No Little Plans

Those who are critics of this administration's attempts to revive the economy may have a point. Creating jobs that merely put money in the pockets of people who will, make that must, spend it, is short sighted even if it works.

"Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men’s blood!", said Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect (1864-1912). Nothing has changed since those words were spoken. We still need grand dreams to unite us, to motivate us, and to inspire us. But what do we get? "Leaders" who are deathly afraid to lead.

This is not just a failure that is pervasive in government; it is also a failure in the business community. Large businesses do not venture far from what is making money today. Where is their nerve? Where is their imagination? Would we have MRI technology if we waited for GE to invent it? I don’t think so. Would we have the personal computer if we waited for IBM to invent it? These companies did not have imagination nor did they have the entrepreneurial spirit. They may have seen the future coming down the pike, and either ignored it because they thought it wouldn’t work, or they waited until the development is well under way, so they could steal it.
Phil Farnsworth invented the all electronic television that was later stolen by Sarnoff at RCA. Dr. Raymond Damadian, primary inventor of the MRI, fought years to win a patent infringement suit. against GE, Mitsubishi, and others. It was the little guys with big dreams that advanced science.

State and federal governing bodies have shown themselves to be inept at governing in the past several decades. The Republicans are retrograde (they were against women suffrage, civil rights, labor unions right to organize, Medicare, and, ... well, you get it). The Democrats on the other hand have been gutless, and therefore no better. The Dems are just as manipulated as the retrograde party by the corporate interests that fund them, but they talk a better game. So hooray for the Democrats; they sound better.

When the Republicans announce that they will filibuster legislation the Democrats run for the hills. The rest of us wonder why. Many of us had to confront a bully along the way to growing up. One day you turn around and do battle. You take your lumps, or maybe you kick his butt. In either case the bully is likely to seek out a new victim, after all, you just became too much work. The Republicans are bullies too, but no one will confront them.

Do we need a national system of electrical grids to collect and distribute power from all sources to all destinations? Do we need a high speed, national ground transportation system to efficiently move people and freight? Do we need to reform public pensions? Do we need to address shortfalls in Medicare and Social Security? Do we need to ferret out waste and fraud wherever it exists so that we can be a highly completive nation? Do we need to reign in our military so that we don’t war ourselves out of existence? The answers to all of those questions are a resounding yes! The list goes on, but this will do for starters. I think most people are tired of the talk that we hear reported from elected officials in Albany and Washington. Most of what politicians are saying when they speak are well rehearsed bumper sticker type slogans, and they insult our intelligence when they give us those stock, "poll tested" responses.

If ever there was a time when a third party could make a showing, it is now. We may be going there.