After six years living in Panama, I am returning to the United States with the gnawing feeling that I am entering a New World - and not necessarily a Brave New World.
Let me emphasize for starters that I am not of those ex-pats who 'escaped' to live abroad as some form of protest, political or otherwise. In my case, what started out as a couple of weeks visiting a friend in Costa Rica turned into a six year adventure. I did not leave the U.S. with a chip on my shoulder about any personal or political conditions, nor do I return with any. But I am concerned and definitely feel that I have some adjusting to do because the country I am returning to is not the one I left.
Let me assure you that we do not live in an isolated shell in Panama. The ex-pat population is aware and knowledgeable about what goes on in the world, at least to the degree that one wants to be. The CNNs and FOX News of the world come through loud and clear and newspapers from around the world are available for daily download on your Kindle. But in simplest terms, reading about it is not the same as being there.
The disengaged feeling I get is similar to what I experienced during my Air Force days involved with being called back home to a friend or relative's funeral - something I am sure most of you share with me. The logical part of you knows that the loved one is gone, starting right at the moment of notification. But regardless of how long your travel to the funeral home takes, the loss does not really sink in before you are there - until you walk in that funeral home. And at this point in my return to the U.S., I have not completed this journey.
I will admit I have never fully understood what goes on with our federal government, and plead guilty to the charge that I was never too interested in following the story too closely. But shenanigans in Washington in recent years are not just outrageous, they border on embarrassing in my opinion. Oh no, Michelle Bachman is retiring? I don't know what the gestation cycle for Looney birds is, but maybe there is time to breed a replacement. And I singled her out, not because she is the only wacko in our Congress, or even the worst - just the most recognized of the breed.
The days of the gentlemen statesmen populating our Congressional halls has given way to behavior patterns that would be right at home at 'last call' on Saturday night in any biker bar. Even long-termed congressmen who have evidenced in the past the intelligence and civility to get things done even under trying circumstances complicated by a variety of conflicting political goals, seem to all be reduced to Sunday News shows' talking heads spouting their latest version of 'Nanny .. Nanny.. poo..poo.'
Meanwhile the nation sits mired in the mud while conflicting points of view invent new ways to say that they will never negotiate their position. What did we Americans do to deserve this? To date the efforts to improve things seemed to have backfired.
Now to our shock we have discovered that electing a 'crusader' to congress that has no experience is, in many cases, worse than what we had. At least the old comfortable incumbent did not feel pressured to make a name for himself (herself) by insisting on national news programs that something like changing weather patterns were being influenced by something like the competing party's political action committee teaming up with Martians (illegal immigrants at that!). And the old pros, efficient or not, knew that certain things HAD to get done!
And have you also noticed that personal freedoms seem to be a concept of the past. The government is indiscriminately screening billions of ordinary citizens' phone calls looking for anti-terrorist leads? You're kidding, right? No I am not. They collect an estimated 1.7 billion (with a 'B') pieces of communication a DAY! Now this is the same group that had information that could have thwarted the 9-11 attacks, but that information was lost - buried - in the volume of information that they had collected. So they need thousands of times more info, right? Government logic personified!
Obviously the people who run this program, and similar ones, in this 'transparent' government of ours, have never heard of the U.S. Constitution! A simply-stated concept like 'guilty until proven innocent' evidently has some legal subtleties that escape us common folks. Instead 'collect private info on everyone and we'll sort it out later as we see fit' seems to rule. This program alone stuns me. Programs approved by a man whose only real work experience (in my opinion) prior to being elected POTUS was as a professor of Constitutional Law. This collection program is even more invasive and massively broader based then the infamous 'stop and frisk' fiasco. And, I predict will be even less productive than the famously failed 'frisking' joke. I am now also convinced the President would fail a legitimate Constitutional law coursse.
By the way, don't start on me with the infamous "Bush is the one that pushed the Patriots Act into our freedoms ..blah..blah..blah." I am trying not to make this a political argument. I am talking about government intrusions - not Democratic or Republican. Plus Obama not only extended most of the Patriots Act provisions when they came due for extinction, and in fact, strengthen some making them even more intrusive.
The latest IRS scandal is close to the 'straw that broke the camel's back' for me philosophically. The targeting of groups based on political persuasion is in a word - despicable. And not because of the targeting itself. I will put this in military terms only because that is my experience. All of you have similar experiences and will know what I am talking about - specifically for want of a better term, an organization's personality.
Think of the good companies or organizations you worked in or with. They had ground-rules, ways of doing things, priorities. and definitely do's/don’ts. Fighter pilots don't decide they are going to modify the airplanes landing configuration. Salesmen don't change the product prices and terms of the sale. Secretaries don't change the company letterhead. There are rules, procedures AND philosophies, many of which are sacred - they ARE the organization!
In such organizations - REAL organizations with a mission - there are NO rogues.
Rogue behavior survives only until it is discovered - usually with the first complaint. "You required they submit the answers to how many questions?" Even discussing some kind of rogue behavior with a colleague could threaten your job. It is embarrassing that IRS officials would try to explain away this travesty as so-called rogue behavior. Embarrassing because it proves conclusively that those highly-placed (and highly paid) senior government officials know absolutely NOTHING about organizational behavior - or assume that we don't.
America is said to be in decline, although we face no devastating plague, nuclear holocaust, or shortage of oil or food - and in fact recent projections show the U.S. will become a major oil exporter. But we are in decline primarily due to our out of control national debt.
In recent years Americans have never led such affluent material lives -- from houses and cars, to cell phones and big-screen TVs, to cheap jet travel and fast food. Unlike many countries in the world, obesity rather than malnutrition is the greater threat to national health. Americans spend more money on cosmetic surgeries and Botox than many nations spend fighting polio, small pox and malaria.
But the political dialog is not centered on capitalizing and expanding our natural and inherited wealth. Instead, Americans bicker over entitlement programs as the nation continues to pile up trillion-dollar-plus deficits. And a continuing war roars on concentrating on enforced equality rather than personal liberty. As I saw written elsewhere, "The medicine of cutting back on government goodies seems far worse than the disease of borrowing trillions from the unborn to pay for them." Hmm......
While you are thinking about where America is going, think about where America has been. A good example: In August 1945, Hiroshima was in shambles, while Detroit was among the most innovative and wealthiest cities in the world. Contemporary Hiroshima now resembles a prosperous Detroit of 1945; parts of Detroit look like they were bombed decades ago.
I do not embrace the idea that a government's redistribution of shrinking wealth, in preference to a private sector's creation of new sources of it, is the correct answer. As a result I object to the government honing the tools, while simultaneously taking my personal rights so as to facilitate making that approach possible.
Till Next Time. See Ya' Later
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