I’m Back

Yes, you heard me right, I am back. Where have I been you ask? Fighting to survive is where I’ve been. Like others here in America, I had a real bad setback financially. This caused me to focus on how to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly. But, as the old saying goes, what goes down will come back up, and it is true. I am back in the saddle again. So here are some of my tidbit thoughts on current happenings.

Economy

To be real straight about it, the country is in the dumps and you already know that. What I hope is that people don’t expect Obama to turn this mess into a windfall in our pockets over night. As a matter of fact, he will not be able to turn this situation around for quite a while. This country spent the last eight years getting to this point and it will surely take just as long to come totally back. What we all have to do is learn to be patient. As another old saying goes nothing good comes easy. We must understand we have to get back to the basics first then learn how to become creative. Rushing to resolve our problems can only lead to more problems. As we look for solutions we have to realize and accept what caused them and then begin to fix it.

Financial Woes

Right now the country is experiencing an unemployment rate that is about to replay the early eighties. Have you forgotten what that was like? The rate at that time reached upward to around 18% nationwide and I know because I was working as an Economic Analyst for a banking institution and kept track of the those rates and many others. The real solution to the problem is learning to manage and save money as we stop being so greedy for material things. Have you forgotten that whatever it is you buy, you can’t take it with you when you die? We must again revert back to the thoughts of our grandparents, a penny earned is a penny saved. It‘s not as hard as you think. Trust me I know. It is the very way I was able to climb out of the financial cauldron I ended up in and had to find a way to recover. Ask yourself, what will I do with the money stimulus Obama give me?

Writers

You know newspapers have tanked. Magazines are decreasing in numbers. And writers everywhere are looking for ways to make money doing what they love to do, write. In these hard times, unless you are on staff at a publishing company that is making money, (we all know it isn’t happening) then as a freelancer (like me) the wheels are spending faster and faster against you. So where does that leave us? We have to stay focused on realistic goals. Now don’t get me wrong, there is money to be made out there. What has changed is thinking out the box. Ask yourself, how are people reading now? Is more on the internet or more in hardcopy? Are people truly wanting material to read and what kind? See where I am going here? It is called a “niche market.” Writers of today are really forced to master a niche market if they want to succeed. Without doing so and staying stuck in only one way of doing things will cost you with no return for your work. So think like a homeless, hungry person and find that niche for your writing and go for it. What have you got to lose when you are already on the bottom?

Sylvia's Musings

I know I have been gone for a while. Just let me say it was due to things out of my control. So let’s just move on. I would like to share my musings on a few things going on right now.

The Financial Market
With the Dow Jones taking a plunge like it has been doing for the last month, the first thing that comes to my mind is depression. The housing market has hit rock bottom, food prices are at an all time high, gasoline prices are rising faster than you can blink your eyes, weather across the country reminds me of the book of Revelation in the Bible, job markets are tanking out in every sector except engineering and medicine, the cost to attend institutions of higher learning has locked out the average citizen, unknown diseases are appearing out of nowhere, the fires in California are burning like the place we call he**, so called friends of the presidential candidates are showing their true colors, airlines are going out of business and the city of Detroit is riddle with scandal. Now you tell me, doesn’t this sound like the decade of the 1930’s.

Presidential Race
Now that the race is down to two candidates, everyone is either on one side or the other of the swinging pendulum. And if that isn’t enough, everybody is also voicing their opinion on any and every subject that they feel is important. Whether it is about health care, the war in Iraq, housing, jobs, four-day workweeks, and children or the next adult generation; with no immediate solutions, nobody is happy and all feel like they don’t have a choice in anything anymore. What can the next president do? Your guess is as good as mine.

War
It doesn’t matter if it is Iraq or Afghanistan; it looks as if we are destined to be in a war someplace. Pull the troops out of one country and send them to another is the mood today but, why can’t we just pull them out of them both? War is ugly no matter how you look at it. Lives are lost for reasons that we as normal citizens have no say so in at all. Yes, they tell you it’s for the good of the world but how do they know if that is true or not. Think about it, who has anything to gain from these wars besides the ones with money tied up in them. It sure isn’t me. Do you?

Well that is some of the musings going around in my head lately. My opinion may or may not matter to anybody else. But those are my view points at this time on this day. See you next week.

The State of Michigan

A journalist writes because it is the means to expressing opinions, analyzing ideas, and providing information. Yet, finding time to write is not as easy as most would think. My calendar has been quite full lately and I don’t like not having any writing time. With all that has been going on in this country and the state of Michigan in which I live, a full schedule has left me in a void when it comes to contributing thoughts.

As a journalist, I feel as if I have cheated many of you out of knowing what my reflections on the economic state of the country and Michigan are. So here goes, covering Michigan this week. Like others, I too am gravely concerned with the Detroit Public School System, the unemployment rate in the state, and the budget deficit of both state government entities.

In the year 2003, I felt that Michigan had not recovered from the recession that followed 9/11. Now in 2007, many state politicians, economists, and statisticians seem to agree. Michigan has been on a downward spiral for some time and has bottomed out.

So, how is a state to climb out of a bottomless pit and recover what once we had called success? Well, first its citizens must accept the inevitable. They have to embrace change. Time never stood still. Because of that, nothing surrounded by time stays the same for a long time. It is certain that policies and programs that governments oversee must be redesigned. Without doing so, a recovery will never be foreseen.

Recovery is the magic word here. In order to accomplish this recovery, we all must look beyond the immediate into the future. What exists now is the result of standing still in time and not having forethought on changing times.

We as citizens can no longer look to standing in the comfort zones we have dwelled in too long. We must be willing to explore, experiment, and attempt to engage in healing. Without doing so, the black hole that surrounds us will never be brought to the light.

How can we contribute? Stand up and voice loudly our view points, let politicians know what you agree with and what you do not, but do it with dignity. Ask serious questions on the issues that directly affect you. Express your ideas on what you feel can work. Do not accept what is handed to you without concrete evidence to support it.

It is up to you to be willing to open your arms to new discoveries, no mater how impossible they may seem. If our forefathers had not had the guts to adopt new ideology, we would not be where we are now.

So I end this expression of my reflections with a few words. Take heed and remember, time waits for no one and it never has. You must keep up with it or it will pass you by. I too will attempt to improve by doing the same.