Washington's soldiers

I have been caregiver for the past two days as she had cataract surgery.  It got me to thinking how blessed we are to live 200 years after Washington.  Eyeglasses in those days were rare.  At the end of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress was broke and officers in the army hadn’t been paid in two years.  They were near rebellion.  Wives left at home tried to manage the farm or store. Limbs had been lost and so had best friends.  So the officers prepared a demand for pay, wrote their grievances and met in force to present them to Washington.  They were close to mutiny.  But then the commander reached into his coat and produced a set of this new oddball device, eyeglasses.  He apologized for his bad vision and said the war had ruined his eyes among other things.  At that point many soldiers hung their heads, and some began to weep in sympathy with their general.  The entire meeting ended in a fizzle with soldiers admitting that everyone had given up so much for his country.  They never got paid. 

            About 1980, I was visiting with a friend who was head of Department of Human Services in Kay County.  I made some sort of remark about a lot of poor people being his clients.  Jim stopped me and said, “We have only 135 family units on assistance in a county of over 40,000.  Yes, I know there are lots of poor people, but they have pride and won’t take government assistance.” So there, I had been told.

            All this makes me think that I must live in a different country.  Today we have polls which blame those in Congress who are trying to keep spending from ruining us.   We can survive Obama.  We can’t survive a populance that is so addicted to government checks that they can’t stand it when14% of the government is shut down.  The ones who work for the federal government have seen three weeks of furlough for which they will get paid despite not working.  Isn’t that called a paid vacation?  Why do they howl?  And you tell me, if 93.6% of the workers who work for the EPA are “non-essential” why don’t we just downsize EPA?  If that was a private business, they’d downsize by 93.6%.

            The 14 richest counties are the ones surrounding DC.  Maryland is the richest state with a median household income of over $71,000.  Why? Do they have rich mineral wealth?  Manufacturing?  High Technology?  Banking and Finance? What do they produce, regulations and tax laws?

            America was growing 1-2% a year in the seventies.  Then along came a leader who said, “Get the government off the people’s backs” Despite a spendthrift congress of another party, he cut taxes and spending growth and was rewarded with 4-5% economic growth. USA became the miracle of the world—a developed country that grew like a developing one.  We produced an insurmountable military, iphones and personal computers, ebay and brewpubs and 401Ks.  But over the intervening years America started spending far more than it made in revenue. Now we are like the guy who does not ask, but demands a loan of his banker.  He makes $29,000 a year but spends $38,000 and has debt of $170,000.  Still, he demands his banker lend him more and stop limiting his spending to 5% a year increases (via Sequester) but raise it back to 8%.  Just add 8 zeros to see America’s numbers.  And if the banker doesn’t give him a clean continuing resolution, he’ll start calling names.  Hostage takers! Terrorists! Spouse abusers! Extremist kooks! Obstructionists! We can survive Obama, but not a populance that sees no wrong in this.

            I want my America back, the one with Washington’s soldiers and Okie poor folks.  If nothing else, tell that city to give us back Washington’s good name and name your darned city something else.  We may be a long ways away, but we can see from out here what’s happening, glasses or not.