Gramps: Ahhhh how true. But I feel our problems go much deeper than the present two politicians. I know that you and I are old farts and most persons here think we are sour grapes. Recently in a discussion with my older brothers, I made the statement that we had lived through the best time of this country. They thought about this and they agreed since they were all older than I.

Much of our present problems have come about, I feel, because many decisions were made that were decisions that were ok at the time, but have since shown to be very wrong.

We moved inmass away from our places of employment to live in the suburbs. I worked for a nursery where we did much new home landscaping back in the late fifties. Ranch style homes were "In" then and scrubs and spreaders were planted around the foundation. Large trees were used as accents out away from the back corners of the homes. Now it is a know fact that large shade trees planted on the south and west sides of homes can significantly lower inside termperatures in the house. But energy was cheap then and AC could keep the house cool.

Both of those decisions were ok then but both have come to bite us in the ass. I recently saw on the evening news that because of high gas prices families were trying to move back closer to their shopping and work places.

We continued built bigger and more square footage homes even though family size declined. Of course even with added insulation the air still needed to be modified inside and had to be cooled or heated. Again it was a idea that seemed to be ok but has hence come back to bite us. And it has been found that the air inside these heavily insulated homes are much more polluted than outside air. Now a few persons have seen the hand writing on the wall and are moving to much smaller homes.

I have a neighbor who is living in a house made of concrete blocks. His son loaned him a nice travel trailer. He decided to try living in the trailer and happily told me recently his utility bills had dropped dramatically. I too have said that a travel trailer was avery good way to eliminate many of the present problems we face today. And using small wind generators to charge the 12 volt batteries these units use would make them very green indeed.

Gramps I really feel that the two Presidential contestants are simply like most of America. That being, we want somethng that is really unatainable. Our American dream has turned out to me, our American nightmare. Think, if we want this ever expanding lifestyle, can we expect other countries to not want the same? Does the earth have enough resources to furnish all peoples more today than they had yesterday?

An honest answer of course would have to be no! Population of the world keeps growing larger and resources by neccessity keeps getting less. It is just simply not doable.

Of course another major factor has become greed. Greed consumes this country as witnessed by the fact that when we de-regulate sectors of the economy, the greedy wolves move in and usethe oppurtunity to enrich themselves and their friends. Basic needs like energy, finiancial etc. can't be left up to the American free interprise system. Mainly because these companies keep consolidating and are controlled by fewer and fewer person.

Can any of the present persons running for office or even any in Comgress find a solution? No, mainly because instead of cahnging our lifestyle they want to find a solution that will keep the so called American dream alive.

You and I will not be around when many of the problems that are surfacing now come to a head. Energy, Global Warming, suffecient usable water for human consumption and irrigation, disposing of nuclear wastes, just keeping the world populations from starving, etc. I might add that starving people in this day and age know who has the food and they will do anything to keep their families and theirselves from dying. Can you blame them?

I don't think their is a single person alive today who could lead us to sort all these problems out.