Breathe...

So, four more years. The people have spoken. Several of my friends are freaking out. They were wishing and hoping and praying there would be a reservation for a party of four from D.C. to Chicago on the first bankrupt Amtrak train out of town on the 21st of January next year (yes, the one with the $16 hamburgers). I try to console them - it's gonna be okay - breathe.

I woke up this morning; got dressed for work - a job I truly love though I wish I was earning more; didn't see tanks and riots in the streets because of our election; smiled as I stopped at one of the great symbols of American capitalism - McDonald's, and realized it's gonna be okay. So my guy didn't win. I'm still free, relatively safe and secure, and the system works, even if people in Florida still don't get it.

I turned 50 last month and have seen enough to perhaps have a different perspective. This was the ninth presidential election I've had the honor and privilege of participating in. 5 wins, 4 losses. And that pretty much sums up the divide in the country. It's been there for decades, not just the past four years.

In my formative years, I watched an impeached Republican President resign because he lied; watched his successor survive an assassination attempt; participated in the oil crisis by deciphering my license plate; survived the daily news beating from having our hostages held for over a year; and possibly most psychologically damaging - survived disco.

During my college days, another Republican President survived an assassination attempt, saved the world from the evil empire, and may have lied or forgotten about guns and rebels (or was it guns and roses?). Still later, a Democrat President lied under oath and was impeached, followed by the devastation and humiliation of this generation's Pearl Harbor, and a Republican President playing "Where's Osama" for nearly a decade.

Most recently, a Democrat President claimed terrorists were sitting around wherever it is that terrorists sit around at watching YouTube and collectively decided to attack several embassies. But he's looking into it to see what really happened.

These days, I can only watch CNN and Fox News in small doses. There are too many "experts" on both who don't realize that too few of U.S. are truly rabid, frothing conservatives or liberals to keep a steady diet of their rhetoric down. Most of U.S. are a little more of this and little less of that.

I've concluded that things will work or not work regardless of the political party in power or favor. We've had prosperity and desperation with elephants and donkeys (please don't read too much into that one). My expectation for these well-meaning public servants is simple - keep me safe, don't waste my money, and don't lie to me.

And I hold these truths to be self-evident:

Too much of a good thing is bad.

Too much of a bad thing is really bad.

It's never a good thing to waste money, especially if it's not yours.

Being in debt is worse than not being in debt.

Fairness doesn't mean half of U.S. working to support the other half.

Politicians are not necessarily the same thing as leaders.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The good people of Highland Park are still rich. The same people I've seen for years sitting in front of their dilapidated pieces of heaven near Fair Park are still poor.

Four more years is not the end of the world. We've been through worse. Breathe...




Robert Jacobs is an economics teacher at Allen HS. rnj77gol@att.net

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