Let’s see … oil is $117.00 per barrel -- gasoline is selling for nearly, if not in some places over, $4.00 a gallon -- gold is hovering just below $1,000.00 per ounce -- the dollar’s value is auguring into the ground against the Euro -- home foreclosures are soaring across the nation, and in California alone are 327% higher this year than last -- the U.N. is warning about regional food shortages threatening people’s lives around the globe in the near future – the sale of rice is being rationed at Wal-Mart -- and over 50% of the work force in Los Angeles is said to be made up of immigrants. And, in the midst of all this, our very own President Bush tells us that we are not at the advent of a possibly severe recession, if not in fact a depression … interestingly, that being said by him only a day after his doing another stand up comedy routine on NBC’s Deal or No Deal. Is it any mystery why he now has the highest disapproval rating of any President ever to be recorded in the Gallup Poll’s 70 year history? Only, it would seem, to the President himself. He tells us everything will soon not seem to be as bad as us who are mere mortals may presently perceive it to be. After all, he assures us, the Iraq war is “getting better”, whatever that means, and that the economy is set to resurge once each of us gets our grubby, greedy little inconsequential hands on a few hundred dollars of our tax money back from him in the months ahead. In response to this, only one word presently comes to mind … NOT!
Then again, looking at the flip side of the same coin, it would appear we may all soon be given an opportunity that is unprecedented in our lifetimes … that is to find out who we really are as individuals. I’m speaking now about things like our depth of character … our personal integrity … our sense of what exactly is right, as opposed to wrong. You know … those attributes of our personality makeup that not only define with clarity who we are as human beings, but that also are never more exposed as when people are compelled to experience deprivation. A missed meal would most likely chalked up to either part of a diet or due to a scheduling problem … several missed meals, however, will get the full focus of our attention … but, enough missed meals may cause even some of the most otherwise decent and/or civilized people to conclude that those who survived the Donner Party imbroglio may not have been such bad people after all. Case in point … this week gasoline theft is reported to be on the rise in Los Angeles. How? Forget siphoning … the thieves are simply punching holes in the tanks underneath the cars and taking the gas that they are able to retrieve in buckets. Are we surprised when one police officer stated this week that this crime is only likely to increase as the economy worsens and the price of gas continues to rise? One can only wonder what people would do should our food also becomes scarce (i.e. too expensive) among an increasingly unemployed population. Honey, here’s the gun … would you mind getting us some rice on your way home?
And now for the unhappy dilemma we all seem to have been placed in. The stark reality is that we are being offered only three individuals to choose from to lead us through, if not out of, this seemingly dark valley after Bush leaves with his cronies to enjoy the money they have made at our expense: Clinton, Obama or McCain. Even though having a choice is generally regarded as being a good thing, the truth remains that when all the options we are given to choose from are bad, just being able to choose from among them does nothing to improve the quality of any. This year the foregoing Presidential options respectively seem to equate to taxes, more taxes or more war and forget the economy, which equates to more taxes. And, even I know this approach won’t likely help those who can’t buy rice, much less those who can’t afford the gas to get to where it is being rationed.
From all this, however, I am left with one bright thought. It could well be that because of this pickle we find ourselves in God Help Us may soon become our national mantra. I can see that happening in the vain hope that it is not too late to reverse our national trend of banishing Him from the country entirely … thinking that if we start being nice to Him again, He may still be willing to lend us a helping hand … you know, something like we’ve heard He did for our country’s founders. But then again, it may also be possible that He has already made His decision -- to narrow our choices down to three individuals any one of which will serve to give us the leader that He thinks we now deserve … and for that reason alone all that may remain to be said is, God help us.
© 2008 Clifford C. Nichols, Esq., former Chairman of Editorial Board Advisory Committee, Americanism Educational League