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Observation: Independence

Posted on July 4, 2013

Today, we celebrate our independence from the British Government. Our Founding Fathers declared this independence over two centuries ago, and fought to make it a reality. They wanted our young nation to be free from oppressive control by a foreign monarch. They wanted us to be “not dependent”.

We Have Become Dependent On Our own Government

We started off that way. And we are still “free”, nominally at least. But, particularly over more recent years, we have lost our independence, and have become dependent on our own government. As a people, we look to our government to provide us with education, jobs, health care, and retirement benefits. If we are disadvantaged or poor, we demand that our government provide us with lifetime income. Government programs that started as a “humanitarian safety net” have now become a “vested right” in the eyes of many. We feel entitled to a high standard of living; if we can’t, or won’t, earn it, we expect our government to provide it for us.

Our Current Dependence is High Risk

We have, in short, become dependent on government again. While it is a different government this time (it is “us” not “them”), it is nevertheless a dependence on government. Too bad. We seem to have lost the sense of personal responsibility our Founding Fathers had, an ingrained sense that made them independent. Our current dependence on government is high risk (because it relies on a source without assets or earning power). It also greatly diminishes our national character, and may ultimately destroy this once-great nation of ours…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Independence, National Viewpoint

Observation: Terrorism

Posted on April 29, 2013

I am in the mid-East now, and have had the opportunity to experience three of the world’s major religions “up close and personal”. Christianity (which has 2.2 billion believers), Islam (which has 1.3 billion believers) and Judaism (which has 14 million believers) account for about half the people on earth today. All three were founded in this area of the world. All three acknowledge one God (but by different names), and believe that human beings must obey the Will of this God. Two of the three believe in life after death (Judaism is not sure). All three have holy texts and scriptures which guide their believers, and many of the lessons contained in these writings are similar. There are even similarities in their religious practices and holidays. While there are differences in the “trappings” of these religions, the similarities in fundamentals are overwhelming.

His God And Those That He kills Are The Same God

When a terrorist says his religion justifies (even requires) the indiscriminate killing of those who practice another religion, he lies. His God, and the God of those he kills, are the same God. And the belief in after-life with this God, the written guidance which comes from this God, and indeed many of the practices of the religions, are fundamentally the same. We know the terrorist lies when he invokes his religion to justify his terrorism, because he is indiscriminately killing his religious brothers and sisters.

Why Does He Lie?

Why does he lie? Because he must obscure the reality of his heinous and despicable crimes against humanity in some sort of “cloak” which makes these acts appear “justified”. Otherwise, he could not commit these horrible killings. But the cloak of religion is transparent. His God and my God are the same God. His God would never sanction the killing of another who believed in the same God but worshipped through a different religion. Invoking the Holy Trinity, Allah or Yahweh to justify terrorism is the desperate act of an imbecile to rationalize that which he knows to be horribly wrong…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Global Viewpoint, Terrorism

A Responsibility Dream

Posted on March 28, 2013

Earlier this month, while visiting an entrepreneurial daughter on the West Coast, we boated over to Alcatraz Island which sits in San Francisco Bay. The visit re-kindled an old dream of mine, one which actually started on the East Coast of our country.

Shining Symbol Of A Free People

There is a small island off the tip of Manhattan. A fort was constructed there for the War of 1812, and inside its courtyard now stands the most majestic statue in the world, a shining symbol of a free people, the Statue of Liberty. It was erected in 1886, a joint effort by the people of America (who funded the pedestal) and the people of France (who designed and funded the Statue). In the 1980’s, a public-private partnership raised $87 million to restore the Statue and the restoration was completed in time for “Lady Liberty’s” 100th anniversary. The UN then declared the Statue a World Heritage Site.

All That Is Great About Our Country

The Statue of Liberty is huge, standing 305 feet tall from its pedestal base to the tip of its torch. From head to toe, Lady Liberty herself is 112 feet tall and has a 35 foot waistline. She weighs 450 thousand pounds. There are 354 steps inside the Statue and pedestal, and visitors to the crown have 25 viewing windows from which to peer out at America.

