As I write this, the second Presidential Debate is pending. Many people are looking forward to this event because they want to know where the candidates stand on the important issues. Others are hoping that the candidate they back does something dramatic to “win” the debate. How important is all of this?
Actually, like many of the big shows in our culture, it’s not very important at all.
The economic crisis is certainly taking its toll on families and the relationships that they are built on. A strong family requires a stable income and the things it provides, such as a consistent house and a balanced meal. What a family also requires, however, is great heaps of old fashioned quantity time spent together. The world that many middle class people live in, even those with reliable jobs, often puts these two directly at odds with each other.
Today’s post is a repeat from my earlier blog, “Columbus Day Riot”, first posted in 1999. Since I recently commented on how so many things have gotten screwed up in the last 10 years, I thought it would be fun to remember the old daze – when the National Debt was about half what it will be shortly and our biggest concern was how to pay it off. What could have been different? If we had followed my adivce and given Texas back to Mexico we wouldn’t even have a President from that former state, for example.
Imagine a time traveler from just 10 years ago. An ordinary person from the go-go 90s shows up at your doorstep a bit confused, and you naturally want to bring them up to date. You tell them how the Tech Bubble burst, how the election in 2000 went in Florida, and how we all watched the World Trade Center fall on live teevee. You go on to describe the war that has cost us $600 billion and counting despite being a humiliating failure, and let them know that we’re having massive failures of financial institutions that have everyone thinking about a Depression. You can tell them that New Orleans was nearly wiped out in a hurricane, and Detroit is gradually becoming a ghost town as GM teeters on bankruptcy.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 