Let's Cut the Middle Man Out

There seems to be a lot of talk about what to do with all that money the government is willing to loan out to help bailout the major companies that are in such financial trouble. The CEO’s are so rich they could never spend all their money in two life times. Their plan seems to be to take the money, keep living their life style as usual and somehow all of this would trickle down and help everyone else in the real world.
I sat, listening in disbelief, as I watched the news and learned that these hedge fund managers had made up to 3.7 billion dollars while many people’s 401K’s lost 40% over the last year. These CEO’s are still being paid millions even after they’ve lost all of that money just to be bailed out to lose it again.
It reminds me of my first trip to New York and as we were driving down 5th Avenue we took a picture of a man sleeping on a piece of cardboard in front of an exclusive clothing store and people were stepping over and going around this man as if it was an everyday day occurrence, and it may have been.
It seems to be a world of the haves and have not’s. The ones that have look at the world thinking, “John Q. Public got what he deserved”. The ones that don’t have are saying, “I played by the rules; where’s all my money gone?”
Banks are not lending the money given to them by the government and wasn’t that the whole purpose of giving it to them in the first place? Free up money to lend and to get the economy rolling again.
I have a thought, let’s cut out the middle man. Instead of relying on the big companies and Privileged Poindexters to do what’s right and invest the money to create more jobs, let’s put the money toward paying off student loans and give sizable stimulus checks for families with an annual income of under $175,000 a year. Houses will be built, debts paid off, cars bought, and non-essential items will be purchased. There will be no holding the economy back. We could just call it “an accelerated trickle”. The same companies would be getting a lot of the money but instead of trickle down it would trickle up. Some people would look at this as just another welfare program but no more than money going to pay these CEO’s salaries and at least it would be getting to the people that need it. This would not only help more people directly but create jobs that would get the economy booming again.
Just Saying!
Odes Roberts

A Day Trip to Reality

We got up Saturday and decided to just drive. Since the gas is cheaper this week we thought it would be nice to get out and see what was going on out of South Carolina. We ended up in Atlanta and decided to walk around some of the shopping malls which are already decorated for Christmas and all set and ready for the paying customers that didn’t show up in the numbers they were hoping for. It was really nice to walk around in the spacious uncluttered stores and the people seemed so nice and polite. I even had one young lady say she really liked the hat I was wearing. There were 40%, 50% and even some 75% off signs in most stores but few people were in line at the cash registers to take advantage of these deals and as we ventured toward the more exclusive stores it was like a ghost town. It was kind of interesting to watch the sales clerks in the higher price stores summing up each and every customer passing, as if to be able to tell if they were worth waiting on. It only takes a trip through Neiman Marcus or Kenneth Cole to be struck by the reality of where we stand in the world of economics. Do people really pay this kind of money for clothes? It was amazing to me that a sweater could cost more than some people make in a week. It was no wonder Sarah Palin’s people could spend that kind of money at this store. I wonder if they kept the receipts. What’s Cartier’s return policy? I guess if you need to know those things you would be like me, only there as part of the sightseeing tour. That explains why the clerks were so good at summing people up. If you have the look of bewilderment on your face they just assume they can’t help you, unless you’re asking where the exit is and does it cost anything to get out of here. I overheard one lady tell her daughter that they only had $250 dollars to spend today and her daughter said, “That won’t even buy me a pair of shoes.” Heck, I can buy several pair for $250, what planet is she from?
I did learn one thing on this weekend adventure; if I can’t pronounce the name that’s on the label I probably can’t afford the clothes.
Just Saying!
Odes Roberts

A Modern Day Calling

I don’t know any teachers that are on a mission to destroy your child’s life but they do learn very quickly that they are expected to keep control of their classrooms or they’ll be the ones facing the consequences.
When I was in school I was totally convinced that at least one or maybe even two, ok most of my high school teachers were sent there by some unknown source to make my life a living hell. I discovered very quickly just how far I could go and not step over that imaginary line, never realizing that I was not only hurting myself but everyone else in the class. It was all about the next laugh and the 3 o’clock bell. It’s not a big surprise that I wasn’t an “A” student but I did do just well enough to get by. I’m sure to many teachers this is an all too familiar scenario and something that plagues me to this day. Let’s just say that my spell check regularly begs me to turn it off and give it a break, I married a woman who is an avid reader and has to be one of the best spellers I know, and as luck would have it, we have a son who is an English teacher. God does have a sense of humor!
That being said I’m around a lot of teachers from time to time and as I hear stories of first year teachers being seen out in the halls with face in hands trying to hold back the tears of frustration and literally trying to build up enough courage to return to the classroom, I find myself thinking, I was one of those kids. I was that student who not only wasted my time but had to have most of my teachers rethink their profession.
Things have changed a lot since I was in school. There were no alternative schools you just got your butt worn out. I will never forget being in class and “rudely” woke up by a math teacher asking me to complete a math problem she had written on the board. Of course I just stared at it until I heard her say, “You’re just like your dad” and then I felt the shock of my life. This little 5 foot tall, 70 year old lady showed me she could swing a well used 2 ½ foot paddle. I’m in no way saying this is the answer to our problems but amazingly I found the correct answer to the one on the board and never fell asleep in her class again. I fondly remember her as one of my better teachers, maybe because I started listening. She later told me that she had also taught my father and had to use the same teaching techniques on him, more than once.
Teachers now days are caught in the middle of “no child left behind”, parents who are too busy or are just not interested in keeping up with their children’s progress and an administration that has to answer to the school board. Is there any wonder why there’s such a shortage of teacher’s in this country?
I have found out over the years as a parent, that if a teacher says there’s a problem, they’re usually right. With our first child I was the parent who was always there defending him to the last breath. I was sure without a doubt my son was perfect and this teacher just had to have it in for him. But after a while we learned this just wasn’t the case and he became a much better student. With our youngest son things were quite different even though there were times I felt we needed parent /teacher conferences, there were very few times we needed to go up the chain of command. The second child always has it rougher; “it’s just a broken arm, shake it off you’ll be fine”.
We as parents can do our children a great disservice by not attending the schools functions like open houses, if you can’t be there at least send a trusted family member or friend to talk to the teacher so they know you’re involved and interested in your child’s educational future. If you have questions contact the teacher by phone or email. Email seems to work the best now days. If you don’t get a response call the school’s office and let them know you’ve emailed and tried to reach the teacher by leaving messages and ask that a person in administration call you.
Keep in mind that teachers are people too. They not only put up with your little angel all day but then have to grade papers, go to meetings and some even coach school sports, then are expected to further their education to meet certain state requirements and somehow in the mist of all this, make time for their own families.
Some people say this career was by choice, and for some that’s true, but then there are those that you never forget as making a difference in your life. I truly believe they are there for a much higher cause. I consider it nothing less than a modern day calling.

Just Saying!

Odes Roberts

Cutting Down, Cutting Back, Cutting Out

Cutting down, cutting back and cutting out. That seems to be what I’m not only hearing but doing in our on household. I really find it intriguing to try new ways to save a dollar and I’m finding a lot of it is just taking advantage of things I already have like my cell phone. I use the cheap free one that you can get every two years. I did add unlimited texting after I looked at one of our bills and found out that teenagers don’t talk anymore they just text their fingers off. I actually called my cell phone provider when I was scanning my bill and saw that we had over 4000 text messages in one month. I didn’t realize someone could actually send that many messages without damaging some part of their anatomy but obviously they can, because that seems to be the average per month over the last year. I found out that we weren’t using all of our minutes so to save money I lowered our minutes and went to unlimited texting. It seems to be working, so far and we’ve saved money every month. To get information on phone numbers, weather, directions, temperature and a bunch of other things you may or may not use, you can text 466453 (Google) and put in a business or persons name and location. You will be texted back the information you desire. If you want to know the weather just put in the word weather plus the zip code and it will text you back the weather. I haven’t kept up with the savings but we never have a charge for directory assistance anymore. You will either be charged for texting or it will go against your plan like a regular text so keep that in mind if you don’t have unlimited texting. It’s a way to save on charges if you’re not at your computer.Do you ever get tired of getting calls every time you sit down even after you’ve added your name to the no call list? I know we did. I mean really, could there be that many surveys? In most places you can keep your DSL and turn the phone off, it’s called a naked line. Since we already had cell phones we rarely used the landline anyway, so we said good bye to Ma Bell and just kept the DSL for $19.95 and saved about another $30 a month. We’ve been trying out another gadget called Magic Jack. If you have DSL and at least XP on your computer this is another nifty little gadget we have been using for the last year. I have to admit it’s not perfect but gives us a way to save on cell phone minutes while we’re at home. It just plugs into your computer’s USB and after you follow the first time directions, you plug in a regular phone and you have a dial tone. You can choose an area code for most places in the USA and I’ve heard you may even be able to use your own phone number very soon. It’s really nice if you live in a place you don’t have great cell phone reception or I understand some people even use it to call back to the States while out of the country. It may not be for everybody but it’s worked for us and it also comes with free long distance, voice mail, directory assistance and lot of other things. We paid $39.95 for the Magic Jack, including the first year of service and then its $19.95 per year after that. You can get more information at www.magicjack.com. We do find that sometimes the connection isn’t always perfect and have to unplug the device every once in a while and restart it, and that seems to do the trick. We also have been able to use our fax machine with this but found we had to slow down the fax speed for it to work. It seems that along with HDTV, Online TV will also be one of the next big things. You can take advantage of the DSL you already have by connecting your newer flat screen TV directly to your computer and watch your favorite shows at your convenience and it’s FREE. It’s not the best quality yet but it’s on the way and they’re adding new websites all of the time. You could also just watch it on the computer but we like the bigger screen. All the major networks already have their own websites. We’ve been able to not only catch up on past episodes that we’ve missed but have actually found new shows to enjoy and its available 24/7. We have found websites like hulu.com and many others that are free. There are devices that you can buy to connect your TV directly to the internet but the prices I’ve found, are still too high.

These are just a few of the fun ways we’ve found to save a little cash. May or may not be for you.

Have you found a way that saves you money without the pain of doing without? I would like to know what’s working for you.

Just Saying!

Odes Roberts

Can You Hear Me Now

My wife and I walk almost every day and have watched in dismay the decline of Main Street in Walhalla. It’s disheartening to see a town of such possibilities go to seed, especially after the Oktoberfest weekend when there were so many happy people everywhere. The sidewalks were full and Main Street was being used for something besides a road that led consumers to Highland’s or some other mountain destination.
Although I’m not an actual resident of this town, I used to be and even served on their city council. Way back then, I made the comment that it would seem that a town with such a rich German heritage would take advantage of it. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that Walhalla didn’t want to be another Helen, Georgia, which at the time was attracting huge amounts of tourism for a town its size.
As the years have passed so have a lot of opportunities to capitalize on this and most of the business owners have grown old and retired or moved to greener pastures. As a result there are lot of empty buildings and decaying store fronts.
It seems to me that this little town is nothing less than the land of opportunity! You could almost open any basic business and have little, if any, competition. Walhalla has got to be an entrepreneur’s dream. Now I’m not saying that just any business would have a 100% chance of making it but chances of success would have to be a lot higher than in a town that has 20 of the same thing.
Like I said, we walk as much as we can and one of the best things I’ve seen in a while and something that can really sharpen up a town’s image and shopping appeal are new sidewalks, which are being poured at this very moment. It only makes sense that you have to first have a safe way to enter an establishment. I for one think it’s a wonderful improvement on the little German Town that could be.
Just Saying!
oer
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You can email me at odeseroberts@gmail.com

