Ed & Kay Bejarana

My god, this was way too long of a political season.  I’ve been an active political observer since Carter ran against Ford.  I have never witness such an election as the one that has consumed the last TWO years.  Heck, half of Obama’s entire term in the senate has been out campaigning for President, and today he may become President of the United States.

Two weeks ago I started weening myself from the new broadcasts.  It had gotten to the point where all the news commentators could talk about where daily tracking poll numbers.  I would check in on a few news programs on a daily basis, just in case something informative was actually being reported.  Over the last few days the story has been on the difference between the Polls and how appearances on various networks might have effected the numbers.

Today, finally, we get to see the number from the ONLY poll that matters.  While I suspect a tight race will draw out well into the morning hours, it could also be over by 7pm Pacific Standard Time.  Once the decision is made, our next media challenge will be dealing with assumptions and predictions of the first hundred days.

It seems like everyone is concerned over mostly the same issues (high energy prices, broken stock market, war, economic conditions, taxes), but the debate gets stuck on political bickering and posturing.  Both of the last Presidents (Bush Sr. and Clinton) said they would lower taxes and both had to eat their words.  Our next President will be faced with a far more daunting task than dealing with the assumed issues.  The next President needs to work to bring our country back together.

Over the last eight years, the party OUT of power ha been creating reasons for separation in order to re-gain the White House.  Referring to a sitting President as dumb adds nothing to the American Political system, yet sitting Congress men and women have made such statements.  Lets assume, just for argument sake, that NOBODY can be elected to a national seat of any sorts if they are dumb, please?  In stead, lets try and focus on the core issues and over the next four years try to find common ground where we, as a nation, can plant our feet and step forward.

While it scares me to see one party take all three branches of government, I believe the American spirit (the sleeping dragon as stated by Admiral Yamamoto) will awake to stand against any assult on our freedoms.  We have over come adversity many times before, even survived a civil war; to think America is so fragile as to fail because of political posturing is to under estimate the people.

At the conclusion of the never ending race, let us all say a prayer for our new leader and look forward to a new day as citizens of the United States of America.

Ed Bejarana

When I was a kid growing up, I remember my dad talking politics almost everywhere he went.  Today, people tell you to avoid talking about religion and politics.  How did we get so far a skew in such a short amount of time?

To give you some back ground.  I supported Ford, my dad was for Carter.  We were both together four years later in supporting Regan, but he voted for Clinton and I voted for Perot.  His last election would have been Bush v Gore, but he passed away seven months before the election.

With politics and some people, things seem to always get personal.  Is this a symptom of us as a nation avoiding the conversations in public forums?  It seems like the same people who discourage talking politics in open forums are quick to bash whomever they don’t like in semi-private situations.  Over the years I’ve work in big companies and small companies.  In one of my recent places of employment I was the ONLY conservative out of 40 employees.  I took my lickings, but I never shied away from a good political discussion; the problem however, was some of my co-workers seemed to hate me for my views.  Could this be why people are discouraged from talking politics?

Why should any American be ashamed or fearful of their personal believes?  Are we not still the land of the free and home of the brave?  Or have we become the land of the bashful and home of the afraid?

I would like McCain to win, but if Obama wins the world will not end–there will be far fewer rich people footing the brunt of the bill, but America will survive.  Let us step out into the field of politics and bravely state our opinion and then when the dust settles go back to being one nation under god, in divisible with liberty and justice for all!

Ed Bejarana

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

• The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
• The fifth would pay $1.
• The sixth would pay $3.
• The seventh would pay $7.
• The eighth would pay $12.
• The ninth would pay $18.
• The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ ? ?They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

• The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
• The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
• The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
• The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
• The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
• The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20′, declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right’, exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.