Respect

Yes, respect can be a difficult word to live by. Recent events in the life of the Flower Child have caused me to consider the many aspects of this word as I continue to enjoy life as but one member of the Human Race.

• Advanced Education. With the Spring Commencement Season soon to start everyone is talking about where they are going to College. Yes, we need educated members of our Society. Conversely, we need dedicated members of our Society to be plumbers, electricial workers, and the list goes on and on. My point being that not everyone should achieve a College Education. I respect the labors of all. Most especially in the Spring when the pollen falls and I can turn on my Central Air Conditioning System to remain cool, without the pollen getting into my breathing system. In summary, we need people of all vocations to enable our society to succeed. I say again, I do respect all vocations. The most important aspect of a person is how they conduct themselves. An honest plumber, an honest doctor, no matter the profession is to be held in high esteem. Besides, Doctors are available on Sunday. Just go to the Emergency Room. Have any of you ever sought the services of a Plumber on a Sunday?
• School Zones. Respect for the Young Citizens that attend our facilities who are in training to become future adult citizens deserve our respect at all times. How often do you travel through a School Zone and observe the speed limit to observe those self-serving fellow members of our Society speed through these Zones without regard for the safety of these Future Citizens in Training.
• Achieving a Standard of Living. In these current days of high energy prices and rice wars at our local food retailers we all need to take a break to really think about our own motives and our own wants. When you call to have a "service organization" repair or check out your home's heating and/or cooling systems are you so self driven that the service needs to be done NOW? With energy prices at their current level, I am confident that our respected service organizations plan their trips to safe energy. Of course they could run back and forth across their service area and waste high priced energy and pass the cost on to the customer. But that would also be senseless. They would have to reduce the number of service calls they could make in a day because of the excessive travel times generated by this random system. Emergencies would require a break from the norm, but service appointments just to please one self-centered customer who wants their service now is just that, providing service to one self-entered customer. One self-centered customer who does not respect Society, much less the organization in business to make a profit. Talk about making a profit, we need to examine how our Governments expend our resources. No one in government has to be responsible for making a profit, yet we the people must. At least the organization many of us work for or have worked for must make a profit to simply stay in business. If they desire to increase their business they need even more profit, which in most cases results in more openings for new employees.
• Government Budgets. This is the time of the year when City, County and Education Organizations commence their annual Budget Cycles. The current situation of high energy prices and the resultant increases in all the goods and services we have all grown to enjoy will simply cost us more than ever before. That stated, what can be done. I would enjoin each and every governmental agency to seriously look at how cost can be cut. The people who staff our Law Enforcement Agencies need first priority when it comes to funding. Education needs a top priority also. That stated, there are ways to achieve budget harmony within the means of the tax digest. Just one example, Please drive by the Georgia State Blind Academy on Vineville Avenue in Macon, Georgia any Friday afternoon at the time when they Scholars are preparing to spend time with their families. You would be shocked to see the large number of School System Buses that are only partially full. Could smaller vehicles be employed to transport these worthy scholars? Just a thought and we all know that image is everything. One fifty passenger school bus with a few scholars appears to be a waste of resources when this type of activity is viewed by the dedicated and also worthy taxpayers. Something for our duly elected School Board Members to consider. An to be fair, something for all of our duly elected officials to consider when they expend dollar resources on behalf of the "common good" of all peoples.

Yes, the word respect is certainly germane in every aspect of each of our lives. There is not a citizen alive today that can meet all their needs all by themselves. We must appreciate others for what they accomplish so that our needs are met. As we prepare for the future we all may have to reduce our list of "wants" to a more manageable level. After all if we want to remain employed and travel to the work place we just may need more money set aside for energy. Additionally, we may have to re-evaluate our food budget. We can continue eating as we have or we can simply reduce our food intake to live with fewer dollars available to expend on food. I know that in the case of the "Flower Child, that a reduction of food intake may allow him to get down to a more healthy weight.