Election Day is Finally Here

The lines of democracy were longer than in any recent memory but it seemed to move quickly. You could just sense freedom in the air and to know that my vote would count just as must as the persons in front or behind me is a wonderful feeling. It’s the one time in our life that we are all equal. It doesn’t matter how old or how young or how rich or how poor you are on this day, if you are a registered voter and you’re standing in that line you can’t help but have a feeling of pride in just knowing that you count. As different as we all are on some of the issues, this one day all across America we come together as a nation to make a choice and to be heard. We are surely blessed to have the freedom that many before us and sadly many after us will fight and die for. It’s hard to believe that still today somewhere in this world other’s can only dream of the opportunity to do what so many here will take for granted.
It’s exciting to hear all the chatter from the first time voters, as one of my sons will be this year, to some of the older ones. You seem to see the same people in line every time the polls are open and you suddenly realize that you’re quickly becoming one of the “older ones”.
You find yourself listening to someone behind you talking about who the President was when they voted for the first time and then you hear someone say “next” as you move up a little closer until finally it’s your turn. The voting official motions for you to walk toward them and the excitement starts to build as you’re shown the electronic voting booth you’ll be using to cast your vote. This is what you’ve been wait for the last several months. Everything has been building to this opportunity to make your voice count.
This is my experience this morning: I got to the station 15 minutes early, stood in line and made some new friends; we snaked our way across the fire station parking lot and into the building. I signed in with no problem and finally made it to the voting booth in 45 minutes, considering some people stood in line over 5 hours to vote early, I was pleased. I scanned the electronic pages and made my selections clicking the “next” button at the end of each page, when I finished I pressed the “review” button only to find that I’d missed something somewhere. Frantically I went back through the selections because somewhere in the back of my mind I heard you only have 3 minutes to cast your ballot. What could I possibly have missed? Are they really only going to give me 3 minutes? How much time do I have left? Then I see the selection I somehow missed. Clicking hurriedly through everything I finally cast my ballot. A feeling of relief filled my entire body as I walk through the line and was awarded with my “I Voted” sticker. Its funny how, throughout the rest of the day, I looked at people’s chest to see if they sported the same badge of honor.
I took advantage of my rights as a citizen of the United States of America. Today I’m not only proud to be a southerner but much more than that, I’m a proud American with the freedom to vote.
You may not always vote for the one who wins but you’ll always be a part of the process if you get out and Vote!

Just Saying!

Odes Roberts

Parenting,Not Just a Job, but a Never-Ending Adventure

I sometimes wonder if the reason it’s so hard to let our children grow up is not so much the fear of them leaving the nest, but more of the fear of them realizing our own imperfections. When my oldest son was 3 years old he was mesmerized by Superman and other larger than life characters. He would constantly ask me questions like, “Dad can you fly like Superman”, or “Dad can you hold the clouds in your hand?” At a young age our kids think their parents are super heroes and I’m not sure if we don’t somehow enjoy the unjustified admiration. As they grow up the kids start seeing that we may not be the best at everything and that we really can’t leap over skyscrapers in a single bound. Parents are everyday vulnerable human beings who make mistakes but even though that may be true, our children still have to live within our rules.
I always get a smile on my face when young parents show off their precious bundles of joy, that’s usually in the pre-crawling days, when children have no choice but to stay where you put them. I listen as they tell us how wonderful little Billy or Susie has been and all the while I’m laughing inside thinking, oh yeah just wait until they start crawling. You can cancel your aerobic classes for a while.
You put your heart and soul into raising these perfect little angels and then comes the teen years, I think I could write a book on this one. You know those years when the kids roll their eyes and think they know it all. You’re there to fulfill their needs; which is usually just to hand them money. At this age they’re the worlds best at guilt trips and back-talk. They can make you feel like a failure as a parent because it seems that whatever their friends have it’s always better than what they own. Yep that’s the years I’m talking about. Well as a word of encouragement it does get better!
I think one of the best things we did as parents was to insist that both of our kids take part time jobs throughout high school. It not only kept them busy but it also taught them about how far money goes. They were expected to pay for their own gas and to pay for dating; we took care of everything else. The responsibility and money gave them a feeling of independence. They were able to spend their hard earned money however they wanted, ok to some extent, but when they spent it all on that thing they just couldn’t live without, well now that meant that they were broke until the next payday and hopefully they would spend it a little more wisely and even save a little.
I see it every day, parents who for some unknown reason think they need to be more of a pal instead of a parent so as to be cool in their children’s eyes when what they need to be is a guiding force in the direction their kids are taking. Their sons and daughters will thank them one day by how they raise their own children.
As a parent I fully realize we are not perfect and that there’s unforeseen circumstances around life’s every bend and believe me I’ve seen a lot of them. It’s my belief that you always put your children first and raise them to the best of your ability, to be honest and to make good decisions, because one day, they just may be the ones picking out your retirement home!
Just Saying!
Odes Roberts


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You can email me at odeseroberts@gmail.com