thepowerofme

This last week on Friday I noticed a wonderful part of the human mind.  It seems that folks are just resistant to change on many of the basic fundamental levels of ones every day life.  See, I was lucky enough to break two of our last 40 passenger buses and was forced to drive one of our smaller 15 passenger units for my route.  So as I got the news I got the bus ready with putting on my sign on the side of the bus so that potential passengers could read the sign as I pulled up beside them.  No to understand these little signs, they not only display the route that the bus is on but they are color coded as well for easy recognition.  Needles to say there were several instances that folks just gave me a smile and a wave as I pulled up not realizing this is the bus that they are needing to board.  It was so bad that once I had to honk the horn and point at the passengers that I pick up all the time to get them to realize that this is the bus they are actually needing to board.  At times it was very humorous and at others I was ready to just drive by and leave them standing there for another five minutes in the cold and frigid weather.  This was really insightful for me as to study how adverse we are when it comes to change.

Now this was something I couldn’t quite understand because of how many folks voted for our current President for nothing more than wanting change.  But what change have we really gotten.  We received more and more economic stimulus that influences big business and those with large amounts of money.  Not so much for the working man that goes through life struggling paycheck to paycheck.  Where is the relief to the working man and woman that are struggling to just stay afloat.  The idea of giving the banks more money so that loans are more readily available is great and all.  But, what good is it if the folks getting the loans can not really afford them any way.  Why do we as a country continue to reward and support failure?  I nearly choked the hell out of my computer when I saw that AIG was going to pay out 165 million bucks in bonuses when folks across this country are loosing their jobs left and right, but these top executives are going to get bonuses for sinking their ship.  That would be the equivalent of the company you are working for to give out millions if you don’t show up for work, or if you do show up, play computer games all day and never do a piece of work.  This is ludicrous, but yet this is the change that we can look forward to.  I believe that it isn’t the idea of change that people have a hard time accepting but the lack of real change.  We believe change is necessary to get things going on the right track but we are not seeing it so when some happens we don’t expect it, so we are not looking for it.

So in close when will this government really bring forth some real change.  Address the need for health-care reform.  Help every American to get the health care that they so desperately need to survive.  It is not enough to give them health insurance at an affordable rate, but setting the rates that are truly fair for the help that they are receiving.  Just as an example I have health insurance with a very low deductible.  But the max out of pocket expenses are horrendous.  The amount that we have to pay for major problems is more than my meager salary can even come close to afford.  Or when will the government get the clue that income taxes are not working any more and go to a national sales tax.  This is a tax that would move much faster than income taxes and this is one that the rich or the poor can not hide from.  Think for a moment of what would happen if the feds came up with a national 6% sales tax on purchases, excluding food and gasoline.  You go out and buy that $1500 flat screen television, you would have to pay $90 big ones.  No take that amount and place it on all Americans the amounts coming in would be staggering.  The idea of raising taxes on the wealthy sound great in theory but in practicality they will do more harm than good.  If I had a couple hundred million in the bank and I knew you were going to tax the hell out of what I made  that year I just wouldn’t work.  Now you get less and less, and companies would slow down production and things would go from bad to worse.  But things you can count on is that folks with money or without are not going to stop spending it.  Can you imagine Paris Hilton stopping her frivolous purchases of thousand dollar handbags, or a movie star not buying a 100k car.  No way, one thing you can always count on is that those folks that have money will all ways flaunt it.  Flashy cars, expensive clothes, and big homes will never go away.  With the use of a national sales tax, that makes it impossible for them to get off with big write offs and over payed accountants.  It now creates an equal playing field, creating a you play, you pay economy that would move a hell of lot more money than the meager pay roll taxes that we are currently spending and receiving.

 A while ago I joined a site that gets folks to sign petitions to get action from government officials.  The reason that I joined was to prevent the slaughter of a military woman’s dog that she befriended in Iraq.  I felt at the time the woman had gone through a lot as it was, and that the senseless death of her beloved friend would be more than some one should have to endure.  It was a cause that I believed in after listening to the stories of my little brother after returning from his third tour of war over in Iraq.  That was a cause that I felt had some great merritt to it.  But because of having to join the site to sign the petition I am now receiving numerous requests to sign dozens if not more requests each and every month.  Many of which I just can’t do, because of my personal beliefs.  The numerous ones being to prevent drilling for oil in our very own country.

