Tempus Fugit

Time flies. Every time I write down the date, I’m startled by the number 2011. The second decade of the twenty-first century! I remember back in the 1970s looking at company benefit statements that showed me retiring in the 2000s and it seemed a lifetime away (and it pretty much was). In my 60+ years I’ve seen a fair amount of history and technological innovation.

People generally seem to view the future as being better than the present, with the exception of such books as “1984” and “Brave New World.” Look at the “Jetsons” on TV decades ago. Look at some of the futuristic predictions made in the past. Some of the technological projections have come true or even went beyond people’s wildest imagination. Look at the smart-phone. Who would have thought there could be so much computing power in a small, hand-held device?

When I started with IBM in the 1960s, data input into a computer was done with punch-cards that had to be run through a sorter because there wasn’t enough memory in the computer to do it efficiently (remember the iron cores?). Certain devices had to be programmed by wiring a board.

While we’ve advanced tremendously in science and technology, we seem to be going in the wrong direction in other ways. We are on track to becoming a second-rate nation due to
-our tremendous debt,
-our deficit spending,
-our consistently unfavorable balance of trade,
-our involvement in expensive questionable wars,
-our exporting jobs to other countries and subsequent loss of our manufacturing base,
-our ineffective government leadership at all levels,
-our crime and drug problems, and
-our crumbling infrastructure.

And that’s not even a complete list, sad to say. For the first time in our history, it is anticipated that the next generation will have a lower standard of living than the previous generation. What does that tell you?

Why am I mentioning all this? I’m doing so because I believe we must change our ways:

(1) First and most importantly, we must stop abandoning the God of our fathers.

(2) Stop worshipping the false gods of materialism, money, technology, or whatever else is your top priority.

(3) Make our elected officials accountable.

(4) Pray for our country.

It all starts with you and me. Together we can be agents of change for good.