If you have been reading from my early blogs, they dealt with the problems I am suffering from this bad economy and trying to run a Tree Surgery business: Affordable / Professional Tree Surgeons.
AT LAST---I am getting help!
Did you know that some 2 years ago the IRS put in a new tax break for large corporations? They did!!!!
What is it?
A large corporation which establishes a Foundation whose funds are available to struggling small businesses gets a break!
Small businesses, like mine, which are suffering a 30-70% reduction in earnings over the last 3 years can apply for help. I applied for $50,000-$1,000,000 in relief. Last week, I got a grant for $50,000+!!!! It will be coming to me in 30-45 business days.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How did I get it?
I was contacted by phone as a cold call some 3 months ago. The outfit is named Turnaround Business Group, Inc. They are located in Henderson, NV, about 50 miles from Las Vegas. They said they served as the liason between small businesses and Foundations waiting to fund them.
For a fee of about 1.8% of $50,000, they serve to get together your request / represent you to the corporation / get the funds you need. Their original financial cost for services provided is $2,999.00. Send the money and they start their work with a promise that nothing further is needed until they secure, at least, half of the funds requested. At that point an additional $4,790 is needed to pay for the Sears-Roebuck size catalogue of paperwork / legal details / web site with the promise of money delivery within 30-45 days. You can repay your initial costs out of those funds.
Now you are saying, "This sounds like a scam since money is required up front!" NO!!!!!!!!
First, they provided me with contact information for the Attorney General's Office in the state of Nevada, should I wish to check them out. I was also encouraged to contact the local Chamber of Commerce and Better Business Bureau. I did! They are real and have no complaints against them.
When I could not come up with the entire $2,999.00, they were willing to accept the $2,500 I could borrow to start the process. Needless to say, when you have been operating at 30% of earnings for 3 solid years / lost your home to foreclosure / had your water and electricity turned off several times during this Depression--er, Recession--as long as you listen to government pontificaters!
It was a real struggle to find that initial money, but a kind Baptist friend who owns a finance company was willing to take the risk--as long as I secured the loan with my truck and an expensive Chipping Machine. My family had been "loaned out" trying to help me keep my house 3 years ago. This is the reality for far too many of us small business owners since our economy took a "slight" nosedive under the Bush Administration's fine regulatory practices. I say this in jest, of course!!!
I was convinced of their legitimacy the second they offered to take less than the stated fee. In addition, in the course of conversation via phone, I discovered these people have religious convictions--and it is real rather than another "come on" using religion to fake you out!
Within the stated 90-180 days they produced!!!!
Now I am finishing questionares to formulate a small part of the Sears catalogue of documents.
Here is how this Grant works:
(1) I am required to set up a non-interest-bearing checking account into which the funds go.
(2) I must make a 6-month report to the Foundation which includes copies front and back of all checks issued to fulfill my request.
(3) The Grant comes with an IRS tracking number, lest I run afoul of the taxman. It is non-taxable as long as it is spent to secure my business.
The rationale for helping small businesses to compete again:
(1) I hire and secure employees whose families get income so they can, again, support the general economy and pay their taxes.
(2) I buy equipment so the providers of such have an income. For example, Bobcat of Wilson is struggling with reduced sales and repairs. I still owe them $1,000 for repair of my A-300 machine last year. My income is such that I can't pay it. Now I can---and I am ordering a new machine with trailer to carry it! They are getting much more happy with this struggling customer! I am tired of transporting my maching with overdrive kicked out for 2 hours to service my customers in my local Beaufort County home/office.
(3) I repay accumulated debt which amounts to some $120,000. They are happy!
(4) I am able to build/lease property to house my business. Construction and Real Estate people are happy!
(5) I am able to have several billboards to fill the many which are vacant these days. The billboard/advertising people are happy!
(6) I can now bring quality tree care to people who don't yet know me. They will be happy they met me and get quality work at affordable prices!
(7) I can buy a tractor-trailer rig to get to Hufficane/Storm relief needs. They will be happy to not have a gouging contractor in place to help them recover!
I hope, by now, you see the first wisdom I have seen in this whole economic mess. At last, someone is helping small business get back on its feet! My earliest blogs were about my attempts to get federal help through my 2 NC Congressional Representative---not a single thing came my way except more of "we must help Corporate America and the Banking Industry.
Folks--Trickle Down Economics doesn't work!!! If you haven't figured that one out yet, ask a question: "If we own 61% of GM as taxpayers, why aren't all their products 61% cheaper to the taxpayers whose money was used to bail them out???"
Don't you think if the above were true, we would be buying GM products right and left so they could put their assemblyline workers back to work--plus the sub-assembly companies providing goods to that line? Check out the economy of Michigan to see if anything happened---other than Corporate Executives getting bonuses I could run my small business on for the next 5 years! IT HAS NOT HAPPENED.
The same is true of the Financial Industry: Has anyone who lost some 45% of their investment value been restored? Have any of the lying/cheating pencil pushing/creative accounting thieves gone to the Federal Pen over their clearly unlawful securities practices?
I have a Series 6 Securities Liscense and know whereof I speak. You are fingerprinted upon getting it, and the laws/guildelines are clear: "Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" to anyone trusting you with money management. It's just that simple, or "Go To Jail-do not pass GO" as the Monopoly game card reads!
So here is my truthful story and my encouragement that you do something besides moan and groan about "how bad things are!" You have to have a little faith and trust in an environment where "if it is too good to be true--it probably isn't." We are being totally put into a prison of doubt by illegal practices which don't seem to get punished or controlled.
If you have some controlled trust and check things out so any doubts are alayed, you might find some help. I am sure there are some schemers out there. I get emails every day from folks promising Federal Grants/education/etc.
I don't respond because I don't want all the red tape attached to Government Grants. This, however, is a Private Foundation trying to get money into responsible hands. It has some IRS controls, but I am sure there will be illegitimte grantees trying to scam the system assuming "Wall Street and Detroit got away with it and so will I." Worse becomes even worse if we give up on the promise of the Free Enterprise System, properly competing, to give hard-working people in small business a chance to succeed or fail---according to their wisdom and hard work.
Where would you rather invest---Corporate America, where books are cooked and accounting has become more than creative / where long-term experienced personnl get the age 55 "golden parachute", OR your own business which provides good services at a reasonable price????
The ball is in your court now!
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
A night spent at my daughter's house
Sunday was interesting. I needed to get the Bobcat to Rocky Mount and pick up wood for another man who had cut some trees. My situation is so desperate, I am willing to just pick up wood for it's value. A full trailer load of good logs which are turned into plywood could bring me $200. That is the maximum any load will bring, but something is better than nothing.
I had planned to do this Monday, but bad weather was coming so I upped it a day---to find the rascal had let someone else have the wood without telling me he had changed his mind. What a pile of--I'll just say sorry pulp wood which brings about as much as cow manure!
So I went on to my daughter's house to find only my wife there. It was so nice to have a few hours alone with the woman I love and respect who is protecting our daughter and grandsons.
Daddy had the 4 boys for the day and brought them back about 5:00. The second he saw me a scowl went across his face. I decided to be nice and asked, "How's it going today?" With that he slammed the McDonald's bag full of air and scared the mess out of the boys. He walked off and within a few minutes was leaving muttering. He then, with the most hateful voice said, "I hope you enjoy MY house / MY TV," and slammed the door on his way out. Had he not had his mommas car instead of his hot dog Mustang, I am sure rubber would have squalled for 1/4 mile! Hate was in the air and the boys were terrified.
A little later when they were snuggling and talking the truth came out: their daddy had spent the day saying all kinds of hateful things about my wife and I as his parents goaded him on in front of the boys. All it really did was make the boys evaluate even more who cared about them and what a loving home they were coming back to. We turned out the lights, popped popcorn, and had a good children's movie along with child talk and play until it was bed time.
In a way I am laughing myself to death over this: he had criticized behind our backs only to find both of us being nice to him when he brought the boys in. That was the real source of anger--he knows his family and him are mean and cruel---then he had to see 2 grandparents giving the children only love and control. How sad!
As I drove back home 1.5 hours yesterday I spent most of the journey in thought and prayer. I put in a call to my daughter's attorney and talked with his assistant. They were supposed to have the Separation Papers drawn already, but it hasn't yet happened. They have been paid in full. They advised Sara to be sweet and non-combative so he would be more prone to sign. The trouble is, no matter how nice we all are, he continues awful phone calls and messages with all the horrible female expletives of "b" / "w" / "s" / etc. accusing my daughter of an affair she never even thinks about. The secretary immediately called my daughter to see if more severe things should be done to further protect her. They care about this more than the money involved. This lawyer has been through divorce himself with a abusive wife!
Imagine this: the mother of 4 active boys who gets no help with their discipline or care outside a bag of fast food which makes them worse / a house which never gets all straight because he and his boys think clothes should just be thrown anywhere they take them off / a manager of a Bed, Bath, and Beyond store at Christmas shopping time---and she is out chasing some man!!!! Give me a break. With his bad male behaviour and 4 boys copying him, the last thing she wants is another stupid male. She may never marry again.
I have counseled many women in this situation. To a person, they have all said, "The last thing I care about now is another stupid bully / idiot / self-centered man! If I never have to live with one again, it would be nice!"
Women have a great capacity for love and tolerance, far more than men. BUT there comes a time when they have been abused enough and all love ceases. They might feel sorry for the rascal, but there is no response to attempted hugs or kisses. He thought it was cute to take a picture of his "manhood" and show it to my daughter with an invitation to the marital bed. He might as well have poured a big bucket of cold water over her. It was TOTALLY gross!
The LAST THING she wants from him now is any touching or even being in the house or within sight of her or the boys. He has died as far as she is concerned because love has died. In this sense she has totally fulfilled her wedding vow: It says "til death do us part" and the death of love through abuse is as real as physical death--in many ways, if he went through with his empty threat to "kill himself," it would be kinder and more final. In fact when he said it in a follow up to his hateful recorded message she wisely told him, "Go ahead! Use a long knife or big gun so there will be no big hospital bills or debilitated person left behind to bother me any more!" It is all empty threat--I doubt this one has the guts---BUT NEVER SIT BACK THINKING THIS---he has enough crazy and anger to harm others, if not himself!
