Confederate Sharpshooter

If you have been watching the national or mainstream news much the past few months, you are probably about ready to call the United States of America deceased. You would have valid reason for doing so, what with the banks failing, GM either taken over by the Feds or bankrupt (who do you root for in that fight, anyway?) and of course the eviiil corporations on Wall Street and elsewhere that the elites would have you believe are the source of all our woes.

I'm here to tell you it ain't necessarily so.

Yeah, times are rough right now. But we've been through tough times before. I've spoken to some elderly folks about the great depression a great deal lately, and they have told me what we are doing now doesn't hold a candle to what happened then. Those folks survived, and brought us the greatest, wealthiest nation in the history of the world. Any historian will tell you that the War between the States in the 1860's pretty much determined what kind of nation we live in now. We lost a half million lives in that conflict, decimated the infrastructure and way of life of over half the country, and shredded a good portion of the Constitution. Yet we rebounded, overcame the difficult reconstruction period, and became a superpower in a little over one lifetime.

The trick in times like these is to not listen to those who preach gloom and doom. Instead, look for opportunity. Wouldn't you have liked to been around in 1930 and bought some stock in Boeing Aircraft? Or the dismal days of Jimmy Carter in the late 70's and foreseen an upstart company building software under the funny name of Microsoft? Yeah, hindsight is 20/20. But I promise you the American spirit isn't dead yet, and somebody out there is working on the next 'big thing.' The trick will be spotting it first, or coming up with it yourself, and being ready to jump on it. That's all there is to it- be at the right place at the right time. A lot of people are going to suffer mightily for the current problems. If you are not one of the people who bought a house you can't afford, or have way too much debt, however, there will be opportunities as well. As a baseball coach told his team once: "put the ball where they ain't." It's as simple as that.