It’s Still All Very Good

My schedule has turned upside down since I announced my candidacy.  I got 8 comments on my last entry (ok, so some were mine) and I am just so busy.  I have received several solicitations for interviews, from service providers who want to know what I think (ok, they were just surveys, but still – someone cares what I have to say…).  I got my ballot yesterday IN THE MAIL.  If you are really important, they actually mail it to you – who knows where I will be on election day! I can’t stay HOME and vote!  REally.

As I watched the market careen downward today on my custom designed google finance page (the perqs of being a candidate are unlimited!) I got to thinking about my speech tomorrow.  As a candidate I have vowed not to attack anyone’s religion, or past associations, or age or color – but instead to keep honestly addressing the issues.  So I have time tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I am planning a speech to help the citizens of this great country calm down.  There will be banners sporting my motto’s, in a subtle tan and green theme – 

                            “Stop Freaking Out”              “Everything is going to be okay”         

So here is what I plan to say, because I believe in practicing.

“I know the recent market events are frightening, and unsettling.  I have a background in finance and accounting, and at times, even I find it challenging to understand all the interrelated threads of the blanket that is our economy.  What I do know, is that people are watching the market fall, getting scared, and moving their money.  They are worried about tomorrow, and the next day.  In part, the factors that are causing the problems are beyond you – they related to accounting pronouncements, and poor policy at some of our largest companies.  They involve mark to market accounting, and short selling of stocks.  These things are not real.  They aren’t real to you, because they aren’t real.  They involve taking an idea and using it to try and make money on things that are not real. 

You are real.  Your family is real.  You drive a car that is real and you put real oil in it, oil that, consequently, is deceasing in price  – to the lowest price since last December.  Not that you heard that part, because you were so busy running around looking up for the sky, which is falling.  But not for real.

Stop freaking out.  Please.  Your real family needs you.  And they are doing just fine, thank you very much.  I keep hearing people ask if you are better off than you were 4 or 8 years ago.  I am.  I really am.  And I suspect you are too.  Almost all of you are, too.  I am older, but better.  I am wiser than I was 8 years ago.  My marriage is stronger than it was 8 years ago.  My children?  Older, smarter and more beautiful with every passing day. I have made choices that have allowed me to have more income now, than I did 8 years ago – but even if I had no income at all, I would still have enough of everything I really need.  I lived on Ramen and retail wages for years.  I don’t want to go back there, but I could do it. You all started there too, and you could go back too.  We were pretty happy back then.  We had more free time.  We saw each other much more often.  We laughed ALL THE TIME.  Those days were not so bad. Let’s remember that.

At the debate the other night, one of our call in guests asked the following question. “We haven’t been asked since World War II to make sacrifices.  As President, what sacrifices will you ask of the American People?” 

Here is what I ask of you.  Sacrifice your worries. Don’t let this news about things that are not real convince you that your real life is not doing well. Our lives are good.    More things won’t make you happy.  More time with your friends and family will make you happy.  Go fishing.  Bake cookies.  Celebrate. The industry of our country grew like a phoenix out of some of our worst years, and opportunity lurks around every corner regardless of where the Dow closed today.

Let’s take advantage of this opportunity to get back to our lives.  Let’s refocus on people, and not on things. In a year or two, when you are so happy you can’t stand it, look at the market, and I can guarantee you it will be higher than it is today.  And that will make you even happier still.

Thank you, and God Bless America.”

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