I back my daughter 100% on all this! For her sake and the boys this terror must end. Love and family living deserve much more. He is trying to pass on the sick upbringing he had, but my daughter, and us, are moving ahead to get his Demon Possessed personality to the Isolation Ward. Unless he chooses to change after 35 years, all he will do is spread the germs of "I can't love myself" in any relationship he makes.
If he killed himself today, he would be no more dead than with what he has done to love in 15 years of abuse! I pray for him an exorcism of his demon of not knowing what love is because he got only hate and abuse as he grew up.
My daddy always said, "You can't keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can surely keep him from nesting there."
This was in terms of his poorer than poor upbringing out of which he WORKED! He hitch-hiked to college, peeled potatoes and cut hair to get through, and then worked every day so his family would never experience the Depression era poverty he knew! I did yard work and trim carpentry to get through!
Anyone can grow up in difficult circumstances, but NO ONE has to stay there! If you stay there it is by choice and excuse rather than getting hold of your boot straps and pulling yourself up. Nowadays, race or poverty are somewhat an asset because every expensive tax-paid program is available should you be a minority / poor / uneducated / etc. Don't tell me "you can't help it" because my father and I have proven otherwise.
Just get off your pity pot and get on with life!
I had planned to do this Monday, but bad weather was coming so I upped it a day---to find the rascal had let someone else have the wood without telling me he had changed his mind. What a pile of--I'll just say sorry pulp wood which brings about as much as cow manure!
So I went on to my daughter's house to find only my wife there. It was so nice to have a few hours alone with the woman I love and respect who is protecting our daughter and grandsons.
Daddy had the 4 boys for the day and brought them back about 5:00. The second he saw me a scowl went across his face. I decided to be nice and asked, "How's it going today?" With that he slammed the McDonald's bag full of air and scared the mess out of the boys. He walked off and within a few minutes was leaving muttering. He then, with the most hateful voice said, "I hope you enjoy MY house / MY TV," and slammed the door on his way out. Had he not had his mommas car instead of his hot dog Mustang, I am sure rubber would have squalled for 1/4 mile! Hate was in the air and the boys were terrified.
A little later when they were snuggling and talking the truth came out: their daddy had spent the day saying all kinds of hateful things about my wife and I as his parents goaded him on in front of the boys. All it really did was make the boys evaluate even more who cared about them and what a loving home they were coming back to. We turned out the lights, popped popcorn, and had a good children's movie along with child talk and play until it was bed time.
In a way I am laughing myself to death over this: he had criticized behind our backs only to find both of us being nice to him when he brought the boys in. That was the real source of anger--he knows his family and him are mean and cruel---then he had to see 2 grandparents giving the children only love and control. How sad!
As I drove back home 1.5 hours yesterday I spent most of the journey in thought and prayer. I put in a call to my daughter's attorney and talked with his assistant. They were supposed to have the Separation Papers drawn already, but it hasn't yet happened. They have been paid in full. They advised Sara to be sweet and non-combative so he would be more prone to sign. The trouble is, no matter how nice we all are, he continues awful phone calls and messages with all the horrible female expletives of "b" / "w" / "s" / etc. accusing my daughter of an affair she never even thinks about. The secretary immediately called my daughter to see if more severe things should be done to further protect her. They care about this more than the money involved. This lawyer has been through divorce himself with a abusive wife!
Imagine this: the mother of 4 active boys who gets no help with their discipline or care outside a bag of fast food which makes them worse / a house which never gets all straight because he and his boys think clothes should just be thrown anywhere they take them off / a manager of a Bed, Bath, and Beyond store at Christmas shopping time---and she is out chasing some man!!!! Give me a break. With his bad male behaviour and 4 boys copying him, the last thing she wants is another stupid male. She may never marry again.
I have counseled many women in this situation. To a person, they have all said, "The last thing I care about now is another stupid bully / idiot / self-centered man! If I never have to live with one again, it would be nice!"
Women have a great capacity for love and tolerance, far more than men. BUT there comes a time when they have been abused enough and all love ceases. They might feel sorry for the rascal, but there is no response to attempted hugs or kisses. He thought it was cute to take a picture of his "manhood" and show it to my daughter with an invitation to the marital bed. He might as well have poured a big bucket of cold water over her. It was TOTALLY gross!
The LAST THING she wants from him now is any touching or even being in the house or within sight of her or the boys. He has died as far as she is concerned because love has died. In this sense she has totally fulfilled her wedding vow: It says "til death do us part" and the death of love through abuse is as real as physical death--in many ways, if he went through with his empty threat to "kill himself," it would be kinder and more final. In fact when he said it in a follow up to his hateful recorded message she wisely told him, "Go ahead! Use a long knife or big gun so there will be no big hospital bills or debilitated person left behind to bother me any more!" It is all empty threat--I doubt this one has the guts---BUT NEVER SIT BACK THINKING THIS---he has enough crazy and anger to harm others, if not himself!
I back my daughter 100% on all this! For her sake and the boys this terror must end. Love and family living deserve much more. He is trying to pass on the sick upbringing he had, but my daughter, and us, are moving ahead to get his Demon Possessed personality to the Isolation Ward. Unless he chooses to change after 35 years, all he will do is spread the germs of "I can't love myself" in any relationship he makes.
If he killed himself today, he would be no more dead than with what he has done to love in 15 years of abuse! I pray for him an exorcism of his demon of not knowing what love is because he got only hate and abuse as he grew up.
My daddy always said, "You can't keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can surely keep him from nesting there."
This was in terms of his poorer than poor upbringing out of which he WORKED! He hitch-hiked to college, peeled potatoes and cut hair to get through, and then worked every day so his family would never experience the Depression era poverty he knew! I did yard work and trim carpentry to get through!
Anyone can grow up in difficult circumstances, but NO ONE has to stay there! If you stay there it is by choice and excuse rather than getting hold of your boot straps and pulling yourself up. Nowadays, race or poverty are somewhat an asset because every expensive tax-paid program is available should you be a minority / poor / uneducated / etc. Don't tell me "you can't help it" because my father and I have proven otherwise.
Just get off your pity pot and get on with life!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Riding Herd on Buffalos
I loved cowboy movies growing up. They were the highlight of TV as we got our first black-and-white set from Sears in the mid-50's. In fact, a kid who didn't like westerns was pretty much out of luck on any given Saturday. I remember Howdy Doody--it had a western theme? My Friend Flicka was on later with the beautiful black stallion. Finally, was my favorite: The Roy Rogers Show.
I dreamed of owning a beautiful Palomino like Trigger. I asked Santa for Roy Rogers guns one Christmas, and got, instead, a Lone Ranger set of 6-guns while my younger brother got the Roy Rogers set. The difference was brown leather for Roy Rogers and black for Lone Ranger. His guns were light and could shoot caps. Mine were silver and 3 times as heavy. Later on, as a father it came to me that children with identical toys would be fighting all the time so our parents wisely got Santa to bring different kinds or there might be a real killing between the Scarborough boys. They were quite competitive!
I was born on March 23 and my brother came along on March 3 the following year! We were almost like twins without having popped into the world at the same time. Momma later confessed to my wife in her first pregnancy: "Don't you dare believe that old wives tale that you can't get pregnant while nursing a baby. Gene's younger brother Charles is living proof that it is a total LIE!"
My brother and I grew up when life was good. There was no A-C nor power steering. Few people had a TV--much less color. Media was more radio than TV and we spent many a night or sick time from school listening to WSB Radio in Atlanta--"The voice of the South." It's funny how things stick to a child's mind! We even survived riding in a car without seat belts or cell phone distraction! Our parents actually had enough sense to drive carefully and slow enough to be safe for their sake and us children.
Like WSM in Nashville, WSB can still be heard in a scratchy way almost anywhere in the SE United States. I still sometimes tune to 750 AM just to feel like home again. Atlanta was not yet to her first million residents. You could play all over the neighborhood safely. DeBell street in Clarkston was nothing but wall-to-wall children laughing and make believing! Anything you did wrong would get back to momma before we got home, and God help us if we did anything immoral or illegal. There was no "wait til your daddy gets home from that SC farm girl."
She would almost always make us pick our own switches! This was my first adventure in executive decision making: what is "just the right size?" If it is too little and flimsy it could cut you / if it is too stiff and big so it won't cut, it might bruise! Dear God, help me pick the right one 'cause I'm gonna get a whipping soon!
One thing I remember about the westerns were cattle stampedes. Even worse was the dreaded buffalo stampede. Where cows could bash the poor cowboy whose horse slipped, the buffalo would mash them all flat as a flitter. Cows would go around the buildings and boulders, buffalo would go through and leave nothing standing! A buffalo stampede was the most dreaded result of nature's wrath. They would spook at thunder and lightening and come over the hill after my cowboys felt the earth shake as a warning. God help the cowboy sleeping peacefully at night with his innocent herd of cows nearby when the buffalo got loose!
We had a small herd of buffalo residing near us at my last house. It was always neat to take our grandchildren by to see these massive animals. Normally children get to see them only at a zoo, but the Red Oak / Castalia area had our own herd. They were beautiful. On of the things which fascinated our small ones was the time a baby buffalo got somehow under the fence. It's momma was close to pushing down that barbed wire before the farmer discovered the little lost baby. Instead of just the momma cow pushing until the barbs hurt and stopped, a buffalo has such thick hide and companionship no fence stands a chance when the herd wants to get to the other side.
I know now why "You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd" was a popular teen song. It stimulated a funny image, but it told a serious truth: try to skate among the hairy beasts and you will get smashed!!!
Now for the application as to why I feel like I am skating in a buffalo herd these days!
Our ECONOMY is a buffalo herd to me. After some 2 years of Depression (notice I didn't say Recession) the buffalo herd of corporate America is getting all the favors, while the small businessman is seeing virtually NOTHING. At last they are talking about "tax credits" and "easier loans," but why has the buffalo herd crushed for so long.
The first response this time in Depression was massive bailouts to financial and investment firms along wit the auto industry. Instead of setting investors back on their feet and customers right, the feet of the buffalo herd crushed them more! The buffaloes running each part of those 3 herds gave themselves bonuses for running their business into the ground.
Did the customer or investor get one red cent???? Not just "NO" but "HELL NO!"
