American Attitude

JACK
The entire population seems to be in shock over the intense economic problems that we face today. The candidates bombard us all with reasons and debate in this crucial election year. There is wide spread concern about how these problems are going to be worked out, but mostly the concern is about how these problems are going to affect us as individuals. Everybody is probably concerned about meeting bills, and providing all of their essential needs. For those of us who are old enough to have lived through the Great Depression, the concern is more than academic. Many Americans today live at or just above, or below the subsistence level. I’m sure that each of us has a different level of concern about what lies ahead of us.

HILLARY
The thing that scares me the most is the potential loss of human services. Similar to what’s happening in the Gulf region of the U.S., when disaster strikes basic services are lost – gas stations close, stores run out of food, and the ones that are open have gauging prices. If there is a “financial hurricane” that decimates large swaths of our nation, then I think that similar problems could arise. What if the local hospital was depending on the AIG insurance in order to operate? Will that area no longer have a functional hospital, and what happens to all of the people who work there? This possibility frightens me most.

JACK
It strikes me that each of us would have a barrel full of fears. Once more, we are put in the position of coping with problems that we never thought we would have. No one has the answers, and very few can predict all the questions. In these worrisome times we have to examine our own attitudes, assuming that most of us did not create the problem. Whether we blame it on lack of government controls, or too many government controls, or perhaps we fault the tax program, which once more, can be either too little or too great, depending on how you look at it. Suddenly, all of the theoretical problems have become harsh reality. The decisions that have been made that bring us to this place have, obviously, been the wrong decisions. The only part of this equation that we really control is our own attitudes. My attitude is to make sure I vote my conscience, but be prepared to live with whatever conditions will prevail. My attitude must be one in which I try to achieve the comfort zone most suitable for my family and friends. I need to be unemotional about how I invest and how I handle my personal resources. Like most citizens, only my vote can help decide the path that the country follows. If fuel is short, if selection at the grocery store is limited, then, with great reluctance, I must learn to live with it. This is hardly the great optimism with which I have handled my life as an American. It is a sad commentary, but these are tough times. If I look outside and it is raining, I need to put on a raincoat and use an umbrella. I didn’t cause the rain, but I have to deal with it. My friends in Galveston and Houston did nothing to cause the hurricane, but they have to cope with it. It is all a question of attitude.

HILLARY
It sounds like you’re saying, times are tough let’s buckle down and deal with it. Don’t panic. Don’t run. Don’t point fingers, except to point out who you think might stand a chance at improving the situation. I’m willing to drive less, to cook more, to continue to donate when I can. If the hospital closes, I guess we work to hopefully reopen it, and seek help further away. This means that people are going to decline, and in some cases die. While this seems incredibly scary to me, I suppose our choice is to let the fear drag us further down in some kind of paralysis, or we can look the challenge squarely in the face and put our energy toward overcoming this time, and build for the next generation.

JACK
In the business world, when a company is in trouble, and they are losing money, we have learned that before we do anything else we must stop the bleeding and then go on to build a better company. I feel that as a nation we have been wounded. Mighty companies have fallen, and fortunes have been lost. Our attitude must be to never bury our heads in the sand. I cannot begin to describe the perils, even down to our best assets being bought by unfriendly foreign interests. Now, more than ever, we must keep our attitudes realistic, stop the bleeding and proceed to build a better country.

HILLARY
I finally think I get what you’re saying. We need to identify where the country is wounded, and stop further damage in these areas. Then we need to offset those losses with an alternative revenue stream. Just like we had the computer/information age, which continues to bring in huge dollars, we need the “new” revolutionary idea that will bring prosperity. Perhaps it will be in an area that will have great benefit beyond the profits that it brings in, but will also solve another issue. For example, if solar energy became a profitable business in the U.S., we could end our dependence on foreign energy, create jobs and have a profitable industry feeding, through taxes, back into our infrastructure. So we have to be on the lookout for that next idea that will lift us up.

JACK
Now that’s an attitude I can heartily subscribe to.

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