Homecoming

As I begin preparing for the return trip to Northwest Ohio, I am reminded of how important “homecomings” are. No matter where we travel or what we do, for most of us coming home evokes intense emotion. The comfort, familiarity and security we find at home allow us to function more freely without fear. Our surroundings, no matter how modest, and the people we know so well provide us with the solid assurance that things will be “OK.” Warriors fight more ferociously to protect the homeland when facing invaders. Mothers resemble angry bears when their homes are in danger. Home is a special place that we hold dear.

Going home suggests that we are returning to a private place with its own social structure and culture. Home is unique. While it may share a number of attributes with other households, it remains different. When I was born near the middle of the 20^th Century, the progressive undermining of our nation was well underway. It’s most corrosive elements had not yet penetrated into the often maligned “fly-over country.” The reach and grasp of an out-of-control government had not tickled the consciousness of our hardy Midwesterners. Certainly some were alarmed and warned the others, but our hard-working, somewhat idyllic lives seemed to be unaffected by those rascally politicians and their madcap schemes. Yes, there were jokes about bombastic politicians and sleazy ones, too, but most of us were not seriously concerned that our nation would stumble. Our ignorance, our apathy has proven to be costly.

While we labored for sustenance and sought prosperity, the foundations of our country were eroding. Some of the changes were welcome and past due. The abolition of Jim Crow laws and the partial shattering of the glass ceiling were significant. Our lives were changed, but adjustments were easily made. On the other hand “American Idol,” “Dancing with the Stars” and “Jackass” reek of a culture and society that has been debased. As someone who loves every facet of personal liberty, I’m not particularly concerned about individuals who act shallowly as long as they accept responsibility for their actions. My fear is that irresponsibility has become too pervasive in our nation. I detect echoes of the Roman bread and circuses as we meander through our daily lives. As someone who embraces liberty, I fear that too many in our nation have no respect or desire for responsible self-disciplined freedom.

The cup of liberty is precious and shouldn’t be handled so cavalierly that it is spilled. Each drop of freedom has been purchased by those who chafed under oppressive regimes. As I survey our land, I wonder if we are capable and willing to repurchase our natural heritage. Perhaps we have become too distracted by our games and frivolous pursuits to hunker down to the task of securing liberty. It’s possible that we are too irresponsible to hold on to freedom if we are fortunate enough to grasp it again. Even among those who appear to be serious about the status of our nation, we find many of them focused on the little things…the symptoms rather than the roots. Rarely do I hear the people calling for liberty. Instead, many have their pet policy that they seek to change. That is not enough for it substitutes one form of tyranny for another.

Homecomings should be grand occasions. As we settle into the glowing warmth of home, we should know that all is right, and all will be well. The uneasiness we experienced while away should be banished by the familiar comfort of home. Home, as we remember it, however, is no longer there. It has been replaced by short-term avarice and irresponsible behavior. Home is but a memory…an ideal…that has melded into the mists of time. Home is where we can be free. I want to go home.

This week’s Littlestuff Weekender will appear on Sunday.

Comment:   cearlwriting@hotmail.com    or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Low Tide

A low tide exposes much of the beach when the water recedes. The tightly compressed grains of sand begin to discover their individuality as the sun spreads its warmth on them, and they begin to dry. The consistency of the beach is transformed from a tightly constricted hardpan to an inviting collection of warm individual grains of sand. The predictable movement of the tides and their impact on the countless mini-pebbles of sand provide a fitting metaphor for our situation in the United States today.

The power of the surging water has washed over our land and compressed our liberties. With the new Congress we appear to have a respite of sorts as many people seek to exercise their rights and restore the ideal of individual liberty that was designed by our Framers. We should note, however, the new Congress is NOT attacking all the egregious affronts to our freedom. They have sought to minimize a few of them, ignore some of the others, and extend another group even further. High tide will return with a vengeance.

While we may be tempted to rejoice in some apparent tiny victories, this is not the time for God’s people of liberty to become satisfied or complacent. The nature of government, all governments, is to acquire power and to grow larger. The little pause that we are celebrating now is misleading. While there may be some stalemate in the legislative realm, the executive branch, the judiciary and the bureaucracy continue their march toward tyranny. If we hesitate, if we dance in the end zone, if we curtail our vigilance and our efforts, the tide will sweep back to shore and compress us more tightly than we have ever known before.

