Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

Perhaps you don’t believe our country is in crisis. Perhaps you don’t regret having voted for Biden as our President. The signs of crises are all around us. Let’s begin with those issues that tangibly affect us every day.

Have you bought gas for your vehicle recently? I did the other day. I used to spend about $30 to fill up my car. I just paid $55 to fill her up. This is a crisis that affects all of us, especially those, like seniors, on a fixed income and the poor. Paying extra for gasoline means that you have fewer dollars to spend on other essentials, like food.

Have you been to the grocery store lately? I went to my local store yesterday and the cold cut section was virtually empty. Most of the shelves in this area were empty. Some of the products that I use are simply not there anymore. Not only that but I tend to buy the same items weekly. I used to pay about $200 a week or less. Now, for the very same items the cost is closer to $300. Take milk. Last year it was $1.29 a gallon. Now it is $2.29 a gallon. What about your Thanksgiving dinner? Each and every item for your dinner will cost more. Christmas? Forget it. We are told to buy now if it is a Christmas item or present. We are told to ‘settle’ or ‘accommodate’ to this new normal.

Our supply chain is broken. I’ve heard all the excuses… trucker shortage, onerous regulations…it goes on an on but the basic premise of manufacturing products in our country has been destroyed. With its destruction comes the destruction of our economy. Construction supplies are difficult to obtain. Customers must wait for delivery that might occur seven months from now and those supplies cost a great deal more. It’s not just new car prices climbing higher and higher. It has caused used car prices to climb as well. Do you need a new refrigerator or washing machine? Be prepared to wait and not only that but pay more for it.

Inflation continues to skyrocket. The official inflation rate is pegged at about 5% nationally but we are living the lesson that the rate is higher than the official number. Our dollars are worth less and therefore we need more of them to buy the same things we bought a year ago.

Our national debt is dangerous to all of us. The country needs more money to pay for the recently passed infrastructure bill. No problem. The Treasury will print more. The more it prints the less each dollar is worth.

I guess we can thank our lucky stars that we don’t live in cold country because the cost of heating has increased by over 50%. Why? Because of Biden’s energy policy. He immediately shut down the Keystone pipeline and is now considering closing the pipeline in Minnesota. All in the name of a ‘climate crisis’. Jen Psaki, Biden’s press secretary, said this action is designed to drive us all to accept renewable energy. Unfortunately, wind and solar energy is not reliable nor abundant. Has it occurred to anyone that fossil fuel and gasoline derivative products are needed to make wind and solar components and infrastructure?

We are experiencing labor shortages. Why work when the government provides more money not to work? The labor shortage will abate with greater numbers of green card holders as well as the inundation of illegals willing to take your job.

Our relationship with other countries is disturbing and frightening. Russia is a provocateur in Eastern Europe and China is threatening Taiwan as it drives to become the dominant world power. The Afghanistan withdrawal was botched leading to the deaths of 13 service members, leaving behind billions of dollars’ worth of equipment and the abandonment of Americans and Afghanistan nationals who worked for us. Some remain trapped in that country to this day. North Korea is saber rattling once again. The Biden administration has abandoned its support of the only true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and the consequence of such action is now the Middle East is on the verge of a new series of hot wars.

Please tell me why it’s good to have a wall around President Biden’s home or Nancy Pelosi’s. It’s obvious. Walls keep the bad guys out and protect property. But a wall along our southern border is bad? It’s illogical. More than a million illegals have entered our country with many of them being dumped in cities in the dark of night. There is no background vetting, no shots, and no check for Covid. These illegals are no longer exclusively Mexican or Central American. They are from all over the world including the Middle East. It’s just a matter of time before this foolishness results in another 911 event. Along with this mass illegal migration into our country is increased human smuggling and opioid smuggling. Human trafficking and opioid deaths have increased dramatically. The very idea of paying illegal families $450,000 to a million each for separation of members during the commission of illegal entry into this country is obscene. It’s 4 times the amount paid to a gold star family because of the death of a family member.

The mishandling of Covid is causing people to distrust the government as more and more people refuse to take a booster shot followed by another and another…ad nauseum. If masks and distancing really worked, we would have seen a decline in this illness followed by its eventual eradication. Instead, now the government is imposing more draconian mandates. We ‘rubes’ are beginning to wake up with police, nurses, airline pilots, fire fighters and all kinds of essential workers willing to be fired instead of taking the jab. I took the first two shots, so I am not an “anti-vaxxer.” I do, however, believe in the American right of freedom and individual choice. No one should be forced to take a shot or punished or ostracized for not doing so.

We now have a two-tiered justice system when you see January 6th participants in solitary confinement in jail and yet those who participated in the Summer of 2020 riots that resulted in deaths are not even arrested. We see examples of blatant shop lifting every day with no consequences. We see violent criminals being released and repeating the very same offences against us. What has happened to our bedrock principle of ‘equal justice for all’?

Critical Race Theory is being taught to children in elementary schools. How can a philosophy that teaches white children to hate themselves for their whiteness while teaching children of color that they are oppressed and can never rise above it, be healthy for our county? Instead of embracing the eradication of racial division this philosophy encourages it. Thankfully, parents are fighting back and succeeding at the local level. CRT has no place in an open and healthy society.

There, I’ve gotten my concerns off my chest. Some of you will read this and discount these crises with what you believe are rational explanations for each and every one. That’s fine. That’s your right in a free society but at some point, when conditions become even worse, you will be forced to remove your blinders. I just hope it doesn’t come too late.

I still believe in these words. Do you? Read it carefully and thoughtfully: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Joyce Clark, 2021       

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