Trahan Odyssey

I wrote a note to Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois, since Nan & the kids still live their and I own a house there.  It was right before the “stimulus bill” was voted on in the senate.  I finally received a response a few days ago, here’s his answer to my plea to NOT pass the bill:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the economic recovery package. I appreciate hearing from you.

We are facing tough economic times. Americans across the country are feeling the squeeze of this recession as hardworking men and women lose their jobs, state and local governments cut services to avoid deep deficits, and credit is cut back.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was developed to provide a broad mix of tax cuts, incentives, and funding to boost the U.S. economy. The tax cuts are providing tax relief to both individuals and businesses, to help them stay afloat and maintain demand. The funding includes investments to modernize our infrastructure, move forward on alternative energy development, strengthen education, provide health coverage to those who lose it when they lose a job, and provide other services in greater demand due to the struggling economy. These provisions are important steps on the road to economic recovery.

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Left versus Right, Liberal versus Conservative, West Coast versus Mid-west, North East versus South – it doesn’t matter how you label it, the reality is there is a wall between blue state and red state mentalities in our country. Most online “discussions” are no more than name calling and a throwing up of hands with a final declaration the other side is brain dead at best and evil at worst. Ann Coulter wrote “How To Talk To A Liberal”, an interesting title but a book I haven’t read so I’d just be guessing at its contents. A friend told me Ms. Coulter basically says liberals speak from a perspective of feelings and the conservatives from facts.

I’m of the conservative persuasion and recently participated in my local “Tea Party” protest. This was way outside my comfort zone; I’ve never participated in a public protest. My version of protesting is to never shop at a store that’s done me wrong – my wife says “His ticket’s been stamped”. She picked up that line from when we used to be members of Sam’s Club and they have someone who looks at your ticket and then your cart and supposedly confirms you didn’t steal anything by placing a highlighting mark on your ticket. Since I’d just spent over $300 at a register not 6 feet from this person, I was not pleased. The final straw was to walk into the Walmart store next door and they did the same thing. I don’t go to that Walmart anymore and I cancelled my Sam’s membership long ago – I prefer to shop at places that don’t treat me like a criminal after spending large sums of money on their products. So, whenever I’m getting the short end of the stick and my wife notices, she says – “Uh oh, his ticket’s been stamped!” Usually she’s right.

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Fear is powerful; a powerful word, powerful emotion, powerful weapon, a powerful enemy.  I’ve been spending several weekends working on house renovations with many of the projects being “firsts” for me.  For instance, I installed wood laminate flooring in the kitchen which was my first experience with wood flooring besides walking on it somewhere else.  It seemed simple in the store, in the box, stacked in columns with a smiling salesman standing next to them with all the answers.  It’s alter ego quickly showed itself when freed from the confines of it’s plastic protected world.

I jumped into the project with some quick progress, placing several rows out.  It soon became increasingly difficult to get new boards to snap in across board boundaries, finally getting to a point where I threw up my hands in frustration not sure where to go next or what to make of the situation or how to fix it.  My thoughts, my words, my actions all yelled “I can’t do this.”  Sitting on the front stairs I resolved to find someone and pay them to fix what I was sure was a total mess.  Honestly I was in way over my head and the only wisdom I found was in admitting my inabilities.

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