here… In the contest between people and money, the American people are down 24-7 in the 3rd Quarter… We all know that comebacks in the NFL happen all the time.   We know that with only 2 unanswered touchdowns and a field goal, we again have a tie game…  But with every minute time is running out..   Our chances are lessening that we will ever again have the middle class prosperity under which we grew up… With every passing second which we do not have the ball, our future becomes dimmer, and dimmer, and dimmer, and dimmer….

As any football aficionado will tell you, there comes a time in every game, where playing defensively is not an option.. You’ve already lost by being defensive; it is too late to focus only on stopping the others from gaining… Your only option is to finally run or throw the ball, and if you don’t have a clear shot… you take the chance with a “Hail Mary”….. because at 24-7 against you… you don’t really have a choice….

Here is what is missing…

Taxing the top one percent… That alone, like a 70 yard pass and 20 yard run into the end zone, will make the game into a battle again… That alone will put the adrenalin back into life.  That alone will give 315 million Americans the one single ray of hope they have, that though things are tough now… at some future point, they too will be able to relax and enjoy the game of participating in the American dream….

Because when it comes down to it… and this isn’t just me but the entire course of human history, when you put all your faith into a system that believes in getting the most out of every worker…. you will never be paid what you are worth.. You will be always paid the minimum allowed to keep you in in that spot…  Doesn’t that make perfect sense?  Why would anyone pay you $100,000 when they can fill your spot with a kid for $25,000?

Trusting business is trusting a brown recluse spider to take care of you…

The only way we will ever have a better future for our children, is if we tax those 1% just enough to pay for $100,000 accountants, scientists, and inspectors to keep those 1 per centers legal and in line…  Then, if  you don’t like your low corporate pay, there is a high paying government job waiting for you that will double your income….

Cuts, cuts, cuts, are old, old. old… Find someone who says tax, tax, tax,  and we will again hope, hope, hope…

There is only one way out of our quagmire… Tax the top one percent fairly until we have the nation we again want…   Till then, it will be the same ole, same ole, same ole, same ole, same ole…….. long after the day we die… Each day we don’t tax is like each minute we don’t play offensively; we bury our children’s economic future deeper and deeper and deeper.  The beauty of being American, is that we are supposed to make our own future…  Find someone out there who will raise taxes… and support them like hell. This time, vote like your future income depends on it… because frankly, that is the only thing it does depend on…