A Culture in Decline

      

This is an actual house in Detroit, Michigan.  ( Picture: www.wired.com)

    Let me preface this by saying that I am not that old.  I may have kids in their twenties, but that's because I started having them just after college in MY twenties.  The math makes me the age a lot of people are when having their first kids in the US.   A great deal has changed in the United States since that time.  In 1981, when I graduated from college, there was a recession.  The interest rates for housing was 18% and we were very lucky to get an owner financed property as a first home for 14 1/2 %.   However, most people worked. If they did take some type of assistance, they did so reticently and under the pretext that as soon as things in the country improved, or they moved, or got out from under some type of crushing bill, that they would leave the rolls of whatever type of assistance they were temporarily receiving. There was an acknowledgement that assistance of some kind came from people, albeit indirectly.  One by one, the young families I met while in the hospital after my daughter was born, left the welfare rolls, became gainfully employed, and moved to stability, not only as a stable family themselves, but helping others as a recollection of how valuable it was to have needed assistance in a pivotal part of life.  Our neighbors up the street who collected welfare briefly when their first child was born found a way to stop collecting it, and eventually even gave up WIC.   It was heartening to see those who were sidelined from the recession in 1981 develop solid footing and join the rest of the world, planning, saving, raising a family and dreaming dreams.
            Somewhere along the road this changed.   Many Americans of all ages developed the idea that a welfare state smorgasbord existed in the US and they signed on for welfare, or aid to dependent children, WIC, Medicaid, Disability, free cellphone, free or reduced cost state prescription programs, and three church run foodbanks.   None of these programs are bad in themselves, but somewhere along the road people stopped thinking that they were a stop gap measure until the family once again found their way. They did not realize that while they stopped progressing and stalled in the welfare system, that others who might need it as a stop gap couldn't get it.  Our area food banks are empty most of the time, regardless of how many cans of canned goods the rest of us gather at Sam's Club to drop off to them.    This is not an issue of race.  White, Asian, Middle Eastern, African American, and Hispanic peoples all use welfare, some of them as a stop gap, and some consider it their new American dream     Somehow, in the last twenty years we stopped being a gracious nation appreciative for the help we might receive in emergencies, and became a gimme nation.
           It is not my intention to make anyone who must use one of these programs feel badly.  They exist because you paid your taxes to create such programs, but it is my intent to make those who think they are scamming the system feel badly.   Collecting such percs while others who do need them can't get them, is wicked.   Collect only what you need until you can take care of yourself.  To do anything else signals a culture in decline, and a nation spiralling toward its own death.

An Interview

           

In the internet age, one can catch the interview live, or later on, as most shows are archived on the internet, as was this one.

 

  It isn't enough to write books.  In order to get people to read them and to give them as gifts to friends and family members, it's important to do some interviews on radio, podcasts, or even television when you can get it. This is simply part of your commitment to get your book before as many people as possible, ideally because things you are relating or saying will help them.
                 John Wesley Smith is an excellent interviewer and is a bit like visiting an old friend, and this is why I actually enjoy being interviewed by him.  This however, is not always the case elsewhere, especially when the interviewer doesn't know much about the topics discussed in my books or hasn't really read them.

  
      I had promised to let you know when the radio program segment I taped with John Wesley Smith hit the air, and then, I promptly forgot.

        I have just taped a second interview with John, but this is the first one, taped in May and which aired for the first time on May 30, 2013.


Link to first interview is below:

Rational Preparedness Author, Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel, interviewed by John Wesley Smith on Destiny Survival.

      

  I will be doing another interview with John Wesley Smith regarding the books on August 1, 2013 at the same place.    We will be discussing basic strategies for evacuating rural properties and small farms in the face of an emergency. We will also discuss grief as it applies to major disasters, and some other subjects which relate to my books.

Falling Behind....

             

These are happy grazing horses.

    I have fallen behind in the last couple of weeks in many things I really want to do.  One of them is continuing to blog. Another is catching up on my bills !   I have not had the time to write the checks, put the stamps on the envelopes and get to a post office ! Some of them are late.  I now have four horses and they take a lot of time, especially in ninety degree heat.   I cope by getting up at 0530 and doing the lion's share of their care early before they are truly awake enough to fight me on it, and before the extreme Virginia heat makes me wish to forget it entirely.   This week we have also moved half the alpacas to another area of the farm and as soon as the four member fencing is complete, we will move the remaining alpacas adjacent to the horses.  This should make feeding and watering easier for us.
      I am just beginning to outline two more books, both of which will take some significant research before they make it someday to print.
      Yesterday, I spent two hours chasing one of the new horses who slipped out of one of the stalls.  Note to self:  Try not to buy anything that runs faster than you do.