Living in Wyoming we are left with hundreds of square miles with nothing in between here and there.  We are forced to commute to jobs or are forced to move from where we want to live to places we will be forced to live.  So for most of us the need to commute is a constant reminder of how isolated Wyoming is from the rest of the world.  That being said the need for cheep and affordable fuel is extremely important.  I can remember fondly when gas rose over $4 bucks a gallon and I was constantly asking myself if it was monetarily worth while to work, or to join the hundreds of others in this country and begin to live off the system.  Then we were blessed with the drop in gas prices after the market collapsed in the fuel commodities.  I nearly danced for joy in the streets of my town buck naked because I was so over joyed.  But once again the prices are slowly climbing back up, and the environmentalists are in an uproar over off shore drilling as well as drilling more in the Alaskan tundra.  While I can see the idea of not drilling in the ocean due to the fact of the low return for the monetary means and environmental dangers put to risk each and every day of operation.  I can not, nor will I ever see the reason for preventing drilling in the Alaskan tundra.  That to me is just plain Stupid.

First off, if you look at what is in the tundra you would see very quickly that there is little to nothing there.  For the most part animals don’t even live in the area due to the constant cold and poor food sources of algae and Arctic mosses.  So what are we really loosing with drilling there.  A place for folks to come and take pictures of strange grasses and molds.  Please, this is so stupid that I can not even come up with a strong rebuttal to the problem.  I feel for the most part that people are against drilling for oil just because of what it is.  Not, for the purpose of the danger it may or may not post to the environment that it resides in.  There is a need for oil in this country until we can come up with sustainable and affordable meas to provide fuels for long distances for those of us that live in rural America.

The idea of the tree hugging, nut crunching vegans that want to control every square inch of this country has to come to an end.  I have to ask you this major question to those of you that find yourself in this category of believers.  Do you walk or bike every where you go?  Do you live in the wilderness in a tent so as to not bring more of a demand to the need of oil dependency in this country?  If not, then what are you really speaking out about?  You are using the same fossil fuels that I am using just to get to work.  I know, I know, you can take the bus in most major cities.  But for the most part those vehicles use fuel to operate.  You have heat in your homes, and hot water and unless you are independently wealthy you are having to use some form of fossil fuel to get those luxuries of life.  To put the matter to rest unless you can live this life and are currently doing it with out damaging the environment or causing pain to it yourself then we need to look at things a little bit differently.  The need for oil is constant and growing.  Everything in this country is shipped into it, through it, or out of it with fuels that are found from drilling.  We can either drill for it ourselves, or support extremist nations by buying it from them.

Now for point number two.  I know many of you out there are saying to yourselves that you could get a hybrid to use less fuel, or maybe an electric car.  To squash both of those ideas at once is easy.  The idea of a hybrid would be nice but the cost for most Americans makes them unattainable.  I don’t have the disposable income necessary to purchase another vehicle that I would have to drive another forty miles out of my way just to find a place to fill up with E-85 fuels.  Or for those that work off both electric and fuel, I would have to question how well they work in cold, cold, environments.  See the manufactures like to test them in places like California where you never experience temperatures as low as -20 degrees.  I unfortunately do experience these temperatures and have to question their performance in extremely cold temperatures.  Then for the full electric car.  The car will not work for me.  I commute for a total of 120 miles each day, five days a week.  Most electric cars have a range of less than a 100 miles.  So then what, do I grab the neighbors horse to come and get me for the rest of the trip?  Then you are forced to ask yourself the question of, where does the electricity come from?  Most power plants are powered using some form of fossil fuel, whether it be from coal powered plants or some other form.  So even with dropping out the need for oil we are still dependant with a fuel that has to be harvested with destroying the environment we live in.

So in close, I would like to leave you with this.  If you are against the drilling of oil in this country, then stop using it.  Unplug your refrigerator, turn off your T.V.’s, computers, heaters and the lot.  Don’t drink your water because it has been cleaned and filtered using electricity and fossil fuels.  Live in the woods and please don’t start a fire because of the air pollution that you would be causing and deforestation that would result from your Californian ass having to stay warm.  If you can’t live life under these circumstances then join the military.  Go over seas and join the war on terror or like many folks like to say the war for oil and do your part in securing the oil from our over seas enemies.  Until then, push for the use of renewable resources.  Not just putting up wind turbines in my back yard, but in your homes as well.  Put those solar panels on every roof in America and push the failing auto makers to really come up with rock solid solutions to this global problem.  Put the fight to the areas that really need it.