Do You Hear Bells and Whistles? COLUMN BY ROB BUKSAR As a nation we have been blessed above all others at any time. We have lived in such a man- ner that most of the world’s population a still only dreams of. Yet what is it about the American character that pro- motes indifference and almost total blindness to circumstances outside one’s personal life? Our history reveals with few excep- tions that our country has had ample warnings, which were seldom acted on, before a major problem occurred. These warning bells and whistles have been going off again and have been for a while. We don’t seem to be concerned and are even ignorant to the fact that we’ve been militarily targeted by the same countries we spend billions of dollars with daily. It also seems to be OK if jobs and opportunities continue to hem- orrhage out of the country as long as we can keep ours. FOX News reported that in February another 63,000 Americans lost their jobs. Most all of our major cities are broke and operating in the red. The smaller ones are beginning to choke also. Taxes and fees continue to rise and overly burden the fewer still able to pay. Buying utilities and fuel has become real painful and a visit to the grocery store is becoming a nightmare! If you’re fortunate enough to have health insurance and someone else is paying for it you’re truly blessed. If you’re young and paying your own pre- miums the cost is wicked. At middle age they are plain and simply unafford- able, and in most cases undoable even with a killer deductible. Do you hear bells and whistles? If you’re already a victim and lost your job or business you may be presently too damaged to get involved for obvious reasons. I’m addressing those of you who still have your head above water and pray you have the will to try to make a difference before you become a victim. A well thought out and reasonably researched vote for the right political leader is a good start. Please let’s not kid ourselves. We are being ravished and allowing it to happen through our indifference. Many indus- tries and scores of opportunities have already vanished and more are on the way to include ours. Our biggest export is our dollar! Our own middle class is being squeezed out of existence as we build the middle class of other nations. Our growth these days is in two areas; the super rich and the working poor. It all sounds like a broken record but without intervention the beat goes on with no end in sight. This whole mess started in 1994 with a crazy trade deal called NAFTA. Now the real threat comes from the East. As Americans we have all carried home heaps of goods manufactured in China, India and Japan, we have sent trillions of dollars back across the Pacific to pay for them, to include giv- ing up our own capacity to make these items ourselves. Asian central banks have taken the dollars and sent them back to the United States in the form of loans to finance our debt-ridden government. The interest alone on our national debt now exceeds $1 billion per day. Communist China how holds the lion’s share of the mortgage on the U.S. Furthermore, their cash reserves of U.S. dollars are so great they are also buying up treasury bills, stocks, bonds, property, business technology and a whole bunch of political influ- ence. Hear those bells and whistles yet? Actor John Ratzenberger worked his way into the American conscious- ness as Cliff Clavin, the know-it-all barfly and postal worker he played for more than a decade in the hit television series “Cheers.” Ratzenberger has just completed a new role as spokesman for “Keep It Made in America,” a series of town hall meetings held in key electoral states to help make the revival of domestic manufacturing a key issue in this year’s presidential campaign. The town hall meetings were spon- sored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing which is supported by the United Steel Workers and some of its employers. “Tf the politicians are talking about the economy, say, “What economy? You’re letting all of our manufacturing go overseas,” said Ratzenberger. He also jabs at state-supported manufac- turing in China and lamented the decline of local domestic business — tire shops, hardware stores, and I’ll add rebuilders—that close when domestic factories shut down and move produc- tion overseas. “When they go under, you’re not going to see the name of the Chinese factory on your kid’s Little League uni- form,” Ratzenberger said to applause. “That’s not going to happen.” You’ve heard of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Wonderful con- cepts but certainly not free. We still have the personal freedom to become proactive any way we’re able and we all need to exercise this right. Do not look to someone else to do it for you because that just isn’t going to happen. Just one more thought which you’ve all heard before but is more important than ever: “If we don’t use it we’re going to lose it.’ Then it will be all over as we’ve know it, never to be seen again.