Life in a Bubble

This post is all my own idea, with no disrespect to Stephen King if I've stepped on his book "Under the Dome". I've had the book since November - probably the longest I've ever owned a Stephen King without starting it - but it is over 1,000 pages long and now is not the time for me to undertake such a large task. I can't sit down without falling asleep so reading is not my priority.

No, I've been pondering a similar thought for a while.

What if the entire country was enclosed in a bubble?

What would we do if the only people we had to depend upon were each other?

In a sense, I'm wondering about a scenario much like the beginning of our country.

A time when communications were not instantaneous. A time before foreign trade deficits. A time when the rest of the world was a great mystery.

People counted on and helped themselves. Communities depended on its members for its successes.

Neighbor helping neighbor.

No hand outs were expected. I suspect few were given. It would have been considered a personal humiliation to just accept something for nothing.

States were founded. Industries were built across this land on this work ethic.

Every member of a community served a real purpose. The farmers fed. The merchants sold the food and goods. The blacksmith kept the horses shod for working. The doctors healed.

I listen to so much about our people today. A lot of it is really sad.

Unemployment is skyrocketing. But so many jobs are going overseas. Why aren't they staying here?

Costs too much. OK, so maybe the owner makes a little less but keeps his neighbors employed.

Americans won't do the work. Well, they might. Maybe I'm idealistic (yeah, I know I am) but if the choice is not working at all or working at a what might not be the perfect job, I'd flip burgers or cut grass or do whatever I needed to in order to feed my family and keep a roof over their heads.

Would we still need a military if we didn't have to worry about a foreign enemy? Or would they be necessary for other reasons? To aid in law enforcement or something.

How would things change if suddenly we couldn't buy cars and toys from China but had to just buy American? What would the job market look like if there were no immigrants, legal or illegal, in the system? What would we do if there were no other countries willing to lend us money to "balance" our budgets?

I honestly don't know how America got into its current situation. I do know it wasn't any one thing but a whole string of decisions over decades of time.

Slowly eroding the fabric of this country. Like water dripping on a rock, wearing away the surface. Drip by drip. Day after day.

The country has always had divides. There were those who worked the fields and built railroads and used their backs and others who were bankers and teachers and doctors. Everyone can't be the same. We can't adequately function if we're all the same.

Just like the human body needs all its parts to work well, the country needs all the citizens to do their part. To be a part of the collective whole.

I'm not in any way suggesting that rights should not be equal for all citizens - they should. Men and women, black and white, all the same. Those are not the divides I mean. But maybe if we looked inside ourselves and to those around us to try and solve our problems instead of looking for the government to just "fix" it then we might find ourselves in a very different situation. There are times when government aid can needed and appropriately used. I know lots of people that have drawn unemployment or accepted welfare assistance but they did it for a limited time and for the purposes they were intended - to help out while they worked on changing their situation. Not as a standard, acceptable way of life.

Maybe we could actually start to make a difference. A truly United States of America

Mmmmmmm...

Can we really call it Central Standard Time when we're only on it for four months out of the year?

Seems to me that Daylight Savings Time should become the new Standard Time and those four lonely, cold, winter months should be called something else.

Maybe Lack of Daylight Standard Time.

A Recommendation

I don't normally do this, but if you haven't seen the movie "Taking Chance" please do so. We watched it last night and it was really something.

I hadn't heard about it until Kevin Bacon won a Golden Globe award for his performance. Apparently this was an HBO film - and we don't get HBO.

The film is based on a true story of a military escort for a fallen soldier in Iraq. I learned so much about the process and it was truly moving. I had no idea of how many people are involved in sending these men and women home. They arrive at Dover Air Force Base in horrible condition but are returned to their families appearing as the heroes they are.

One of my favorite lines was towards the end when the escort opens the casket and notes that even though the military mortuary knew it would be a closed casket the uniform was still impeccable.

The care and honor and respect these young men and women receive on their final journey is just so incredible and something of which we should all be proud.

So, take an hour and 20 minutes (no commercials on DVD!) and watch it.

We thought it was awesome. I hope you enjoy it.

Here's My Question

This will be brief, I hope. I've soapboxed about this before and clearly beating a dead horse is getting me nowhere.

How many innocent children and young people have to die before our judicial system pulls out its collective proverbial head and realizes that, by and large, child molesters can not be rehabilitated?

The case in California over the last few days is a prime example. The main suspect in the case has been convicted and gone to jail, at least according to the articles I read, on at least two previous occasions and has either been paroled, or gotten out early or something.

First of all, in my opinion, a true child molester should never, EVER, see the light of day again. And I'm making a distinction between child molester and the much broader term sex offender. The definition of a sex offender is way too broad and needs to be narrowed or stratified or something to make it of any value. Someone who can willingly do the things to children and young adults that these people do, and seemingly enjoy since they keep doing it, should be stopped - permanently. Most of them aren't going to get better.

So quit putting them back on the streets!

The only thing that makes this situation even remotely better, and you can hate me saying so, is that it is my understanding that child molesters and murderers are handled by the prison system - internally.

As it should be.