Independence Day?

The old Scottish fisherman rocked back and forth on his front porch in the early morning sun, his deeply wrinkled face commanding respect. I had come to ask him his opinions on recent events in our country and his thoughts on the meaning of celebrating Independence Day. He's old enough to remember the great Depression; living in Seattle's Hooverville, and then moving to Oregon in '32' where he helped build the coast highway. Started fishing commercially out of Depoe Bay in the 40's and 50's where he prospered. He dabbled in the stock market, buying some shares of an unknown coffee company starting up in his former home town (he always liked a good cup of "joe"). By the early 90's, his coffee company has gone worldwide; in some cities opening franchises on virtually every corner, but he wanted more. He invested in hedge funds comprised of sub prime mortgage packages which promised high returns, and consumer credit banks which were making a killing. Then, a couple of years ago the bottom began to drop out. His hedge funds became worthless almost overnight, even his beloved coffee company announced it was closing 4,000 of its stores. Thank God his holdings in the Glenffitich distillery were doing fine though (with their dividend package including 10 cases of their premium scotch a year). I asked for his advice for Americans caught in similar circumstances today, on the eve of our annual celebration of independence. This is what he told me: “In 1776 Americans declared their freedom from the oppressive control of big government and greedy bankers. But now, America, as you celebrate your independence, you must realize you are enslaved again. Realize, the overlords have stolen your freedom again; like the Hebrews working in Egypt, the good life in Pyramidville has vanished. Now you will have to make bricks without straw. Realize, it is not only the cruel and greedy upper class who must be blamed for making you a wage-slave. Realize, you are also to blame; your own insatiable appetites have brought you here. The hard times of your past did not teach you contentment with what little you had. You desired, no, lusted after more, after unshakeable security. Such things are not available to man on this earth. You were given many road signs, warning against this, but you would not follow them.” His eyes glanced away in a wistful look, then fixed on me again, and he continued... “WE ALL, were given many signs... myself included. Realize, our reality check has bounced! We had a wake up call in the 1970's oil crisis and we chose not to pay attention even after we waited in gas lines. Instead, we asked Detroit for SUVs, muscle cars and motor homes; we rejected the fuel efficient, albeit, low powered alternatives. And Detroit and Exxon gladly accommodated us ...’If we build it they will come...’ They went further though, they also bought up endless alternate fuel ideas and patents for fuel efficient cars and buried them. They gave us what we wanted: gas guzzlers with GPS (so we could know where we were when we ran out of gas), and they got what they wanted — huge profits on their products. Now we're enslaved to these hydrocarbon boozers, these worthless, too expensive to drive, and too expensive to sell status symbols. We have reaped what we, our oil companies, and our government have sown. Realize, we got what we asked for, what we demanded, but not what we wanted... you can't have it both ways folks! The roller coaster of endless credit and cheep commodities has reached the top of its track, there's only the scary plunge on the other side awaiting us. It is not a coincidence that everyone screams as they hurtle earthward. My advice, invest in your local bicycle store, plant a garden, pray (if you believe in that) and subscribe to Hooverville magazine (there's a lot of good tips in there). Hopefully we won't have to stick our collective heads between our knees and kiss our sorry u-kno-whats goodbye. Would you like a cup of Irish Coffee?”