Dear Mr. Kettle:
In reading that heart-wrenching obituary on the Republic, I
was bit overwhelmed with the litany of symptoms which reportedly plagued our
great Nation in its declining years - oh, to have died so young and so full of
promise. I must confess to having read it several times, seeking to extrapolate
the ten plagues from your list and coming away from the experience exhausted
and a bit of nauseated. When reading such an extensive list of symptoms, I'm
reminded that the disease from which we suffer is not new. We have been at
deaths with this particularly malady before. There just isn't anyone left alive
to tell the tale. Still, while it took the promise from a generation, we did
survive and became stronger either despite it or because of it.
Popular media called the events which began in the fourth
quarter of 2007 The Great Recession, starting a war of perception and
propaganda, as each side of the front tried to win the hearts and minds of the
America people. Depending on which media outlet one was listening to at any
point in time, the depredations
of the 1930's would be visited upon Generation X or they would not. The
fact is that we
have been here before. However, instead of the gold standard we now have a
fiat currency; instead soup kitchens (or at least not as many of them) we now
have food banks and food stamps; instead 25% unemployment we now have 20%
underemployment atop the official 7% unemployment. There was - is - deflation.
Ask any homeowner who's weathered these past seven years, successfully or not.
The only silver lining in the whole debacle has been the stock market.
Interestingly enough, the same was true in the years following 1929.
I was intrigued with your declining to compare Obama to
Roosevelt. After all, that is where most go when discussing the disease riddled
state of affairs that sound like the death rattles of the nation. Perhaps you were
so overwhelmed with grief while drafting the obituary that you merely lost
track of that perceived pejorative. Ironically, however, a more apropos comparison
would be that of Obama to Hoover.
After all, both men inherited their respective debacles from their
predecessors, who interestingly enough shared the religion of Trickle-Down
Economics. Of course, differences abound between Obama and Hoover. Most
notable among them was the nature of those who oppose(d) them. In Hoover's
case, he sought the assistance of private industry in remedying the free-fall
of the economy, knowing full well that only in this sector of society did the
resources exist to affect change in any real, measurable way. Regrettably,
history proved once again that private interests are inept at large-scale
social reform and welfare. In Obama's case, interference and opposition to
attempts at remedying the financial free-fall came not from private industry
but rather the United States House of Representatives...wait, never mind.
Of course, out of the 1930's came many of the social and
regulatory reforms which you deride as the underlying causes for the nation's
ill health and subsequent demise. The under-spoken, subtext of history from
this period point to the early cold war years in which the nation sought to
avert a second civil war and the uprising of communism within our borders as a
result of the unabated social upheaval wrought by the side effects of unchecked
capitalism. Ironically, we appear to still be fighting that war. However, the Soviet
Union has died from its own combination of excesses and deprivations to be
replaced by the People's Republic of China, while spying and the military arms
race have been replaced with industrial espionage and currency manipulation.
America is in a sorry state of affairs. I will give you
that, sir. We even appear to be repeating many of the same mistakes of the
past, much like smacking our collective thumb repeatedly with a hammer in the
hope of getting a better result each time. Still, my humble opinion is that we're
still sound of heart and lung, with corded limbs ready to work. What we lack is
direction and purpose, both individually and collectively. It's left us in a
malaise which feeds a social circle of despair, spreading despondency to those
who can see no hope and unease to those who can't comprehend what it's
happening about them.
Still, I'm not yet ready to pull my black suit from the back
of the closet - not even to see if it requires a bit of alteration to
accommodate the inevitable evolution of age. Instead, I'm polishing my dance
shoes and calling my girl for a night on the town. After all, one of the
secrets to longevity is to keep moving.
Sincerely,
Mr. Pot
"Money was all appropriated for the top in
hopes that it would trickle down to the needy." - Will Rogers
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