Back in 1876, the citizens of the then village of Kent, Ohio recognized that their growing population meant the need for a new bridge to span Main Street, across the Cuyahoga River and the railroad tracks that ran alongside of it. So they voted to raise their taxes so that this could happen. They'd been using a narrow old covered bridge, but with the advent of the railroads coming through town, business, and therefore the population, was growing, and the old wooden bridge wouldn't be able to handle the increased traffic that the growing village was experiencing. So the good folks back then decided that in order to support the common good, they would raise their own taxes to fund a major infrastructure project. This weekend, our fair town of Kent held a ceremony on the bridge to commemorate the 134th anniversary of the opening of the bridge, on September 25, 1877. Various prominent townspeople portrayed the historic figures from the time and re-enacted the speeches given on that occasion so long ago. As I heard the one speech about how the villagers raised what was then the astronomical sum of over $17,000 to pay for the new stone arch bridge that would span the river and the railroad, I wondered if any TEA Partiers were in the audience. The Civil War
was not that long behind them and the villlagers had also recently subscribed another sum of some $17,000 not long before that in order to pay for the new Universalist Church that was completed in 1868 that still stands today and is actively used as a house of worship (and happens to be my home church!). The villagers obviously recognized the need to raise huge sums of money by agreeing to pay their taxes so that they could pay for valuable infrastructure projects that still stand to this day. They knew the value of these things and how they would serve the common good for everyone, so they did not hestitate to pay more taxes. Today, we need new schools, better roads, newer bridges, broadband Internet lines, green energy projects and a host of other things to get people working again and to move our country forward, but people simply don't want to pay for it. They want something for nothing, but it doesn't work that way. Once upon a time, people recognized the need for state of the art infrastructure. From FDR to Eisenhower to Kennedy, Presidents knew that in order for our country to move forward, we had to be the best in the world at a whole lot of things. My father's generation, for example, came home from WWII, just like my dad did, and attended college in record numbers thanks to the GI Bill, creating the best educated generation to ever come out of this nation. And what did they do? They built the interstate highway system, put a man on the moon, which in turn created billions of dollars in spin off industries in technology and a host of other things that made this country great. Now we have crumbling roads, bridges and schools, outdated airports and transit systems, we are laying off teachers at a time when our children, in order to compete with the rest of the world, need to be the best educated generation ever and our infrastructure is aging and needing serious repair and/or replacement. In the meantime, China is building a brand new country, with the fastest trains in the world, new airports, new roads, new schools and more while we in this nation bicker over details and don't seem to care that our country is falling apart while millions are idled by unemployment. Nothing makes sense.
Corporations are sitting on top of
trillions of dollars in cash and refuse tospend it to hire workers, who are either collecting unemployment checks or welfare checks if their unemployment ran out, or are working part time or low paid full time jobs just to have some income, or have given up looking for work altogether. There's no rhyme or reason for corporations to be hoarding so much cash when so many people are desperate for work, unless they are doing it on purpose to keep unemployment high in order to make President Obama look bad. Anymore, this is what it appears is going on. I can think of no better explanation for why they'd be doing that when our country so badly needs so many things right now. What are they waiting for, anyway? It just seems like this new breed of Republican was brought up on the Gordon Gekko (from the movie "Wall Street") mantra "Greed is good". Accumulate money, more money, so much money you don't even know what to do with it all and condemn anyone that doesn't have money because, well, they must be lazy or something. They must not have been raised with any kind of morals or sense of the common good, because listening to them speak, you can hear the undertone of "I got mine, screw everyone else." Well, I'd love to take each and every one of these TEA Partiers and lock them into a room and force them to watch some classic movies that teach valuable lessons, from "It's a Wonderful Life" to "Citizen Kane". I don't know, maybe they're mommas didn't teach them to share their toys in the sandbox with their friends and siblings when they were growing up or to help those less fortunate than themselves and not pass judgement on them or their situation. As near as I can tell, they are a bunch of dysfunctional adolescents who can only see as far as the end of their own collective noses. I wonder when some real grown-ups who learned to share the toys and consider the less fortunate will be elected to higher office. Maybe that's no longer possible. Maybe hyper-partisanship is here to stay, but I sure hope not. Sooner or later, something's got to give. Our nation's vital infrastructure is decaying and we've got people who refuse to ante up some taxpayer dollars to upgrade it to 21st century standards while the rest of the world has a clue and is jumping ahead of us economically. Could we be staring the end of the American Empire in the face? I hope not, but it sure looks that way lately.