Us American taxpayers now own 61% of GM, but are their products 61% cheaper to the poor fools whose money bailed them out??? Same answer as above!!!
Has the unenforced rules and regulations of the Stock Exchange brought lyers and thieves to justice or removed their securities license from them? Again, same answer as above!!!
How many have gone to Federal Prison for depriving the typical investor of about 45% on average of the value of their investments??? Has my retired school teacher / preacher's wife mother had her portfolio restored. It was wisely managed, but where she had little or non worries, she is in a tight spot now.
I don't like that!!!
I earned a Series 6 Securities license and it wasn't easy. The test is hard and few pass it the first time. I took a course to help me after getting completely buffaloed by the books. The most helpful thing the teacher told us was that most of the multiple choice answers would be similar and more than enough were tricky with very similar answers.
HOWEVER, the way to get passed was to ALWAYS ask a simple queston: Which answer is closest to "Always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to the client."
I did not know all there was to know about equity management, but that 1 major concept above got me passed with a right good score the first time through---truth, whole truth, nothing but truth! I like that.
Our buffalo herd feeding grounds seem to lack too much of the above for some reason. The honest brokers and managers as well as corporate executives tossed that motto out the window and traded it for another:
Always tell the investor what he wants to hear--profits / more profits / and nothing but profits!
This is a dangerous motto.
Did you know EVERY Corporation in America has the legal right to keep 2 sets of books: 1 for the Tax Man and another for the Investor!! Guess which one shows roses and rainbows while the other shows gloom and doom. What happened to truth / whole truth / nothing but the truth? Why are not the same figures shown to both parties--pay your fair taxes and if it is bad, just tell the investor why you have learned and how you hope to improve the future!
I had my Insurance License first and then added the Securities License so I was pretty schooled in 2 professions which call for utmost honesty. That was not a hard push for me because in my childhood westerns--the good guys wore white hats and always told the truth. Even my other hero, The Lone Ranger, who wore a dark outfit had a white horse and white hat both. Roy Rogers nor the Lone Ranger would ever tell a lie to anyone. As soon as they heard about corrupt land barons or dirty business people in a town, they got seriously on their trusty steeds and ran them out.
Now, if Saturday morning cowboys reflected society 50 years later, Roy's immediate response to hearing of corruption today would be: "Let's take a survey to see what the public thinks! I'm not risking getting shot if it's not popular with the people!"
What a wuss! All of us "made in America" kids would immediately switch to the Lone Ranger and never trust Roy again! Forget his beautiful palomino and dog "Bullet" with lovely Dale Evans and Pat Brady by his side. If he tells lies and won't do anything about crime, I will never send in my cereal boxtops again for a decoder ring!!!.
Things in buffalo herd land are so bad today, we haven't even noticed our .50 box of Kellogg's cereal now costs $5 and has air blown into the mash which makes the cornflakes so we get less grain and more air in that "family size box at Wal-Mart."
Meanwhile, that poor farmer raising the grains is getting about the same price per ton as he did 20 years ago! The boys on the Commodities Exchange in Chicago are riding their Bentleys and Rolls-Royces to the airport for their corporate jets to buy oil futures in Saudi Arabia and vacation for $10,000 a day in Dubai at the same time!
My God!!!! The buffalo herd is thundering at us and we have no place to go! As a small businessman I am making 30% of what I did 3 years ago. I finally met another man in worse shape--he makes $300-400,000 luxury cruisers and is making 10% of what he made 3 years ago. His customers seem to be those described above vacationing in Dubai. I guess a large, beautiful, gas guzzling yacht just pales in comparison to a corporate jet and Dubai.
Does it have anything to do with buffaloes thundering down on us?????
I dreamed of owning a beautiful Palomino like Trigger. I asked Santa for Roy Rogers guns one Christmas, and got, instead, a Lone Ranger set of 6-guns while my younger brother got the Roy Rogers set. The difference was brown leather for Roy Rogers and black for Lone Ranger. His guns were light and could shoot caps. Mine were silver and 3 times as heavy. Later on, as a father it came to me that children with identical toys would be fighting all the time so our parents wisely got Santa to bring different kinds or there might be a real killing between the Scarborough boys. They were quite competitive!
I was born on March 23 and my brother came along on March 3 the following year! We were almost like twins without having popped into the world at the same time. Momma later confessed to my wife in her first pregnancy: "Don't you dare believe that old wives tale that you can't get pregnant while nursing a baby. Gene's younger brother Charles is living proof that it is a total LIE!"
My brother and I grew up when life was good. There was no A-C nor power steering. Few people had a TV--much less color. Media was more radio than TV and we spent many a night or sick time from school listening to WSB Radio in Atlanta--"The voice of the South." It's funny how things stick to a child's mind! We even survived riding in a car without seat belts or cell phone distraction! Our parents actually had enough sense to drive carefully and slow enough to be safe for their sake and us children.
Like WSM in Nashville, WSB can still be heard in a scratchy way almost anywhere in the SE United States. I still sometimes tune to 750 AM just to feel like home again. Atlanta was not yet to her first million residents. You could play all over the neighborhood safely. DeBell street in Clarkston was nothing but wall-to-wall children laughing and make believing! Anything you did wrong would get back to momma before we got home, and God help us if we did anything immoral or illegal. There was no "wait til your daddy gets home from that SC farm girl."
She would almost always make us pick our own switches! This was my first adventure in executive decision making: what is "just the right size?" If it is too little and flimsy it could cut you / if it is too stiff and big so it won't cut, it might bruise! Dear God, help me pick the right one 'cause I'm gonna get a whipping soon!
One thing I remember about the westerns were cattle stampedes. Even worse was the dreaded buffalo stampede. Where cows could bash the poor cowboy whose horse slipped, the buffalo would mash them all flat as a flitter. Cows would go around the buildings and boulders, buffalo would go through and leave nothing standing! A buffalo stampede was the most dreaded result of nature's wrath. They would spook at thunder and lightening and come over the hill after my cowboys felt the earth shake as a warning. God help the cowboy sleeping peacefully at night with his innocent herd of cows nearby when the buffalo got loose!
We had a small herd of buffalo residing near us at my last house. It was always neat to take our grandchildren by to see these massive animals. Normally children get to see them only at a zoo, but the Red Oak / Castalia area had our own herd. They were beautiful. On of the things which fascinated our small ones was the time a baby buffalo got somehow under the fence. It's momma was close to pushing down that barbed wire before the farmer discovered the little lost baby. Instead of just the momma cow pushing until the barbs hurt and stopped, a buffalo has such thick hide and companionship no fence stands a chance when the herd wants to get to the other side.
I know now why "You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd" was a popular teen song. It stimulated a funny image, but it told a serious truth: try to skate among the hairy beasts and you will get smashed!!!
Now for the application as to why I feel like I am skating in a buffalo herd these days!
Our ECONOMY is a buffalo herd to me. After some 2 years of Depression (notice I didn't say Recession) the buffalo herd of corporate America is getting all the favors, while the small businessman is seeing virtually NOTHING. At last they are talking about "tax credits" and "easier loans," but why has the buffalo herd crushed for so long.
The first response this time in Depression was massive bailouts to financial and investment firms along wit the auto industry. Instead of setting investors back on their feet and customers right, the feet of the buffalo herd crushed them more! The buffaloes running each part of those 3 herds gave themselves bonuses for running their business into the ground.
Did the customer or investor get one red cent???? Not just "NO" but "HELL NO!"
Us American taxpayers now own 61% of GM, but are their products 61% cheaper to the poor fools whose money bailed them out??? Same answer as above!!!
Has the unenforced rules and regulations of the Stock Exchange brought lyers and thieves to justice or removed their securities license from them? Again, same answer as above!!!
How many have gone to Federal Prison for depriving the typical investor of about 45% on average of the value of their investments??? Has my retired school teacher / preacher's wife mother had her portfolio restored. It was wisely managed, but where she had little or non worries, she is in a tight spot now.
I don't like that!!!
I earned a Series 6 Securities license and it wasn't easy. The test is hard and few pass it the first time. I took a course to help me after getting completely buffaloed by the books. The most helpful thing the teacher told us was that most of the multiple choice answers would be similar and more than enough were tricky with very similar answers.
HOWEVER, the way to get passed was to ALWAYS ask a simple queston: Which answer is closest to "Always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to the client."
I did not know all there was to know about equity management, but that 1 major concept above got me passed with a right good score the first time through---truth, whole truth, nothing but truth! I like that.
Our buffalo herd feeding grounds seem to lack too much of the above for some reason. The honest brokers and managers as well as corporate executives tossed that motto out the window and traded it for another:
Always tell the investor what he wants to hear--profits / more profits / and nothing but profits!
This is a dangerous motto.
Did you know EVERY Corporation in America has the legal right to keep 2 sets of books: 1 for the Tax Man and another for the Investor!! Guess which one shows roses and rainbows while the other shows gloom and doom. What happened to truth / whole truth / nothing but the truth? Why are not the same figures shown to both parties--pay your fair taxes and if it is bad, just tell the investor why you have learned and how you hope to improve the future!
I had my Insurance License first and then added the Securities License so I was pretty schooled in 2 professions which call for utmost honesty. That was not a hard push for me because in my childhood westerns--the good guys wore white hats and always told the truth. Even my other hero, The Lone Ranger, who wore a dark outfit had a white horse and white hat both. Roy Rogers nor the Lone Ranger would ever tell a lie to anyone. As soon as they heard about corrupt land barons or dirty business people in a town, they got seriously on their trusty steeds and ran them out.
Now, if Saturday morning cowboys reflected society 50 years later, Roy's immediate response to hearing of corruption today would be: "Let's take a survey to see what the public thinks! I'm not risking getting shot if it's not popular with the people!"
What a wuss! All of us "made in America" kids would immediately switch to the Lone Ranger and never trust Roy again! Forget his beautiful palomino and dog "Bullet" with lovely Dale Evans and Pat Brady by his side. If he tells lies and won't do anything about crime, I will never send in my cereal boxtops again for a decoder ring!!!.
Things in buffalo herd land are so bad today, we haven't even noticed our .50 box of Kellogg's cereal now costs $5 and has air blown into the mash which makes the cornflakes so we get less grain and more air in that "family size box at Wal-Mart."
