Pondering

I went for a walk this morning and, while I was walking, some thoughts came to me. Lately I have been reading about the doom and gloom that is infesting America. What can be wrong? Thos country has been blessed with so many resources and resourceful people. It hurts to see what is happening. I love my country, I love America. We are a country, not a nation. We are composed of the bits of many nations, for a nation is a social group and a country is geography. I love America but I am not that fond of Americans. They are a stiff necked people.
As I was walking, I thought of a program I watched several days ago on the television. It was about Bald Eagles. The symbol of America, a stately and self reliant bird. A creature that builds a home, finds a mate, and raises its young, remaining faithful to all throughout its life. The bird lives in the wild, endures mosquitos and snow and rain and heat and remains fathful to its purpose, raising its young.
The young of the Bald Eagle are another story. When the parent returns to the nest with food, all of the nestlings jump up and down screeching "Feed Me, Feed Me!". The strongest usually gets most of the food and usually pushes the others out of the nest to die.
America seems to be like that today. We are not one nation, we are a conglomeration of specific interest groups all screaming to the government "Feed Me, Feed Me! Never mind those others, they are weak and don't deserve to be fed. They are sick and hungry and don't deserve to be fed.". The male is solely responsible for the nest. He makes sure that the integrity of the whole is maintained. He does this year after year.
Back to America. 700 billion dollars to Wall Street and the banks. Probably 50 billion to the car companies. A bailout a few years ago to reimburse people that had more than ten thousand dollars in their checking accounts when some banks failed. The banks failed because they invested in derivatives and loans to other countries and gave mortgages to people with few resources and tacked on predatory interest agreements. Whatever happened to the Bailey Savings and Loan? Give loans to people to build homes, loans that they can pay back, and keep the loans in the community so the community will prosper. I have known some bankers and very few of them even understood banking, nevermind bundled mortgages and international finance and options. They got into international finance and it was like a minnow diving into a pool full of sharks. And now the brokers and bankers and auto executives are crying "Feed Me, Feed Me! Never mind unemployment benefits for the poor or national health or making sure that the weak will get a pension, Feed the strong, let us make loans that bleed people or go on making cars that no one wants to buy. Feed Me, Feed Me!.
The President is supposed to take care of America, not some special interest group but the whole nest. What has happened? I guess that's what happens when you put a nestling in charge. The weak get left to die and the strong gorge on all of the resources. William Jefferson Clinton, I miss you and President Carter very much. I haven't checked lately but the eagle may be blushing.