If You Don't See The Decline, You're Blind

OK, folks... before I even address the snow, allow me to point out that my main road is still closed from August when hurricane Irene hit.

It's October 30th.

No work is being done to repair the culvert they suspect was damaged in the storm. No work has been done as far as I know - other than putting the barriers in place along with signs reading "road closed."

It's a county road. According to my county legislator they're "supposed to get to it" by the end of the year.

Folks... I live in Orange County, NY - 50 minutes with no traffic to get into Manhattan - and this is my "affluent" suburban reality.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

It snowed last night.

It snowed...!

Apparently well over three million people are without power and in Connecticut - number two in terms of the wealthiest states of the union - their governor is telling their citizens not to expect power to be fully restored till perhaps next weekend.

If you don't see that America is in decline... well... I don't know what it's gonna take.

The hole at Ground Zero doesn't resonate with you?

The fact that we apparently can't beat the Taliban - a bunch of savages with AK's...? That doesn't strike a cord?

Being asked to remove your shoes - and belt - at the airport? The fact that grandma is liable to be strip searched prior to boarding a plane to see the grandkids for Christmas? The latest news that TSA is "expanding" their operations to train stations and even highway check points?

Folks... you read newsbites. You live in the same America I do. What's it gonna take to wake people up to the fact that if we keep on going along the path we've been going it won't be long till electricity and hot water on demand are but fond memories of "the good ol' days" before Bush and Obama threw the baby out with the bath water in their efforts to twist the laws of economics into a fairy tale where everyone is always a winner and no one ever loses a bet.

Forty-two years ago we were sending men to walk on the moon. Today... America can't send a man into space without paying the Russians for their assistance.

Remember Planet of the Apes, the movie, the original starring Charleston Heston as American astronaut Colonel George Taylor? Remember his closing lines upon finding the half buried remains of the Statue of Liberty?

"We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you!
God damn you all to hell!"

That's where we're heading, folks... just you mark my words.