I Want to Be....A California Cow

Dear Dairy,

I've been watching commercials for those California Cows and they look so happy. Could you tell me how I could become a California Cow? Here in Michigan, the winters are really cold and our farmer refuses to heat the barn. The barn television is always playing ESPN....I hate sports. Most of the year we have to eat this dry, tasteless stuff they call hay. The other cows keep telling me I should be happy that I have free room and board. I don't consider it free since the farmer keeps us barefoot and pregnant a good share of the time and then takes our children away so he can use our milk for other things. Bessie told me that the pasture is not always greener on the other side of the fence and that the California Cows are just trying to make things look better than what they really are. I think she's just saying that to shut me up, since there are a couple other cows thinking about joining me on my quest to happiness.

The farmer has one of those handheld GPS things that I could use to tell me how to get from Michigan to California. I figure it will take quite a while to get there, so any help you can give will need to be here before the end of the month. I would try to contact one of the California Cows, but the farmer keeps his computer locked up. There may be about five of us on the trip. I wish we could fly, but I heard airport security nowadays is pretty tight.

I need to get a few things together for the trip so would appreciate you getting back to me right away.

Thanks,
Future California Cow

P.S. I didn't sign my actual name in the event this letter gets intercepted by the farmer.

Politics, Religion and Personal Responsibility

Politics or religion, sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. The fervor with which one views the issues of both serve to blur the lines between them. One argues that abortion is a religious issue while another sees it as political. On both sides, there is a certain amount of leadership playing the puppeteer. It bothers me the number of people who blindly trust others to tell them how to think and vote without weighing the issues personally. Why am I on this rant? I came across one of the opinion polls rating our current president. One could argue that he inherited the country's difficulties from the former administration or on the flip side that he made a bad situation worse. At what point in his leadership is the best place to "take the temperature"? When can you truthfully say that the advice from Congress and his counsellors has been faulty or not? What would you have done in his place? Look at how many people he has to please. Arguably, any CEO has to make decisions that may not be popular with all in his organization. What makes one think that a President would be any different? Of course, he will make some bad decisions, but he will also make some good ones. One's opinion of effective leadership can be colored by whether one expects success or failure. A pre-determination that Mr. Obama, for example, will fail creates the climate that ensures one seeing the negative in a stronger light than the positive. The same works in reverse, regarding pre-determination of success. The law of probability assumes that there will be a percentage of good and bad decisions. How much stress would it be to have the entire world watching while one attempts to solve problems that have so many variables? Perhaps we need to take off our rose colored glasses and consider the outside variables in our pre-determinations.

I am neither condemning nor condoning Mr. Obama, merely asking if anyone could do the job to please everyone. We come out of an election with the "pie in the sky" thinking that whomever we elect will make miracles happen. Maybe it's time we did something in our realm of influence and stop expecting the President or Government to "take care of us". Granted, voting for competent leadership is a step in the right direction, but sitting back and expecting the government to take care of us with little or no personal input is unrealistic and a certain way for the government to disappoint. Where and when have we lost the reality that WE are the government and those in office merely elected representatives? Those representatives are there to set up the framework that the country operates under, not to "do it all" . Government was never meant to be a welfare system and it is a proven fact that those areas in which an individual is personally invested can have the capacity to change the world.

Conclusion: Stop whining and complaining and get out there and change your corner of the world. (This may even mean running for elected office.)

Love Makes the Flowers Grow

Tears water the seeds as the young widow plants her garden.
Over the years, she caresses each bloom as she remembers her late husband.

The flowers have listened daily to her tales,
Stretching their stems to hear more clearly when her voice drops to a whisper.

One day the widow speaks to someone other than her flowers;
The blooms see no one, but hear her talking to ghosts of the past come to share her garden.

At her passing, the entire garden misses her touch, her voice, her presence.
Truly, love has made this garden grow.

What Does History Teach Us?

History: What Have We Learned?


Do we ever really learn from history? Reading a history book, I am reminded that the current economic conditions are echoes from the past and that those past echoes include civil unrest. Revolutions have repeatedly been fought by those who, at the time, had nothing to lose but their life, and that life may have been numbered by days. No homes, no food, no job, no hope, a recipe for the desperate to grab at any thin thread of survival. Those who have not, in their frustration, attack those who have. Monarchies have tumbled, Shahs overthrown, and Presidents replaced. What, if things don't turn around in the near future, does America face? Will we have a nation broken into countries to replacethe individual states? As a country, we have arrogantly attempted to manipulate other country's economies and governments. At what point does representative government appear to the citizens as the privileged oppressing the underprivileged under the guise of speaking for the underprivileged? How long do you think it will be before the desperate go that further step?

How do you think those two hundred years into the future will interpret our history? In an attempt to see what they may see, think about this: The Twentieth Century was characterized
by short periods not employed in some type of war. The Great Depression was eclipsed by economic distress in the early part of the Twenty-First Century. Although a time of great discoveries and scientific advances, the Twentieth Century was also marked by some of the greatest scandals and most notorious crimes/criminals. While a seeming age of prosperity, where even some of the lower classes owned their own homes, not all was rosy around the world. Ethiopia, for example, had devastating famine and scores of people in refugee camps due to government uncertainties and infighting.

There comes a point in which the suffering don't much care how or who fixes the problem, but that it appears fixed. They are looking for some sort of Messiah that can promise relief. The long term at this point is not a consideration. They wish to eat today. This sets up a dangerous vacuum in which a ruthless leader, similar to Hitler or Lenin, have opportunity to step into the forefront. Politics are disregarded in favor of economics. Once the economics start turning around, discovering the mistake of leader choice can be faced. Too late, but now how to deal with a despot? Or do we?

The answer? If it was that easy, there would not be a problem, would there?