I fully appreciate the phrase, “words mean things.” It stems from something I was told often while growing up both at home and at school: Say what you mean and mean what you say.

It’s something I’ve never forgotten and it created a habit of mine when it comes to politics at any level. I always try to stash away somewhere for future recall what candidates say during their campaign and then compare them to what they say and do if elected.

As you might guess, more often than not one’s performance after election night rarely keeps promises made during a campaign. Some of that is beyond the control of the people’s choice for office at any level. Some of it may be a subjective evaluation and much of it was never intended to be fulfilled.

Politicians’ words have proven over and over again to be like chaff in the wind – quickly scattered and never to be seen or heard from again.

I’ll be honest. I never did buy into the hope and change promised by President Barack Obama. He promised nothing I wanted or hoped for. He promised just about everything to everybody and I took it for granted he knew he couldn’t, nor would he really want to deliver on all those promises.

What he wanted was votes and, as we’ve found out recently, blind allegiance. He also wanted power. Raw, unadulterated, unchecked power.

But one thing this President said during his campaign I did file away for future reference was his promise that if elected it would not be politics as usual in Washington. We were to enter a new age of bi-partisan government. We would witness the transformation of America.

Powerful words with undeniable meaning. When Obama was elected, America would become something it had never been before. And that is a promise the President appears determined to keep regardless of what he and his administration has to do.

Politics continue to divide this country and more now than ever but I don’t think that’s what the President meant when he promised it wouldn’t be politics as usual. At least that’s not what he implied. But this President has declared and proven that he considers those who are not in complete lockstep agreement with him to be his sworn enemies.

Nothing new there. What is new is the level to which he has taken it. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fox News, Humana Healthcare Systems, the entire health insurance industry are but a few of the organizations on his enemies list.

But he’s not content to do battle with them or engage in debate. He and his administration refuse to debate as he promised he would. Rather he demeans and marginalizes those who disagree with them and suggests to others it is not in their best interests to follow in their footsteps.

There was a time when this country operated on a system of carefully plotted checks and balances. It worked better than any other form of government in world history for more than 200 years.

But this President isn’t interested in the free and spirited debate of ideas or the free speech guaranteed in the first amendment. He would rather have the praise of a fawning public dependent on him and his government for every need.

The President doesn’t concern himself with checks and balances, only making absolutely sure that everything is weighted in his favor and controlled by him, including the media. Those aren’t my words, but those of the President’s own director of White House communications.

The same Anita Dunn who leans more on the philosophy of a maniacal, murdering Chinese dictator than this country’s founding fathers for her political philosophy. We know what Mao ZeDong would do to his political adversaries. One must wonder if Ms. Dunn shares that point of view as well.

It used to be differences of opinions and different political parties didn’t put us on different teams. We were all still Americans, trying to live the American dream the American way.

At least that’s the way it was here on The Other Side.

I know it’s very early in the campaign for Governor of Ohio. The incumbent Ted Strickland hasn’t even announced he is running for re-election yet. But still, for the sake of argument, polls are suggesting he has a slight lead over the projected Republican nominee John Kasich.

Polls are a funny thing, unpredictable and always changing. Just ask the President.

But one thing that can be measured definitively is campaign money, and in that instance Strickland is far ahead of Kasich at this point in the 2010 election.

The real question, however, is it enough? Can Strickland’s huge war chest for the campaign, his ties to the White House and the support of President Obama be enough to outweigh his incredibly bad decisions of late?

Following the President’s example, Strickland and his administration have made a habit out of making decisions without the facts or details to back them up. Put them down on paper, publicize them, wet a finger and hold it up to determine which way the winds of public opinion are blowing and then set sail in spite of opposition and common sense.

The problem for Ohioans is that type of leadership and governance hasn’t worked any better of late for Strickland than it has for Obama.

Long ago Strickland tied his future to Obama’s coattails. Strickland delivered Ohio’s all-important electoral votes to Obama’s camp last November and many believed that would land Strickland a job somewhere in the new President’s administration.