The difficulty for us is that while the tide has receded, we revel in our individuality, but in order to assure that we can recapture our God-given or natural rights, we must band together. As a people with varying priorities and preferences, we must suppress our personal desires in order to secure our personal freedom. In other words our countless grains of individual sand must cling together to form a barrier to limit the tide’s effect when it returns. We can erect a levee of protection if we are willing to stand on the shoulders of each other. If we insist on our singular paths and priorities, we shall be swamped by the might of the surging water.

Defeating Obama and the progressives in the 2012 election is absolutely necessary, but it must be done with candidates and servants DEDICATED to personal freedom. “Smaller government” is a meaningless term and is subjective, relative and easily manipulated. The same holds true for “less spending” or “lower taxes.” Only an absolute commitment to individual liberty will provide the impetus for an officeholder to work to dismantle the monster of government. Any other position can be compromised into meaningless incrementalism. The commitment to liberty must be absolute…unwavering, unmoving.

Sadly, there are many grains of sand who prefer the high tide. They see it as an amniotic fluid of comfort and safety. They do not care that the suffocating nature of the water dramatically restricts their movements and their choices. Like most grains of sand they are mindless, but those of us who cherish liberty must struggle to escape the hard pan and fight for freedom. Black Americans represent roughly 13% of our population but managed to stir the conscience of the entire nation during the Civil Rights era. Radical feminists with their hairy legs and burning bras revolutionized our social contract. A remnant of freedom-loving people, a minority of the sand can construct, must construct the levee of freedom or we shall all be drowned.

Comment:   cearlwriting@hotmail.com    or    www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

     

Birthdays are meaningless

Birthdays are meaningless. They are merely a method for noting the passage of time. If we were living on another planet, our years would be longer or shorter depending upon the speed of axis rotation and the length of our solar orbit. So, there’s nothing magical about surviving another year…unless one happened to live on that former planet called Pluto. There I might be celebrating my fifth or sixth birthday…hmmm. So, birthdays are meaningless and represent mere accidents of time and place. Here on earth I celebrated my 65^th year of mortal existence. Here in the United States I became a semi-official ward of the state. Here in my own mind it doesn’t matter.

Fortunately I’ve never had that traumatic birthday that propels one’s life into a tailspin. Thirty, forty, fifty and sixty slid by without much notice or concern. But 65 is a little different. Thanks to my government and its bloated self-importance, I know must consider Medicare, Social Security, death panels, sustainability, inter-generational transfers and senior citizen discounts. I’ll have to start carrying a coin purse and delaying the lines at check-out counters. I’ll begin driving 35 miles per hour in the left lane with my turn signal in constant-flash mode.

When the Social Security scam was developed in the mid ‘30’s, the retirement age was set at 65 because very few of us made it to that exalted age. Even then your (our) government was looking for ways to hammer us. Today those of us who make it this far can expect another 15-20 years of productive life which has totally driven many actuarial experts to enter 12-step programs. Bummer for them, problems for the government and the people who pay the taxes, but bully for us energetic golden-agers who refuse to sit down and waste away.  It thrills me to see my peers enjoying life and contributing to our communities, states and nation. It saddens me when our geezer class clutches to their government programs with a death grip and sense of lifetime entitlement. It radically ticks me off when career politicians and bureaucrats pander to the oldsters by promising more of the same distribution of goodies. It won’t happen. It cannot continue. Face the music and begin dancing, fellow golden-agers.

In preceding generations it was assumed that one would work until death intervened. Today, however, because of government and political lies, we believe that we are entitled to twenty years or more of taxpayer-subsidized leisure. Even the government has recognized the folly of its promises, and thus, we have the “death panels” or quality of life panels embedded in legislation for the express purpose of culling the herd. Due to our expanded longevity the pressure on the system has become too great to continue. As a husband, father and grandfather who desires to spend many years with my loved ones and helping my grandchildren to appreciate the value of individual liberty, I refuse to accept the societal and governmental descriptions of who I am. I am me. Perhaps in some respects similar to other 65 year olds, but uniquely me in most ways. Government will not define me. Government cannot confine me. After all, birthdays are meaningless. No column tomorrow because of pressing obligations: sleeping, sunning and socializing.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com   or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Flight Plan

This week some members of my family plus some friends and I are staying in Duck, North Carolina, the Outer Banks. Just a short jaunt to the south is a little burg called Kitty Hawk. Because all of us in our entourage are Buckeyes with an appreciation for state history, we are aware of what transpired in Kitty Hawk on December 17^th, 1903. Two bachelor brothers executed a controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight.

Obviously the government grant their received for application research was a superb investment of taxpayer’s dollars….oh, wait, there was no government research grant. If there were, it might have gone to an entity with better political connections than the Dayton brothers. The grant process then would have been extended and renewed until a new subsidized industry was created. But the intrepid bicycle builders from the Midwest did not apply nor receive taxpayer money for their “hands on” research project.

