From making our bed to making democracy work

We have choices to make in our lives and our pastor says to choose wisely. Daily choices such as making one’s bed each morning and choosing what to eat. Housekeeping such as the bed making are a matter of personal pride but the diet choice has health consequences and Americans are currently being accused of being overweight or obese. I hate that word and honestly struggle a bit with that problem. Oh well.

We have choices to make on a national scale. A large faction wants our democratic republic to morph into a socialist form of government. For me that would be a disaster so we need to pay attention and vote accordingly. Every where socialism has been implemented it has turned into a disaster for the common people and I’m talking about China and the former Soviet Union. Our country is a so much better place to live and for it to continue it is a choice that we the voters will have to choose.

Currently, our US Congress is considering a movement to eliminate the right-to-work laws of the twenty-six states that have them. Nebraska included. Right to Work means that workers have the right to join a union and pay those dues only if they want to. Those states with no right-to-work legislation workers are required to pay union dues if their place of employment is organized, no choice involved. Think of the American Federation of Teachers under the leadership of Randi Weingarten and the reported bad influence that her reign has reportedly had on education in those states where teachers have had no choice but to support her union. Your old columnist is not in favor of public employee unions either but that is a subject for another time.

Thankfully our local schools appear to be well run. If you have a child in the local school you have the choice of paying attention or not complaining if things don’t go as they should. Actually any of us that pay property tax have a $$$ reason to pay attention. Nevertheless, I think that our schools are well run and our school boards choose well.

Ditto for our City and County government. We have the choice to pay attention or not complain.

The curiosity in me caused to recently read a book by Lynnette Hartwig called How Humans Became Intelligent. She writes that humans have been on this earth for some 250 million years. They (we) evolved into small hunter-gatherer tribes and then abruptly some 9000 to 12,000 years ago humans developed a vision of future. It happened worldwide and gave them a reason to acquire property—build permanent homes and own land for instance. Those possessions they could pass on to their relatives to insure them a future. As an aside other studying and reading shows that roughly, very roughly, that same timeframe is when the worlds major religions also originated.

Mrs. Hartwig then talks about end-of-life issues—getting more important to this old guy somehow. She talks about how some children frustrate the desires of their parents by spending all the inheritance that the parents intended to go to their children by “giving” it all to the medical community just to prolong their parents' lives when the old people were ready and preferred to die anyhow. It is a choice and maybe we should listen to the parent’s wishes. Probably a tough choice!

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail