The Election is Over

I haven't posted one of these in a few years, so pardon me if I am rusty.  But, I just have a lot of say about this election (and, don't take it personally -- even when I say everyone and all, it doesn't necessarily mean everyone -- and here it goes:

It's over folks.  The election is over.  For everyone complaining and gloating, guess what?  It's over.  Whether you supported Romney or Obama, it doesn't matter now.  Move on.  Get over it.  You cannot determine tomorrow or next week or even next year whether this choice was correct or not.  Ten years from now history will tell us whether the choice made on Tuesday was correct or not.  Until then, do what Americans have done since the founding of this great country, go back to work.

The reactions have been stunning to me.  Companies laying off workers?  Businesses threatening to close?  That's not the United States of America I know.  How can anyone say what the future holds?  Putting a worker on the unemployment line over the looming threat of potential costs?  That's asinine.  That is not the American way.  Not at all.  When the odds are stacked against you, you work harder and make it happen.  You don't quit.

But America has changed.  And you cannot lay the blame at the foot of the President.  Or George Bush.  Or Bill Clinton.  No.  You lay it at the feet of Americans.  Every individual who has the "me first" attitude.  Every selfish person who looks out for their own needs ahead of the needs anyone else.  I have seen parents who put their own wants for alcohol or cigarettes or drugs ahead of the needs of their children.  I have seen teenagers put their own wants ahead of the needs of their peers.  I have seen adults lie and cheat and steal from their neighbors.  Not because of a need but because of a want.  Not because they are hungry but because they are jealous.  Not because they don't have, but because they don't want anyone else to have.

America has become the land of the gluttons.  Everyone wants everything and they want it now.  And they don't want to work for it, it should be handed to them.  Instant gratification.  We have become the land of easy.  We don't manufacture much of anything any more.  We have become a service-oriented country with paperwork our main product.  Shuffling emails, sending letters -- that's the work of America.  Building something?  Not so much anymore.  That's all overseas.  China is making computers.  We just learn how to use them.  You can't build anything in America anymore.  Insurance, liability, labor costs and the lazy American worker will make sure you can't afford to.  I could build computers with a workforce -- but I cannot build them as cheaply as China.  I can't build a car as cheaply as China.  I can't mine coal as cheaply as China.  And since we have priced ourselves out of the world market, real production goes to China.

If America wants to survive, and it always does, then we have to find a way to come together and create the America we should want.  A country where people work hard together, build together, compete together and prosper together.  And we should look out for our neighbors, friends and families.  We should put the needs of others ahead of our wants.  Help those down on their luck.  But that also means hard work.  The "me first" mentality is why we are in the mess we are in -- not because of this election.  Americans have become selfish.  And the only way to fix that is to change -- not at the polls but in your hearts.  Until then, everything will remain status quo.