Commentary by: Roger Landry (TLB)
Updated September 22, 2015
So you are on your way to work one morning and all of a sudden you see steam rising up from under the hood, well you pound on the steering wheel and voice a few unpleasant thoughts and pull into the local service station in search of assistance. A familiar face approaches and signals for you to pop the hood, after a few seconds he walks up to the window and tells you that a radiator hose has abraised itself against the engine and has a small hole in it.
Because we are so used to instant gratification or quick solutions (fixes), you let him know that you need your car and cannot be late for work. He ponders for a second and then he tells you that he has some sealing tape that should provide a quick fix for the problem. The repair is made and he even sells you a roll of the sealing tape just in case, but also warns you that the only way to really get rid of the problem is to replace the faulty hose, and that he cant guarantee how long the quick fix will hold up.
You pull away from the service station in just a few minutes thinking “Man that was a quick fix!” And all is great in Whoville.
Flash forward several months and you have embarked on a 250 mile business trip that is vital to your future employment. As you are driving along out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a lot of nothing, you begin to notice steam again coming out from under the hood. So again you pound on the steering wheel and voice a few unpleasant words and pull over to the side of the road. Inspection shows that the hole in the hose is much bigger, the hose looks flaccid and cracked and the tape is torn and frayed. Realizing you had bought the additional tape, you proceed to seal the torn hose as best as you can and continue happily on your way thinking “Man that was quick”.
Well about 100 miles further down the road (still in the middle of nowhere) all hell breaks loose! Steam billows out from under the hood, the temperature gauge slams deep into the red and the engine starts to buck and sputter, within seconds the engine gasps and dies. You are stuck, and your future employment prospect is trashed. What was a relatively small and inexpensive issue (replacing a hose) is now a major issue of lost employment, a seized engine, and a massive towing bill. The implications of what you are facing are daunting.
Sitting by the side of the road with your thumb raised high waiting for another car to pass, your thoughts go back to the original problem and you realize, none of this would have happened if you would have just taken the advice of the mechanic and taken the time and minor cost to repair the problem and not opted (because of convenience or discomfort), for the quick fix … the quick fix mentality would not be wreaking havoc on your life.
Quick Fix … Or Kick the Can …
I know this sounds familiar to all of us and I could have used many examples we are all intimately familiar with (on a daily basis) to make this vital point. America is a nation of quick fixes whether it be for personal, infrastructure, budgetary concerns etc…, it is always about, what can we do right now to make the problem go away for a while, till somebody else has the watch, till I am re-elected, always kicking the proverbial can down the road in perpetuity applying one band-aid after another until the original problem/component is so damaged or overwhelming, it can no longer be repaired (think Social Security).
Left to their own devices our elected leaders never wish to make the hard or unpopular decisions that may reflect bad on them, or damage their reelection prospects, and too many of us, in our ignorance or apathy, listen to their quick fix solutions and praise them for their ingenuity and service.
And again, all is great in Whoville.
Which leaves us in our present situation, this country is broke in so many ways it is impossible to mention them all in a commentary such as this. So what will be the next quick fix? As we watch America failing today due to worn out or patched up components (economy, leadership, social programs, military imperialism etc…) subjected to the quick fix mentality, the question our leaders are now debating among themselves is … “IS” there another quick fix? Or is it time to pay the proverbial piper?
WE MUST STOP WITH THE QUICK FIXES!
All of this starts with We the people fixing ourselves. WE have allowed just about all we see and suffer by our blind trust and lack of participation. Do you honestly feel that our present government, if left to their own devices, would drastically change path … a path that has centralized more power and control of wealth into their hands than anyone could have conceived of mere generations ago? If you do believe this on any level, you are a fool of the first magnitude.
We as a people must find leaders from among us that will solve problems as we are faced with them, at the root of the situation, not kick the can down the road. Solve the problems …
Now here is one Quick Fix that may actually show some promise …
DELETE, REPLACE OR UPGRADE THE FAULTY PART!
If the Fed is broke, replace it with something that benefits We The People, NOT the global Oligarchs. If DHS is broke, erase it from existence. If the tax code is broke, upgrade it with a mechanism that efficiently funds America without breaking the backs of We The People. If the mission of our military is broke, change it for a better one that does not serve as the big stick of the global money changers etc… !!!
We as a nation need to learn from these hard lessons to fix our problems and not saddle our future generations with our ineptitude’s.
An oh so wise Native American adage states: “We do not inherit the world from our parents, we borrow it from our children” and the Quick Fix mentality that has prevailed in America for so long is destroying that legacy. Stop and think please … What will we have left to return to our children, and how will we be remembered?
Parting Shot:
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