That hasn’t happened yet, in large part I believe because Obama needs a popular Strickland in the Governor’s mansion in this state during the mid-term elections.

But will Strickland himself survive?

His lack of leadership and foresight during the latest budget crisis was inexcusable.

While the Republicans certainly shared some of the blame for that stalemate, Strickland was responsible for the lion’s share with his insistence of using one-time stimulus money to balance the budget.

We see how well that has worked. As the two-year period moves ahead, we’ll learn even more just how ineffective and damaging that strategy has been.

We’ve witnessed the Governor’s lack of fortitude and principles on the issue of legalized gambling. We found out he’ll do anything to get the heat off himself and alleviate the need to make tough decisions.

That too has and will continue to haunt the state’s budget. We’ve yet to see the worst of that fiasco.

And then there’s the latest news about a Strickland decision that hits a lot closer to home right here: the closure of the state’s newest and only maximum security juvenile prison in Marion.

Many questioned and warned of the consequences of closing the only facility designed and staffed with personnel specifically trained to handle the state’s most violent and dangerous juvenile offenders. Strickland and his appointees did it anyway.

When asked to show the reasoning and thought process he used to come to that decision, Strickland ignored requests from lawmakers including our representative Jeff McClain. When he finally was forced to produce some documentation, Strickland sent boxes and reams of useless material.

Forget the loss of jobs to area families. Forget the loss of millions of dollars to the struggling Marion economy. Forget if you to want to the upheaval for many families forced to relocate. The bottom line is Strickland’s decision to transfer dangerous offenders to facilities not designed to handle them cost a man his life, a wife her husband, and children their father.

I didn’t say so, a special investigator did this week in a report submitted to the court. 

Those kinds of real consequences carry a lot of weight when it comes time to cast a ballot, heavy enough to tip the scales. At least they do here on The Other Side. Thanks for joining me.

They’ve been called mobs by those they’ve dared to challenge, compared to Nazis, criticized for wearing Brooks Brothers suits and even characterized as un-American by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate.

But those testy, saintly citizens raising Cain in town hall meetings across the country really aren’t as angry about health care so much as they are about a process that disrespects them and constantly tries to deceive them.

Well guess what. They will no longer allow themselves to be ignored, unheard and unaccounted for. This is an awakening from coast to coast and “sea to shining sea . . . from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee.”

To paraphrase the character Howard Beale in the movie “Network,” they are mad as hell and they aren’t going to take it anymore.

I’ve always wondered exactly what it would take to get the American populace riled up and force its will on the elected elite. I think we’ve finally found the answer to that question.

They are fighting back and the President of the United States is finding out the hard way that Chicago is not representative of the rest of the country. Neither are the east coast elitists nor the Hollywood west who’ve never been in touch with anybody but themselves. 

What are left are those in between who consider themselves conservative by a count of 2:1 in the latest Rasmussen poll. Up until now they’ve been quiet, but the debate over health care reform has awakened them en masse – not as a sleeping giant but more like a roaring bear.

And what they are telling members of Congress, the President and his hired guns is that they want to be left alone to take care of themselves. They don’t need Big Brother and above all big government to fix all of their problems and take care of all their needs.

What politicians now have to contend with is an electorate that has been lied to, misinformed and taken for granted one too many times.

See it was first years ago that Congress under the direction of a President who told us one thing and did another leaving us with a bill that’s due every payday, and nothing to show for it.

Social Security was supposed to be money taken from our paychecks and set aside solely for our needs in our sunset years. Now Social Security is going bankrupt and the programs it was supposed to fund for our benefit are broke or soon will be.

Interesting isn’t it that Congressmen don’t pay into Social Security because they have their own retirement plans they can fund by merely voting on a raise we pay for.

It was Congress under the direction of a President who insisted on bailing out banks with our money, banks that are still going under.

It was Congress that insisted on bailing out automotive companies with our money and those companies went bankrupt anyways. It was Congress at the insistence of the President that demanded trillions for a stimulus package to keep unemployment at 8 percent only to see it rise to its current level of nearly 9 ½ percent.

