Of Mice and Weeble Wabbles

What do you think?

Recently I have been thinking about ethics, morals and values.   It is absolutely ridiculous what is happening around us.  It seems like we are falling into an ethical downward spiral as a society.   I am not sure exactly what I can do to help the situation, which is what I think a lot of people are feeling.  I know that I personally can’t solve the worlds problems and that within itself this isn’t what is keeping me up at night.   It is that I don’t have to tolerate or participate in unethical, immoral or bad behavior.   I may not be able to avoid it but I don’t have to support it.

We are facing a myriad of political and social issues that are exacerbated by talking heads and political showboating.   We all know the issues as we are bombarded with them through every form of media that we have.   I am really addressing my frustration and the frustration I have heard from others.  I am not giving advice here, I am simply stating the obvious.

I want to pass onto you something that a friend of mine said the other day because it was powerful and frankly it hits a nerve.

Howie, don’t take this the wrong way, but.. if the Newtown shooting happened to Congress…. I think I would be happy about it.

I wasn’t shocked by his statement and he was very uncomfortable in his physical demeanor as he was saying this.  I think it is very powerful when peaceful law abiding citizens are so upset and angry at our government that they would feel that a death blow to politicians would be the only way to create a positive change.

It is clear that our politicians are making poor decisions with the economy.  We are realistically being victimized by their bad behavior and bad choices.  Who raises our personal debt limit if we don’t handle our personal finances responsibly.  When I was in the Navy, I would see a lot of young sailors spend every penny of their paycheck and get themselves into debt.   The Navy didn’t give them more money or take care of the debt for them.  These kids were forced to handle their business and they were responsible and liable for their poor decisions.    Our political leadership gets a pay raise for bad behavior.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/21720/fiscal-cliff-2013-obama-gives-the-least-productive-congress-in-history-a-raise

They award themselves and pat themselves on the back for all the hard work.   They fight with each other of the floor of the House and Senate and go for drinks after a rough day at the office.  A congressional research service report in Oct 2012 stated from empirical data that they estimate 2.1 million job losses.

A congressional research service report from  http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42763.pdf

Of the estimated 2.1 million job losses,

• 746,000 were direct jobs (277,000 federal civilian jobs and 469,000 prime
contractor jobs),
• 433,000 were indirect jobs at suppliers and other firms that depend on prime
contractors for business, and
• 959,000 were induced jobs (i.e., jobs throughout the economy supported by
workers in direct and indirect jobs spending a portion of their paychecks).

 

Federal employees may have to take unpaid leave. http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/furlough-guidance/

There is a lot of talk about the benefits of being a government employee and how a lot of these people sit on their asses all day and do nothing and get paid and benefits but I think that is mostly nonsense.   There are people who are toxic workers everywhere.  There are hard-working people in the government as well as folks that sit and read the news all day.    The point is that irresponsible spending is the cause of these problems.   The question is

What are the effects?

 

If people don’t have their needs met; bad things happen.

 

We are the mice and leadership.. is the..

Ask yourself what you would do to protect your family.   Ask yourself what you would do if you lost everything.   We don’t need to really think hard about this, all we need to do is look at our history.    The only point that I want to get across here is that our issues aren’t because of Republicans or Democrats, they are because of self-centered irresponsible people handling national interests when it appears that they place their personal interests first.   Every time I turn on the television and I see a politician, I feel agitated.   I don’t trust them any of them and don’t want them to represent me, my family or our national concerns.

I think we need to focus as a nation on common sense concepts and keep these discussions going in order to make sure that our politicians do what they are supposed to do.    We also need to come up with solutions and send them up as ideas because that is the only way we are going to recover and move forward as a nation.    The Weeble Wobbles don’t fall down.. but we don’t have to play with them.