TECHNOLOGY…ISN’T
IT GRAND
Technology…isn’t
it grand…isn’t it wonderful…isn’t it great?
Yeah, if you’re talking about computers or other
electronically-manipulated equipment.
There doesn’t seem to be any dispute about how the personal computer has
changed much of the world. Old folks,
like me, can get on the internet and look up anything they want in a matter of
seconds…a couple of minutes at the most.
We go to the movies and see things on the screen that are
incomprehensible…but we could believe them because there they are!
Clyde in California can send an email to Louie in London in a matter of minutes, and the
message will never see the inside of a postal service facility.
But…when was the last time you
actually saw service tradesmen(or women) doing their
job? Oh sure, there are projects going
on all the time, and I watch them going up, or out as the case may be. When was the last time you took a pair of
shoes in to get them half, or full, soled?
Is there still a bakery in your neighborhood, where the bakers are all
from a family? From what I’ve been
able to gather, membership in trade unions is going down, steadily each year,
and not because the money isn’t good because it is. I used to belong to a union, for ten
years. When you leave, you take your
“book” with you, and that book shows where you worked, for how long and what
you got paid.
For four out
of the ten years I was either unemployed or on strike…no, not all at once, but
over the course of the years. Out of
work more than working struck me as being not a good thing and when I left my
goal was to start my own business, which I did.
Recently a reason came up for me to
build shelves in my “office”. I called
several phone numbers in the book and discovered that most of them no longer
were in business. The ones that were
still operating couldn’t even get to me for over a week to just give me an
estimate…they were that busy. Finally
one came by, and handed me an estimate that just about floored me, even given
the rise in the price of materials. So,
the decision was made for me to do it myself.
It turned out pretty nice, for about half the quoted price.
Why am I telling you this? Because, as a nation, we are losing the
ability to build things…to make things, and to make things better. If we are not makers, we are takers, and
should something go wrong, really wrong, in the world…we are going to be
screwed. How long do you think we could
last with most of our clothing and household goods coming from China and the
Pacific countries? How long do you
think our oil reserves would keep us going until new refineries could be built
and tested, if the muddled Middle East goes
down the tubes entirely? Even some of
the medications that I take come from foreign countries…friendly now, but who
knows where they would be when push comes to shove? It’s been noted here, several times, that
former friends are now potential enemies and former enemies are now our strong
allies…a mixed up world indeed.
If the Twentieth Century belonged to
the United States,
will we surrender our leadership to another country during this century? Even now, China
is building islands, yes, they’re building islands in the South
China Sea in order to expand their claim to territorial
waters. ABC News reported that “The
United States has called for an immediate end to China's
intensifying reclamation works in the South China Sea
and vowed to continue sending military aircraft and ships to the tense region.” The US Navy regularly patrols the open,
international, waters…but if the Chinese government declares that their claim
extends further and further we could wind up flying over sovereign waters.
It wouldn’t be the first time that
unarmed patrol planes, and even passenger airliners, have been shot down…and,
even the United States
has done it. Iran Air Flight 655 was an
Iran Air civilian passenger flight from Tehran
to Dubai. On 3
July 1988, the aircraft operating this route was shot down by the United States
Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes. The incident took place in Iranian
airspace, over Iran's
territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on
the flight's usual flight path. The aircraft, an Airbus A300 B2-203, was
destroyed by SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired from Vincennes.
Mistakes are
made, but when you deliberately, and perhaps unlawfully, claim more
international waters than you’re allowed, something’s got to give.
Did it surprise anyone that our
school kids are losing ground to children of Asian, or Indian,
backgrounds? The recent National
Spelling Bee was a tie, and both winners were of Indian background…and when I
say Indian I don’t mean from this country.
We have to call them Native Americans…which brings me to political
correctness and that’s a whole other story, for another time. Wake up America…we’re losing ground.
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