Crisis of Confidence

I have mixed emotions about today's problems. Where does the responsibility lie for the lack of confidence today? Is is based on the failure of yesterday's leaders, today's leaders or tomorrow's leaders? Does the fact that during a campaign anything can be said without recourse ever come back to haunt the officeholders? If we can force the unions to renegotiate their contracts, why the hell do we have AIG paying millions of dollars worth of bonuses to their managers? Why goose the gander in one scenario and pay with golden eggs in another? Locally we have a developer building a several million dollar development and right in the middle of the place one guy who wants to keep his land has no water or sewer because the developer just cut them off. The city doesn't feel that they are responsible.

How can one of the largest religions in the world claim to be the word of God and then tell their people to go out and blow up innocent people? How can a church based in Rome own so much and then not feel responsible for its priests when they molest the children of the people they purport to serve? How can that church tell politicians that they must obey their church on the issue of abortions and yet the law of the land is in direct confrontation to that teaching?

How can companies feel confident in the operating climate when they don't understand how their competition is being bailed out by the government? How can people feel safe when they hear that the President is proposing that we have a Nationalized health care and then turn around and say that the part of their health care paid for by their employers will be taxable? How can we hear that thee will be no new taxes for those making under $250,000 and then learn that the prior President's tax cuts are going to expire?

How can we feel confident about the state of the economy when during the election Senator McCain said the basis was sound and was roundly criticized? Now we have the President and his staff out trying to tell us all is well and the economy is sound? We were promised that the old ways of doing business will "Change" and we will eliminate line items in the budget and the first two things passed were so full of them that we are now believing that it will be better "Next Time"?

Day by day, I find that I love my country more but have a growing fear of my Government. Things don't seem to make sense and I don't think it is my old age setting in. My crisis of confidence is growing daily and I just don't know what to do to restore it.

We have a land where we pay athletes millions of dollars to play games and regulators that let Bernie Madof build a ponzi scheme that ripped off hundreds of millions. Who is in charge around here?

I know, I'll go out and ride my bike and just pretend that all is well. I hate it when this happens.

MUD