Bits and Pieces

Infrastructure Bill: Finally, congress has passed the spending bill for infrastructure. Please note that over half that bill’s funding was approved in other legislation long ago, so the actual increased spending is less than $600 billion. But it is a start.

This is not a feather in anyone’s cap. Infrastructure is like a house. We invest in buying a house, condo or tent in which to live, to house our family. It is an investment in ourselves. So too, roads, bridges, dams, power grids, airports, public safety hardware and the like. We pay for these investments with taxes and improved economic functioning. If the economy grows, tax revenues grow. These are used to pay the ‘mortgage’ payments on the debt that funded the investment in the first place.

Our thinking needs to expand to include new things that are infrastructure. Things like internet expansion to improve access by most if not all Americans. Like the airwaves that carry TV and radio signals (and cell phone conversations), we all benefit from technology only if it is broadly available and accessible. This is an economic reality reliant on technology access. Fund it for God’s sake!

Such spending is a society’s way of improving itself. It is not republican or democrat. It is not even American. It is universal.

Expressway Shootings: Freedom. To think, move, live one’s life pretty much as they want to. As long as we do not trample on the rights and freedoms of others, then what we do should be OK. Of course, there are shared values and limitations to be observed (public decency, respect for privacy, and public safety to name a few).

Random acts of violence like drive-by shootings, whether on a neighborhood street or on an expressway, limits the freedom of the public. Our safety is threatened. Our freedom of movement is squashed. Our peace of mind is jarred, even erased.

To say gun violence is hazardous to public health and safety, is obvious. So too vaccinations; they protect the public’s health and safety. In turn, that protects our freedom of movement, thinking, health and commerce.

Random acts of responsibility could counter the other hazards. If only we were not so stubborn. And selfish.

Joe Biden’s Success: The President’s job is to help develop the nation’s agenda. What needs to be done, when and how. What are we missing and how do we fill those gaps? Where should we focus our attention for now and the future? What vision do we follow, create and amend? These are the functions of leadership.

Whether the followers follow or muck it up is on them. Whether loyalists or opponents, it is not the personality that suffers wins and losses. It is the people who do.

American politics have failed to understand that the job of government is to support and nurture living forward. Not backward. Forward with invention, hope and peace.

Are we doing that in our nation? I think the answer is a resounding NO!

That’s not on the President. That’s on the rest of us for allowing jerks to distort our system of justice, equality and freedom.

Shoutout: Daughter Elizabeth’s 50^th birthday is today. From the hospital in Elmhurst, Illinois, to home in Wheaton, and all the places in between then and now, Liz has graced so many lives in those five decades. We wish her happiness in all things and long life! 

November 8, 2021