It Would Have Been Great!

Some people think there will turmoil in the US markets. I do not see why there should be. The US Treasuries will show some effect, but to expect anything beyond that is a bit odd. We have been living with this albatross of downgrade around our necks for at least three months. There should be nothing new here.

Somehow I managed to get through the first years of my life without being invited to a Danse Macabre by Death and his train of followers. In 1962, I went to the Cuban Missile Crisis mixer and found I could not sink into the darkness along the walls of the gym, but had to jump out into the middle of the floor - in my white socks - and dance that jig of mortality.
Death did the Mashed Potato and said, "I never saw you before. Do you always come to these sock hops?"
He laughed and smirked at his mates, Panic and Fear, who seem to have slipped in past the chaperones. Where were those chaperones?  Why were Death, Panic, and Fear at the Sophomore Sock Hop? Had adults suddenly lost their much-bally-hoooed Norms and Morals and Rule of Behavior? Would they let us grow our hair long next?

Life went on.
Pretty soon bad news came in bundles: foreclosures, lay-offs, market panic, troubles in the Middle East...
Why am I living in an age where people are homeless or in fear of losing their homes? Why is the weather so extreme? Why has the Palestinian Problem continued for over 60 years? Why is there a market panic every month? Why did I have to watch the Higher Dysfunctionaries in Washington for the last three months stalk me as if I were Will Smith in I Am Legend?

I don't think people can take too much more of this Line Dance of Panic, Fear, and Death around the world.
Just imagine what we may have felt if the politicians in Washington had actually showed respect for each other - not to mention respect for us! - and actually formulated a plan that was reasonable and balanced and fair and represented a good first step forward! Just imagine! Just imagine how we would feel today! We could have felt good and hopeful, instead of walking around waiting for some form of political or economic axe to fall on us!
We could have felt like things were beginning to turn around; instead we have the constantly increasing pressure, the malaise, the sickness-unto-death of a constant threat of either external disaster or internal self-imposed disaster; we cannot stop an act of God - earthquakes will continue to crumble faulty nuclear plants - and we cannot reform our own acts to help ourselves.

Just imagine the sun coming up today on a country in which there had been respect and honor... instead of what we have now. It would have been great!

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