I know it gets old to hear people drone on about the New
Year and all, but it does make one think. I always remember going to the movies
this time of year as a child and seeing the cartoon where the Baby New Year
chased out the Old Man Past Year. I always felt sorry for the old man. On the
other hand, I’ve probably stayed up, by choice, until midnight on New Year’s
Eve maybe a dozen times in my life. Never saw much sense in it.
Sunday will mark the 44th year since I reported
to work (the day was a Monday in 1971) on my first real job after military
service. It was with a planning firm and, since they didn’t really have an opening
but took a chance on me, I took a chance on them—a job paying $400 per month,
not really much even back then.
A year and a half later, when I met and married Brenda, I
was making $900 per month, the equivalent of maybe $60,000 per year in today’s
dollars. A few years later, I was a partner in the firm, not a major partner,
but a partner nonetheless and my annual salary was the equivalent of close to
$100,000 by today’s standards. I think it was a chance that paid off well.
It’s been an enlightening experience. I often think of the
first secretary the firm hired after I arrived. The mother of a small child,
she was kicked out on the street by her husband and “Bambi” at nine o’clock one
night, child in hand. During the divorce proceedings, the (male) judge awarded
her a child-support payment that was $12.00 per month less than her child-care
cost. For that she tended, doctored, fed, and nurtured the child except for an
occasional weekend when the “dad” would take him to ride horses at the farm of
Bambi’s parents. That mother, our secretary, through no fault of her own,
needed the help of her community and government. It never came, and this new
batch of legislators seems hell-bent on making sure it never comes for her
modern counterpoints. She, nevertheless, survived as did hundreds of thousands,
maybe millions, like her. There should be a monument erected someday.
I owe the fact that we are financially independent to two
presidents, I suppose—Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Reagan fouled the economy
up for local governments almost beyond redemption, and, just as I started my
own consulting firm, Clinton came into office. The subsequent financial boom
was exacerbated for me because most cities were in such a state of disrepair
that they were quite willing to use their new financial stability to pay
someone to help update their planning system. It was a glorious eight years and
coincided with my peak earning period. One can’t ask for much better than that.
I suppose we should also thank the current president Barack
Obama. Although I now only work sporadically when I want to, our net worth has
nearly doubled while he nurtured the economy from its almost total collapse. Life
is good for us. I wish it could be for everyone.
We are lucky though, for we both have enjoyed good health. I’ve
been sick enough to miss work only once since 1971. We’ve never faced the
ordeal of some of our brothers and sisters who had to deal with an obscene,
until now, system of providing health care. Blessed, we’ve been so blessed.
I will die happy if I am wrong, but I fear now that our
country has begun its long slide into historical obscurity. If so, I’ll
probably be able to watch it from the sidelines as they must deal with the minorities,
the poor, women, and the immigrants before they come for the white, male,
college graduates.
After all this time, I plan to pass on still harboring the
belief that government be a force for good if used wisely, that religious
institutions can be a force for evil if used poorly, and that the salvation of America may rest on the strength of our women.
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| Only a mother could teach a child goodness from a heart that knows only misery. |
See also www.travelswithanalien.blogspot.com
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