Back in 1876, the citizens of the then village of Kent, Ohio recognized that their growing population meant the need for a new bridge to span Main Street, across the Cuyahoga River and the railroad tracks that ran alongside of it. So they voted to raise their taxes so that this could happen. They'd been using a narrow old covered bridge, but with the advent of the railroads coming through town, business, and therefore the population, was growing, and the old wooden bridge wouldn't be able to handle the increased traffic that the growing village was experiencing. So the good folks back then decided that in order to support the common good, they would raise their own taxes to fund a major infrastructure project. This weekend, our fair town of Kent held a ceremony on the bridge to commemorate the 134th anniversary of the opening of the bridge, on September 25, 1877. Various prominent townspeople portrayed the historic figures from the time and re-enacted the speeches given on that occasion so long ago. As I heard the one speech about how the villagers raised what was then the astronomical sum of over $17,000 to pay for the new stone arch bridge that would span the river and the railroad, I wondered if any TEA Partiers were in the audience. The Civil War 
was not that long behind them and the villlagers had also recently subscribed another sum of some $17,000 not long before that in order to pay for the new Universalist Church that was completed in 1868 that still stands today and is actively used as a house of worship (and happens to be my home church!). The villagers obviously recognized the need to raise huge sums of money by agreeing to pay their taxes so that they could pay for valuable infrastructure projects that still stand to this day. They knew the value of these things and how they would serve the common good for everyone, so they did not hestitate to pay more taxes. Today, we need new schools, better roads, newer bridges, broadband Internet lines, green energy projects and a host of other things to get people working again and to move our country forward, but people simply don't want to pay for it. They want something for nothing, but it doesn't work that way. Once upon a time, people recognized the need for state of the art infrastructure. From FDR to Eisenhower to Kennedy, Presidents knew that in order for our country to move forward, we had to be the best in the world at a whole lot of things. My father's generation, for example, came home from WWII, just like my dad did, and attended college in record numbers thanks to the GI Bill, creating the best educated generation to ever come out of this nation. And what did they do? They built the interstate highway system, put a man on the moon, which in turn created billions of dollars in spin off industries in technology and a host of other things that made this country great. Now we have crumbling roads, bridges and schools, outdated airports and transit systems, we are laying off teachers at a time when our children, in order to compete with the rest of the world, need to be the best educated generation ever and our infrastructure is aging and needing serious repair and/or replacement. In the meantime, China is building a brand new country, with the fastest trains in the world, new airports, new roads, new schools and more while we in this nation bicker over details and don't seem to care that our country is falling apart while millions are idled by unemployment. Nothing makes sense. 
Corporations are sitting on top of trillions of dollars in cash and refuse tospend it to hire workers, who are either collecting unemployment checks or welfare checks if their unemployment ran out, or are working part time or low paid full time jobs just to have some income, or have given up looking for work altogether. There's no rhyme or reason for corporations to be hoarding so much cash when so many people are desperate for work, unless they are doing it on purpose to keep unemployment high in order to make President Obama look bad. Anymore, this is what it appears is going on. I can think of no better explanation for why they'd be doing that when our country so badly needs so many things right now. What are they waiting for, anyway? It just seems like this new breed of Republican was brought up on the Gordon Gekko (from the movie "Wall Street") mantra "Greed is good". Accumulate money, more money, so much money you don't even know what to do with it all and condemn anyone that doesn't have money because, well, they must be lazy or something. They must not have been raised with any kind of morals or sense of the common good, because listening to them speak, you can hear the undertone of "I got mine, screw everyone else." Well, I'd love to take each and every one of these TEA Partiers and lock them into a room and force them to watch some classic movies that teach valuable lessons, from "It's a Wonderful Life" to "Citizen Kane". I don't know, maybe they're mommas didn't teach them to share their toys in the sandbox with their friends and siblings when they were growing up or to help those less fortunate than themselves and not pass judgement on them or their situation. As near as I can tell, they are a bunch of dysfunctional adolescents who can only see as far as the end of their own collective noses. I wonder when some real grown-ups who learned to share the toys and consider the less fortunate will be elected to higher office. Maybe that's no longer possible. Maybe hyper-partisanship is here to stay, but I sure hope not. Sooner or later, something's got to give. Our nation's vital infrastructure is decaying and we've got people who refuse to ante up some taxpayer dollars to upgrade it to 21st century standards while the rest of the world has a clue and is jumping ahead of us economically. Could we be staring the end of the American Empire in the face? I hope not, but it sure looks that way lately.
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