There is life happening beyond the Beltway, beyond the financial markets and beyond our borders.  We as a nation, a nation that believes that we can fix anything, do anything with the right amount of money have finally and in perpetuity lapsed into a frenzied state of greed, gluttony and moral shame.  This greed and gluttony has our elected officials chomping at the bit in hopes of spending even more of the hard earned money that we so desperately need for basic necessities right now.  

We as a nation we have seen and felt the financial recklessness our elected officials have embraced, as they spend our money at will with no regard for how hard we have worked for it and the sacrifices we have made to do so. This greed and gluttony has been spawned by the promise of increased incorporation of socialism into the foundations of capitalism.  Generations have bought into the socialist idea of cradle to grave care by our government and now their nanny state blinded souls have been asked to hand over the what is left from our meager wages to those who could stand do with much less.

I think we all can agree that a roof over your head and food in your stomach should be a minimal level of existence we can expect as a citizen of the greatest country in the world.  We afford our jailed this common minimum existence.  So the question is asked, what would you do to provide your family these bare minimums? 

During the great depression entire families were tossed into the streets as the growing unemployed fought to maintain these bare minimums.  There were no jobs, no minimum wage, and very little government assistance on which to rely.  Somehow, someway through the entire struggle America pulled through and became even stronger then she was before.  Or have we?

Today we see millionaires and billionaires holding their hands out for governmental assistance that our everyday working families could use to maintain the bare minimums, and for what? So a CEO or Board of Trustees can make their yacht payments on time.  There are people out here wondering where the next meal is coming from and our government wants to give money to those that could afford to do with a little less. 

Our government expects us to understand that the needy must suffer so they can invest in the banking and mortgage industries.  Our government by definition is not a fascist state and is prohibited by our constitution in making such investments to do so is criminal behavior. 

As our nation continues to spin out of control we will again turn our backs on the fundamentals of our foundation.  We are told that this time is different and expected to believe, again, that our elected officials can throw our money at a problem and fix it.  Not be questioned, not to be held accountable and certainly not for what is best for our long term goals as a nation.

Out here amongst the people real life is continuing, but the stare of real desperation is becoming more and more a birth right of the middle class that slowly degrade to the status of the working poor.  Were government is saying that this bailout is needed for loans, homeowners, and small business there are real people that struggle to find alternative solutions to provide life’s basic necessities.  This is where my day became very interesting. 

You can most likely count on one hand the number of times that you have felt the choking grip of real desperation.  I can remember to this day, my first time.  It was not about money or food, it was carnival ride.  It was not fear, as fear is an initial feeling… it was the prolonged aspects of when the ride would stop.  The things that I considered doing in that brief three minutes of my life were a desperate reaction to a moment in which I thought would surely be the end, but I resisted the urge and held on for dear life.  Amazingly from that moment on changed the way I faced those aspects of my life, as it taught me that no matter how desperate things may seem, survival is almost guaranteed if I am able to hang on.  This is what I had to convince a friend of today after she received an eviction notice. 

I am by nature a person who tries to understand how life really works.  I know people from all ends of the spectrum and I make no bones about that.  So when you’re asked if you can talk to your guys and see if I can get a two day loan, it makes you wonder to what lengths we will go to secure life’s basic needs.  Calls were made and I did get that loan, two days, 8%… 10% if it’s late.  This is when I learned that she had spent two days acting on word of mouth and believing scam artists that prey on the weak that had her traveling hundreds of miles in search of five hundred dollars.  Put this in perspective… 700 billion for something that very few of us even care to understand or for that matter, who is responsible, and we can’t make it any easier for congress.  As to where a family needs 500 dollars to stay in their home, where family members are working one hundred hours a week to have a roof over head, so you can battle another month to make ends meet.  Where exactly is the real need?  The good thing about all this is that she did not need to take that loan.  I later learned that I knew the property manager where she lived and had them give her the two extra days she needed to make the rent.  All is well that ends well… or is it?

Tomorrow, October 3rd, 2008, the US House of Representatives will vote on the bailout bill passed yesterday by the US Senate and consummate the relationship between government and business.   A once proud and powerful nation will take our final breaths as free people, firmly take the hand of fascism and be forced at gun point to make an investment in something a financial adviser would question our sanity.  The Fat Lady has begun to sing… everyone grab your armbands and make like good citizens.