I was pondering some things about where we, the people of the United States of America, are headed in regard to our government, economy and standard of living. As a "baby-boomer" I can still remember an America that valued hard work and fairness in all things be it business or cultural interactions. Honesty and virtue was a way of life and not a impediment to climbing the latter of success. I am sure many of my generation can remember black and white TV, news paper deliveries and the milk man who left unadulterated hormone free wholesome sweet milk at out door step in our comfortable suburban neighborhoods.

I barely remember my grandfather's farm in backwood hills of Kentucky as I was still a toddler and not allowed run around alone much. The memories of that farm, distant as they may be, bring warmth and comfort to my soul because there was life living off the land there. My grandfather Bascom, "Granddaddy" as I called him, farmed as a way of life and did not experience much of the modern comforts we all take for granted today. Electricity was a new and novel thing back in the hills then. I don't remember there being electrical lights in the house. Most everything was done the old fashioned way. Kerosene lanterns, a hand dug water well and food canned and stored in a root cellar. Milk was fresh from the cows, fruit was plentiful from the orchard, vegetables were home grown and canned and meat was harvested as needed from wild game or a butchered pig or chicken when the time was right for them to become food for the table. Little was wasted. Everything was recycled and made useful in some way. Homemade butter for the home made bread. A hand pump was installed on the kitchen counter for water in the house. The toilet was the two seater out house out back behind a half moon door. It was a real adventure for a little "city boy" like me.

The barn was home to many barnyard animals and was a delight for my play and fascination. The two "working animals" where Granddaddy's prize mules who make it possible for him to plow the fields where their feed and our food came from. In the Kentucky hills it is rare to find level bottom land easily plowed by hand. He spent many hard hours walking behind those mules up and down the steep grades, pulling stumps and turning the soil into fertile ground for the next seasons plantings. The creek supplied cool water to quench torrid thirst from sweating hard work of both man and mule.

This farm was self sufficient for the most part. What couldn't be grown or raised for food was obtained through fair trade through barter of work or small earnings from selling surplus. I believe he worked for a lumber mill for a time for wages but suffered an accident with the huge unforgiving saw blade that left him permanently injured for his efforts. I never heard him complain when he put on his brace to keep his hernia from rupturing. In those days, surgery to repair such an injury was either rare and risky and or too expensive because there was no health insurance or government money to pay for it. People had to rely on themselves and each other to survive and thrive. Life was hard but very rewarding. He was in control of his destiny and made a home for his family from the soil he was born upon.

There came a day when Granddaddy had to give up the farm because he physically could not endure the hard work by himself anymore. His eldest daughter had took him in to live out the rest of his days without the hard labor of the farm. His wife had died years before I can remember and the children had long grown and moved away to their own lives seeking fortune in the "big cities" of the world outside of rural America. Change is constant and time does not stand still. Wars were being fought. Many men and women were dying in far off countries. Each and every one special and unique, lost to their families, affecting this country for generations to come. Little did we know how our country was being stolen out from underneath us by big bankers and their power hungry minions whose plan for a new world order of which we had no inkling of.

How do we fair these days? What will happen to us as a nation and a diverse people if we are forced through our own ineptitude and ignorance back to subsistence as a way of life? Not that learning to live in harmony with the earth and each other would necessarily be a bad thing for most of us, but being forced to do so as a nation because of greed, ignorance and trusting the government to protect our interests without the people closely being involved is a tragic end for these United States. End it will be should "We the People" in our country do not "mind the farm" as we always should have over the years since we left it.

The old farm house collapsed in upon itself as the years went by without care and renewal being put into it where it was abandoned. Forest has regrown over the once plowed fields that was the life blood for living within our means. Corporations now own the land and 'Mr. Peabody's' coal trains haul away what was once pristine and beautiful land and has left only bare bones for those whom cannot escape the immediate devastation. The small family farm had become a novelty from the past. Attempts at reviving the concepts of self-sufficiency and small scale agricultural business is extremely difficult against a failed economy, a worthless dollar and a government openly set out toward totalitarian socialist control over the entire world.

I do believe we as a people need to "get back to the land". I believe we all need to be reminded that our fortunes and failures are our own responsibility but I do not wish to see our country brought down to it's knees because it's own people do not care to "get involved" in their own destinies. The culture here and world wide has been turned into a money machine forcing us and the rest of the world into being wage slaves to feed the mighty machines of industry and consumer gluttony. Having a bigger house, a bigger car, a bigger bank account has been the mantra of our consumer culture for too long and it is about to eat itself alive.

There are ways to help each other with out becoming a communist state serving the government. The government is to serve us, the People, in these United States. I fear that sooner than we think economic collapse and totalitarian dictatorship will engulf us with wars and great loss should we not stop this landslide's huge momentum rushing us into catastrophe. The individual will be lost. The State, the county or Parrish, the city, the individual will no longer exist in a world we can understand as free men. We can find a balance between government support versus government dependence if we choose to do so. I pray to God that the coming turmoil will spare the innocent and helpless and we, as a people, can come together and find our way in harmony with each other, the earth and with God.

Maybe this is the way of things as history seems to repeat itself over and over in mans' quest for self determination. The rise and fall of empires is littered with the bodies of those whom pleaded in vain to Nero as Rome burned around them. Will we as a nation follow in the same footsteps in decline as the Roman's suffered. Have we walked away from God and will now get the government we deserve? America is about to get her "come-up'ns" as would be said in Granddaddy's day.

"Got to get back to the land and set my soul free."

"We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devils bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden."

CSN - Woodstock

Are we ready to do more with less? Are we ready to live in harmony with each other and the world we share together? Should we choose not to "mind the farm" our fate may already be sealed. America can endure if we choose to do what is hard but rewarding by preserving our land and our way of life.

wojack