Meanwhile, that poor farmer raising the grains is getting about the same price per ton as he did 20 years ago! The boys on the Commodities Exchange in Chicago are riding their Bentleys and Rolls-Royces to the airport for their corporate jets to buy oil futures in Saudi Arabia and vacation for $10,000 a day in Dubai at the same time!
My God!!!! The buffalo herd is thundering at us and we have no place to go! As a small businessman I am making 30% of what I did 3 years ago. I finally met another man in worse shape--he makes $300-400,000 luxury cruisers and is making 10% of what he made 3 years ago. His customers seem to be those described above vacationing in Dubai. I guess a large, beautiful, gas guzzling yacht just pales in comparison to a corporate jet and Dubai.
Does it have anything to do with buffaloes thundering down on us?????
Monday, November 30, 2009
Children and Grief
“Unless you change and become like children,
you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Jesus in Matt. 18
Her name was Alyssa. I met her as the new minister of Noonday Baptist Church near Woodstock, GA She had been the poster child for Atlanta in a recent MD telethon. She was precious. She loved the BeGees. She had met them through Make a Wish Foundation. It was one of the highlights of her life.
She was about 10 when I became her minister. I met them in the hospital as Alyssa suffered a chronic lung infection which is part of the last stages of the disease. She went home in a few days. That was where I saw her home and all her memorabilia of a short life filled with important moments. Many people had gone to bat for her and her working class parents. They could not afford much, but love prevailed in that home.
Fast forward 2 years as the disease had weakened her to the critical point. She was in the hospital this time for her last hours of life on this earth. When I arrived the Physician was attending himself. He had fallen in love with this little patient along with all of us who met her. Her smile was contagious and it never left for long even in the most hurting things modern medicine can do. Nothing conquered Alyssa or put her down for long.
The Doctor had his stethoscope to her heart and was listening quietly. The parents were standing at her bedside with dread all over their faces, but tempered by faith. There was nothing for me to say except to be there standing quietly. We waited on God.
Suddenly there was a strange woman pushing the door open uninvited. She burst into the room and began her “Christian Cheerleader” routine. She began to tell the parents how they must have faith--they had plenty. It showed quietly for the last 2 years to me. She then began to speak in a loud voice to Alyssa as she lay comatose. You could hear her at least 2 doors down. “Alyssa, if you hear me nod your head!” Alyssa’s almost lifeless body did a slight convulsive motion. This set the lady on fire and she began her sermonet about being saved and going to heaven. Alyssa, and none of us, needed a last minute deathbed confession. Our spiritual roofs had been thatched a long time ago.
For about 5 minutes this lady carried on as insensitive “do gooders” do--more interested in what they are doing than helping the one in trouble. Words, no matter how spiritual, mean nothing when a beloved child is dying. My first thought was, “This lady needs to get a foot in her behind to get her the devil out of here.” Somehow God gave me a crisis word. We had another lady in the hospital with hysteria-induced ranting about her minor illness. She just had asthma. However the central circle was filled with my church folks tending to her because she was one of the families called “the click.” No one was there for Alyssa but me, her physician, nurses, and her parents.
I can’t believe the words which came out, but I quietly asked her to help my other church members pray down the hall. She quickly left--thank God. I was about to do the “money changers at the Temple” approach on this wacky “do gooder.”
As the door closed, Alyssa’s parents whispered a quiet “thank you” through tear-filled eyes. Again, our eyes focused on Alyssa and her quietly attending Doctor. In about 5 minutes tears filled his eyes and trickled down his cheek. Quietly he said, “She’s gone.”
We all did as Jesus: we wept!! Not a word was said. No words could get past the ball of grief in our throats anyway. Finally, her parents asked if I could say a prayer. I have never choked one out with any more anxiety. All I could say was, “Thank you God for this child who has brought so much joy to all of us. Thank you for the faith she had. Give us some of it today. Thank you for her caring Doctor. Thank you for the nurses who have attended her. Give us all a peace that passes understanding in these hard hours of loss. In the strong name of Jesus we pray. Amen.”
With that we hugged one another until we each had to leave. One nurse after another quietly came by as the word passed in whispered sorrow. We all cared more than words could say. No one thereafter came with any “do gooder sermonets”. They are a wasted effort in such time. People need to be loved through grief.
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason: listen more than you talk.
Some years ago John Drakeford wrote the insightful book, The Awesome Power of the Listening Ear. It tells of the importance of listening in times of hurt: losing a child, spouse, friend, house to foreclosure, etc. He was so right.
Dr. Richard Young taught for many years at Bowman Gray and Southeastern Seminary in my student days. He was a brilliant chaplain and mentor in the early days of clinical training with a psychological background to help with understanding. He told a story I shall never forget.
There was a male patient in Dr. Young’s student days who was the terror of the floor. He had a terminal illness and cared not how or when he focused that anger. Every Dr., nurse, or student chaplain was deathly afraid to enter his room. Dr. Young thought about it while he waited his turn to do the inevitable round with this man. He decided to try something different.
He went in the room and pulled a chair beside the door. He sat down and said NOTHING! After the required 30 minutes, he stood to leave. The patient spoke. He said, “Thanks for saying nothing and just being here. I needed that more than you can know. I am tired of the questions and “cheer up” bull from every one except you. Thanks for being here and DO come again! When I am ready to talk, I will. Until then, button it up, if you please.”
you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Jesus in Matt. 18
Her name was Alyssa. I met her as the new minister of Noonday Baptist Church near Woodstock, GA She had been the poster child for Atlanta in a recent MD telethon. She was precious. She loved the BeGees. She had met them through Make a Wish Foundation. It was one of the highlights of her life.
She was about 10 when I became her minister. I met them in the hospital as Alyssa suffered a chronic lung infection which is part of the last stages of the disease. She went home in a few days. That was where I saw her home and all her memorabilia of a short life filled with important moments. Many people had gone to bat for her and her working class parents. They could not afford much, but love prevailed in that home.
Fast forward 2 years as the disease had weakened her to the critical point. She was in the hospital this time for her last hours of life on this earth. When I arrived the Physician was attending himself. He had fallen in love with this little patient along with all of us who met her. Her smile was contagious and it never left for long even in the most hurting things modern medicine can do. Nothing conquered Alyssa or put her down for long.
The Doctor had his stethoscope to her heart and was listening quietly. The parents were standing at her bedside with dread all over their faces, but tempered by faith. There was nothing for me to say except to be there standing quietly. We waited on God.
Suddenly there was a strange woman pushing the door open uninvited. She burst into the room and began her “Christian Cheerleader” routine. She began to tell the parents how they must have faith--they had plenty. It showed quietly for the last 2 years to me. She then began to speak in a loud voice to Alyssa as she lay comatose. You could hear her at least 2 doors down. “Alyssa, if you hear me nod your head!” Alyssa’s almost lifeless body did a slight convulsive motion. This set the lady on fire and she began her sermonet about being saved and going to heaven. Alyssa, and none of us, needed a last minute deathbed confession. Our spiritual roofs had been thatched a long time ago.
For about 5 minutes this lady carried on as insensitive “do gooders” do--more interested in what they are doing than helping the one in trouble. Words, no matter how spiritual, mean nothing when a beloved child is dying. My first thought was, “This lady needs to get a foot in her behind to get her the devil out of here.” Somehow God gave me a crisis word. We had another lady in the hospital with hysteria-induced ranting about her minor illness. She just had asthma. However the central circle was filled with my church folks tending to her because she was one of the families called “the click.” No one was there for Alyssa but me, her physician, nurses, and her parents.
I can’t believe the words which came out, but I quietly asked her to help my other church members pray down the hall. She quickly left--thank God. I was about to do the “money changers at the Temple” approach on this wacky “do gooder.”
As the door closed, Alyssa’s parents whispered a quiet “thank you” through tear-filled eyes. Again, our eyes focused on Alyssa and her quietly attending Doctor. In about 5 minutes tears filled his eyes and trickled down his cheek. Quietly he said, “She’s gone.”
We all did as Jesus: we wept!! Not a word was said. No words could get past the ball of grief in our throats anyway. Finally, her parents asked if I could say a prayer. I have never choked one out with any more anxiety. All I could say was, “Thank you God for this child who has brought so much joy to all of us. Thank you for the faith she had. Give us some of it today. Thank you for her caring Doctor. Thank you for the nurses who have attended her. Give us all a peace that passes understanding in these hard hours of loss. In the strong name of Jesus we pray. Amen.”
With that we hugged one another until we each had to leave. One nurse after another quietly came by as the word passed in whispered sorrow. We all cared more than words could say. No one thereafter came with any “do gooder sermonets”. They are a wasted effort in such time. People need to be loved through grief.
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason: listen more than you talk.
Some years ago John Drakeford wrote the insightful book, The Awesome Power of the Listening Ear. It tells of the importance of listening in times of hurt: losing a child, spouse, friend, house to foreclosure, etc. He was so right.
Dr. Richard Young taught for many years at Bowman Gray and Southeastern Seminary in my student days. He was a brilliant chaplain and mentor in the early days of clinical training with a psychological background to help with understanding. He told a story I shall never forget.
There was a male patient in Dr. Young’s student days who was the terror of the floor. He had a terminal illness and cared not how or when he focused that anger. Every Dr., nurse, or student chaplain was deathly afraid to enter his room. Dr. Young thought about it while he waited his turn to do the inevitable round with this man. He decided to try something different.
He went in the room and pulled a chair beside the door. He sat down and said NOTHING! After the required 30 minutes, he stood to leave. The patient spoke. He said, “Thanks for saying nothing and just being here. I needed that more than you can know. I am tired of the questions and “cheer up” bull from every one except you. Thanks for being here and DO come again! When I am ready to talk, I will. Until then, button it up, if you please.”
Dealing with Grief
Most people who have written about grief have discovered a natural process unique to each individual. Time required to grieve is different for each person--also the intensity. The most important thing is to recognize when you are grieving. Some people who always feel bad are grieving and don’t even know it!
Big griefs like loosing a beloved spouse, child, relative, or friend knock us over with their appearance. No one can miss them. There are also “little griefs” like a child losing a favorite toy or having your beautiful car dented. Enough little griefs add up to equal big grief. Today, with bad economic news everywhere, it is multiplying rather than adding. Grief and suffering are everywhere from mansion to shack.
