As I wait for significant changes to be made to this website, I find it necessary to write, to you, of things that affect my heart and mind. Things that make me want to find out why, or search for deeper truths. With that said, recently someone who has amassed a platform and significant wealth said the following in speaking of the US economy: “I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point. By the way, I’m hoping for it because one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on the recession.” – “Sorry if that hurts people, but it’s either root for a recession or you lose your democracy.”
Well, the old fear based me, totally recognized all the fear and hate in that statement, as well as, the attempt to instill fear in others. The human part of me, wanted immediately to either be angry or fearful, resentful of a man with money wishing me further into poverty and scaring me into believing that I may lose my way of life. But, the spiritual part of me, instinctively knew I would be alright. It told me to walk away from the fear and hate and try to find some truths.
The first thing I did, was look up the word recession. I wanted to know its meaning, and to know what happens when we are in one. According to Tejvan Pettinger, who is an Economics teacher at Greenes College in Oxford, England, who wrote an article for economicshelp.org, this is what I found: “A recession is a period of negative economic growth. In a recession, we see falling real GDP, falling average incomes and rising unemployment. In a recession, firms will be producing less and therefore will need fewer workers. Also, in a recession, some firms will go out of business causing workers to lose their jobs. People tend to save more, interest rates tend to fall, governments borrow more, and stock markets fall.” So if the betterment of the human race is the goal, then why would anyone wish this on anyone else?
The next thing I did, was ask my husband what would happen if all the money in the world crashed. He said three words. I already knew what they were, before he even said them. He said “we would survive”. You see some of the benefits of not living in a city, and growing up poor, or middle class for that matter, is that you learn things like: how to grow your own garden, how to catch, gut, and cook a fish, how to kill, gut, and prepare wild game, where to find water, what plants you can eat, the list could be endless. Maybe it is my purpose in future posts to teach others how to do some of these things. I am unsure, I just know I must follow what I feel.
The last thing I did, was rethink that last either/or statement. Why must I either put myself further into poverty or lose my way of life? Why do I need to do either? Then it occurred to me, he used the word democracy, which by the way is interpreted to mean that the majority rules. Then I thought, we were never founded in that way, and are reminded of that when we utter the words of the “Pledge Of Allegiance”; “I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”. The difference being, in a Republic, all are supposed to have representation, not just the majority.
Our founders fought for a Constitutional Republic as expressed by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 1. Here is an excerpt: “After an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that is seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”
So as I reflect on all of this, I wonder why I cannot have both; prosperity and good government? I believe, like the founders did, that societies of humans are very capable of establishing good government from reflection and choice, and when they work together anything is possible. However, we must tone down our hate, open our hearts and minds, and allow for divine intervention. I am curious to find out what you believe, or what you feel on the topic, so please join in.