It was Congress that insisted on billions of our money for a Cash-For-Clunkers program that is so ineffective it is causing a cash shortfall for the remaining auto dealers the government didn’t already force out of business. That’s because it won’t pay out the cash for the clunkers the government made them promise to take.

And now the very same Congress under the direction of that very same President want us to trust them with our great-grandchildren’s money for a healthcare reform bill whose concept of reform is less for more. It is a bill so onerous they can’t even take the time to read it, or understand it if they do.

That’s why people are angry and speaking out, demanding accountability of their money and respect for their liberties because not even the President of the United States with the help of Congress can fool all of the people all of the time . . . .not here on The Other Side.

Thanks for joining me.

gogle@wbcowqel.com

419-562-2222

You would never know to look at both Galion and Bucyrus that this county has one of the highest unemployment rates in a state wracked and riddled worse than most by the current recession.

Bucyrus City Schools are completing a multi-million remodeling and building project in time for school this fall. The local public library’s beautiful addition was completed this past year and nearly $5 million dollars is being poured into a downtown renovation project.

Galion city streets are also being repaved north and south, east and west. Crestline is beginning a new school, single-campus building project and the Buckeye Central school district is finishing up its new building in time for the school year.

Galion and Colonel Crawford have been in their new schools for just a couple of years now.

I say all that not as criticism, but as congratulations to all of the local communities for doing some much needed things amid some very difficult economic times.

After Monday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the downtown project in Bucyrus, someone came up to me and asked me what I thought. I paused a moment to look up and down Sandusky Avenue at all of the heavy equipment and orange barrels that will remain most of the coming year.

Then I said as much as I hoped things went smoother and better than anyone could possibly hope, the bottom line to me wasn’t the money invested in downtown.

The powers that be could put together a billion dollar project in that same area and it would make little if any difference here as far as attracting new businesses and new people until we make ourselves more attractive – both as a labor force and as a community or collection of communities in which to settle and locate.

The real bottom line is the investment of change we are willing to make in ourselves. We have to accept that we can no longer live and operate, work and study like we always have and expect the results to be any different than they’ve always been over the last 20 or 30 years.

Someone once said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The sad state of affairs here is that we can’t even keep the most talented, creative and innovative homegrown minds at home, much less attract others of that ilk from outside our protected little cluster.

The truth is many of the employers who already own and operate businesses here are having difficulty filling jobs with trained and dependable employees. Many will tell you if asked, whether on the record or off, that new employee orientations are like a revolving door – in and out, in and out week after week and month after month.

That is our fault, not the employers.

It is time that we understand and fulfill our personal roles in becoming communities that have people and businesses wanting to stay put and move to.

It means that we accept the challenge and make the commitment to develop as a labor force the skills needed to compete for high-tech jobs. Whether we want to concede the fact or not, the reality is that heavy manufacturing will never again be the foundation of a strong job base.

We have to establish and demand from our schools – then provide them the tools – to produce well educated people with initiative and enthusiasm for work,

We can no longer tolerate the types of criminal activities that impact and tarnish our communities, affecting even those who aren’t involved. It is imperative that we support those who work in our legal system to clean up the mess we’ve allowed to accumulate to the point we’ve unconsciously accepted it as the status quo.

Finally, we need to look at ourselves and identify those old attitudes and mistrust of new people and new ideas for what they really are: a piece of clothing so out of date and useless they have no place whatsoever in our wardrobes.

We – first as individuals and then as communities – need to take responsibility for ourselves. We need to act as though we are on a job interview every day. First impressions really do count and you never know who might be looking – here on the other side.

Thanks for joining me.

gogle@wbcowqel.com

419-562-2222

Once again we are being told by the political party currently in power that there is no time like the present. In fact the most repeated argument for nationalizing the healthcare system is that we’ve never been closer as a country to doing it.

If that sounds a bit confusing at the least and self-serving at the most, you and I are in agreement.

The time to be worried about is the future and certainly what we do now – more accurately those we elect to do it for us – will impact generations now and for the foreseeable future.

That’s why this rush to pass healthcare reform makes no sense, unless the real issue is more about something than just healthcare.

We have already watched Congress pass a bill its members in both chambers admit they had no time to read. Given that reckless approach, the less than desirable results from the stimulus bill come as no surprise.

Yet even after Vice-President Biden admitted they really had no idea about the economy, here we are trying once again to navigate an unknown road as fast as possible.

Even the most ardent supporters of the President and healthcare reform are asking themselves why.

Why are we eager to discard what is unquestionably the most effective and advanced healthcare system in the world for one that has been proven to be inferior in every other place it has been tried?

Why are this President and Congressional leaders bent on creating a system for which they have no reasonable idea of what it will cost? Why does it have to be passed right now when it won’t even go into effect for almost four years at the soonest?

What’s wrong with taking a few months, even a year or more to design a system that takes advantage of the best of what we have while implementing better access at a reasonable cost?

Again, it doesn’t appear that it’s about healthcare as must as it is about philosophy.

It could be argued that the proposed healthcare reform needs to be passed before people realize what it is all about and what it will cost.

That’s what happened with the stimulus bill and we’ve seen the results Mr. Biden. We’ve looked around and those jobs it created just aren’t there regardless of what you say or how you say it.

Does there need to be healthcare reform? Absolutely. But reform that enables people to be responsible for there own healthcare and not reform that makes a targeted segment of the population responsible for those who choose not to be responsible.

The real reason for pushing this version of healthcare through now is because as people understand its implication and impact on what they have now versus what they’ll get later, fewer will support it.

It’s another method for increasing our collective and individual reliance on the government.

See, that’s what this healthcare reform is really about: addicting people to government dependence.

That’s a drug every bit as addictive as anything one can get from a bottle, a needle, a pack of cigarettes or a cup of coffee. It’s more dangerous than any illegal or legal substance because it becomes an excuse to abdicate our personal responsibilities to take care of ourselves and our families in favor of government assistance.

It’s also an ever-increasing disabling disease for which no healthcare system has a  cure.

That’s how it seems here on The Other Side, thanks for joining me.

goggle@wbcowqel.com

419-562-0089

School libraries are supposed to be quiet, but they’re never as silent as the one at Wynford was on Wednesday morning. What made that even more unusual is that the library was filled with the Royals’ senior football players and it was still summer vacation.

Football players aren’t noted for the tears they shed either, but there were a few of those as well when Jon Griffin with his head shaved because of his chemotherapy treatments unashamedly gave his head coach, Travis Moyer, a bear hug.

Moyer hugged him right back too, the emotion present on his face as well as his players.

As Moyer noted, a member of the family is in need and more than anything else life is about people.

It was certainly about people on Wednesday. Not football even though Wynford is preparing for the upcoming season as four-time defending North Central Conference champs. No, not football even though the Royals have two Division I college prospects on their roster.

Sometimes we forget the high school student-athletes we cheer for, place our hopes on, praise and even criticize when their performances don’t meet our expectations aren’t yet adults.

But seeing those kids come together in support of their teammate and his battle with leukemia - well those kids demonstrated their maturity and readiness for life beyond the games some adults place so much value on.

Jon’s dad, Scott, talked about how wonderful it was to live and work in a small town, especially at a time like this. Jon’s mother Darcy fought back tears much of the morning, staring at her son when she didn’t have a hand on his shoulder or arm.

Watching that scene unfold, Moyer’s words about family rang truer than ever. This contest with so much at stake involved someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s friend. A family member.

Jon talked about the value of those on his team – his football team and his medical team. I would hope that those of you who can have also decided to be on Jon’s team.

And although the day marked the beginning of several events meant to drum up financial and emotional support for the Griffins by the Wynford football team, it also was a time to put away school colors.

This isn’t a time to see blue and gray, red and white, black and gold, scarlet and gray or blue and white. It is a time to find out the composition of your heart and the depth of your compassion.