Some people with negative attitudes spend their days looking for things to generate grief. These people are usually miserable and desire to make everyone around them miserable--not the kind of person you want around when you are hurting.
Step 1: Shock and Denial
It is like bashing your thumb with a hammer: no instant hurt--soon nerves kick in.
It is like a dream--you want to wake up and find it not true.
Isolation and feeling you are the only one being hurt so badly
Step 2: Anger
You are mad this awful thing happened to you--Why ME???
You want to curse God and Die--recommendation of Job’s counselors
You want to get that Doctor / Hospital / driver / etc. for letting someone die
Step 3: Bargaining
If God will just spare (fill in the blank), you will be more faithful, give more, become a missionary, etc.
Take me, the parent, rather than my child
Just give me one more chance to do this over
If God will just spare (fill in the blank), you will be more faithful, give more, become a missionary, etc.
Take me, the parent, rather than my child
Just give me one more chance to do this over
Step 4: Depression
Leave me alone in this dark house--I just want to die
No one knows how I feel--leave me alone
I just want to take pills/alcohol/drugs and go to sleep
Leave me alone in this dark house--I just want to die
No one knows how I feel--leave me alone
I just want to take pills/alcohol/drugs and go to sleep
Step 5: Acceptance
God is in this after all
Now I understand what the plan was for me
It is just one of those awful things in life and I must go on
The above steps were discovered by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her famous book, On Death and Dying. Other writers like Grainger Westberg--Good Grief, Edgar N. Jackson--You and Your Grief and Telling a Child about Death all form the basis of my “books to share with hurting people.” If you are hurting and cannot seem to move through your grief, I encourage the reading of such books to enhance understanding and compassion. Anything simply promoting “positive thinking” likely will not address the more serious and deep grief situations. If grief is not moving behind naturally in 6 months, seek professional help.
Remember the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept?” Remember the beautiful description: “He was a Man of Sorrows acquainted with grief?” These few words tell us God knows of our sorrow. His own Son experienced the depths of sorrow, yet moved on to face life again. Anyone who experiences grief is now uniquely prepared by life and God’s help to undergird those just being hit by the hard bricks thrown at us by life.
Is Professional help necessary along with heavy medication like Valium/Lithium? The answer might be “yes” in very serious cases lingering for years. A quick “pill pop” will not help anyone work through real grief. Instead, it will prolong or cover up steps necessary to go on with life resuming the smiling and singing a song. I am just as suspicious of the “quick fix” as I am the “counselor dependent” approach to grief. Both cost great sums of money and neither gets at the core of grief. It is a journey enabled by Faith in God.
Maybe we need more good old Country Stores! As a child I went with Granddaddy Williams to Cousin Leonard Williams’ store just outside Greenville, SC. I listened as they talked and joked, cursed weather, government, price for crops, and considered which tractor was best. Finally, after about 30-45 minutes, they decided without saying it: “We are all in the same boat so we might as well get to the field and start plowing. This is just talk which won’t solve anything. Weeds need hoes and plows rather than lazy people praying for God to do it for them.”
What if we started helping one another rather than depending on “professionals” and “miracles” to do it for us?
What if our SS classes dealt with sharing our hurts in light of the Scripture lesson rather than parsing Greek verbs?
What if we all realized with 1 mouth and 2 ears God might be telling us to listen twice as much as we talk?
Let’s help one another. Sometimes it is better to go as a group from 1 field to another rather than separate, each to his own field. “By this shall they know you are my disciples: If you love one another,” said Jesus.
Talk is cheap---we need action in these tough, grief-filled days.
Grief and the National Economy
“I walked a mile with pleasure
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with sorrow
And Ne’er a word said she,
But, oh, the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me.”
Robert B. Hamilton
It takes a griever to help a griever. The above was penned by someone who had been there. I can write this article on grief because I have been there. I highlight a few of my griefs:
Two forced terminations--God led me to bivocational ministry
Career change to insurance--Company bought out / lost the intimacy of small company teamwork.
Hurricane Floyd destroyed my territory of Eastern NC--no insurance money
Turned hobby of tree cutting into highly successful A / P Tree Surgeons
Failed national and local economy made my phone stop ringing.
Our beautiful $250,000 dream house got foreclosed. We moved to our “retirement” cottage classified as a “fisherman’s cottage,” which means no insulation, cold water, no A-C, plenty of windows. No insulation meant 50 degree mornings inside the house. Diesel fuel was almost $5 a gallon! They pulled the electric meter three times because I had no work. My wife drives 1.5 hours twice a day to keep her old job. A deer totals the car we should pay off in April ‘09. Nothing is trickling down to us but sorrow and grief. Being Job on the dung heap is no fun.
I suspect many of you can relate similar stories. Every one is suffering from high grocery / fuel / utility prices.
The difference between a Depression and a Recession is simple:
A Recession is when your neighbor lost his job--
A Depression is when you lost yours!
If you are not experiencing the Depression, it is coming your way as companies downsize, states and counties trim budgets, and church income falls. Some people must choose food and electricity over church giving.
In the last year I have not talked with any small businessman who is happy.
God created us to cope with grief, but it is a process. It is not done by a snap of the finger or with a “perfect” sermon. Job is the classic example. It was almost deleted from the Torah because it is so honest about the hurting, blaming, struggling process of grief.
Worse, in the eyes of Jewish religious leaders, it violates the simple formula of “Serving God = Success.” Just like today, the simple minded want to focus on the reverse: “Failure = God has left you.”
They believed, like my simple minded Baptist mother, that all you have to do is go to church and give your tithe. God is obligated to bless and save you. She has told me many times my troubles are because I stopped being a full-time Baptist minister. God is getting me.
She thinks I am a bad boy because my wife and I spend Sundays right now insulating the house and renovating it into something where we can walk five steps without stumbling over boxes.
My wife deserves a decent home.
Right now our worship is renovating our lives and residence so we can live like humans. The ox is in the ditch. We do not work on Sunday morning. I listen to the worship of New Bern First on TV. Sadly, a worshipful traditional service with robed clergy pales in showy comparison to a Charles Stanley / Joel Osteen / Rick Warren show. I prefer quality over glitter. Attend a local church filled with real people who are trying to help you in your daily struggle. Or, like me, trust God and get the ox out of the ditch.
We all know the story: Job was a booming success, God allowed Satan to test him through losing it all. Mind you: God “allowed” -- God didn’t do it to Job. As Job sits on a dung heap scraping sores and boils with a pot shard, the wife and friends come by to comfort and advise him. Like most of us “quick fix” artists they utter pious and empty phrases which never answer the deep questions of Job,
Put simply, it is “Why, God, WHY? I have served you faithfully. I have paid my tithe, I have been blessed by you with success which proves further you approve of me. Why the heck are you treating me like this? I don’t deserve it.”
Now, let me ask the practical question: How many adult SS classes considered how the national economy and foreclosures are a source of grief---and allowed their class members to discuss their hurts and griefs together? Shakespeare once said, “A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.” Perhaps we should spend more time sharing together than discussing historical details of the Scripture passage. Despite my story appearing in the local paper, only one person from my “caring” church has called to express sympathy and understanding.
Are we scared to address the realities of GRIEF today???
Magic money making -- NOT
It has been several weeks since I FAXed my interest in highway projects / tree clearing to Barnhill Contracting in Tarboro. I have worked for him personally at his historic church, but have nothing to report.
I keep hoping and praying, but this economy has me by the private parts. Still at about 30% of 3 years ago hanging on with my toenails and fingernails. They are all bleeding badly!
I did have a sales contact from an internet advertising agency promising 40-60 contacts off an ad with them. This time I made him put it clearly in the contract that these would be actual invites to bid jobs rather than just "hits" on the ad. We will see!
So I shall move on to more important issues: Grief and the National Economy.
I keep hoping and praying, but this economy has me by the private parts. Still at about 30% of 3 years ago hanging on with my toenails and fingernails. They are all bleeding badly!
I did have a sales contact from an internet advertising agency promising 40-60 contacts off an ad with them. This time I made him put it clearly in the contract that these would be actual invites to bid jobs rather than just "hits" on the ad. We will see!
So I shall move on to more important issues: Grief and the National Economy.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
A lead on Economic Recovery work -- MAYBE!
Yesterday was rainy and I was home all day. About 3:00 p.m. my phone rang. It was John McHugh in Raleigh.
He said my Representative to the House, Angela Bryant, had forwarded my last email sent to all my representatives. In it I asked help in finding any economic recovery places to work.
Thank you Angela Bryant for caring!!!!!
John is dealing on NC projects and referred me to http://www.ncrecovery.gov/ for the listing. In it I found Highway Contracts recently let and several are to my Tarboro friends at Barnhill Contracting. They are doing some road widening projects which require tree removal. I am faxing them today to request they place me on the sub-contractor list. I hope it works.
This proves if you yell and scream long enough, you just might get noticed.
I will keep you posted on the results!
This has been a 3-almost 4 year time of Grief for Lonya and me. The Biblical Recorder is addressing the suicide of a middle age conservative mega-church Pastor in the middle part of the state. You can find the articles with a google to Biblical Recorder Pastor suicide.
I have written several articles for consideration by the BR and several other publications. I think they give insight into this terrible state so many people are visiting these days.
I am just one of thousands loosing businesses, homes, marriages, friendships over a failed economy.
He said my Representative to the House, Angela Bryant, had forwarded my last email sent to all my representatives. In it I asked help in finding any economic recovery places to work.
Thank you Angela Bryant for caring!!!!!
John is dealing on NC projects and referred me to http://www.ncrecovery.gov/ for the listing. In it I found Highway Contracts recently let and several are to my Tarboro friends at Barnhill Contracting. They are doing some road widening projects which require tree removal. I am faxing them today to request they place me on the sub-contractor list. I hope it works.
This proves if you yell and scream long enough, you just might get noticed.
I will keep you posted on the results!
This has been a 3-almost 4 year time of Grief for Lonya and me. The Biblical Recorder is addressing the suicide of a middle age conservative mega-church Pastor in the middle part of the state. You can find the articles with a google to Biblical Recorder Pastor suicide.
I have written several articles for consideration by the BR and several other publications. I think they give insight into this terrible state so many people are visiting these days.
