Tuesday, July 24, 2012

America's Barn Door

America has become the anguished farmer whose horses have bolted because he left the barn door open. A few examples:
As the nation focuses on the latest jangly shiny object (the Colorado massacre) our government temporarily shifts to its gun control Kabuki-Dance.
Even if an agreement is reached (it won’t be) we arrive rather late.
According to the Survey by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies the United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens.
That’s 270 million firearms in circulation.
The barn door was blown off the hinges.

Our illegal immigrant dilemma is equally late in coming.
Modest estimates of ‘Illegals’ in the country exceed 10 million.
The debate comes about 9+ million too late.
Nobody bothered to lock the barn door.

Even liberals making Conservative estimates put the national debt at $16 trillion. Seems like only yesterday when the wee debt was  running around in Oshkosh-by-Gosh.
My, they grow up so quickly.
Now we can’t afford a barn door.

Moving on to the infrastructure… The American Society of Civil Engineer’s Report Card for American Infrastructure gave the nation a grade of D, and stated that it would take a five-year investment of $2.2 trillion to bring the U.S. up to par with the rest of the world’s major postindustrial nations. This assessment of our dams, levees, bridges, rail, and airports declares that our infrastructure is in crisis.
Our barn door is rotted.

And those who can read, learn that American schools have a drop-out rate of 28%. And the students who stick it out compare poorly with many industrialized nations.
Where we once sat atop the heap, we’re now buried in the middle of our class. Where was the concern when we dropped to second place?
Anybody know how to build a door?

10 comments:

An Independent said...

I do! I do! I know HOW to build a barn door.... But it's hard work. I can get a couple of guys hanging out at 7-11 to build one. Ya know, they're hard workers, they are. And we can get the debt crisis all fixed up to, easy enough.... just get another illegal from ~where ever~ in the White House....... Oh, never mind - we already have one there.

quicksand said...

Zoots...you cover quite a bit here.
I'm a bit puzzled by the illegal in the White House though.
Can you mean the president?

Tiny Timmy said...

Politicians are so afraid they might do something that will keep them from being re-elected that nothing productive gets done. Both parties are becoming more and more polarized; always ready to pounce on an imprudent comment in an attempt to demonize as they demagogue. We have politicians who are experts at fundraising and re-election and nothing more. They pat themselves on the back for the trivial things they do..... as Rome continues to burn.

I think term limits might be the only answer to get their collective heads out of their collective backsides; but as you correctly point out, the barn door has been open for way too long.

rthgrl said...

no one cares about the horses anymore...
The horses need to find their voice and demand a better door. While they're at it, a new barn is in order too, since the foundation is shaky, built on the ground, no footings...termites are having a field day.
The door could come from China, nice 'n cheap, but may have lead paint on it and be made on the backs of grossly exploited workers. And the carpenter down the street would do a fine job, but the farmer doesn't want to pay that much, he's so used to getting something for so much less, he sees that as excessive. Maybe he could pick up some guys that stand around every day looking for work downtown...bring 'em over for the day. They could fix the door and the barn in a day for cheap, pay them cash, and never see them again. And not to worry, one of them gets hurt on the job or he decides not to pay them...what's their recourse? none. Not legally in the country anyway...so let's just all look the other way.
Oh, man, could go on forever with this.
No question, we are in some big mess and politicians are not looking for the answers. Their goal is to keep the big machine running. When we thought we could just go about our lives and leave it up to them to care for us, we were wrong. Their motives are not true. Ego and money are the guiding principles.
As long as we have this system, I am all for the end of career politicians and cap election spending. Term limits.
I can't remember when I didn't cast a vote that was just "a lesser of two evils". As much as I care about our world and country, just feel there is so much fear tactic used to keep us distracted and focused elsewhere...I'm begging out. Less and less do I find I listen to the drivel...
It's such a mess, we may need an Icelandic maneuver to correct. who knows.

Jim "formerly ben's friend" said...

What is it about the sick American psyche that keeps this madness "birther" thing going. I remember when Obama was elected that night in Chicago one of my thoughts was, "We have entered a post racial America." What a cock-eyed optimist I was. Let's face it. At least part of the perception of Obama's "otherness" deals with the fact that he is less than lilly white. And why should someone who is less than white live in the White House.

quicksand said...

Tiny
your first paragraph has it right.
As for term limits, I suspect that our self-serving pols would figure out some clever way of defeating any efforts we could make to tame them in. Remember...they're pros.

quicksand said...

Rthgrl,

Masterful. Just masterful.
You said it much better than me.
It may be time for the torches and pitchforks!

quicksand said...

Former Ben,

I realize there is no room for what I consider a border-line intelligent conversation when the issue is the birth certificate.
It's a flat-world argument.

rthgrl said...

thank you, kind sir... Your comment is reminiscent of the townspeople charging Dr Frankenstein's castle haha.
The people of Iceland overthrew there government through peaceful tactics...funny how our media doesn't cover stuff like that!? Feed us the wars and the shooters and the drug-dependent celebs...that will keep us busy preoccupied with enough drivel to distract from. The positives out there. Ugh.

quicksand said...

RX

Watch the new HBO series...the newsroom.
The underlying message is exactly what you say.
The media is trying to entertain rather than inform.
Ratings whores.