Whoosh.....”Ooh!!” Kaboom!! “Ahh!!” Happy 4th of July!
If patriotism is all about showing support for the American people, appreciating who we are, what we are, AND what we were meant to be, then check this out... As those of you who regularly read my page knows, I rarely get political. I usually try to avoid it in my column even IF politics and what politicians do are why most of us are in this organization in the first place. In keeping with this thought, I’ll keep THAT part of this month’s submission short and blab on about something else in just a few moments. But first I felt I had to share something I received in an e-mail from my friends Bobbi and Buffalo, I just tweaked it a bit. To me, the logic is inescapable. To some people (including me) it seems that our congress has become a privileged “ruling class” of legislators who hold themselves above and completely separate from the rest of us lowly citizens.
| Congressional Reform Act of 2011
I. Term Limits....12 years only, one of the possible options below.....
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms.
II. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office, but receives no pay when they are out of office.
III. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates in it with the American people.
IV. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
V. Congressmen will no longer initiate their own pay raises. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
VI. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
VII. Congress must equally abide by ALL laws they impose on the American people.
VIII. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective upon passage of this legislation.
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The American people did not make the current contracts with our Congressmen. Congressmen made these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, not a privileged elite “ruling class”. Our representatives and senators should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work like the rest of us. It shouldn’t take any longer than that to “learn how to play the game” because NONE of them will be there for longer terms. Maybe it might even stop being a game.
Though I’ve made no bones about my being a Democrat my whole life (I campaigned for Eugene McCarthy for chrisakes) it oddly appears that Republicans are usually the ones most in favor of term limits for various reasons, some righteous and some obviously not. You can find out more about this important issue at www.termlimits.org/ if you’ve a mind to.
Personally, I further feel ALL politicians should also be able to bear up to an intense scrutiny of their entire financial holdings at any time, including the related and non-related career paths (past and future) of themselves and their immediate families by a permanent non-partisan board of ethics, something I’m sure most politicians wouldn’t agree with.
Okay, now I’ll step down from my soapbox (by the way, did you know that old phrase comes from ordinary British citizens actually standing on wooden soap boxes to be heard when they bitched about their government in a public park located near Parliament, which is their congress? History is so cool, and it just keeps on happenin’).
I went for a ride today and about freaked when I realized that it now takes as many bucks to fill up the bike with gas as it did to fill up most of the cars I’ve owned. And we’re talkin’ about a tank that has less than a six gallon capacity! In fact, since I only run high-test in the Road King (for now) it might actually cost more. For me to just ride from one end of the county to the other and back, the cost is about ten bucks! I used to travel that distance every day to go to work. That means if I still lived where I used to (and was still working) the weekly cost would now be $50 a week! That’s over $200 a month just for f%7k&#g gasoline to go back and forth to work!! On the bike no less!!! I used to be able to ride to work on the scoot for a whole month for less than $15 when I lived that far away from my job!!!!
I turned 21 in 1972. The cost of a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, a loaf of bread, and a gallon of gas were all about the same....35 cents each. Highly paid union factory workers received about $3.50 an hour. (Note: That hourly wage was ten times the price of the smokes, bread and gas that I mentioned).
Now, let’s just say that today a pack of Marlboro’s is $5, a loaf of bread is $2 and a gallon of gas is (as of this writing) well over $4 (I read gas is temporarily coming down a bit for summer). As you see, the cost of bread hasn’t climbed quite as much, but gas and cigs are still in the same relatively high ballpark with each other, and co-incidentally ten times what they used to be in 1972 because of the oil companies and the tobacco tax that you non-smokers voted for (thank ya very much).
The plant where I worked manufactured Chevy Vegas (I know, cheap cars, but they were also cheap in cost). A brand-new Vega was only $18 hundred, which was a fair price for what they called an entry-level (starter) car back then. Now, an entry-level car is over $18 thousand, once again, ten times what it was in ‘72. But the thing is, our higher paid industrial workers are NOT getting ten times what they used to get for an hour’s wage (and how many industrial workers are really highly paid these days?) In addition to this, financing a car-loan is similar to what taking out a home-loan used to be since a car costs as much as a house used to. So, obviously a lot more money is lost to interest even though the rates are better. They had to improve the rates, otherwise not many could ever afford to buy a new car. Can you even imagine a 15, 20 or 30 year car loan?
But what I’m getting at here, is that most things could be affordable these days, if people could just find decent paying jobs (but that’s a whole other issue). Our cost-of-living has just about been bearable (for the most-part) and our quality-of-life would actually be getting better if it just wasn’t for the greed of the damned oil companies. And as we get older when we need it most, we also find that the corporate health-care system (including the drug companies) is demanding more and more money. So for we lucky few who have somewhat dependable incomes, IF we’re healthy and stay that way, AND we never go anywhere, we might be just fine. That is IF we could afford the gas it takes to travel to discount stores for our food, thrift stores for our clothing, and we’re careful about where we choose to live for our shelter (a bit of sarcasm there). But I hate to end this on such a sour note. So I won’t. Overall, life is good and could be getting better. We’ll just talk about something entirely different.....let’s say, oh....music....
Ya know, in the old days I was never particularly fond of most “Country” music. In fact I’ve often said jokingly that Lynard Skynard was as close to Country as I could get. Sure, I could get into Pure Prairie League, Willie, Waylon and a few others, but I used to actually cringe when I heard music by people like Porter Wagoner, Buck Owens or most of the other “Old Country” artists. In spite of this I recently began taking banjo lessons.
Even in the old days, I’ve always considered Bluegrass to be something entirely different than most Country music. And “Folk Music” by people like Pete Seeger has always been good for my heart and soul. But as a matter of fact nowadays a lot of what is called “Country” is really closer to Rock (with a twist) and most of it is a lot easier for me to listen to than a lot of the other crap I hear on the radio. These days I usually listen to Classic Rock anyway, not ashamed to be “stuck in the past” musically. Truly good music is timeless, after all. And it’s not my fault that the recording industry allowed newer “Rock” to die off in spite of great music in recent years (relatively speaking) made by bands like “Collective Soul”, the “Black Crowes” and the “Goo Goo Dolls”. They simply aren’t signing up and promoting many of the newer artists that might be recording it because they (the people in the industry) have seen that our young people have turned away from buying it in favor of Rap and Hip-Hop. And like all corporate industries, they focus entirely on the bigger money.
I’ve played guitar since puberty and I know a boatload of old tunes on guitar. But converting my thinking to banjo has been somewhat difficult because it’s a whole other animal with a different tuning and playing technique. I was slowly learning the intricate picking patterns and different chording (and feeling very awkward and clumsy) when one day it just sorta clicked. I then found that I could apply what I’ve learned to turn just about ANY song into a banjo song! You should hear “Maggot Brain” on the banjo LOL. In fact, a few years ago Bernie Leadon (formerly of the Eagles) developed a project called “Run C&W”, and THEY play something you might call “Bluegrass Motown”. Yo! Hee Haw!! Shake your booty Mofo! LMAO! Check it out sometime if ya can. It’s a hoot!
Enjoy your summer. And go for a ride no matter what it costs (it’s always worth it!) Just keep it between the ditches,
Bummer
