Change

NEW YEAR

River.

Sometimes running,
sometimes dry,
always scenic.

It’s seventy six degrees.

I descend to the river bed
below two concrete bridges.

This year there are quiet blue pools,
and narrows of fast running water.

My shoes crunch on
smooth, bleached, river rock.

The natural beauty is marred by trash
and graffiti below the bridges.

I walk the dry edges.

My thoughts lost on the sound
of moving water and the unusual
shapes of river rocks.

I can’t see the highway now,
but, I can still hear the traffic noise.

Soon I will return
to join that frantic throng,
speeding along like crazed
participants in some mindless
game without rules.

I want to slow it down.

I should change things this year,
but, doing so is as difficult
as pulling oneself off the wall
of a whirling Gravitron
at some county fair.


The river moves unseen below the rocks,
popping back up
in a gurgling torrent further along.

Never ceasing, it flows to natures
varied forces.

There is no stopping here,
only the illusion.

Change is made on the move.

Dennis Price

Unintended Consequences

(Click on underlined wording for links to more information.)

I know yesterday's post was a long read for most bloggers, so I am going to try and be brief. Anytime we try and artificially control the natural processes, there are unintended consequences. We are going to find out what these are as the years roll on. Bailouts and unsecured loans to people not qualified to handle a loan have brought us to the point we are today. I have detailed evidence for any who feel I'm just tooting my personal whistle. Blame is being shifted in every quadrant of society to explain the fine mess we've gotten ourselves into. The truth is we are all to blame on some level. Never-the-less we should not jump on any one's bandwagon just because they promise change.

Let's look a just one example from recent history where the unintended consequences were not considered before people rushed in and supported someone for the purpose of effecting change. I was a young boy in 1958 when Fulgencio Batista y Saldivar, was removed from office in Cuba by a young revolutionary named Fidel Castro. Cuba was a viable country controlled by a dictator, who in the fashion of many in the southern hemisphere ruled with a heavy hand. We were living in Puerto Rico at the time and a friend went to Cuba on business. This friend had been in the intelligence community during World War II and was familiar with things most of us never considered then. He came back and told us that Fidel Castro was a communist and that the United States would be wise to keep a close eye on him. In Cuba, most of the masses hailed him a savior and saw him as a welcome change. Many in the U.S. did too. In time we discovered our friend's warning had been right on the money. Fidel Castro became an iron fisted communist dictator, and the people were enslaved to a fate much worse than the one experienced under Batista. They remain enslaved to this date. Many have fled to our country for relief. The only people in Cuba who have money and enjoy a decent lifestyle are those associated at a high level with the Castro regime. Socialism/Communism has been a dismal failure everywhere it has been tried. Why would we as Americans want to change our lifestyle and freedom for a type of slavery (socialism)? The only people who benefit from this type of political system are those at the top of the political hierarchy. If you are on the bottom rung of society's ladder and think that you will receive one iota of benefit, just get someone to read you the histories of those countries who have tried it. Barack Hussien Obama is an unadulterated socialist. He is an empty shell who is controlled by an underground movement pandered to by the elites of the Democrat Party. We have a choice. It may not be the best we could have come up with, but it is not nearly as dangerous as the opposition.

The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive. - John Sladek