The Important Things in Life

Most Mondays I have the distinct "pleasure" of touring the sausage factory that is county government. To say it's acrimonious is kind of like saying I'm a little overweight. That's just putting lipstick on a pig!

Anyway, during an executive session about some nonsense I was talking to a regular attendee of the meetings about the stock market, the economy, and the future. Being a C.P.A. gives off a certain aura to those around me as if I am anointed with some special knowledge that the rest of you mortals are not privy to. Not to destroy the myth I give him my take on where we are and what we face, much of which I have shared with you. We commiserated about the national debt, now almost $17 trillion headed for $20 trillion. We talked about how delicate the balance is and that if interest rates were to return to even normal levels we could see runaway inflation. As you might have guessed this guy is retired and is concerned about his future on a fixed income. He was a successful engineer, retiring with what he considered adequate resources to live comfortably for the rest of his life. But things change. He probably didn't expect that he could live into his 90's, but that is likely. He didn't anticipate that the corpus of his assets would not grow at all over the past 10 years due to an economy that stumbled around like a drunk on St. Patrick's Day. So for him the "macro" economics of our country are pretty important. Everything else is just noise.

This brings me to the main point of this entry. To hear the news media tell it the most important thing in life is how the Supreme Court decides a couple of cases this week concerning same sex marriages. The lead story on every newscast was a recap of the arguments on the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, a law passed by the citizens of the state essentially outlawing same sex marriage. As has become custom if you disagree with the will of the people then you sue hoping to find a succession of judges to overturn said will. Thousands of hours of air time have been spent in the past couple of weeks seeking to legitimize same sex marriage, presumably to put pressure on the conservative justices to support the "will" of the people. Which people? The people of California or the mythical 51% of the U.S. population that supports same sex marriage? Regardless how you fall on this issue the media is trying to tell us that this is a high priority. I guess to Jack and Joe who seek to have state sanction for their relationship it is pretty important. But to me and most of the population it is a minor distraction.

Just how important is the issue of same sex marriage stacked up against the following:

1. The aforementioned national debt resulting from runaway government spending and fiscal irresponsibility.
2. The general decay of our societal values and the nuclear family.
3. The wanton disregard for human life but utter reverence for endangered species. Maybe we should declare human embryos as "endangered" and they may have a fighting chance!
4. The woeful lack of treatment available for a growing mental health problem in this country.
5. The war on drugs that has turned into a money and power grab rather than to address the real issue of drug addiction and treatment.

Those are just off the top of my head. I'm sure each of you could add to the list and each would be more important than what the media thinks. But it seems that they like distractions and this court case provides one for them. That way we can avoid the elephants in the room that truly threaten the future of our way of life.

So as this plays out pay close attention to who pander to the media and special interest groups and who keeps their eye on the ball.  This goes for "friends" as well as politicians. How either prioritize things in life says much about their character. Because it is going to take a principled and diligent population to save this country from social and economic demise. The jury is still out on this one as well.