There are several events scheduled meant to bolster support for the Griffin family beginning with today’s blood drive at Wynford. You’ll hear much about those events over the coming weeks.

I hope they don’t bore you or antagonize you. I hope they stir you to think about your response to a family member in need.

There are lots of needs in our family right now. Some of them are the families of three little boys who had to be buried and two more who will never fully recover from their injuries There’s another little boy home from the hospital recuperating from brain surgery and a stroke.

There’s more of our family in need, there’s a lot more.

Jon said he knew he would be a different man, but a better person when he came out on the other side of his ordeal. His perspective is one from someone who knows the path in front of him will not be easy to walk.

I have no doubt he will. But what I wonder about is the rest of us. Will we be different? Will we be better?

I’d like to think so. I certainly hope that’s the way it is here on The Other Side.

Thanks for joining me.

gogle@wbcowqel.com

419-562-2222

Flipflops have been in style and considered by many to be appropriate regardless of location and occasion for some time lately. Remember the furor over a college basketball player’s choice to put her best foot forward wearing them in a visit to the White House a few years ago?

While certainly not exclusive to the Ohio statehouse, it would seem the comfortable but revealing and informal thongs for the feet are also appropriate for Ohio politicians, figuratively if not literally.

Ohio has been in a fiscal crisis for quite a while and is currently hamstrung by a budget deficit of some $3.2 billion to the point of operating state business on a week-to-week basis so far in July.

I guess the good news is the state legislature and Governor Ted Strickland can agree on weekly budgets if not the two-year kind mandated by the state’s Constitution. And come to think of it, at least we Buckeyes aren’t paying the state’s bills with IOU’s like that one on the Left Coast. Wonder if Governor Terminator “vill be bach.”

But I digress. Back to the matters at hand.

The latest political tug-of-war in Columbus is over putting slot machines at the state’s race tracks as a means of dealing with that massive deficit the state’s Constitution says isn’t permissible. In other words, the state’s politicians aren’t allowed to spend money they don’t have, unlike their bigger brothers and sisters in Washington, D.C.

If one was hesitant for fear of a fashion faux paus, we know now that flipflops are politically stylish because they come in two colors that we know of: blue for Democrats and red for Republicans.

It was just last fall when Gov. Strickland addressed gambling in Ohio right here in our own backyard while he was busy stumping the state for then candidate Barack Obama instead of doing his homework on the budget.

Strickland was asked at a campaign stop in Upper Sandusky about his position on the gambling issue on the November ballot that would have permitted casinos in the state. Strickland unequivocally stated that he was personally opposed to permitting gambling in Ohio, but he would abide by the voter’s decision and would not campaign one way or the other on the issue.

Clear enough.

Fast forward about nine months later and the Governor wants to install slot machines without the voters’ consent and against their wishes they clearly stated at the ballot box on the exact proposal on an earlier occasion.

The reason for the flipflops instead of wing tips is obvious: Strickland is in political trouble and the slot machines provide political as well as monetary capital. When much-needed money is on the line, Strickland’s stated personal values don’t seem to count for much.

But the Governor isn’t the only one who came to the budget party in flipflops. So did the Republican President of the Senate, Bill Harris of Ashland. When the slot machine issue was on the ballot, Harris was loud and clear about being in favor of them.

But now that those same slot machines could give a political opponent some breathing room, Harris refuses to give the one-armed bandits a foot in the door.

Harris is more than aware of which way the political winds are blowing and the Governor’s approval ratings are heading: South.

The comical side of this – we may as well laugh, the rest of the country is – is that the amount projected to be raised even by the most generous estimates is one-third the amount need to balance the budget so the issue is really moot because it still doesn’t solve the problem.

But then that’s the way it is with hypocrisy and flipflops – no matter how good it looks and feels at the beginning, it just ends up rubs you raw.