Known throughout the world, the Statue of Liberty symbolizes all that is great about our country: the opportunities, hopes and aspirations made possible in a land where individual freedoms are assured by both our Constitution and a long-standing culture of liberty. So powerful was the message that it drew hard-working, responsible people from around the world to come to America to raise their families, to pursue their dreams, and to take pride in introducing each new generation to a higher plane of life. The Statue of Liberty became the symbol of the American Dream. And many generations of Americans achieved this Dream.

We forgot something vitally important: to sustain our success as a people and as a nation, we must individually retain a strong sense of personal responsibility.

But, over time, an erosion set in. As we became more successful materially, and reached the highest standard of living ever known, too many of us started to become less resourceful, less self-reliant, less responsible. Not everyone, of course, but too many of us started looking for the “free ride.” This portion of our population now wants all the latest material comforts (from cell phones to HDTV), but are unwilling to work for them. They want the joys of children, but are unwilling to commit to lifelong parental partnerships to raise these children. They want a secure retirement, but are unwilling to save for it. As more and more of our people lost their sense of personal responsibility, our elected officials (politicians) pandered to this weakness (to “buy” votes, of course), and this seemed to validate and accelerate the loss of responsibility.

We Must Individually Retain A Strong Sense of Personal Responsibility.

We forgot something vitally important: to sustain our success as a people and as a nation, we must individually retain a strong sense of personal responsibility. The same sense our Founding Fathers had when they declared our Independence and adopted our Constitution. The same sense the people of our young nation had when they tamed our country’s wilderness. The same sense our poor immigrants had when they came to America to build their fortunes. The same sense that enabled us to revolutionize the world through the Industrial Revolution, to win two World Wars, and to develop technology which now enables us to do things almost beyond imagination.

Now however, we must come to realize that freedom without responsibility results in chaos.

Now however, we must come to realize that freedom without responsibility results in chaos. The early signs of this coming chaos are all around us: political parties that deadlock the decision making of government; massively unbalanced federal budgets; enormous accumulated federal debt; a government which prints huge amounts of its own money (thereby devaluing its money) to feed its spending habits; a culture of illegal drugs; a wide-spread acceptance of unwed motherhood; an ever larger portion of our population in jail; an embedded attitude of entitlement; deteriorating results in our public schools; a declining standard of overall health (notwithstanding the fact that we far outspend all other nations for health care); and on, and on, and on. Unless we revive our individual sense of responsibility, and do it soon, this chaos will consume us and our nation. The shining torch held by Lady Liberty will be extinguished, and America will deteriorate into a land of broken dreams, hopelessness, and dispair.

Personal Responsibility

Personal responsibility. It balances freedom. Together they enabled the American Dream to become a reality. We had them both before. That’s how we became great. But we are losing responsibility now. We must regain it. We need a symbol, visible to all (not only in America, but around the world). This symbol must say we are reclaiming our sense of personal responsibility, each of us are. This symbol must be as powerful as the Statue of Liberty.

Personal responsibility. It balances freedom. Together they enabled the American Dream to become a reality.

We need a Statue of Responsibility! This is my dream. And we should build it on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.

Alcatraz is a small, hard rock island jutting up just a short distance inside the Golden Gate Bridge. It was widely known as an inescapable federal prison, and confined about 1,500 of our nation’s most notorious convicts from 1934 to 1963. Previously however (since 1853) it was the site of a lighthouse and early fortress, a Civil War fortification, and a military prison, before becoming a federal penitentiary. The island is now under the protection of the National Park Service, which is engaged in an effort to restore the integrity of its deteriorating buildings.

The prisoner’s recreation yard on the north end of Alcatraz Island would be the perfect spot to erect the Statue of Responsibility. The location is clearly visible to all who enter our country by coming under the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as to all those living in San Francisco and around the Bay. I envision a statue of a man holding the hand of a child (“father and child”); a statue rising at least 100 feet above its pedestal; a statue depicting a “responsible” father and a “trusting” child. The Statue of Responsibility should be equal to the Statue of Liberty in size, grandure, and impact. Hopefully its pedestal could be funded by Asian nations (whose people have immigrated to our country) and the Statue itself by voluntary contributions from our own people.

