Town Hall Meeting or Recorded Propaganda Message?
Today I surprised to receive a phone call from the Romney/Ryan camp. I was about to hang up, when I heard that this was supposed to be different: This was supposed to be a telephone Town Hall meeting with Congressman Paul Ryan, during which I would be offered the chance to ask Congressman Ryan a question or two of my own. So I took my hand off of the “End” button on my phone, lit a cigarette and settled in to listen to what was going on. For the next twenty minutes, I listened to Ryan go on about his “five-point plan” to secure the economy and spur the economic recovery that our country is so desperately in need of. Basically, it boils down to this: Roll back government regulations and allow coal and oil companies to mine and drill wherever they please. This is supposed to:
- Ease our dependence on foreign-supplied energy sources and
- Create jobs here at home.
These two things are supposed to then help get people earning better paychecks, buy houses and pay more taxes to reduce the debt.
I had a question for Congressman Ryan that I thought was very pertinent. I wanted to ask him about these “jobs” that he keeps talking about creating; are they going to be anything other than jobs working for coal and oil companies? Exactly what kind of progress is this supposed to support?
I remember when I was flat-busted broke a few years ago with a family to support. I had no college education and my epilepsy had nullified my goal of dealing table games in casinos and working my way up in the gaming industry. I considered moving north to work in a coal mine. I figured some long hours in a deep, dark mine, covering myself with filth and breathing in all of the dust and ruining my lungs would be worth the opportunity to feed my children. It’s not what I had aspired to, but I felt that it was one of the best options I had at the time.
Our progress in technology is sorely lacking. Our High-School dropout rate is through the roof, with varying percentages throughout the different demographics. One of the worst states is my state, Nevada. The reason for this? Kids grow up knowing that they don’t need a diploma in order to be a cocktail waitress, a stripper or a table games dealer, or to win Megabucks. They decide that any of these is good enough for them and that high school is a waste of time, so they drop out in order to take advantage of their youth and have fun while they can, before they’re expected, as adults, to take on the responsibilities of adult life. The reason this is all pertinent and important is this: How much worse will the dropout rate get if more kids believe that they won’t need a diploma to make a living, mining coal and drilling for oil?
On the other hand, take solar and wind power and other alternative energy sources. Both of these are emerging sciences which are being developed and improved upon daily! Kids are going to need diplomas and even college degrees to work in these fields and to do so will bring not only money, but the satisfaction that one is actively working to promote the health of the planet while developing ways to harness and produce renewable, sustainable and clean energy for generations to come!
Paul Ryan likes to talk about his kids-a lot. He’s always talking about how he doesn’t want to leave a legacy of debt for his 9,7 and 10 year-old kids. What about the ecosystem? I wanted to ask him if he was comfortable with leaving the ecosystem in a shambles for them instead of a debt. I never got the chance, however, after Ryan had delivered his regurgitation of his genius plan to fix the economy, there were exactly two questions allowed (which I believe to have been pre-recorded ahead of time, along with Ryan’s responses) I was allowed to leave my name and number with a request for the congressman to call back, but so far, he hasn’t. I think that this is a very important question and I really want to bring it to his attention. Of course, I may be forgetting that he doesn’t "believe" in global warming and is that he, like so many before him, are not concerned with the long-term effects of what they do to the environment since they won’t be around to worry about it.
I guess I just really wanted to confirm that he really doesn’t believe in climate change, regardless of the mounting evidence before him. In the end, my “Town Hall” meeting in which I was invited to participate has left me even more sure that he and his sugar daddy will NEVER get a vote from me unless I’m electing people to be ejected from our society in an experiment to find out how long a man can live without food or shelter in Antarctica.
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