That’s how it is here on The Other Side. Thanks for joining me.

goggle@wbcowqel.com

419-562-2222

Once again it would seem that some things are wrong, offensive and otherwise unacceptable only if they happen to certain people – or certain groups of people.

While we like to believe in the All-American concept of all people are created equal, deep down we know they’re not. Some people, either through a stroke of luck, right of birth, inheritance or simply physical or mental acumen are more equal than others.

But even knowing that we strive to enforce laws and other standards of conduct equitably to all people regardless of who they are applied to or on behalf of. Some call it civil rights; others call it the decent or right thing to do.

However it is becoming more apparent that some people are more defensible than others – even if they are children.

Recently TV talk show host David Letterman cracked a joke at the expense of a daughter of Alaska Governor and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The joke, which implied sexual conduct between Palin’s daughter – we’re still not sure if it was meant to be the 14-year-old or the 18-year-old – and New York Yankees bad boy Alex Rodriguez.

Palin was understandably infuriated and came to the defense of her daughter like a mamma polar bear that roams her home state. Letterman’s first response was that it was a joke and Palin should get over it. He did finally backtrack a little and offered an apology admitting it was a bad joke with the excuse he meant the 18-year-old instead of the 14-year-old he named.

Should it make a difference? No woman, be they 14, 18 or 48 should have to suffer the insult of being the butt of a crude joke from Letterman, or any other TV personality, for the sake of ratings simply because they are the family of a public figure.

But that issue aside, what is at least as disturbing is the reaction, or lack thereof, from the very same people who created such an uproar over an equally inappropriate and crude remark by Don Imus that the nationally known radio personality was fired.

You remember that Imus directed his ill thought off-the-cuff remarks towards the Rutgers women’s basketball team. One member of the team, then 21, complained she suffered emotional distress because of his comments.

The comments by Imus were deplorable, but no more so than those by Letterman who read the joke beforehand, recorded the show in which they were uttered, edited the show and still delivered on national TV.

While then President George W. Bush said Imus needed to apologize for his comments, now-President Barack Obama has been deafeningly silent about Letterman’s joke even though he bristled when his wife was criticized during the campaign.

Where is a similar outcry from the group Media Matters for America that it gave after the Imus show? Where are the calls for Letterman’s job from Al Sharpton and the protest by Jesse Jackson? Both were only too happy to get involved in the Imus affair.

Why is Al Roker silent now when he was eager to call for Imus to go?

All of those people and organizations seem to have lost the moral compass they were following just two years ago. Instead Bill Maher called Letterman’s joke funny and accused Palin and others of trying to get on TV.

Truth be told I think we all know why those who chased Imus off the airways are as quiet as a kindergarten class at nap time about Letterman. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with which side of the political and social spectrum one leans, including the abortion debate.

Guess which side Palin is on.

Growing up I was always told that having a double standard is having no standard at all and that’s how it still is here on The Other Side.

Thanks for joining me.

goggle@wbcowqel.com

419-562-2222

George Orwell was only off about 25 years when he wrote “1984.” It is 2009 and Big Brother is alive and well, ready to take care of us all from the cradle to the grave if only we’ll buy into his message and his plan. Big Brother is named Barack; his plan is called national corporatism; and the buy-in is increased taxes, increased debt and increased government.  

Pardon me if I don’t seem excited about the prospects but I already have a brother with whom I’m quite content; prefer capitalism and free markets; and want less of taxes, debt and especially government. To absolutely no one’s surprise General Motors was at the courthouse door bright and early Monday morning to declare bankruptcy. I’d have laughed if I wasn’t already preoccupied with getting sick at the thought. 

Not because General Motors shouldn’t have went bankrupt. That has long been the auto-making giant’s best option, as well as Chrysler’s who beat GM to the punch more than a month ago. No, the heartburn came from the billions of bailout dollars committed by the federal government on behalf of you, me and all other taxpayers to keep both companies from going bankrupt. The nausea came from government ownership of both companies, as much as 60% of GM which now stands for – you guessed it – Government Motors. 