We need a Statue of Responsibility! This is my dream.

The symbolism of this father-child Statue of Responsibility would be clear (“responsibility earns trust”); the message powerful (“liberty” must be balanced with “responsibility”); and the reach global (a message to all the people of the world that we the people of America intend to re-gain the other key ingredient to our past success, namely “personal responsibility”). “Lady Liberty” on the East Coast entry to our country; “Father Responsibility” on the West Coast entry; together, they “bookend” the American Dream in between. We will not let chaos take over because we lack personal responsibility!

I envision a statue of a man holding the hand of a child (“father and child”)

Let’s get started on this now...Bill O’Neill

Categories: National Viewpoint

Tagged: Responsibility

Sequester Cuts

Posted on March 11, 2013

Out of Washington comes the news that the expenses of our federal government will be reduced by $85 billion this year (its accounting year which ends on September 30, 2013, and therefore has about seven months to go). No one likes the legislation that forces these reductions even though most people agree that we MUST REDUCE GOVERNMENT SPENDING. What goes here? Lets look at the facts.

If They Are Not Permanent Reductions, What Good Are They?

The cuts have been labeled a “sequester” which implies “to set apart” or “to separate”, but not “to eliminate”. If these cuts are not permanent reductions in what our government will otherwise spend, what good are they? They become merely an empty promise: we will not spend the amounts today, but we may spend them tomorrow. Picture an alcoholic saying “I usually have 10 drinks a day, but tomorrow I’ll have only 9. Hooray, I am cured! And by the way, the day after tomorrow I may have 12 drinks to make up for the one I will miss tomorrow”.

The $85 billion to be cut from government expenses amounts to only 2.4% of what our government will spend this year, and only 9.1% of its projected loss.

Doesn’t Make Much Of A Dent

The cuts amount to $85 billion over the next seven months. Sounds like a lot of money, and indeed it is. But they must be judged in the context of ALL the monies our federal government will spend this year, which are currently budgeted at $3.6 trillion. And the budgeted loss for the period is $930 billion before the cuts. The $85 billion to be cut from government expenses amounts to only 2.4% of what our government will spend this year, and only 9.1% of its projected loss. Doesn’t make much of a dent in the problem does it?

Meat Ax Vs Scalpel Approach

The cuts are coming from a “meat ax” approach to the problem rather than a “scalpel” approach. On an overall basis, our federal government spends $3.6 trillion a year. This, incidentally, amounts to $11,000 for EVERY man, woman and child in our country, and the government spends this amount EVERY year! This spending currently falls into three maj0r categories: the largest is the mandatory (mostly “entitlement”) spending, which accounts for approximately $2.1 trillion a year; the next largest is defense spending, which currently amounts to about $700 billion a year; and finally there is other domestic spending, which is about $600 billion a year. And, of course, we must also pay interest on the federal debt we have accumulated over the years. Looking at these sequester cuts by category, the entitlements budget will be cut $16.3 billion (or 0.8%, which is less than 1%); the defense budget will be cut $42.6 billion (6.1%); and other domestic spending will be cut $26.4 billion (4.4%). The individual line item expenses that were cut were done with very little, if any, analysis of the impacts the cuts would cause. This approach hardly inspires the trust and confidence we should have in our elected officials.

The wrong thing, done the wrong way, at the wrong time.

Sometimes the resolution of a difficult issue (like these sequester cuts), that leaves all the parties somewhat unhappy, is a good resolution. Not so here. Each of the parties (political and otherwise) is VERY UNHAPPY. The sequester cuts come way too late (they should have been worked out throughout 2012 in a very deliberative and thoughtful way). They are way too little (they only reduce out-of-control federal spending by 2.4%, and will make less than a 10% reduction in the huge loss projected for the year). And they are way too sloppy (they fail to target federal waste and inefficiency, and hardly make a dent in entitlements, which are without any doubt our really big problem). The wrong thing, done the wrong way, at the wrong time.

