March 19, 2011

It is amazing how fast we get information in this digital age. Waking up on the 11th and seeing the destructive results of the Japanese 8.9 earthquake live on television and via the Internet. The speed in which we get information still staggers my imagination. I went to Japan in 1998 for the Winter Olympic games and found the Japanese people very cordial and kind. I hope that they can recover soon. Like many of you, I've been praying for them. The non-partisan The Concord Coalition came to Kennesaw State a couple of weeks ago and was enlightened as to the direction the economy of the nation is going. 10 years ago this country had a surplus in the treasury. Somehow we have dug a hole in the trillions and the amount continues to rise. A former member of the White House staff under Bill Clinton said that we might never see the America we grew up with ever again as the economic powerhouse of the world. We are in debt to China with a figure that I can't comprehend. I heard that when you are wanting to get out of a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging. David M. Walker from the Comeback America Initiative said that we have to get a grip on government discretionary spending or the United States will have even greater economic troubles than we are in now. Tallapoosa can boast of the fact that the only elected official to attend the recent eye opening 90 minute panel discussion at KSU was Mayor Pete Bridges along with Charlie Walker of public works for the city. Fellow Baby Boomers have you begun to wonder if our generation will run out of Social Security benefits that we paid into since we were teenagers with our first jobs. Is Medicare going to go bust? How will poor families take care of their health needs if Medicaid turns out the lights on the program? I saw a story on 60 Minutes about homeless children in Florida and how the family unit is becoming more and more fragile due to the economy. Many of those children said they went to bed hungry. How can that happen in the United States of America? We recently saw on the front page of the Times-Georgian that for the first time in history foreclosed properties out sold traditional property sales in Carroll County. I remember my grandmother telling me stories of Tallapoosa during the Great Depression and how many families lost everything. Her voice cracked as she told of many people ate cornbread and sorghum syrup for breakfast, lunch, and supper. Somehow America survived the Great Depression and faced the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan a decade later. Mother told me about working in a defense plant in San Francisco when my father was in the South Pacific during World War II. She said there was an air of optimism that we would win the war. She said everyone had to sacrifice and that to buy necessities you had to have coupons. Mother said every family made sacrifices in those days. Some families gave up sons and daughters. Mother said that this country pulled together and celebrated victories and comforted one another during losses. Movie stars and entertainers sold war bonds and there was a spirit of unity. A spirit of unity? Can we get our arms around that concept? We need some of that bygone era optimism to begin dwelling in our hearts. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. Did it take you all week to get used to Daylight Saving Time? Waking up at 6 a.m. when the body says it is still 5 a.m.and trying to comprehend why Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea as you stumble to the shower stepping on Barbie doll shoes scattered about the room. It always takes me at least a week to adjust to the time change. It seems that folks from Alabama have a real rough time with it. They spring forward their watches, then travel to Georgia and forward it another hour. Somebody tell me how do Muscadinians, Fruithurstites, and Edwardsvillians deal with the time change if they work in Georgia. I remember being on the radio in Bremen around the time of Thomas Edison inventing the phonograph and making public service announcements for churches and saying "the all-day singing with dinner on the ground at A-I Baptist Church will begin at 11 a.m. Alabama time." Am I wrong but is the best fried chicken and sweet tea in the world always at an all day singing with dinner on the ground? Have you gotten adjusted to Daylight Saving Time yet? Me neither.