I am just one of thousands loosing businesses, homes, marriages, friendships over a failed economy.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The economy--8 months later
Well, folks, some months have passed since I first posted my reflection on the economy. Nothing has really changed for me.
My Tree Surgery Company had 2 reasonable months in the Spring, but 2 weeks before July 4 the phone quit ringing altogether. I had to borrow $2,000 to keep my only home left off the foreclosure block over unpaid back property taxes. The government always gets theirs, but us working folks aren't seeing it after high expenses of overseas warfare and ever larger sums being given to industry and finance.
Question: If the American taxpayer now owns 61% of GM by their own admission, then why aren't their products 61% cheaper to the taxpayer who owns them.
Their executives have a free GM car to drive as a perk. They have given themselves large bonuses for driving their corporation into the dirt. The same is true for banks and investment firms. Don't we love the consideration from Washington and Raleigh!
Only 1 representative on a state or national level has responded in any way to my pleas. My representative to the House states he and several others are sponsoring a bill saying "no more bailouts."
It is a lot late, but maybe someone is hearing the wise observation of the Kingfisher of Amos 'n Andy fame: "If yo out go exceeds yo income, yo up keep will be yo down fall!"
Only the Federal Government can issue counterfeit bills with no gold or silver to back it! This approach proved a disaster when we fought the Viet Nam War alongside the War on Poverty. After the Johnson Administration left office, inflation reached double digit proportions. It does not work to pump empty dollars into any economy.
What does work is dollars sent to the working taxpayer. A dollar sent to him begins to circulate quickly as bills are paid and new equipment and workers are hired. The dollar goes to creditors who, in turn, pay off their suppliers, who hire back their employees to produce more goods and services.
Thus far, large expenditures have been used internally to make corporate books look good so more foolish investors will, once again, buy their stocks. It is all figures on paper with no results in the real world of keeping utilities on, mortgage paid, food on the table, and gas in the tank.
Oil companies have been hiking prices every few days since summer. Diesel, which any industrial engines require, is back to 20% higher than regular gas after a short spell of being equal or a little lower as it should be. Why are not the Energy Company executives sitting before Congress to explain to the public why diesel is not 20% lower than regular gas since it comes off the refinery line that much before gas with that much less cost?
I have received 2 solicitations to join a Class Action lawsuit to Countrywide who foreclosed my house and Windom Timeshares who foreclosed my wonderful Las Vegas based purchase which did not have property taxes attached to it. Who will really profit in this? Us who lost or the law firm bringing the action? You know the answer.
In 200 years we have recreated what our forefathers left in England and Europe: too much government intervention in private business, high taxes, and law enforcement which put the poor man in jail while the rich went free. The "land of the free and home of the brave" is not what it used to be when politicians were unpaid and considered their representation a service.
As Walter Cronkite used to say: "That's the way it is October 25, 2009."
My Tree Surgery Company had 2 reasonable months in the Spring, but 2 weeks before July 4 the phone quit ringing altogether. I had to borrow $2,000 to keep my only home left off the foreclosure block over unpaid back property taxes. The government always gets theirs, but us working folks aren't seeing it after high expenses of overseas warfare and ever larger sums being given to industry and finance.
Question: If the American taxpayer now owns 61% of GM by their own admission, then why aren't their products 61% cheaper to the taxpayer who owns them.
Their executives have a free GM car to drive as a perk. They have given themselves large bonuses for driving their corporation into the dirt. The same is true for banks and investment firms. Don't we love the consideration from Washington and Raleigh!
Only 1 representative on a state or national level has responded in any way to my pleas. My representative to the House states he and several others are sponsoring a bill saying "no more bailouts."
It is a lot late, but maybe someone is hearing the wise observation of the Kingfisher of Amos 'n Andy fame: "If yo out go exceeds yo income, yo up keep will be yo down fall!"
Only the Federal Government can issue counterfeit bills with no gold or silver to back it! This approach proved a disaster when we fought the Viet Nam War alongside the War on Poverty. After the Johnson Administration left office, inflation reached double digit proportions. It does not work to pump empty dollars into any economy.
What does work is dollars sent to the working taxpayer. A dollar sent to him begins to circulate quickly as bills are paid and new equipment and workers are hired. The dollar goes to creditors who, in turn, pay off their suppliers, who hire back their employees to produce more goods and services.
Thus far, large expenditures have been used internally to make corporate books look good so more foolish investors will, once again, buy their stocks. It is all figures on paper with no results in the real world of keeping utilities on, mortgage paid, food on the table, and gas in the tank.
Oil companies have been hiking prices every few days since summer. Diesel, which any industrial engines require, is back to 20% higher than regular gas after a short spell of being equal or a little lower as it should be. Why are not the Energy Company executives sitting before Congress to explain to the public why diesel is not 20% lower than regular gas since it comes off the refinery line that much before gas with that much less cost?
I have received 2 solicitations to join a Class Action lawsuit to Countrywide who foreclosed my house and Windom Timeshares who foreclosed my wonderful Las Vegas based purchase which did not have property taxes attached to it. Who will really profit in this? Us who lost or the law firm bringing the action? You know the answer.
In 200 years we have recreated what our forefathers left in England and Europe: too much government intervention in private business, high taxes, and law enforcement which put the poor man in jail while the rich went free. The "land of the free and home of the brave" is not what it used to be when politicians were unpaid and considered their representation a service.
As Walter Cronkite used to say: "That's the way it is October 25, 2009."
Friday, February 6, 2009
Words to my Legislators
This week I have communicated with my 2 senators: Kay Hagan (D) and Richard Burr (R).
I cncourage you to write in a similar manner. The new Federal Government is trying to figure it out and only the "Howdy Doodie Show" gave me more entertainment as a child: Clarabelle the Clown, an Indian Princess, and other characters talked with Buffalo Bob, the host. They could come up with a solution in an hour!! We have about a month. Let's help the boys & girls in Washington with some good down home advice. The same basic stuff is in both letters.
Dear Senator Burr:
I spoke with your Administrative Assistant Friday, and want to follow up in writing what I tried to convey. You have convinced me you are a fair-minded person willing to work across the great divide in the Senate. You are my advocate as a small business owner. The failed economy has almost taken me under. Since this last summer, I have done virtually nothing. My beautiful Castalia home was foreclosed. We have moved to Bath and are trying to renovate a summer cottage into a year round home. Without insulation it is often 50 degrees on cold mornings. Talking with others like myself, I have yet to find anyone happy with the current situation. How do we get out??
My father told me a real story of the Depression through which he lived. He was a Georgia tenant farmer’s son who was then Pastor of the Pendleton Baptist Church (SC). The great debate was the same as it is today: Republicans wanted to stimulate by using tax money from the top down, the hopeful Democrats and FDR proposed working from the bottom up. They won and now had to come up with some realistic programs to carry it out. I am sure many wise Republicans participated in a balanced program far from the “give aways” we had in Title XX LBJ days. I was part of the Santee-Wateree region in SC representing Lee County.
The first step involved a major small business of the day: the family farm. Their solution was to recognize there were surpluses such that crop prices were exceptionally low. My maternal grandfather--SC Democratic farmer, no holds bared-- had no market for bales of cotton. My mother remembered the front porch cluttered with bales as their place of play.
The solution: send a check based on an average estimated profit to each farmer who would place his land in the Soil Bank for a year . Thereafter, institute a Crop Stabilization Board which monitored the market and encouraged specified amounts of certain crops which would contribute to a stable farm market in the future. That worked well to the present!
The result: as soon as farmers received their government checks they went to merchants and paid off their account. The merchants, in turn, paid their suppliers the overdue bills. Those merchants could now order inventory to stock their empty shelves. Everywhere goods began to flow within a month! It was so simple and so effective. Why have we forgotten and used the old failed program of bailing out the banks and investment firms along with auto giants? These people all have CPA’s, tax lawyers, and insurance professionals whose sole purpose is to keep everything possible from being taxed. Never before had capitalism focused on the common man except to offer him an entrepreneurial opportunity to get out of poverty. Sadly, few made it.
One of my father’s favorite observations was on the question: What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? The answer: A Republican is just a Democrat who has become wealthy and wants to keep it all! So true. As wealth has shifted to the South, every southern state has become a majority of Republicans. I can’t blame them because the Title XX approach made poverty something to be wanted, and the current state of Welfare proves it! In my opinions “workfare” is far superior to “welfare.” Anyone who has been such a poor parent that children won’t pitch in first may deserve the cold house and bare cupboard Title XX was designed to eliminate. It has failed just as dramatically as the $7 billion wasted thus far.
If the money to banks, investment firms, and GM was working, why am I paying 12%+ on a used car recently purchased. Sadly, we were within 6 months of paying off our Chrysler Sebring when a deer jumped into it. Nationwide had a 75% loss and was required by NC law to total it. It could be easily repaired, but the NADA book showed a ridiculous low value. Further, if I could have repaired and kept it I could do so only under a salvage title which made its book value 40% of normal. This whole approach to auto repair is ridiculous in light of the current economy.
Give me the cost of one Iraq war bomb! As a small businessman, my tree company would instantly thrive. I could repay some $27,000 I owe. This is why I quit selling insurance in the same year I was recognized as Underwriter of the Year by the most outstanding chapter of Life Underwriters in NC. It took no time for Congress to vote for the President’s fiasco in Iraq. Please act just as quickly to bomb out this Depression. Check out the website: CostOfWar.com. to see the amount spent thus far!!
I turned my hobby into a profession with good Republican principles: because of economic disaster from the hurricane, no one was buying insurance--they were all paying for tree removal and stump grinding. In this instance, there was an alternative for making money. Right now I know of none outside your wise Federal help.
Your constituent in Bethel who is a small new Chevrolet dealer had his inventory taken and doors closed about two weeks ago. His success was short. His hopes are crushed. His flashing expensive electronic sign by Highway 33 to Greenville has two panels. The enclosed pictures express his thoughts, although he is a dedicated Republican. It could read: Richard Burr and Congress came to my rescue---come in and buy a new car at small town prices! Some re-using of the old programs with new creative thinking could benefit all of us . Call me if I can offer some suggestions as a small business owner. You might consider an Advisory Committee composed of some constituents with good heads and a direct connections hurting from top down economics of your fellow Republicans and Democrats. How long does it take to admit the last bailout failed miserably to help any regular citizens struggling every day to get by.
