06.08.07
Maintenance
Maintenance. It’s necessary to keep things going, usually. It’s something that drives me nuts when I have to try and convince a mechanic that “We really should do something before it breaks completely.” A while back I took the van we’d acquired to the shop. I asked the mechanic to change ALL THE HOSES AND BELTS UNDER THE HOOD. We’d no idea what maintenance (if any) had been done by the previous owner and I wanted to get the fragile stuff taken care of - so I wouldn’t end up stranded by a busted hose in the middle of nowhere - or rush hour traffic. The mechanic took a look and said “They look fine to me, don’t worry about it.” So I had him pull off one of the hoses and I squeezed it. Sure enough, it looked fine on the outside, but inside it was cracking and full of sediment. So he got to work. When I came back he assured me that “every hose has been changed.” Off I went. Sure enough, about a week later I was in a neighboring town - broke down because he’d NOT changed a hose on the back of the engine.
So what? Big deal! Well, yeah. BUT there’s a point to this rambling. Lives need maintenance. Marriages need maintenance. Nations need maintenance. If you don’t take care of the little things as they come along, you’ll end up with MAJOR problems down the road. Just like that two buck hose on the rear of the engine (what idiot engineer thought to put it there, out of site?) there can be problems brewing in our lives, marriages of nation that need attention NOW, before they get bad. But human nature being what it is (I keep meaning to procrastinate, but keep putting it off ’til tomorrow) we tend to put things off and wait, hoping that we can “just get along”.
Some folks get pretty doggone irritated at me for saying, “We must take care of issues NOW.” That’s fine. SOMEONE needs to voice things. We can pretend that every thing’s OK and muddle on, or we can take care of problems NOW. Issues like illegal immigration should have been cared for years ago. But we need to take care NOW. The Republican Party (”America’s Bastion of Conservatism”) has declined to the point where anyone can claim to be “conservative”, while voting for bigger government, higher taxes, murder of unborn babies and sodomite “marriage”. Sheeshkabob! Something’s wrong when members of both parties have near identical voting records. And we need to demand change NOW.
Why is there little positive change? Because folks are not demanding it. Well, folks WEREN’T demanding it. Today’s glad tidings that the Senate bill to reward law breaking foreign nationals within the United State’s borders shows what can be done - if enough folks scream for change.
Let’s overhaul our nation. Let’s do the maintenance necessary. We can change for the better - if we will but make the effort. Saying that things need taken care of is not bashing our land. Just as I liked the ol’ van when I took it in for maintenance I also love my land - even while calling for folks to get behind an effort to put things in order.