Category Archives: Social Issues

Author’s Note:  Sadly, this is based on a true story from this past weekend.  Standing back at a distance it is kinda funny.  Very funny, actually.  Up close, knowing those involved, it’s really quite sad.  Some of the minor facts and all of the names and addresses have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.

Last Sunday Morning: Approx 2:35 am
A pounding comes from the front door of the house as emergency lights illuminate the early morning hours of quiet, suburban Overland Park, Kansas.

“We’ve had a 911 call saying that a woman is being held here against her will.”

Still groggy from being aroused from a deep slumber the homeowner stands next to yet another policeman as several other Overland Park police officers enter the home and do a quick walk-through checking each closet, bathroom and bedroom as well as the more open areas.

Imagine the confusion of the half-awake homeowner and his family.  Imagine the police trying to determine if this is a prank call or a serious incident.  Just try to imagine.

Last Sunday Morning: Approx 2:15 am
Awakening from his sleep Bob hears his mother speaking to someone unknown with fear dripping from each syllable.  At first greyness clouds the mind.  Quickly, however, a lucid realization that his mother is speaking to the local police department’s 911 operator (some twenty miles from Overland Park) comes over him as he leaps to his feet..

“You must help me.  I’m at 123 Main Street, Overland Park.  There is a strange man in my bed and people in my house I don’t recognize.  I’m being held against my will.  Hurry!”

Bob hurries to take the business end of the telephone away from his mother and begins to explain as rapidly as he can.  But the wheels are already in motion.  The address in Overland Park will be visited shortly by eager-to-please policemen as will the address where the phone call was made.

Over The Last Four Years
The mother in question here is close to me.  Almost family, really.  Two years ago I sold that house at 123 Main St., OP, KS for her and her husband whom I’ve known since 1975.   Two years ago they packed up and left their house of forty-four years.  The mother and her husband had raised eight children in that home.  Forty-four Christmases.  Forty-four Easters.  Too many birthday parties to count between children, grandchildren and even this extra family member.

During this emotionally transitional time the early signs of Alzheimer’s began to show itself with “mom.”  Slowly at first.  But today there are days when the disease seems all too comfortable with it’s host.  There are days she forgets that I have children.  Worse, there are days when she forgets her own children.

And there are days when she is back in that house at 123 Main St.  That house was comfortable.  That house was home.  That house was part of who she is.   I guess she’s never really left that house.  Not emotionally.  And as for the new owners, I can only hope that they are patient, understanding and that one day that house will mean as much to them.

While perusing my Pocket Express by Handmark the other day I came across Scott Burns’ article concering the future of our economy titled High Debt Means Deflation, Not Inflation.  It’s worth the time to jump on over and read.

Interestingly enough it seems to be a growing train of thought as not too long ago I read something of a similar vain in I think the Wall Street Journal.  (Can’t remember as I read all the time.)  I just remember the author talking about how we are basically resetting our economy.  A re-boot if you will.  That good times won’t come back simply just because Bush and Obama want it to and pour literally trillions and trillions of dollars into a bucket wherein they hope a stimulus will be born.

The most interesting item from the Burns article:

“When you have major debt events, it changes our behavior for a long time. We’ve had a record decline in wealth. But the income effects are far larger. Payrolls have seen the largest drop since 1948. We’re at a six-decade low in factory utilization. The output gap (the difference between what we could produce and what we are actually producing) is the largest in history.”

That means rising demand, if it occurs, won’t cause rising prices.

Anybody else sick of companies all over America claiming they are “going green” when what they are really doing is cutting down on postage expenses and shifting the paper costs to the clients?  I’m not saying it’s a bad idea. I’m not even saying you shouldn’t do it.  I’m just saying the Spin Doctors are out in force in everything we hear.  You literally cannot trust anything.  (Except me.  😉   )

This just in from the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors:

Let me get this straight, if we want to not save trees by going paperless we need to use even more paper and electricity?  Let’s call it what it is…You want to save the money.  It makes more sense for an individual realtor to hit print on his email and expend the $0.10 in paper and electricity (because we’ll need that receipt for our taxes) than it does for KCRAR to continue to foot thousands for the expense.  I get it.  JUST QUIT CALLING IT “GOING GREEN!”

Every credit card company I know wants me to “go green.”  Every mortgage company I have, too.  They want me to foot the bill for having the copies.  I never opt to “go green.”  I make them keep the cost.  That is until one of them actually comes clean and calls it what it is.

Editorial note:  I don’t hate the environment or KCRAR.  In fact, I love the fact that KCRAR provides free education for member realtors.  They can do this because they are consistently over-funded.  Cost saving moves like this are to be admired.  I just want what it is called what it is.  🙂  Kind of like when Lowes and other retailers used to have 2.5′ long receipts and everyone called them out they went back to practical sized receipts.  I don’t need an advertisement with each receipt.  I just spent money with you, as you might know by the receipt!

Wells Fargo seems to be the latest in a long line of companies that just don’t seem to understand what is going on.  Oh, they understand how to ask for and receive $25,000,000,000 of taxpayer money.  They understand how NOT TO RESPOND TO AN OFFER WE MADE 5 DAYS AGO with any kind of counter or semblance of an answer.  They understand how to reward employees for only losing $2,300,000,000 last quarter. 

What they don’t seem to understand is the backlash.  I’ve long been a proponent of keeping government out of business.  But how can I defend my stance, if only to myself, when this kind of arrogance goes on with financial services company after financial services company?  At least GM had the wisdom to pull their heads out of their nether regions and not pay $3,000,000 of money on a 30 second commercial and to quit with the private jet trips to congress to ask for more money.

I’ve intentionally used all those zeros to make you think.  What’s the population of America?  300 million?  That means Wells Fargo was charging my family of 6 $499.98 to help them fund their party.  Frankly, I don’t want to pay it.  I have my own ways to spend my $499.98.  Same goes for AIG, GM, and everyone else.  Keep your hands off my check book!  This is money my kids may never see back.  They are already going to have to pay for the mismanagement of the retirement systems/attitudes of our nation.

Hey employees of this and other bailout companies,  your reward for losing $2+ billion is that you get to keep your jobs in an effort to make that money back.  Not go to Vegas and slap each other on the back.

How did this kind of arrogance work out for pre-revolutionary France?  (Yes, yes.  I know that many say Marie A never actually said the words “let them eat cake.”  But how did it work out for her anyway?)

I feel better now.

I wasn’t going to post today, but I just can’t help it.  From today’s Kansas City Star…

“In general, a borrower must be at least 60 days delinquent to qualify for help, although the Fed has leeway to make some exceptions. A 2008 law that set up the $700 billion bailout fund instructed the Fed to take such foreclosure relief action.

“The goal of the policy is to avoid preventable foreclosures on residential mortgage assets that are held, owned or controlled by a Federal Reserve Bank,” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke wrote in a letter Tuesday to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.”

So, if you struggle to keep your commitments and barely keep your head and credit rating above water you are NOT eligible for some relief.  Once again it pays to be a victim.  I understand how letting every house go to foreclosure isn’t a good idea.  But why is it that only the delinquent banks and homeowners are being rewarded here?  Am I missing something?