Question: What is the difference between a Depression and Recession?
Answer: A Recession is when my neighbor lost his job. A Depression is when I lost mine.
No one is paying for tree work these days, hence this is a Depression for me. You receive a regular check which is generous, and Congress even gave itself a far richer retirement than Social Security. Would it be a wise thing right now to rejoin Social Security as an example? Share in the fact there is no Social Security Trust Fund thanks to Johnson spending wildly of the War on Poverty and the Vietnam War at the same time. Where did you get the money for Iraq??? We are worse after spending far beyond the Tax income which funded it. The Federal government is the only legal counterfeiter in the US because you can print more money which is not backed by the gold reserve. The economic result will be the same ungodly inflation we had in the 70’s.
You will blame Obama, but the real ones to blame are those who created a deficit which defies my ability to count. Let’s get real. Let’s get together as American citizens represented fairly by all our representatives in Congress. Bring some good level-headed conservative thinking to balance the funding of programs which help us now on a temporary basis. If it works, vote it. If it has failed, drop it: Drop Iraq, drop any federal program which does not produce results, do not spend money you do not have except to get out of this crisis.
My first question at the Title XX meeting was: For every dollar collected in taxes in Lee County, how much comes back? Washington red tape lets those inside the beltway live royally while the taxpayer gets, I suspect, about 40 cents back in federal help. Any private business would fail quickly with such amounts going to the owner.
We have recreated in 200 years exactly what our rebellious forefathers left behind in England and Europe. They were tired of paying for the King and his Advisors to live in the castle while they lived in poverty--cold shacks, little food, disease, and walking while they rode fine horses and carriages. After all, they were supposed to help the peasants. Every time they had to bow while the King, Knights, and Tax Collectors rode by. If they didn’t the IRS of the day would throw them in prison. As they bowed they cursed and spit on the ground without giving any respect for the fat cats!!
My father told me a real story of the Depression through which he lived. He was a Georgia tenant farmer’s son who was then Pastor of the Pendleton Baptist Church (SC). The great debate was the same as it is today: Republicans wanted to stimulate by using tax money from the top down, the hopeful Democrats and FDR proposed working from the bottom up. They won and now had to come up with some realistic programs to carry it out. I am sure many wise Republicans participated in a balanced program far from the “give aways” we had in Title XX LBJ days. I was part of the Santee-Wateree region in SC representing Lee County.
The first step involved a major small business of the day: the family farm. Their solution was to recognize there were surpluses such that crop prices were exceptionally low. My maternal grandfather--SC Democratic farmer, no holds bared-- had no market for bales of cotton. My mother remembered the front porch cluttered with bales as their place of play.
The solution: send a check based on an average estimated profit to each farmer who would place his land in the Soil Bank for a year . Thereafter, institute a Crop Stabilization Board which monitored the market and encouraged specified amounts of certain crops which would contribute to a stable farm market in the future. That worked well to the present!
The result: as soon as farmers received their government checks they went to merchants and paid off their account. The merchants, in turn, paid their suppliers the overdue bills. Those merchants could now order inventory to stock their empty shelves. Everywhere goods began to flow within a month! It was so simple and so effective. Why have we forgotten and used the old failed program of bailing out the banks and investment firms along with auto giants? These people all have CPA’s, tax lawyers, and insurance professionals whose sole purpose is to keep everything possible from being taxed. Never before had capitalism focused on the common man except to offer him an entrepreneurial opportunity to get out of poverty. Sadly, few made it.
One of my father’s favorite observations was on the question: What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? The answer: A Republican is just a Democrat who has become wealthy and wants to keep it all! So true. As wealth has shifted to the South, every southern state has become a majority of Republicans. I can’t blame them because the Title XX approach made poverty something to be wanted, and the current state of Welfare proves it! In my opinions “workfare” is far superior to “welfare.” Anyone who has been such a poor parent that children won’t pitch in first may deserve the cold house and bare cupboard Title XX was designed to eliminate. It has failed just as dramatically as the $7 billion wasted thus far.
If the money to banks, investment firms, and GM was working, why am I paying 12%+ on a used car recently purchased. Sadly, we were within 6 months of paying off our Chrysler Sebring when a deer jumped into it. Nationwide had a 75% loss and was required by NC law to total it. It could be easily repaired, but the NADA book showed a ridiculous low value. Further, if I could have repaired and kept it I could do so only under a salvage title which made its book value 40% of normal. This whole approach to auto repair is ridiculous in light of the current economy.
Give me the cost of one Iraq war bomb! As a small businessman, my tree company would instantly thrive. I could repay some $27,000 I owe. This is why I quit selling insurance in the same year I was recognized as Underwriter of the Year by the most outstanding chapter of Life Underwriters in NC. It took no time for Congress to vote for the President’s fiasco in Iraq. Please act just as quickly to bomb out this Depression. Check out the website: CostOfWar.com. to see the amount spent thus far!!
I turned my hobby into a profession with good Republican principles: because of economic disaster from the hurricane, no one was buying insurance--they were all paying for tree removal and stump grinding. In this instance, there was an alternative for making money. Right now I know of none outside your wise Federal help.
Your constituent in Bethel who is a small new Chevrolet dealer had his inventory taken and doors closed about two weeks ago. His success was short. His hopes are crushed. His flashing expensive electronic sign by Highway 33 to Greenville has two panels. The enclosed pictures express his thoughts, although he is a dedicated Republican. It could read: Richard Burr and Congress came to my rescue---come in and buy a new car at small town prices! Some re-using of the old programs with new creative thinking could benefit all of us . Call me if I can offer some suggestions as a small business owner. You might consider an Advisory Committee composed of some constituents with good heads and a direct connections hurting from top down economics of your fellow Republicans and Democrats. How long does it take to admit the last bailout failed miserably to help any regular citizens struggling every day to get by.
Question: What is the difference between a Depression and Recession?
Answer: A Recession is when my neighbor lost his job. A Depression is when I lost mine.
No one is paying for tree work these days, hence this is a Depression for me. You receive a regular check which is generous, and Congress even gave itself a far richer retirement than Social Security. Would it be a wise thing right now to rejoin Social Security as an example? Share in the fact there is no Social Security Trust Fund thanks to Johnson spending wildly of the War on Poverty and the Vietnam War at the same time. Where did you get the money for Iraq??? We are worse after spending far beyond the Tax income which funded it. The Federal government is the only legal counterfeiter in the US because you can print more money which is not backed by the gold reserve. The economic result will be the same ungodly inflation we had in the 70’s.
You will blame Obama, but the real ones to blame are those who created a deficit which defies my ability to count. Let’s get real. Let’s get together as American citizens represented fairly by all our representatives in Congress. Bring some good level-headed conservative thinking to balance the funding of programs which help us now on a temporary basis. If it works, vote it. If it has failed, drop it: Drop Iraq, drop any federal program which does not produce results, do not spend money you do not have except to get out of this crisis.
My first question at the Title XX meeting was: For every dollar collected in taxes in Lee County, how much comes back? Washington red tape lets those inside the beltway live royally while the taxpayer gets, I suspect, about 40 cents back in federal help. Any private business would fail quickly with such amounts going to the owner.
We have recreated in 200 years exactly what our rebellious forefathers left behind in England and Europe. They were tired of paying for the King and his Advisors to live in the castle while they lived in poverty--cold shacks, little food, disease, and walking while they rode fine horses and carriages. After all, they were supposed to help the peasants. Every time they had to bow while the King, Knights, and Tax Collectors rode by. If they didn’t the IRS of the day would throw them in prison. As they bowed they cursed and spit on the ground without giving any respect for the fat cats!!
Sincerely,
Gene Scarborough
Gene Scarborough
This week I have communicated with my 2 senators: Kay Hagan (D) and Richard Burr (R)
Dear Senator Burr:
I spoke with your Administrative Assistant Friday, and want to follow up in writing what I tried to convey. You have convinced me you are a fair-minded person willing to work across the great divide in the Senate. You are my advocate as a small business owner. The failed economy has almost taken me under. Since this last summer, I have done virtually nothing. My beautiful Castalia home was foreclosed. We have moved to Bath and are trying to renovate a summer cottage into a year round home. Without insulation it is often 50 degrees on cold mornings. Talking with others like myself, I have yet to find anyone happy with the current situation. How do we get out??
My father told me a real story of the Depression through which he lived. He was a Georgia tenant farmer’s son who was then Pastor of the Pendleton Baptist Church (SC). The great debate was the same as it is today: Republicans wanted to stimulate by using tax money from the top down, the hopeful Democrats and FDR proposed working from the bottom up. They won and now had to come up with some realistic programs to carry it out. I am sure many wise Republicans participated in a balanced program far from the “give aways” we had in Title XX LBJ days. I was part of the Santee-Wateree region in SC representing Lee County.
The first step involved a major small business of the day: the family farm. Their solution was to recognize there were surpluses such that crop prices were exceptionally low. My maternal grandfather--SC Democratic farmer, no holds bared-- had no market for bales of cotton. My mother remembered the front porch cluttered with bales as their place of play.
The solution: send a check based on an average estimated profit to each farmer who would place his land in the Soil Bank for a year . Thereafter, institute a Crop Stabilization Board which monitored the market and encouraged specified amounts of certain crops which would contribute to a stable farm market in the future. That worked well to the present!
The result: as soon as farmers received their government checks they went to merchants and paid off their account. The merchants, in turn, paid their suppliers the overdue bills. Those merchants could now order inventory to stock their empty shelves. Everywhere goods began to flow within a month! It was so simple and so effective. Why have we forgotten and used the old failed program of bailing out the banks and investment firms along with auto giants? These people all have CPA’s, tax lawyers, and insurance professionals whose sole purpose is to keep everything possible from being taxed. Never before had capitalism focused on the common man except to offer him an entrepreneurial opportunity to get out of poverty. Sadly, few made it.
One of my father’s favorite observations was on the question: What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? The answer: A Republican is just a Democrat who has become wealthy and wants to keep it all! So true. As wealth has shifted to the South, every southern state has become a majority of Republicans. I can’t blame them because the Title XX approach made poverty something to be wanted, and the current state of Welfare proves it! In my opinions “workfare” is far superior to “welfare.” Anyone who has been such a poor parent that children won’t pitch in first may deserve the cold house and bare cupboard Title XX was designed to eliminate. It has failed just as dramatically as the $7 billion wasted thus far.
