Monday Musings...
Good Monday morning friends, colleagues, and contemporaries, and welcome to the first post AFTER the first 1000 posts.
I want to take some time to focus on something I'm sure many of us have contemplated throughout our lives, and that's being able to wonder "What If?".
I know I've had MY share of "what ifs" over the years.
Still get a few these days...
I suppose this ability to wonder must stem from the creative "child" in all of us.
I mean, who hasn't been able to really PRETEND when they were growing up, hmm?
And how much did it really COST to pretend?
This trait which allowed us to delve into a world of infinite possibilities, limited ONLY by our own imagination, kept many of us content through our formative years. It permitted us to explore the vastness of our own minds, while at the same time, never allowed us to stray too far from reality.
Hopefully, we've managed to retain a portion of this as we grew up.
I mean, without the ability to imagine and ask ourselves "what if?", much of the machinations and things we take for granted would never have been invented, so there have been others with this marvelous ability to think the unthinkable and dream the improbable.
It was those with great imaginations that produced some of our most important inventions.
It has been those who dared to dream, that have brought us along our evolutionary path.
Throughout history, wherever there was a need that had to be filled, someone with an "idea" came forth, and through a lot of hard work AND persistence, made it work. Many times, such people had to rely NOT on their own resources (for they had little to speak of), but on other people who also came to believe in what this person wanted to accomplish.










American history is replete with such people with names like Tesla, Edison, Morse, Ford, Wright, Westinghouse, Salk, Whitney, Goodyear, Fulton, Colt, Bell, Browning...hell, the list seems endless.
EACH of these people had their own "what if?" moment; an "idea"...a dream, if you will about what would benefit people everywhere.
The Industrial Revolution proved as much, as did the founding of this nation.
It might have been something as grand as alternating current...or as subtle as a brake press to bend metals. Or, it could have been as "revolutionary" as wanting to govern oneself and promote liberty and justice for ALL.
For example, I know for a fact, that there are STILL, in small factories, functioning today, machines built back in the early 1900s. And they were built in such places like Philadelphia, PA, Boston, MA, New Haven, CT, and Baltimore, MD...to name a few.
Now the companies that once made such machines have long since disappeared from our streets and cities, but the legacy still works.
These rather ancient machines stand as testimony to the American spirit of invention...of dreams that were dared into reality...of ideas brought into form and function.
Now, I said all THAT...to say this:
I often think about "WHAT (I would do) IF"...
As an perfect example, in yesterday's paper, there was an article about Fort Wayne's WATER USAGE going DOWN over the past 2 years.
(here's the link):
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100425/LOCAL/304259907
Well, I look upon that as a GOOD thing, right?
People are NOT WASTING water, but rather SAVING it, through efficient fixtures, along with other sundry cost-saving methods and items.
We're doing pretty damn well in that regard, right?
Nope...hold on...not so fast, people.
There's a DOWN side to being frugal and cost-effective, and it's not YOUR fault.
You've been doing what "the system" says you SHOULD be doing vis-a-vis not being wasteful (along with what YOU feel is in your best interest to save thinly spread finances).
See, all this frugality is causing the water utility to LOSE MONEY....(aww, poor babies).
Wasn't it YOU (the utility company) who told us NOT to waste water in the first damn place?
So you want us (now) to WASTE water (to shore up YOUR revenue)...BUT (also) save it AT THE SAME TIME?
Okay friends, now THIS is another one of those "W...T...F...???" moments.
You utility companies simply CANNOT have it BOTH ways.
The Water utility in Fort Wayne is looking at (likely) RAISING RATES to offset the "lack" of usage by it's customers (that's US).
So, lemme get this straight....we go ahead and SAVE water to lower OUR bill, and you morons go right ahead and jack back UP the rates, so we STILL have to pay for the same damn water we've been getting all these years at LOWER rates, JUST so you can justify YOUR high-paid staff and bosses...sound about right? Are we pretty much in the ballpark on this one?.
Oh, I forgot that the FEDERAL government has mandated "upgrades" to the waste water system that will obviously necessitate the raising of rates, so these "fixes" can be implemented.
Yeah...I can certainly SEE that "the FIX is in"...
Now...if I were to do a "WHAT IF?" over this, I would propose that rates remain STATIC for the time being...feds be damned.
And "IF" the city utility wanted to get more money from more people, why not REVAMP the over 400 houses sitting IDLE across the city (more than a few for many years) and get some tax-paying people back INTO them.
Gee, 'ya know...that might even help out with PROPERTY TAX MONEY that the city and county (and even the FWCS) needs.
What a frigging GREAT IDEA...!
You see, whenever ANY city allows itself to become enmeshed in a "welfare state / gimme" mentality, taking from the working class taxpayers to "redistribute" to those unwilling or undesirous of becoming productive citizens, it DOES hurt everyone...in the long term.
It hurts the working class, by disallowing the full potential of their buying power, it hurts the city, because it has to hand out money it doesn't have for a perpetual gravy-train with no foreseeable destination in sight, and it hurts those receiving the funding, because it rewards bad behavior, when (if anything) it should be encouraging them to help themselves.
It's the whole "hand UP instead of a hand OUT" gig.
So...WHAT IF we decided to STOP with all this socialistic rhetoric, and urged people to fend a lot more for themselves.? Well, for one thing, we'd have a LOT more folks able to get creative and begin to imagine better ideas that could be conceived.
Gee...wasn't that how this all got started? When you deny an ever-growing number of people the ability to work THROUGH their difficulties, and instead give them anything and everything, you take away their individualism and humanity, creating a "ward of the state". In many ways, it's just ANOTHER form of slavery.
And it's damn hard to be creative and innovative when you got some type of shackle about you.
WHAT IF we got people back to work, got those vacant houses all repaired, brought up to code and filled them with people who paid taxes and had a real income once again?
Housing could become a LOT more affordable (again), jobs could be created (REAL JOBS, and not just part-time or gov't positions) and businesses would again return to areas currently denied growth due to socio-economic problems.
The price of things would actually go DOWN (according to many economists), because we'd have both supply (once again) as well as demand. Wow...another capitalistic venue...who'da thunk?
All this (and more) is NOT outside the realm of possibility. We've done it before in the past.
Yes...we CAN dare to dream...we CAN imagine great things...and we CAN challenge ourselves to make such things a reality for everyone.
Many of us are aging...and that's just a part of life, too.
Our generation can't carry the torch forever, but we can pass it along to those willing to take the narrow path...the path that involves diligence, and persistence, and a willingness to do the tough things, simply because it's the RIGHT THING to do.
Imagine all the WHAT IFS that could be, if such a thing were realized.
I know I often think about it...
And hope others think likewise.
We don't have to go and attempt to reinvent the wheel...that's become such a hackneyed term these days.
We just need to remember what it was like to have an idea...a dream...
And then think to ourselves..."What if..."
Be well, make a difference today, and...
Stay safe out there, America.