Although the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, have been credited with developing heavier-than-air flight, their patent was issued for a mechanical system that would allow the operator to manipulate the surfaces of the airplane for maximum aerodynamic control…in other words, the flaps. The basic elements of the system continue to be used today, and, of course, the government heavily subsidizes it as an industry that is vital for national interests. Not really, not at all. That year, 1903, predates the current version of the Federal Income Tax and the Federal Reserve System by a decade. Henry Ford was preparing to elevate motoring from a novelty to a staple of American life. Government generally operated within its constitutionally-designed parameters, and resourceful people developed innovative ideas that would change the lives of every person on the planet. Ford did not receive a grant or a bailout…then or now. Times and attitudes have changed, but not for the better.

When oil was discovered in Titusville in the Nineteenth Century, there were no EPA regulations to stop the drilling. There was no grant from the Department of Energy for exploration of alternatives for coal, wind and hydro power. Willing people with ideas, gumption and commitment tested, built and discovered products that have elevated our quality of life. No government interference or taxpayer money was required to bring their visions to fruition. No subsidies were necessary to keep the fledgling industries alive. In the beginning there were no tax breaks to allow the captains of industry to thrive.

Now we fly, we drive and we consume massive amounts of energy, and the tentacles of government intrusion are wrapped around each of those crucial industries. Some development continues but either directed or funded by the government. Government involvement in those three industries has thwarted their growth, undermined their efficiency and prodded them to become mere shadows of their pasts.  When government wins, we all lose. In today’s environment, the Wright brothers would not be allowed access to those sandy dunes at Kitty Hawk. Amelia Earhart, Lucky Lindy, Chuck Yeager and other great pioneers of aviation would never have been needed or noted. Too often, the helping hand of government is a fist.

Comment:    cearlwriting@hotmail.com     or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Littlestuff Weekender-6-5-2011

Littlestuff Weekender-6-4-2011

Today we move into our 9 bedroom house in Duck, NC. Serious reading, eating, occasional imbibing, a few cigars and some terrific fellowship will mark the week ahead. Getting here posed some challenges. The first occurred when we had been on the road for a mere 7 minutes. We were driving north on I-75 to make our connection to the Ohio Turnpike (I-80) when we saw a massive traffic jam ahead (seems the White House entourage had chosen that moment to leave the Toledo Jeep plant).  After several detours and delays, we managed to get on the turnpike 35 minutes behind schedule. Oh well, the clown didn’t have my vote to begin with so my inconvenience didn’t cost him anything.

We arrived in Duck, NC around 11:30am on Saturday and proceeded to unload the vehicles to set up our housekeeping for the next week or so. Counting the time on Friday to drive to pick up Shaun, my grandson, I spent 16 hours on the road in that day and a half. I discovered that I can still do it with minimal deterioration of driving skills and alertness. As I write this early Sunday morning, I realize that the recovery is taking longer. It’s good to be here, however, even if it will take the remainder of the week to recover enough to go home….an intriguing cost/benefit ratio.

Frosty is spending his/our vacation with P.J., Heather, Sully and Oliver so his separation anxiety should be minimal. When we arrived, I enjoyed my first Cohiba of the week thanks to Ron who pulled them out right after the unloading was completed. As of Sunday morning, no adult beverages have passed these tender lips…maybe Wednesday.

If you are like me and try to make some sense out of the array of economic data, then the warning lights should be flashing, the sirens blaring and the sky darkening. Some of it is optimistically “OK,” and some of it is alarming, but the amazing inconsistency of the various data should cause one to pause. No one knows the truth, and none of them tells the truth. It leads to a “Ruh, Roh,” awakening. Don’t be caught asleep.

We have fascinating subjects for columns in the days ahead. As with all things of this nature, we have to do some research to verify information and justify our conclusions. (Doesn’t always work that way) Following the data verification comes the writing in a way that hopefully adds to the conversation.  We’ll see how it works out.

Progress for Part III of our book hit a snag, but is now back on track. It’s an enjoyable but agonizing process that has become a phenomenal learning experience for me. In addition to the mechanics involved in publishing I have added to my understanding about history and economics. Win, lose or draw, this book effort has been a valuable one for me.

The schedule for Littlestuff in the coming week is rather unsettled at this moment. I’ll attempt to write every day, but I’m certain that my writing routine will be somewhat disturbed. Time will tell.

Comment:   cearlwriting@hotmail.com     or     www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com