Then and Now

A few weeks ago, I awoke to sea breezes and sunny skies. Amy and I spent the afternoon on the beaches in Clearwater. By the end of they day, my skin was the color of a crab, even though my butt was planted securely in a chair under a beach umbrella. The entire time we spent in Florida, the temperatures hovered around the eighty degree mark.

Another morning I woke up at home around 8:00 a.m. and looked out on gray skies. My feet shuffled to the kitchen, and there I made a pot of coffee. My next chore fetching paper, and when I opened the door, wet, thick snow flakes greeted me. By the time I returned, my hair was wet and my shoulders carried snow back into the house. The weather hasn’t been unusual for good ‘ol East Tennessee, but it sure seems brutal after a week in the sunshine state.

At the end of 2010, gas prices were tolerable. Most places charged $2.50-$3.00 per gallon. We’d adjusted our budget to cover the cost. I kept thinking about my teen yeas and how fuel ran about thirty cents a gallon, except when gas wars between stations sent prices plummeting to as little as a quarter. Yes, in the “old days,” a guy could put gas in his car, take his date to a movie, and buy her something to eat with a five dollar bill.

The future looks as bleak as a winter’s day, and before long a fiver will buy one, yes ONE, gallon of gas. Amy and I will make it somehow. My worries are for my kids and my country. Paying such a high price wouldn’t be so painful if our leaders had made significant strides in developing alternative source of energy. The truth is they forgot about doing so when the last round of spiking prices eased. And don’t tell me the reason is because of Libya’s unrest when the country supplies only two percent of our fuel. Prices that shoot into orbit like spaceships occur overnight. Americans are smart enough to see that speculators are raping and pillaging the country and its citizens as they cause oil to rise.

In 2008 I called it quits after thirty years of teaching. When I left, kids were still kids; they became pains only when interfering helicopter moms and dads disturbed the glassy waters with waves of absurd demands. My reason for leaving the profession had more to do with my no longer being able to relate to teens than it did with time of service.

Now, the state politicians have villanized teachers and education. They aim to take away the rights of teachers and to put their fates in the hands of an elected school board that many times has no understanding of what goes on in classrooms. They want to take collective bargaining rights and replace them with the decisions of politically motivated board members and their whims or vendettas.
Only a few years ago, the US had two major political parties. Democrats and Republicans ran for office based on philosophical difference. Voters could listen to platforms by both and then decide which one best suited their views. Elections were held, and one side or the other won control of Congress. Disagreement was a part of the day-to-day operations of the government, but when the country faced real turmoil or threats, the elephants and donkeys banded together and put the United States first.

These days, politics has little to do with directing the country toward prosperity. Instead, both parties have adopted partisan views and express no desire to work for the common good. A new bunch, the Tea Party, has arrived with a dangerous extremism. These people seem intent upon crumbling the government. Their desire to end government spending and cut entitlements makes great rhetoric and produces sound-bites for the media. However, what supporters of this faction don’t seem to comprehend is that cutting government means cutting services. Are they willing to give up roads and schools and grants to favorite organizations? Will these people be so quick to scream for a cut in entitlements when their social security and Medicare payments are severely reduced or ended? I don’t think so.

What used to be sure looks a lot better than what is. That sounds like something an old fart would say; maybe that’s an accurate description. I’m more inclined to think that a few years ago common sense and common decency had a much greater hold in all areas of life. About the best we can hope for is that the extremism from all sides gets fifteen minutes of fame and then recedes into the deep, dark waters from which it came. That way, life might just be a bit easier to live.