I took the time to go to a counselor this past summer.

She told me to get out of my head.

She suggested I was fretting about things a bit too much.

She said if I identified a problem, I should also come up with a solution.

I agreed

and so I've had nothing to write about, because from where I stand at this point in time I can see no solutions, immediate or otherwise.

I can see no guaranty that I'll have my job tomorrow, no matter that I work hard.

I see no assurances that medicare, the provengovernment health care system they're letting die out, will continue long enough to see Mom through her end of life hospice care.

I cannot offer my widowed sister hope that she'll be able to sell her house for enough to buy another; that her lost investments will return.

I have no assurances to offer my daughter and her children that financially things will ease up...that we "folks" will again count for something some time soon.

I can see no strong decisions re:the wars in which we are mired; neither swift, complete withdrawal nor a push to victory. Choosing not to decide is a decision, I suppose, but in the case of war, indecision is death. Stop talking and decide.

Perhaps it was the intent of this administration, which includes many more people than the president, perhaps it was its intention to first revel in its victory, then tear down old perceptions of America, then rebuild it in the image of some radicals pipe-dream. First break the banks, control industry, condescend to voters, weaken consumer confidence, eliminate jobs, income, future plans, break men's spirits and when everyone has been sufficiently cowed, offer them a place at the end of the table of recovery where they'll be so grateful for a place to sit, they'll take the scraps offered, and like it.

If that was the intent, then job well done. The first year in the four year plan to reinvent America has gone well for you.

Olympia Snow recently said something to the effect that when history calls you must step up. Noble words, Madame whatever you are. Perhaps, however, history and your place in it is not what needs tending. Perhaps you and your esteemed colleagues need to step down from the clouds, and again experience life as an everyday citizen; experience the effects of your decisions, or lack thereof. Eat beans at my table, then tell me what you think I need.

This push for health care reform is a smoke screen for a much larger agenda to marginalize individual freedom and accomplishment. Health care reform isbuta distraction from what is really being doneto our nation, and our place in the world.

Our melting pot is boiling dry, and if the major players to whom we've given authority to decide our fates have their way, very soon the fire that heated that pot will be snuffed out. Then we ALL will be living in the ashes of a grand experiment.

Fiddle dee dee... I'll think of a solution tomorrow...