american thoughts

Been thinking about America lately. Often we find ourselves frustrated here and often we can put our finger on the source of at least a few of our headaches. We recently got this satellite and so now at 11:00 a.m. I can watch the ABC early morning news and then at noon I can watch the CBS early morning news. Its really quite nice. You know morning news leaves a lot to be desired but when I can’t take my eyes off of it you know we have been hard up for news from the outside world. We’ve been watching the news about the hurricanes quite closely. My sister moved to New Orleans 4 years ago and so since then my mom and I (and thus poor Jonathan) watch hurricane season like hawks. We’ve become self proclaimed experts on all the ins and outs of hurricanes, their winds, scales, rain, levee strength, canal design, Gulf and Atlantic water temps. We’re silly. So it came as no surprise to us that New Orleans might not have been as prepared as she could have been and that any scenario involving people staying in the city near the ground, was a bad one. And I know FEMA and Red Cross hasn’t done people right. Sounds like there isn’t a government city, state or federal that could have gotten it right. These were tough one in thousand odds and then to get dumped on again…Yeah, that just isn’t right.

That being said America isn’t so bad off. Gretchen challenged us all to recite the Preamble to the Constitution on Constitution day. I was rather proud to say that I could do that. We have a Zimbabwean doctor staying with us for a while and he came down to coffee while Jonathan and I were discussing the Preamble and the precise wording. We shared with him the Preamble and he laughed. He doesn’t know anything about his constitution because it is being changed by the minute by Mr. Robert Mugabe. This guy has written the Zim. Constitution on a paper napkin and when he wants to change it simply finds a new napkin. A few weeks ago the Zim Constitution was changed so that people could be denied admittance into the country at anytime and their passport will be taken. It was changed so that there is no longer a court of appeals and verdicts can be changed regardless. The currency in Zim (Zimbabwean Dollar) is something like 100,000 to 1USD. Zimbabwe is in a pitiful state of decline and it should be a country of great possibility and opportunity. It has wonderful farm ground. It once had thriving industries. The people are strong. But a country sits in rapid state of ruin and once hearty farm ground is now becoming jungle.

So thinking about the Preamble and you know we mess up big time in the US but give us a little credit for working to fix the mess ups. The Southern US is a mess but this time next year and people will be back in homes. In the scheme of things, a year ain’t too shabby. I know people would like to get back to their lives now but Rome wasn’t built in a day and that is a lot of power, water and sewage lines. Be thankful you have a lot of it because you need a lot for 3-4 million people. Gas prices might have dropped (unlikely) but I’m still paying $9.00/gallon for unleaded in the 3rd world. People will still be poor and disenfranchised (a great crime against the constitution) but even poor and disenfranchised in the US is better than the 3rd world. The agencies that will help those people have no risk of being closed by the gov’t most likely and if they are they have methods of legal redress.

Yeah, the old girl has a long way to go but she’ll fix it. Just give her a little time and patience. The nice people of the US will get it worked out in the end.

Now if I could only convince my husband…