If the money to banks, investment firms, and GM was working, why am I paying 12%+ on a used car recently purchased. Sadly, we were within 6 months of paying off our Chrysler Sebring when a deer jumped into it. Nationwide had a 75% loss and was required by NC law to total it. It could be easily repaired, but the NADA book showed a ridiculous low value. Further, if I could have repaired and kept it I could do so only under a salvage title which made its book value 40% of normal. This whole approach to auto repair is ridiculous in light of the current economy.
Give me the cost of one Iraq war bomb! As a small businessman, my tree company would instantly thrive. I could repay some $27,000 I owe. This is why I quit selling insurance in the same year I was recognized as Underwriter of the Year by the most outstanding chapter of Life Underwriters in NC. It took no time for Congress to vote for the President’s fiasco in Iraq. Please act just as quickly to bomb out this Depression. Check out the website: CostOfWar.com. to see the amount spent thus far!!
I turned my hobby into a profession with good Republican principles: because of economic disaster from the hurricane, no one was buying insurance--they were all paying for tree removal and stump grinding. In this instance, there was an alternative for making money. Right now I know of none outside your wise Federal help.
Your constituent in Bethel who is a small new Chevrolet dealer had his inventory taken and doors closed about two weeks ago. His success was short. His hopes are crushed. His flashing expensive electronic sign by Highway 33 to Greenville has two panels. The enclosed pictures express his thoughts, although he is a dedicated Republican. It could read: Richard Burr and Congress came to my rescue---come in and buy a new car at small town prices! Some re-using of the old programs with new creative thinking could benefit all of us . Call me if I can offer some suggestions as a small business owner. You might consider an Advisory Committee composed of some constituents with good heads and a direct connections hurting from top down economics of your fellow Republicans and Democrats. How long does it take to admit the last bailout failed miserably to help any regular citizens struggling every day to get by.
Question: What is the difference between a Depression and Recession?
Answer: A Recession is when my neighbor lost his job. A Depression is when I lost mine.
No one is paying for tree work these days, hence this is a Depression for me. You receive a regular check which is generous, and Congress even gave itself a far richer retirement than Social Security. Would it be a wise thing right now to rejoin Social Security as an example? Share in the fact there is no Social Security Trust Fund thanks to Johnson spending wildly of the War on Poverty and the Vietnam War at the same time. Where did you get the money for Iraq??? We are worse after spending far beyond the Tax income which funded it. The Federal government is the only legal counterfeiter in the US because you can print more money which is not backed by the gold reserve. The economic result will be the same ungodly inflation we had in the 70’s.
You will blame Obama, but the real ones to blame are those who created a deficit which defies my ability to count. Let’s get real. Let’s get together as American citizens represented fairly by all our representatives in Congress. Bring some good level-headed conservative thinking to balance the funding of programs which help us now on a temporary basis. If it works, vote it. If it has failed, drop it: Drop Iraq, drop any federal program which does not produce results, do not spend money you do not have except to get out of this crisis.
My first question at the Title XX meeting was: For every dollar collected in taxes in Lee County, how much comes back? Washington red tape lets those inside the beltway live royally while the taxpayer gets, I suspect, about 40 cents back in federal help. Any private business would fail quickly with such amounts going to the owner. We have recreated in 200 years exactly what our rebellious forefathers left behind in England and Europe. They were tired of paying for the King and his Advisors to live in the castle while they lived in poverty--cold shacks, little food, disease, and walking while they rode fine horses and carriages. After all, they were supposed to help the peasants. Every time they had to bow while the King, Knights, and Tax Collectors rode by. If they didn’t the IRS of the day would throw them in prison. As they bowed they cursed and spit on the ground without giving any respect for the fat cats!!
Sincerely,
Gene Scarborough
Dear Senator Burr:
I spoke with your Administrative Assistant Friday, and want to follow up in writing what I tried to convey. You have convinced me you are a fair-minded person willing to work across the great divide in the Senate. You are my advocate as a small business owner. The failed economy has almost taken me under. Since this last summer, I have done virtually nothing. My beautiful Castalia home was foreclosed. We have moved to Bath and are trying to renovate a summer cottage into a year round home. Without insulation it is often 50 degrees on cold mornings. Talking with others like myself, I have yet to find anyone happy with the current situation. How do we get out??
My father told me a real story of the Depression through which he lived. He was a Georgia tenant farmer’s son who was then Pastor of the Pendleton Baptist Church (SC). The great debate was the same as it is today: Republicans wanted to stimulate by using tax money from the top down, the hopeful Democrats and FDR proposed working from the bottom up. They won and now had to come up with some realistic programs to carry it out. I am sure many wise Republicans participated in a balanced program far from the “give aways” we had in Title XX LBJ days. I was part of the Santee-Wateree region in SC representing Lee County.
The first step involved a major small business of the day: the family farm. Their solution was to recognize there were surpluses such that crop prices were exceptionally low. My maternal grandfather--SC Democratic farmer, no holds bared-- had no market for bales of cotton. My mother remembered the front porch cluttered with bales as their place of play.
The solution: send a check based on an average estimated profit to each farmer who would place his land in the Soil Bank for a year . Thereafter, institute a Crop Stabilization Board which monitored the market and encouraged specified amounts of certain crops which would contribute to a stable farm market in the future. That worked well to the present!
The result: as soon as farmers received their government checks they went to merchants and paid off their account. The merchants, in turn, paid their suppliers the overdue bills. Those merchants could now order inventory to stock their empty shelves. Everywhere goods began to flow within a month! It was so simple and so effective. Why have we forgotten and used the old failed program of bailing out the banks and investment firms along with auto giants? These people all have CPA’s, tax lawyers, and insurance professionals whose sole purpose is to keep everything possible from being taxed. Never before had capitalism focused on the common man except to offer him an entrepreneurial opportunity to get out of poverty. Sadly, few made it.
One of my father’s favorite observations was on the question: What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? The answer: A Republican is just a Democrat who has become wealthy and wants to keep it all! So true. As wealth has shifted to the South, every southern state has become a majority of Republicans. I can’t blame them because the Title XX approach made poverty something to be wanted, and the current state of Welfare proves it! In my opinions “workfare” is far superior to “welfare.” Anyone who has been such a poor parent that children won’t pitch in first may deserve the cold house and bare cupboard Title XX was designed to eliminate. It has failed just as dramatically as the $7 billion wasted thus far.
If the money to banks, investment firms, and GM was working, why am I paying 12%+ on a used car recently purchased. Sadly, we were within 6 months of paying off our Chrysler Sebring when a deer jumped into it. Nationwide had a 75% loss and was required by NC law to total it. It could be easily repaired, but the NADA book showed a ridiculous low value. Further, if I could have repaired and kept it I could do so only under a salvage title which made its book value 40% of normal. This whole approach to auto repair is ridiculous in light of the current economy.
Give me the cost of one Iraq war bomb! As a small businessman, my tree company would instantly thrive. I could repay some $27,000 I owe. This is why I quit selling insurance in the same year I was recognized as Underwriter of the Year by the most outstanding chapter of Life Underwriters in NC. It took no time for Congress to vote for the President’s fiasco in Iraq. Please act just as quickly to bomb out this Depression. Check out the website: CostOfWar.com. to see the amount spent thus far!!
I turned my hobby into a profession with good Republican principles: because of economic disaster from the hurricane, no one was buying insurance--they were all paying for tree removal and stump grinding. In this instance, there was an alternative for making money. Right now I know of none outside your wise Federal help.
Your constituent in Bethel who is a small new Chevrolet dealer had his inventory taken and doors closed about two weeks ago. His success was short. His hopes are crushed. His flashing expensive electronic sign by Highway 33 to Greenville has two panels. The enclosed pictures express his thoughts, although he is a dedicated Republican. It could read: Richard Burr and Congress came to my rescue---come in and buy a new car at small town prices! Some re-using of the old programs with new creative thinking could benefit all of us . Call me if I can offer some suggestions as a small business owner. You might consider an Advisory Committee composed of some constituents with good heads and a direct connections hurting from top down economics of your fellow Republicans and Democrats. How long does it take to admit the last bailout failed miserably to help any regular citizens struggling every day to get by.
Question: What is the difference between a Depression and Recession?
Answer: A Recession is when my neighbor lost his job. A Depression is when I lost mine.
No one is paying for tree work these days, hence this is a Depression for me. You receive a regular check which is generous, and Congress even gave itself a far richer retirement than Social Security. Would it be a wise thing right now to rejoin Social Security as an example? Share in the fact there is no Social Security Trust Fund thanks to Johnson spending wildly of the War on Poverty and the Vietnam War at the same time. Where did you get the money for Iraq??? We are worse after spending far beyond the Tax income which funded it. The Federal government is the only legal counterfeiter in the US because you can print more money which is not backed by the gold reserve. The economic result will be the same ungodly inflation we had in the 70’s.
You will blame Obama, but the real ones to blame are those who created a deficit which defies my ability to count. Let’s get real. Let’s get together as American citizens represented fairly by all our representatives in Congress. Bring some good level-headed conservative thinking to balance the funding of programs which help us now on a temporary basis. If it works, vote it. If it has failed, drop it: Drop Iraq, drop any federal program which does not produce results, do not spend money you do not have except to get out of this crisis.
My first question at the Title XX meeting was: For every dollar collected in taxes in Lee County, how much comes back? Washington red tape lets those inside the beltway live royally while the taxpayer gets, I suspect, about 40 cents back in federal help. Any private business would fail quickly with such amounts going to the owner. We have recreated in 200 years exactly what our rebellious forefathers left behind in England and Europe. They were tired of paying for the King and his Advisors to live in the castle while they lived in poverty--cold shacks, little food, disease, and walking while they rode fine horses and carriages. After all, they were supposed to help the peasants. Every time they had to bow while the King, Knights, and Tax Collectors rode by. If they didn’t the IRS of the day would throw them in prison. As they bowed they cursed and spit on the ground without giving any respect for the fat cats!!
Sincerely,
Gene Scarborough
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