Mill., Bill., Trill

A million, a billion, a trillion - just add zeros of insanity to Washington’s standard of living. Two parties, three parties, four parties - just add up the dissatisfied customers in this country. The purely meaningless defines life in America in 2011. Our government borrows 4 billion dollars a day ( $120 a month) so what’s the use of a blue ribbon panel to find ways to reduce spending? A local radio station claims, “news you can trust from people you know.” This actually means a few hired locals reading pre-printed copy. A nearby city is sponsoring a “Homeless Veterans Standdown,” a day devoted to highlighting the vet supposedly afflicted with PTS but actually suffering from their own drug and alcohol abuse. Why does a day of free screening and services give meaning to both the servers and the veterans’ lives? What about the word ‘locally’ as in where food is grown? Well, locally can mean the same state, same region, a drive 8 hrs or 12 away, 5 or 450 miles distant. Words or actions today are meaningless. Henry David Thoreau (himself often revealed as a foppish hypocrite), gives good advice when he says: “Man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”

OK Henry, I’ll steal a good idea from any source. Our nation is as poor as our out-of-control levels of meaningless talk and useless consumption.