I have been feeling sick lately (like since 2000) because our government has so many obvious problems that they, the elected officials, seem to sweep under the rug, cover up so that they are out of sight, or “kick the proverbial can down the road.” They don’t seem to fix the problem, just talk around it, and act dumbfounded.

Which got me to thinking about my own life’s problems and how they were or weren’t fixed.

First: the ones that weren’t ever fixed.

Problem #1 – Grandmom & Razor Blades

My grandparents had five children, my mother and four others, the last two sons never left home. They were bachelors and lived with my Irish Grandmother 'til both she and Grandpop passed. I remember as a child walking up the road with my mother to visit Grandmother. We found her in the kitchen holding a towel on her hand which she cut on a discarded razor blade fishing through the trash (for I don’t know what). Remember the flat blades that fit into the Gillette razor? I think they called them blue blades.

Now having three grown men in the house means a lot of blue blades floating in the trash and plenty of chances for a nick or two. And being Irish, my Grandmother’s temper was known to come out in such events. Like the time she threw a clarinet at my Uncle Butch for God knows what. I can still see that black instrument flying end over end into the corner as my Uncle pleaded, “Mom, not my clarinet.”

But that is another story for another time. Let’s get back to the problem: they threw deadly blue blades in the trash AND she had a penchant for digging through the trash.

Now the solution seems simple, right?

1) Don’t throw blue blades in the trash without first securing the sharp edges.

AND/OR

2) Don’t dig in the trash without impenetrable gloves.

Neither of which they did. The three guys kept throwing blue blades in the trash and Grandmom kept digging through the trash and getting cut. The cycle continued!

Problem #2: In-Laws & Coffee

And I was fortunate to marry into a wonderful family whose support and kindness were unmatched. And after moving back to our home state after college and a teaching stint in Georgia, my beautiful wife and I moved in with my in-laws for a spell. Every morning as Father-in-law came into the kitchen for coffee and breakfast, dutifully prepared by my Mother-in-law. Remember, in the 60s, the man worked and brought home the bacon (my father-in-law was very good at “bringing home the bacon”) and the woman stayed home caring for her man and kids; she cooked the bacon.

The rub always came like clockwork when she would serve his coffee as he read the paper. Completely absorbed in some news item he would unconsciously take a sip of hot, very hot, very, very hot coffee and would bark a chorus of curse words. This ritual happened just about every morning for the months that we were there to observe and I’m sure continued long after we move out to nest in preparation for the arrival of our first little bundle of joy.

Simple Solutions:

1. Don’t nuke the coffee for 3 minutes. Just cut back until a suitable time and temp were reached.

AND/OR

2) Don’t unconsciously take your first sip. Remember yesterday and test the coffee temp prior to tasting.

Neither of these options occurred and life went on!

Problem #3 – Tuck and Fold

Now, here is a problem that was fixed. As a pre-school-aged boy, I lived in the country side of Penn’s (Pennsylvania) Woods in the early 50s, housebound with a loving mother, and no escape except a ½ mile walk to visit my Grandmother with the bandaged hand, or a ¼ mile walk to visit my great aunt. Mother shared so many childhood learning experiences with me including how to fold the weekly laundry, which she retrieved (sometimes in the snow) from the clothesline. As directed, I always folded the towels and washcloths so the identifying little white tabs were unseen when the folding was completed. For years, tuck and fold, tuck and fold, pop out, retuck and fold, on and on with those pain-in-the-ass little white tabs, tuck and fold, retuck and fold.

Now, some fifty plus years later living with a loving wife who shares so much with me, including the folding of the laundry, (thank God for electric/gas dryers) as I tuck and fold, pop out, retuck and fold those damn little white tabs, cussing them all the more, when an idea hits me!

Simple Solution:

Eliminate the nagging, little white identifying unimportant irritant tabs! Cut the little mofos off.

So what do these problems have to do with politics?

Using these simple, everyday little problems as examples of our much bigger, far more important national problems, the Simple Solutions are right there staring us in the face, waiting, just begging to be recognized and implemented. All we have to do is see the problem, find the simple solution, and implement it.

Of course we are dealing with a well-designed, effective, protective operating system of governments whose duties, powers and responsibilities are granted by a document call the Constitution of the United States. Unfortunately, those charged with these duties, powers and responsibilities are all “humans,” carrying all their personal baggage with them while making decisions impacting everyone else’s lives. And there are so so many of them, each with his or her opinions and solutions to offer. (Opinions are like assholes, every body has one.)

So the workings of government move ever so slowly, by design, so a mad man can’t just take over and become a dictator. But, this slow moving process also leads to a slow takeover well planned and well thought-out (“takeover by design” if you will) such as the one that has taken over our present day government, spouting it’s mantra, “of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.”

The implementation has taken decades of well thought-out plans so that simple small steps toward to an end goal of controlling the government for their own benefit is completely invisible to the average Joe. The takeover moves so slowly that it is undetectable and whenever an inkling of something undesirable is exposed, it is treated as an aberration that must be absorbed and dealt with by the populous. You know, we’re Americans. We’re the best. We can deal with it; we’re tough, resourceful, etc.

And then the awakening, the realization that “Hey, it’s not all right” for the top 1% to own 50-60% of the wealth while the rest of us suck the proverbial “hind tit,” and are treated like the runt of the litter and shoved aside with no means of survival.

No, it’s not acceptable that the majority of Americans are over-worked and underpaid, many working for a minimum wage that doesn’t measure the same as it did in the 60s, meaning people working for minimum wage in the 60s had a higher standard of living than one working for minimum wage now.

Unions, the equalizer for the masses, are being systematically eliminated while those who are served by unions just look on, blank stares, and believe the propaganda fed to them by the top political leaders leading them straight to the soup kitchens. How many people were financially decimated by the corrupt actions of Wall Street and the banks? How many are still under a cloud not able to right the listing ship of their financial lives?

Simple Solutions for complex problems are there. It just takes the will of the people!

For instance, we still have 10s of millions of uninsured citizens in America.

The simple solution (as the majority of health care providers will tell you) is a single payer Medicare for all system.

The medical field has to treat a sick individual regardless of his ability to pay, so why structure a health care system so unbalanced with some paying more than they should while others pay nothing and still others neglect an illness which leads to a more costly fix down the road when earlier detection and treatment would have been cost effective and better for the patient’s health? Under the present system 30-35% of every dollar goes to administrative costs, while Medicare administrative costs are 1-3% a savings of 27-32%.

The majority of the people want a single payer Medicare for all system.

What’s the hold-up?

What’s the problem?

Why isn’t this simple effective alternative solution implemented?

CONGRESS!

Feeling ill? Take two aspirins and call me in the morning.