Don’s Random Thoughts

I often wonder why people act as they do, especially how they vote. I have a sign on my refrigerator that says a lot to me about why things are proceeding so poorly, especially recently. The sign says “Don’t Underestimate The Power Of Stupid People In Large Groups”. I think the need for that concern has increased vastly in the past 60 years due mostly to television. The Internet accelerated the development of the problem even more. The problem is stupid people. I have to admit that I am too often in the group. The election of George Bush was a true indicator of the voting by the group. The re-election as well. I wasn’t part of the group for either. I have said all this to say this.

What if people made their decisions as if they eventually would have a conversation with God. Isn’t that the expressed idea of Christians?

• “I gave you a wonderful Earth, why did you pollute it?”
• “How could you allow so many people to starve?”
• “Why didn’t you use the science I gave you to prevent Aids?”
• “Why did you think a church group was intended to persecute other people?”

God would have a lot of questions.

If most of those “stupid” people actually acted with the interests of the whole rather than just selfish interests, we’d all be much better off.

While stupid people are not hypothetical, the idea of my belief in God or that the bible is more than a good book is. I do try to think globally and about what would be best for all. Unfortunately, I haven’t ever taken it to an extreme, yet. I do watch TV, though less every day. I haven’t joined the peace corp, yet. I occasionally feel guilty about both. Someday, maybe I’ll leave the group for good?

An observation today on the state of the economy and wise decisions. Our neighborhood, like most, has a lot of traffic. Some of that traffic is the postman, the UPS, Fedex, and other deliveries. Much of that traffic has gone down recently. High gas prices, failing economy? The real interesting thing is that the postman still drives into the neighborhood every day to deliver less mail (Is that what it takes to reduce junk mail, a bad economy?). They tend to drive a lot more than necessary driving to each block segment to deliver both sides of the street. Some in the past drove to each house but that seems to have died down. Back in the old days, postmen used to be dropped off and they carried the mail house to house and picked up more as needed in a lockbox on the street that a delivery truck dropped off after delivering the postmen. Quite efficient. I don’t know why each postman now has a vehicle. Is that the main reason for the rise in postage?Anyway, I noticed that the UPS truck doesn’t come by any more and I rarely see the Fedex truck. That is probably a sign of the reduction in the economy, but what is really interesting is that the UPS man does still come by, just not in his truck. He pushes a handtruck down the street with all sorts of packages on it. I don’t even see his truck anywhere nearby? I don’t know what the Fedex guy is doing since I don’t see it come by as often but haven’t seen him walking either? Looks like UPS is smarter than the postal service, as usual. In lean times, reduce costs, do things more efficiently. Take notice USPS! I don’t know if this is UPS wide or just a smarter driver but I like the idea.

Efficiency! UPS is great! I received a package this morning. I happened to check my email 30 minutes later and noticed I had received an email from UPS stating my package was delivered to my front door. The email was 28 minutes old. Basically the package delivery information and notification was instantaneous and detailed. Are you listening postal service? We live in a realtime world, join us. I am disappointed a little though. The package left Sunnyvale (about 10 miles from our home) Friday evening. It wentup to South San Francisco and spent the weekend there (vacation?). It was delivered at 1pm. That’s basically a one day delivery if you don’t count the time sitting around all weekend. I did get an email Friday evening that it would be delivered Monday, again effeciency. Now, can they work on not wasting gas (oil) on carrying a package the unnecessary extra 60 miles. Not as bad as Fedex that would probably have flown it to Kansas or somewhere to go across the street.

Our “justice” system prevailed. It hung another black man. OJ Simpson was sentenced to 15 years for his heinous crime. He “stole” his own possessions back from a fence. Some of his friends helped and some of them may have had weapons. It wasn’t a wise thing to do, it may have been criminal if it were true. The evidence, as usual points both ways. But…

What is wrong with this result is that he was hung for it. for something that  is much less a hazard to society than say an armed bank rodder that may serve three years and be paroled early. That armed robber would probably serve less than a year if it was his first conviction. An arogant black man gets 15 years for his first conviction.

What about the Enron folks? how many of them really served any time and get out still rich? Their actions affected millions of people, not some criminal fence selling stolen property.

What about police thugs that assault people, finally get caught for one of their many inproprieties and then retire?

What about mortgage bankers swindling homeowners and then suffering the penanty of accepting a bailout from the government?

OJ gets to spend the rest of his life in jail for a crime similar to stealing a loaf of bread, stealing from a theif. POOR OJ! Poor us. We really need to work on our “justice’ system.