Why? It comes down to a very dirty word. The word is “politics”. I’ll have more to say about that later…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Deficits, National Viewpoint

Tagged: Federal Spending

A Trillion

Posted on March 4, 2013

To truly understand the meaning of a word, we must be able to conceptualize it. It is easy to understand the word “twelve”: I can picture the twelve apostles or twelve eggs in a carton. I clearly know the meaning of “twelve”. But it is hard to conceptualize the word “infinite”: there is nothing in my experience I can use to relate to this word. Something that has no limits is beyond my comprehension. Consequently, I have a very fuzzy understanding of the meaning of “infinite”.

But we still don’t really “get it”. It is just TOO BIG to understand. And politicians in Washington undoubtedly want to keep it that way. As long as we (the voters) don’t understand it, they (the politicians) won’t be held accountable for it.

To Big To Understand

We should be able to understand the meaning of the word “trillion”. After all, it is a finite number, something we can count, something we can define with certainty. But it is such a BIG number, most of us have no comprehension of its meaning. We really don’t understand it, and consequently we ignore it. We see the word often in our newspapers, and hear it banished about frequently in Washington, D.C. We know that it is an enormous number, and that it will have a huge impact on our future. But we still don’t really “get it”. It is just TOO BIG to understand. And politicians in Washington who deal with the federal budget, undoubtedly want to keep it that way. As long as we (the voters) don’t understand it, they (the politicians) won’t be held accountable for it.

This is a very, very dangerous situation. We hold our politicians accountable for the small stuff because we understand small stuff (for example, mis-appropriating campaign funds or marital infidelity). But we don’t hold them accountable for the really big stuff (like trillion dollar deficits every year). They (the politicians) are not being responsible with our money and the future of our country. And we (the voters) are not being responsible either: by not understanding what our politicians are doing to us and to our country, we enable them to be irresponsible. The situation cries out for a “curb rein” of responsibility. And the curb rein starts with us. Once we (the voters) have a clear understanding of just how big a trillion really is, we can start to hold our politicians accountable for what they are doing to us and our country.

How big is a trillion? It’s the amount you would earn if you were paid $1 per second, worked 40 hours per week and stayed on the job for 31,700 years.

Some Illustrations

OK. How big is “a trillion”? It’s this big: 1,000,000,000,000. Still hard to get your mind around the meaning? Then let’s try some illustrations you might be able to conceptualize. A trillion is: (a) a million millions; (b) a little over $3,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States; (c) or, to spread it around a little more, $150 or so for every single human being on our planet earth (there are 7 billion of us currently); (d) the number of steps you would take to walk completely around the earth at the equator if you circled the earth 22,800 times; (e) the number of seconds that have passed since the Neanderthals walked the earth 32,000 years ago; (f) the amount you would earn if you were paid $1 per second, worked 40 hours per week and stayed on the job for 31,700 years; (g) the number of dollar bills piled up in a stack 68,000 miles high (a third of the distance to the moon); (h) the number of miles you would travel if you circled the earth at the equator 40 million times; (i) the number of cheeseburgers you could buy to feed every human being on earth a cheeseburger every day for almost 3 months; (j) the number of weeks our universe will have been here (from the “big bang” which was 13.7 billion years ago) when we get to the year 5,530,002,013 (that is, the year 5 billion, 530 million, 2 thousand and 13). There are many, many more ways as well to illustrate just how big a trillion really is. I encourage you to post back any illustrations you really like. In the end, pick the one that best helps you to “get it”. And remember always that this is only one trillion.

Take Responsibility for it

They say ignorance is bliss, and we have been blissful about a trillion for a long time. Now however, we must become powerful about it, take responsibility for it, and bring it under control. Knowledge of the whole, fact-based truth is the ultimate power. This power is within our reach if we are willing to think deeply and care enough about the future of our country to pursue the truth, the whole truth.

In the future, I will be sharing with you more thoughts along these lines…Bill O’Neill

Categories: Deficits, Global Viewpoint, National Viewpoint

Tagged: Federal Spending