Today's Economy & Personal Sacrfice

Sometimes someone in the media says something that I have to agree. Saturday, watching Obama’s historic train ride from Philadelphia to Washington comments arose calling all Americans to action. We can no longer afford to sit complacent and wait for our government to act. If change is to occur it will take all our efforts. So many times I have heard others complaining about the state of our nation, but we are all to blame. This is not a time for bipartisanship and this is not a time for personal agendas in regards to race, ethnicity, gender, religion or even sexual orientation. All these issues take a back seat and there is a dire need for unity.

These days remind me of a time when Americans were called upon by FDR for duty and sacrifice. Women were called from their home to work in factories to support the efforts in WWII. It was a time when everyone put aside differences for a greater cause-peace. Today, the battle is not a foreign war it is our economy and our life at home.

In regards to personal income and family finances, when down times arise families and individuals make sacrifices. They trim the family budget and cut costs, like going out to eat. As a nation, what sacrifices are we prepared to make? What can we look at in or nation and question our investment? Today what I see is people making a mockery out of frugality and writing samples on how to make money during an economic downturn. Is this responsible? Can we look at many of the superficial frivolities in our culture and say they are needed in times of financial crisis? One thing that came to mind is television and movie bloopers. Bloopers are wasted film, scraps that we spend money and invest efforts turning a profit for entertainment. Can that wasted film be recycled and can those efforts and energies be used elsewhere? That is a silly example, but hopefully you get my point. Do we need the latest gizmos and gadgets? Do we need all those products needed to improve our façade? Can our resources be reinvested to something that benefits all, not just our individual personas?

It is striking to me that even in our need for commercial goods and services, people in our very own country are starving. We don’t have to look to third world countries for poverty. Just a few years ago in visiting New Orleans after Katrina, people were still sitting door steps, homes without doors and windows. Their neighborhood streets littered with rat carcasses. One of my colleagues quoted, “So sad seeing people sitting on front porches waiting to be saved, but no one is coming to help them.” Being there are Americans living in these very conditions, is it fair to be concerned with our own personal issues? What is more important, that we look good and are appealing, or to feed the starving people? Is it more important we have the latest video game or that children receive a proper education? What is more important, we are entertained by bloopers or have a vast improved public transportation system?

As today we celebrate one of my greatest heroes, Martin Luther King and tomorrow we welcome Barak Obama to the White House, I must quote another great American, John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” And I ask, “What are we doing for our country today?”