Change is Coming

Dave has gone over to the evil side. He has morphed from an objectivist to a dogmatist (is that a word???). He believes that the collectivist state is descending upon us and a Obama victory will turn the USA into a socialist paradise. I am more pragmatic. I look for personal independence and no matter which party controls the government, I have not felt constrained. The worst of it was when I was growing up and we still had a draft so that our government could feed American humanity into the shredder that was Vietnam. The USA has been controlled by various parties and political factions for well over 232 years. The Federalists, the Whigs, the Republicans and Democrats (and a few more). We have survived all of this as Rome survived its emperors, both good and bad.

No matter who triumphs next Tuesday, we'll survive. That being said, I have rarely seen a government that had less interest in the welfare of the American people as that which has inhabited the executive branch for the past 8 years. The price is being paid by a disrupted economy, rampant self interest (nothing new here) and overseas entanglements that have bogged down in never ending wars which we will surely lose by the simple act of attrition. The so called socialist state exists here already but the socialism or collective exists in an oligarchy that benefits the few rather than the good of the many.

What was it that Spock said? The good of the many outweighs the good of the one. He wasn't talking about socialism even though our friends on the far right, steeped in their dogma and religious righteousness, would have us believe so. They cast fear about in mannner similar to that of the Caesar's who cast coins and bread to the mob of Rome.

What will take place Tuesday will be a slaughter (or so I believe). The very conservative, religious Republican Party that came of age in the early 1990's under George Bush the first, will be thrown out. The voters will decide the future of the country for the next 2-4 years not some elite oligarchy that has served itself well with little concern for others.

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I met Jake at Forbes Mill this morning. We ran the warm up in 25:40. My legs felt good but then I had had two full days off. Hank showed up for the hard loop. Jake was on his game today and led us up in under 11 minutes. Hank took off as soon as we made the turn. I pulled away too but I kept at tempo effort while Hank put the pedal to ther floor.

In the end we all broke 21. Jake ran 20:51, I ran 20:19 and Hank was well under 20 minutes.