Lulu asked me today if we had gotten the "income tax rebate" from the Feds. I gave a salty "no" answer that drew a rebuke from her. Really - I was displacing my disgust with the short-sightedness of my fellow Americans. I am frustrated with this administration appeasing us by buying another round of drinks on the federal credit card - the bill that my kids will be paying for years to come. I do not need a $600 check to distract me from realizing the major problems we have in this country.
Just when I can't get more disappointed in our leadership spending like drunken national guard pilots - we get politicians from both parties suggesting that we should remove the 18 cents a gallon tax on gasoline. The gasoline tax provides $8 billion a year to repair our highways and bridges. I guess we are going to do that on the credit card too.
Both political parties are guilty of buying things on the tic. Republican called Democrats tax and spenders. Democrats call Republicans borrow and spenders. there is one common denominator - our country gets more in debt.
The biggest open sore in our national budget is the Iraq War. The next one is the interest we pay on our national debt. The Soviet Union was brought to its knees not by democracy - but by the Afghanistan War. It drained their treasury just like Iraq is draining ours. It did not take long for their house of cards to fall and I hope you do not believe our country can't fall for the same reason.
I am ashamed at the mess my generation is making for our kids. We based an entire economy on cheap fuel - it has now reached critical mass and can't be changed overnight. We built homes miles and miles away from work - stores - schools - just to make sure we only have neighbors like us. Success is determined by how big my car or house is. I am as guilty as the rest. I raised a family of four in 1000 square feet for 30 years - and now I contemplate buying a 4000 square foot home for just Lulu and I. We have 3 vehicles in the garage and only 2 drivers.
My coal miner dad who never made more than $10,000 a year in his life when he retired at 65 on Social Security. Mom and Dad were making $25,000 in retirement - their home and cars were paid for - and Dad said, "we never dreamed we would have it this good."
At age 60 I am contemplating drawing my "Social Security pension." I have more money and income than I ever had in my life. I have a healthy teacher's pension and a healthy Lulu who could work another 30 years. I really do not need Social Security. I am considering not taking my Social Security monthly payments - and try to leave a little extra in the fund for the kids of this country.
We have been poor examples raising our kids. We taught them that their education is so important - that we fund it with a lottery and casino gambling. We have shown them we can build homes we can't afford - cars that get 10 miles per gallon - and have designed a tax system that rewards older home owners at the expense of young new homeowners.
When Social Security was designed - Americans lived to be about 67 years old. There were 4 workers putting into the system for each person taking money out. Now folks live to be 78 and it there are about 2 people putting in for those taking out. This giant Ponzi scheme will collapse from its own weight. But most Americans just care that it is solvent for the next 20 years so it will cover their own retirement.
Instead of buying another Mercedes or Cadillac with the $1500 a month - I could bolster a system to protect the really needy.
I support the public school system - but my legislators seem to be more concerned with protecting their voting base by giving them real estate tax breaks. I thought Jefferson once said, "Democracy is doomed when the voters realize they can vote themselves a dole from the treasury." I was wrong - he didn't say it but he should have.
We are in a crisis. We buy oil from the Middle East - cars of Japan - food and household goods from China. We are country left of people doing each others laundry. Now we are hemmoraging billions every day in Iraq.
We need to balance the budget. We have laws to require balanced state - county - school - and city budgets. When the last president balanced the federal budget - we impeached him for lying about sex. When the next president produced record debt and a war that killed our kids and drained our treasury - we re-elected him.
We have met the enemy and it is us. The next attacker like 9/11 will fly over and dump foreclosure notices on us.
So I intend to do my part and forgo Social Security. Now all I have to do is break it to Lulu. We'll see what she thinks.
Bowman tumbled down a jagged slope and then free-fell several hundred feet, his descent broken by a rock ledge not far from the bottom of the pit, said Coaldale Police Chief Timothy Delaney, who helped direct the rescue effort.
"If you look at that drop, there was no way somebody could survive that," Delaney said.
Bowman, 23, of Tamaqua, was listed in serious condition on Friday night at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem. The extent and nature of his injuries was not clear, however rescuer John Fowler said it appeared he suffered a number of fractures.
Bowman and a friend were walking around the pit on foot when he went over the side. The friend called 911, and Coaldale police and firefighters began a frantic search, according to Delaney.
State police got into the act several hours later, using a helicopter, floodlights and thermal imaging to try to pinpoint Bowman's location.
"It got really, really dangerous," Delaney said. "My guys were fantastic, they were heroes, risking their lives in total darkness."
The search was called off at daybreak. Shortly thereafter, Delaney went to the offices of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., which owns the Springdale Pit, to notify officials of the situation.
"I said, 'Let's take a ride over there and show me where it occurred,"' said Fowler, 40, a project manager at the company.
Their luck was better this time.
"Within about three minutes, we found him," Fowler said. "I thought I could hear a muffled call for help. We yelled to him and asked him where he was, and he said he thought he was on a ledge."
Fowler, who moonlights as a state firefighter instructor, and a Coaldale police sergeant scouted a relatively safe route to Bowman and stayed with him until additional help arrived.
Two firefighters rappelled down to the ledge, loaded Bowman onto a basket, and tied themselves to it. Then all three were painstakingly hoisted up.
Bowman was lucid when he arrived at the top of the pit late Friday morning, wanting his harness loosened, asking that someone call his brother, and expressing fear about riding in a medical helicopter, said Sarah Curran Smith, a vice president at Lehigh Coal.
Bowman's survival is "pretty unbelievable," she said. "I think the universe has bigger plans for Nathan. I hope he realizes that."
Bowman faces numerous charges, including defiant trespass, according to Delaney.