I seem to recall being told that the bailout was necessary because the country’s economy – maybe even the world’s – couldn’t afford to have the giants of industry go belly up. Well we spent billions of dollars we didn’t have and both Chrysler and GM ended up like a beached whale anyway. 

Now we’re told this is a better bankruptcy – what an oxymoron that is – because it kept both companies from being sold off piecemeal. Read the fine print if you haven’t already: Chrysler is being sold to European automaker Fiat, the Chinese are going to buy Hummer from GM and Saturn is up for sale. 

Now explain to me why the current scenario is better than not having spent billions of bailout bucks and allowing both companies to have gone into bankruptcy months ago. We would have saved ourselves the enormous cost of a failed bailout and both companies would now be reorganized and on their way to recovery. Seems to me that’s how you get out of a recession. Only it isn’t how you minimize government dependency. Ultimately, that’s what this is about.  

And I don’t think it is a coincidence that the UAW who did all it could to elect Obama owns more of GM than former GM bond and stockholders. Of course its not UAW officials who lost their jobs, but the rank and file members they told to support Obama. And guess who is buying up

 Everything we need, including manufacturing jobs now, can be provided by the federal government.  A government by the way that has put a 31-year-old lifetime political hack with no economic and marketing training or experience in charge of GM’s reorganization. I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel real confident in that company’s recovery. 

But perhaps the wisest words of all regarding government ownership – make that intrusion – into the auto industry came from none other than Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez who referred to the U.S. President as “Comrade” and joked, “Hey Fidel  (Castro), watch out or we’ll soon be to the right of Obama.” Now that’s change as promised by the Obama presidential campaign – it’s just not change I can believe in here on The Other Side. 

Thanks for joining me. goggle@wbcowqel.com419-562-2222

The annual rite of spring is once again upon us. Sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, grandsons and granddaughters and friends will once again don cap and gown, walk across a stage at a college or high school somewhere and get a piece of paper. That piece of paper used to signify that you’ve made it. I suppose it still does. But the question remains made it to where? 

If the present has been changing so fast that many of us can’t seem to keep pace, the future has changed at such an exponential rate that no one can reasonably assume any more what it holds.  Especially for those who hold the future in their hands. Because the present is about as shaky as a

 Dwindling 401K’s, disappearing pensions, falling home values, harder than ever to afford health insurance and jobs that might not last through the day.  Do you get the theme here? Many have placed their hopes and dreams on financial security and when that security is threatened – so is their happiness. 

I certainly don’t want to minimize financial security. It’s not a bad thing, it does comfort and without it day-to-day existence can become a scary prospect. But it’s not the only thing we can latch onto and dare I say it’s not the most important. In fact, it’s down right foolish and dangerous to put all of your eggs in that basket. Financial security can be, as we’ve seen, a fleeing thing subject to the whims and acts of others. It can be here one day and gone the next in spite of our best efforts. 

That doesn’t mean it’s not worth pursuing and planning for. It does mean it’s not the true source of contentment. It’s also the reason that in spite of having the weight of our financial boondoggles heaped upon their shoulders in the way of federal debt and higher taxes before many of them have even secured their first full-time job, today’s graduates still have plenty to look forward to and smile about in the future. While folks my age have most likely passed the halfway point in the race they are just beginning, we too have much to look forward to.There are families to raise on one hand, and families to watch grow on the other.  

There is the challenge of facing the unknown, and the joy of having gone through it and come out on the other side. Maybe not unscathed, but never undone. There are friends to make, friends to lose track of and maybe even friends to lose. But there are always friends to appreciate and enjoy and help out when you can. 

Most of all there is our faith, whatever it might be. It will be tested to be sure. It may waver and possibly even change over time.  But one thing is certain. Our faith, family and friends will be more of a source of happiness and affect our contentment than money or the lack thereof. 

Even starting out in the face of the unknown, the days ahead are still bright for those soon-to-be graduates because there are things that even the future can’t take away.  That’s how it is here on The Other Side. Thanks for joining me. gogle@wbcowqel.com419-562-2222