I voted today, and I hope you did too. I’ve always felt that it was not only a right and a privilege to vote, but it is a duty to vote. I think of how many brave people have died for me to have the right to vote? A right that cannot be taken away as long as I am not convicted of breaking the law. I have always felt a deep obligation, in honor of the brave men and women who have been injured or killed in the line of duty for this country to vote in every Presidential election since I was old enough to vote. And I’ve always felt that if someone did not vote in the election, then he or she has no right to complain about how the President is doing his or her job.
I was reading on the Time.com website that there was a fatal shooting last night in South Carolina. A twelve year old boy was shot to death while trick or treating! The person who shot him used an assault rifle and shot thirty rounds! The assailant has been arrested and charged with murder and assault (he shot his brothers and father that were with him too!) The assailant claims he thought the trick-or-treaters were robbers. But the assailant was not even a resident of the house! That excuse sounds wacky to me; I suspect he was high on something! What a horrible tragedy.
This economy has “us” in quite a quandary, doesn’t it? We all want to support our local businesses, because if don’t support them they will close down and we will lose our jobs. Yet our local businesses don’t pay us a living wage, so we are forced to buy things for less money over the Internet! What a catch 22 that is! I hope that when the election is over that the new president reverses a few things so that the large corporations stop shipping our jobs overseas. We are already in deep financial trouble, and we need to work HERE on our shores!
As the economy tightens, more people are finding it difficult to pay their monthly bills. They have mortgages, insurance, auto loans, student loans, credit cards, and utility payments that have to be paid every month. Many people are struggling to meet their monthly financial obligations. Some people are turning to short term loans that charge exorbitant application and set up fees and then high interest rates to boot! Some people are filing for bankruptcy, or going to credit counseling.
It is a sad and scary time. I hope that when the election is over, the economy improves quickly.
Unfortunately I have been very busy the past couple of weeks so I have not been able to “keep up” with all of what’s going on with the big banks, and Wall Street as much as I’d like to be “informed” about the big mess. I know that it is all going to effect each and every one of us in some way, so I like to be informed. I guess I have some homework to do! I did notice in yesterday’s paper that the government is going to be buying shares of some of the big banks. I also heard on the television news that some people are concerned that this big bailout package is bringing our country closer to “socialism” which has been a big “hated” phrase that most people that I know think is a code word for “evil.”
So many people talk about how this country is a democracy, and yet I learned in school that it is NOT a “democracy” it is a “republic” which is different. It would be very interesting to see or hear some news stories about THAT!