Elections are really about people when selecting elected officials for HOAs, city council, county offices, and the state legislature. In Arapahoe County we even elected Aurora resident Bill Owens as Governor of Colorado, the last area GOP to serve in that capacity. The sad thing about elections is someone loses. Voters these days get many confusing messages; it seems the campaigns that have the most money tend to win, on either side. But the good thing is that we get to meet and greet a lot of new people. If you participate in either party, or even splinter groups, you get to make many new friends. In some cases, you share the same political viewpoint about local, state, and national government with those whom you tend to agree. These days it is hard to even talk politics in a rational way with almost anyone. Families may have different views; logic doesn’t sway people anymore.
Some pundits think that the Supreme Court ruling on abortion may be a key factor in the 2024 election. Others may be more concerned about the border, the economy, and one of the worst things ongoing is the costly war in Ukraine. Also, drugs are killing more Americans than Covid, we must address this terrible scourge. At the end of the Trump administration COVID19 arrived and scared all of us. If you weren’t frightened of this killer syndrome, you should sign up for the TV show “Naked and Afraid.”
We wondered during the middle of the epidemic if things would ever return to normal. Well, for the most part, I think many things have returned to normal. A few people still wear masks and jokesters on TV say that is because they want to hide their faces.
Work at home has been revolutionized, with computer skills and technology, working at home has become the normal. During Covid traffic was minimal, today a whole lot of drivers are headed back to work in a big hurry. I’ve never driven with so many speeders, me included.
Travel, entertainment, concerts, sporting events, all seem to be back in fashion, but with higher ticket prices. Probably one of the gifts from Covid is inflation. The labor force grew thin in almost all professions and wages increased. Today, while the Federal Reserve estimates inflation at around five percent, it is much higher, especially in the food industry. Meal prices in restaurants have increased at least 30 percent with the cost of food and labor. Even at McDonalds burgers range upwards towards $10 with some special lower package deals. It seems that restaurants and brew pubs are busier than ever with many people dining out. Is it the higher cost of food at the grocery stores, or people just wanting to get out of the house after several years of staying home? My opinion would be a little of both.
Because of Covid, people did stay home, and as a result saved some money. This has resulted in a rising stock market, busy airlines, and cruises. The travel industry has been bustling and people are spanning the globe once again. A very good thing for young and old. No matter what the Federal Reserve does, labor is not going to decrease in cost. The price of energy is not going to drop as America is no longer energy efficient as in the Trump years. If labor and energy rise, the cost of producing food must increase with supply and demand. The high cost of water, fuel, and transportation increase food costs. It feels good to be less concerned about Covid, even though some folks are playing the blame game on how it was handled. In my opinion, it was handled pretty good, starting with President Trump moving rapidly on producing vaccines. President Biden moved fast on the vaccine distribution and issuing financial aid in many areas. Bottom line is that most of us survived, but over one million Americans perished from the epidemic. We will never know for sure where it came from. The message it sent is that we need to have our medicines developed and manufactured here in America. No doubt the intense workload and stress on our doctors, nurses, and hospitals have made them better trained, equipped, and experienced to deal with the trauma of an epidemic. Kudos to these medical professionals and to the senior citizen residences who did their best to care for patients and protect them, as much as possible, from the epidemic that targeted seniors.
Inflation will be with us for a long time in some areas. The labor shortage will continue, especially in nursing, pilots, military recruitment, law enforcement and teaching.
The best way to handle student loan debts is to offer special deals for these positions. The next president should lower the interest rates on these student loans. Students should not be penalized with high interest for paying for their educations. Forgiveness no, but interest lowered with special skill incentives to wipe out the debts. The first GOP debate for presidential candidates is August 14, 2023; so here we go again. I hope that the candidates can discuss something besides drugs in the White House and Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Let’s leave the garbage out and establish legal immigration so people won’t have to wade a river to reach America.
Lastly, we need to spend, whatever it takes, to end crime and homelessness on the streets of our cities. We must stop the drug scourge to save our nation.
The next elected leader will have a tough job.