People often ask me why I'm in a grouchy mood. It's not my mood, but people! Everyday I'm confronted by someone somewhere who thinks because I'm in business for myself I have somehow struck it rich and have scads of money coming out of every orifice. You've got people working for you doing the dirty work while I'm sitting back counting the money. They say look at all the trucks, containers, loaders, excavators, buildings, etc. You've got it made. If I've got it so made then why am I working so hard?



For over twenty some years I was gainfully employed in both the private and public sector. Worked my way up from entry level positions to high level management spots, both in government and the private sector. Still there was always something missing. A feeling of accomplishment. A feeling of doing a good job and being able to share that with others. Yet each of these jobs left a sour taste in my mouth. Regardless of how smart, resourceful or innovative you were in your position either someone else grabbed your idea and got credit for it or the idea was squashed because someone high up the food chain felt threatened by your idea and had the power to kill it. Politicians have the best skills at doing that. They really refine them to the point where it's almost like having bloodless surgery.



Many times I promoted ideas for the common good only to be shot down. Soon after this happened a few times I saw the light. Did just what was expected of my and stayed long enough to get a pension and then I struck it out on my own.



Maybe I'm an idealistic sort, a throwback to my generation of the sixties (before they all sold out - another blog at another time) but I went into business with the express purpose of doing something that would benefit my fellow man, create some jobs, and put a few dollars in my pocket and leave something for my kids.



I still have that sense of purpose but just seeing the way the world is going to hell in a GUCCI BAG, (just used the name as a point of reference, you'll catch on later) it really makes one stop and wonder what any of this is worth.



You got these crazy idiots running our government. No one seeking to unite, only divide and conquer. (Disclaimer - I speak from the heart and I am not politically correct so if you want to stop reading do so now lest your sensibilities be bruised!) Nut jobs willing to die for their god and not for the true essence the betterment of mankind and society. While on the other hand we've got people here who feel that anyone who has saved and worked their whole life or just had that better idea and made money at it should "share the wealth"! Bull tacos! Now we're getting to the real meat of this dissertation, the global quest to have everything, NOW!



I take this time to pay homage to the Wal-Mart employee in Valley Stream who was trampled to death by shoppers the day after Thanksgiving. What is so all fired important about having to have the latest whatever before the next guy? Do people really care if you got the first whats-is-it on your block? This incident, and I'm sure there are many more that have happened in the past, present and future, will continue because the retail industry in our society has distilled all these consumer goods into a narcotic potion for the masses that they need to have NOW! People have become junkies over consumer goods.



While as a kid growing up in the fifties and sixties we were always slammed with commercials on television trying to get us to pester our parents to by the latest and greatest gizmo's available.



I truly have to hand it to my parents( thanks Mom & Dad) that they gave in little to these consumer fads. The first big consumer fad I can recall was Davy Crockett. Every kid, including my self wanted that coonskin hat, buckskin suit and moccasins. I got a T-shirt that said Davy Crockett and a coon skin hat that ripped into pieces soon after getting it. Next was the Rifleman, Chuck Connors, got to see him in San Antonio in 1966, and his rifle. It was cool with that over sized hand grip lever thing a ma bob. But instead I got the Restless Gun pistol set. This could be a rifle, a long barrel pistol, a short barrel rifle. Then the last item I wanted, before I gave up on things, was the Mattel pistol that shot plastic projectiles. Where was child product safety in those days. Any way I never got one until many years later I would find a working one in some one's trash. So those three lessons really made me think, the world didn't fall apart, I wasn't outcast into some vast expanse of looser land because I didn't get those things. It just made me accept failure better than if I had gotten everything.



So back on track with were this is going, we need a revolution. I'm not talking about a gun toting shoot em up type of fracas, but a revolution of mind and spirit. We have become a society of consumers and need freaks. Haves and have nots. Candy ass liberals who want to give away anything that's not theirs to level the playing field. Tight ass conservatives who want it all and not to let anyone else have it. The country divided!



I say the field should be level to a point but individual strength and forbearance should actually stand for something. Our own Declaration of Independence says it, All men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights, etc. In other words the brass ring is there for the taking, you've just got to get up and get it. Self motivation. Everyone can achieve their own level of success and that's good. Let everyone try. We need to do more with less. We need also need less in society. But how can anyone succeed when anytime someone gets a little success some Politician, who didn't get a taste of the pie, sticks his nose into the situation and drafts a law or empowers a bureaucrat to quell success. This country of our is so dam hypocritical it makes ones senses numb from the speed at which it all happens.



Now I'm turning theological. The plain and simple truth of the matter is that within the Bible the 10 commandments kind of lay out the extent of the amount of law we need to live by. Simple, direct and too the point. Throw in the golden rule and you've got it all together. Real simple. No need for all kinds of lawyers preaching their legal speak. No holier than thou politicians speaking from the high ground of the capitol. Just plain and simple rules. I think what happened many years ago when Moses was summoned to the Mount, he really transcribed more than ten commandments. When he got back off the mountain and saw what the Philadelphia shyster lawyers were doing he saved them time and improvised the original Tort reform by smashing the tablets and then only finding the first ten, sticking them in a box and hiding them so they couldn't be adjusted, tweaked or modified.



Our forefathers saw an experiment in this thing called democracy and felt it was an experiment that should evolve and change in a positive way. They challenged the conventions of their time with the American Model of democracy. It was almost as man evolved and his ideas and ideals evolved and grew to a much higher level so should the manner in which government govern. Yet instead of high minded Utopian philosophies and expectations America instead has produced the largest Whore House in the world with Washington D.C. A place where everyone has their legs spread hoping for their own gratification at the expense of the common man.



So with this entire evolution of our government we have created a society that has become more in tune with what's in it for me rather than what can we do together. Maybe it's time with took a step backward and review what we have staring us in the face. Religious fanatics unable to see into the basic common tenants of their religious convictions and seek death and destruction where ever they so choose. Are these people any different from our society? They want what they want and are willing to achieve it at any price just like our society. Do we kill others in this quest? You betcha! We claim the high ground in making the environment safe, making sure all workers have a safe work place, etc. Yet the minute these costs are figured into American products we walk away and go to the big box store to buy imported crap that is either substandard in quality or is manufactured by some borderline employee / slave in a country that doesn't give a crap about their environment or workers safety just for price. It is any wonder why Americans are the laughing stock of the world?



I'm not promoting protectionism but really why do we as a country have to be the policeman of the world. Why can't we just stay in our backyard, play with our toys and talk to our neighbors over the fence. Why can't we manufacture our goods to those standards we espouse but push aside for price? Why can't we to go visit our neighbors without being judgemental? How can we pass morality on the world when we can't practice it here at home?



The answers are really there but we need to be committed to finding them, implementing them and above all living them. Did you ever see a Brinks truck following a funeral procession? Since we can't take it with us then why bother? What's the point? The reality of it all is that we are eventually going to go the way of the dinosaur so this makes everything moot. We'll all pass on to the great beyond and leave everything we worked for and amassed to someone else or even better yet the government. Give it to the government so they can urinate it away on some bull crap issue or project that serves no one but some mindless politician. Are we passing on happiness or sadness? I really don't think so. Our happiness is contained within and should be shared. Our sadness should be shared in a way that we can comfort others and be comforted ourselves. So when someone asks me if I'm grouchy you can understand my position. But sooner or later for all the riches and losses in the world we'll all be equals for eternity when we take the dirt nap!