Postcard#2: Our hotel, just off Rte. 81 is made of acrylic siding, made to look like wood clapboard. The doors to all of the closets and to the bathroom are also made of acrylic material and have fake wood grain. My lamp is also made of acrylic and painted brown to look like wood. This does not seem like an attempt to be green; this seems like an attempt to save some green. When we ask for a recommendation for a restaurant near the college we are visiting, the Manager says that he usually recommends Chili's, just down the road off of 81. It is frightening to think that Chili's is the best restaurant in town. On a tour of Carlisle's Historic District we discover that he is right. There are no restaurants or taverns downtown near the college. All of this is very, very sad.
Postcard#3: We're driving north on Rte. 22 between Lancaster and Allentown, PA. There's a truck ahead trailing a huge American flag from its bed. As we pass we can read the message on the cab window: God, Guns, and Guts. We think that by Guts they mean courage, not the things that grow in front of people who super-size free breakfasts and watch pretty ladies on TV. We think that the two men in the truck probably did not vote for Obama, if they voted. We think that they would not like the government sticking its nose in their lives, as with healthcare. We wonder why these guys aren't more angry at the people who build plastic hotels and cover the landscape with ugly restaurants serving unhealthy food. We think they should worry much more about the mindless companies that have taken over their landscapes, their history, and their opinions.
Postcard#4: Back to that $9 Trillion 10-year deficit projection. Clarification: that is an additional $9 Trillion. The WSJ today covers the story on Page One. The Times covers it on Page Four. Apparently, the fact that we will need to spend 40% of 2010 revenue just to pay interest on our national borrowing before we add that $9 Trillion is not very big news at the Times. Perhaps this news interferes with the Times' support for Obama and his healthcare plan. Perhaps the Times is so used to losing money itself that these things simply do not worry its owners and editors. One does not need to be Bill O'Righty, Sean Profanity or Sir Rupert of Murdoch or the lady in the pink cocktail dress to think that $9 Trillion is a big story.
Postcard#5: Why is that $9 Trillion additional to the deficit a big enough story even for Times' editors? Because, if they were paying attention, if they had EVER gone west of the Hudson and driven Rte. 81 or Rte. 22, they would know why it's a big story even for their little Upper West side and Brooklyn brains. That number means that the secret healthcare plans, that is: the 1,000 page House plan and the 600 page Senate plan are D.O.A. Caputski. Flat-lined. One doesn't need to have a God, Guns and Guts sticker on a pickup to know that citizens can figure out that, if we will use 40% of all tax revenue this fiscal year just to pay interest on our current borrowing, we cannot afford the risk of adding a single additional healthcare loan from China or Japan to make this thing happen. Nada. Those gents in the truck might be afraid that the US government will take over their lives. Wait until it dawns on them that the Chinese government has already taken over their lives without a shot fired from those guns at home in the closet.
Postcard#5: We're driving north out of Gettysburg on Rte. 34. Across farmland we can see the crest of the hill that overlooks the battlefield down the other side. We wonder at the amount of misunderstanding and deep mistrust that could have caused a Civil War. Americans killing Americans. We think about Lincoln, having just passed near the spot of his great and historic Address. We think, surely that could never happen again that we could become so mistrustful of our fellow citizens, that we could so misunderstand each other. Surely, people would never resort to getting those guns out of the closet ever again out of pure frustration with our government and with the establishment that powers it.
Would they?
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