The streets in Mandan and Bismarck are full of snow, blizzards keep us off the highways, and evenings find us drawing the drapes on our windows to keep some of the cold air out. Times like this foster a time of introspection and most likely permits me to do my deepest thinking. I continually write poems in my head and feel pressure to publish my third book. I often read good literature and well-written history so as to understand things better. And this blog keeps my mind agile as I try to write something worthwhile each week. But, alas, my work habits are poor as I fritter away too much time. Somebody said that a day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste. My next birthday is my 69th; I know it is pointless to wish for subtracting any of those years.
I spend a fair share of time thinking and worrying about national and international affairs. Maybe that’s a waste of time since my little voice in this wilderness can’t be heard. The first book I downloaded on my new Barnes and Noble Nook is Barbara Tuchmann’s The Guns of August which describes in detail the month-long build-up to the beginning of World War I. One doesn’t have to be very perceptive in reading this text to see that only a few men caused the slaughtering of hundreds of thousands in the massive, ensuing battles - pieces on the game masters’ chess board. Wars have always been fought because of the desire to expand a borderline or because of a perceived threat or to settle some past infringement of honor, and in every case it is just a few puppet-masters pulling the strings to prepare the populations and ready the war machines.
I don’t believe this phenomenon takes place only in military wars, though. Pied Pipers abound to play loud tempting tunes of “follow me” on their flutes. A very interesting scenario just played out in our state’s U. S. senate election. John Hoeven’s campaign emphasized North Dakota’s one billion dollar treasury surplus which he, of course, hinted at being responsible for. He crowed of how he was going to take that message of success to the workings of the federal government and show them how it how to get it done. He was elected by a large margin, but now his fellow political party members in the state legislature are saying “yes, but…” much of that money can’t be spent because it has been earmarked for various funds and is therefore not available for the legislators to allocate. To go one step further, if the oil industry in this state hadn’t developed oil production to generate money for the state coffers there would have been no surplus to discuss and North Dakota would have been as destitute as many another state. Although I think he would have been elected to the senate anyway due to a weak opposition candidate, he sure made a lot of noise tooting that flute.
Our country just suffered through two years of criticism directed to individuals and institutions where support groups kept writing flute music. It’s been a cacophony of sound with “birthers,” “tea parties,” “don’t ask, don’t tell,” “repeal Obamacare” tunes playing and gathering followers. How about the two preachers: one rallies his flock to attend the funerals of veterans to blame their deaths on the evils of homosexuality and the other for wanting to hold a Koran burning. For awhile the message was we’ve become socialistic since we bailed out the car companies, but has that not developed into a success story? Well, the stock market looks pretty good right now and we invested in some municipal bonds that pay out pretty good so I suspect things will work out.
