By: Dr. Curtis L. Beaird
The Freedom Page
www.thefreedompage.org
curtis@thefreedompage.org
Dawning's, awakenings, moments of clarity and insight arrive like the first blush of spring or the crash of glass on the kitchen floor. These flashes, sometimes known as ah ha! moments, or the voice of God, can and do show up in pedestrian ways. Ways such as walking through retail outlets, selecting this and that, whatnots and furniture, pictures and dinnerware, placemats, washcloths, towels and bath soap……all things necessary for newlyweds to set up housekeeping.
Then it hits you like it hit me. “Norma, they own us." While my bride did her interior design thing, I piddled and fiddled with the tags on the bottom of the products. “Norma, look at his. They own us." I had paid little attention until I needed more than a couple of things from Wal-Mart. The name was everywhere and on the bottom of every thing." Made in China. They own us.
Now, caught in a moment of clarity that clutched at my throat, I stood gravestone still holding the decorator piece upside down in my hand. I remembered a television special years ago. It featured China with their big guns aimed at the U.S. I said to my bride, “They took us without firing a shot. We gave it up.”
We continued shopping. The gray reality cast its pale cloud over the moment. "We have made ourselves dependent on these people. Even the salmon comes from China."
The revelation continues. China owns U.S. debt in the trillions. We, you and I, your children and our grandchildren will have the sad duty of meeting that obligation. We will be sending the payments plus interest to China. We never know for sure when the earth's plates will shift and a quake will occur. We hope that tropical storm Fran or Frank will never become a CAT 5 and rip someone's known world apart. But, the notes China holds on the U.S. all have due dates. The plates will shift. We have dialed in an economic CAT 5.
I know what we were feeling, but what were we thinking while we lapped up all those roll back prices? Calvin Coolidge, our twenty-ninth president said it, “The business of America is business." I wonder though, if he meant trade away the economic base of our country. I wonder if he meant sell your freedom for a fist full of dollars. According to CNN News, General Electric recently sold its plastics business to the Saudis. The dollar amount reported was in the billions. The beat goes on.
We listened to our leaders and economic gurus tout the virtues of the shift from an industrial base to the economics of the so-called “service industry”. (“Do you want fries with that?") Then, we “high-teched” our way into the information age. Suddenly, we found ourselves sitting in call center cubicles repeating answers to the same boring questions. Without realizing it, we found ourselves dependents, buying our shirts and shoes, crock pots and automobiles from folks who would gladly own us.
It's been said, actually sung, that “a country boy can survive." If we don't figure out #1. How to focus on freedom, #2. How to develop the capacity to say "No" to stuff from China, and #3. How to re-industrialize our country, we will find out how well we all survive.
Meet Your New Landlord…….. http://www.hutchison-whampoa.com/eng/about/chairman/chairman.htm