Tuesday, April 01, 2008

April "Fool's" Day (Emphasis Added)

Last year, on April 1st, I wrote a little spoof. This year, I'm not in a joking mood. This economic down-slide is starting to bury some of my normal resiliency. Lots and lots of time in my life I've made difficult transitions. But this time feels different.

For a lot of the Baby Boomers, we've been working for four decades now. We've watched previous generations retire and life off their pensions and social security. Increasingly, however, those kinds of options seem to be evaporating for our generation.

We've made choices, such as family and lifestyle decisions, that have not always proved sustainable.

Here, in the richest land on earth, we feel squeezed on all sides. You can cut the economic data any way your want to -- the mortgage crisis, the health care crisis, the job crisis, the high cost of education, the increasing cost of getting around, the decaying infrastructure, the unwise national policy choices of starting wars and ignoring the poor; subsidizing huge corporations, while hampering the ability of small businesses to keep costs down and generate new jobs.

It all boils down to a vice tightening around what politicians like to call the "middle class."

The only thing "middle" about our class is that we are in the middle of crisis with no apparent way out.

The quiet desperation growing inside household by household is often invisible to outsiders viewing in. But if look carefully enough, you'll see the tell-tale signs.

So, it's not that I've lost my sense of humor in te past year. It's still ever so easy to be funny by wallowing in self deprecation.

But after that bit of laughter subsides, there's no contesting the fact that this joke is on you.

-30-

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