A word of thanks to those who provide the backbone of civil society – safety/peace officers, firefighters, petrol/gas/power/water/sewer/phone/road/refuse utility workers, postal/delivery employees, hospital/first aid crews – and in emergencies, the many volunteers who go above and beyond their comfort zones to aid those in need.

Crises are part of everyday life and we respond the best way we can.

My wife and I saw that yesterday when we stopped at the local baseball stadium named after a former mayor, Joe Davis, where local restaurants had donated food being cooked free for the community, with donations taken up for a local charity; Gigi’s Cupcakes handed out free samples for a donation to the Red Cross; and many stores operated with a full complement of employees on-hand to provide them an income during tough economic conditions.

Speaking of which, in the George W. Bush and now the Obama presidential years, as millions of jobs have been added to the employment roster, are we in the U.S. truly seeing not only a loss of “good” jobs to low-wage countries/regions, but a dragging down of the living wage for the majority of Americans?

In other words, as an investor, if I want to maximise my profits, would it make sense for me to invest in a company employing workers who are offered no benefits other than an hourly wage?

I’m putting aside social responsibility at this point and looking solely at the benefits I derive from living with people around me who, for no one reason, are happy to find any job offered to them rather than create their own companies/legal business entities, or manage an investment portfolio that works for them.

While Obama and Trump and all the other political pundits jab each other jovially in hopes of getting the attention of potential voters in the 2012 U.S. legislative/executive election (as well as increase advertising revenue which hopefully translates into higher earnings for entertainers and the producers/agents they work for), I wonder about the truth.

What types of aircraft and from whom is India buying them?

While the rich get richer in an easy-to-make-money global economy, what value is rhetoric?

Is there such a thing as a safe investment?

If the U.S. government lives primarily off the backs of workers whose living wage is less than livable, what about those who live off the U.S. government – are we on an upward or downward spiral?

As long as other governments and NGOs rely on the U.S. as the world’s nonimperialistic police/military force, we’ll be okay?

And after it’s no longer okay, then what?

Questions, questions, questions…

My service to the community is small – while regularly paying taxes via sales, investments or income (except in cases like Amazon.com online purchases, it seems – a good reason to buy locally), and donating to charities I and/or my wife deem worthy, I recently gave platelets to the Red Cross via apheresis on Tuesday.  Is it time to give whole blood again or schedule another apheresis appointment?

This is the only moment I have in which to live.  How I choose to live it with you is in the guise of a regular guy – the Wandering Wonderer, the Invisible Hermit – doing my part to help us live together in relative peace and quiet…the loud 7250 watt generator in the driveway notwithstanding (thanks to City Lumber).

A final thanks to Lowe’s, Huntsville Stars baseball team organisation, Little Paul’s BBQ, Publix, Mapco and Walmart for their service during the regional power outage.

Our prayers, positive thoughts and meditation to those in need and those serving them during the emergency crisis in this part of the North American continent; also to those in wartorn regions of the world; and the woman I saw who stopped on the side of the road to help a turtle get to the other side with the chicken that didn’t know why it was there.