LEAVE IT TO PEEVER
Small town
blues
-Bumper
sticker of the week: What am I? There is nothing in the whole universe that is
not you.
-We live
and die in these towns: Galesburg, Monmouth, Abingdon, Maquon, Rio, Altona,
Woodhull, Alpha, Roseville, Alexis, Oneida, Williamsfield. Towns once beaming
with life, now struggling on life-support. No jobs. No family farms. No stores,
some without even a grocery store. No downtownÕs. All losing population at each
new census. No future. No hope. Caught in the maze called globalization, and we
canÕt seem to find our way out. All our young folks are headed to the cities,
leaving the average age of rural towns heading up and up. Soon weÕll have to
license most of these towns as nursing homes. Mind you, thereÕs nothing wrong
with old. But old is not likely to ignite the fire we need to get us out of this funk. Old likes it quiet,
familiar, smooth. The rock music
gets played less often now and a whole lot softer. The thrill is pretty much
gone. AARP tries to cheer us up, telling us our best days are still ahead, but
who are they trying to kid. The aches and pains mount up faster than the
memories. Inflation is killing our retirement dreams. And utility bills are
replacing mortgage payments, which we werenÕt planning on. In the midst of all
this commotion and confusion, we have been caught off guard concerning
globalization. We suddenly realize tomorrow is gone. It is not coming back.
ItÕs time we faced the inevitable:
* Manufacturing is,
for the most part, over. No more decent paying jobs for little education.
Perhaps we can attract some very specific, high-tech companies to produce
medical equipment, or robotic components, or some locally specific production
(i.e. ethanol), but any labor intensive production will be done elsewhere.
Cheap labor is the key, which we cannot afford to do. Our production will need
to be specific, in cooperation with industry and educational institutions. ItÕs
a whole new ball-game.
* Citizens will need
to supply more of the capital to move us forward. We can no longer rely on the
government. Local, state, and the federal government are mired down in
mediocrity, with endless rules and regulations, and gross incompetence. Private
citizens who have some money to spare will have to move forward to finance
projects that they feel are worthy. It is an investment they will need to make
for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
* Galesburg is, all
things considered, a relatively cheap place to live. This is actually one of
our biggest assets. It is appealing to
people who can work from their homes, primarily over the computer. Our
goal should be to add value to this cheapness, making it attractive to live in
Galesburg for multiple reasons, including good parks, diverse social events,
museums, good streets, efficient police and fire protection, nice restaurants,
cooperative hospitals, access to good educational programs, a variety of
musical venues, etc.
* We have a national
and local election coming up. While I am not putting a lot of stock in
government as our salvation, I would at least hope it could be improved. A lot
of our money is used up supporting the almost totally inept, outdated,
incompetent form of governance that we have, particularly in Galesburg. We
havenÕt had four decent people on the council at one time since IÕv been in
town, which is now 28 years. This has got to change. We need a mayor and four
alderman who can take charge and lead. The city manager should be a resource
for them, not the other way around.
What was is
no longer. ItÕs time to get our act together, or this show is going off the
air.
-Corporate
insanity: (Vote for the worst).
* Exxon Mobil: Over
the past couple of years, ExxonMobil has made the biggest profit of any company
in the world. Ever. Last year they made $40.6 billion. ThatÕs $4.6 million each
hour. They are said to exploit foreign workers in whatever country they are
operating in. They have one of the worlds largest security operations for
putting down any opposition they may encounter wherever the operate. They support BushÕs junk science
regarding carbon emissions. They are usually at least 3-5cents higher at the
pump.
* Wal-Mart: The
largest retailer in the world. Due to that fact, they call the shots, from
production to sale. They set the price and dare anyone to beat it. By and
large, you canÕt. ItÕs said Wal-Mart has closed more ma and pa stores than any
other single factor. They are not known to be very employee friendly. They
discourage unions, and have been known to pass over females for hire and
promotions. They have a spying system in place to keep a careful eye on each
store that is second to none, including the governments. ItÕs said that there
are very few places in the U.S. where you would not be within 50 miles of a
Wal-Mart store. I believe it.
* Philip
Morris/Atria: Making the worlds most addictive drug, cigarettes filled with
nicotine. Their web site recommends not smoking. ThatÕs like a drug dealer on
the street corner taking your money and handing you the drugs, all the while
telling you not to use them. At that point, itÕs a little late.
* Boeing: One of the
leading weapons producers in the world. You donÕt see many of their smart bomb
ads on TV. Ends up their smart bombs are not any smarter than the generals.
None of them can tell civilians from soldiers. Boeing does hire a lot of
ex-politicians as lobbyists, which I suppose does help keep the little rascals
off the street.
* The whole
pharmaceutical industry(Pfizer, Merck, Abbott, Lilly, Baxter): You talk about a
group of thieves. They con us into believing they need huge profits in order to
do research. They leave out their advertizing budgets, salaries, and stock
dividends. When you add all those up, you can see exactly where our money for
unreasonable drug prices go.
Vote for as
many as you want, and as often as you please. Remember, roughly 60% of U.S.
corporations pay no income tax. Begs the question-Why do we?