The Sounds of Silence

Sometimes, the best possible thing to hear is nothing at all, at other times, silence is terrible.  Ask any parent if you don't believe me.  Communication takes many forms and is the backbone of civilization.  Without our ability to communicate thoughts, feelings and ideas, nothing can be built, nothing can be learned. Without our written history, we would not have learned the futility of war.  Oops.  Forgot what century I was in, always a problem when you own a time machine.  For those of you who plan to be around next century, I can just say, there is good news ahead.

Communication is active.  It requires thought and participation.  If the people you are speaking to are not listening or not thinking about your words, then you are not communicating, you're mouthturbating.  To truly communicate, ideas and knowledge need to flow both ways, thoughts need to be shared, and this leads to growth.

I recent times, our country has gotten away from communicating.  Thought and discussion are discouraged, and often not allowed.  You either accept what has been said, without thought or reservation, or you become the enemy.  Attempt a dialogue with anyone who expresses a belief you disagree with sometime and you'll understand.  Facts are no longer nearly as important as volume and repetition.  When the facts become to glaringly obvious to ignore, the issue is forgotten, never to be spoken of again and we are left with silence.

For the past several years I have heard almost constant complaints about unemployment, runaway deficits and the weak housing market.  President Obama has been blamed exclusively by many, even though these problems were inherited from his predecessor.  Recently, all talk about these issues has ceased, which is somewhat troubling, since these issues are supposed to lead to a total collapse and destruction of our country.

Last year, when unemployment rates began to fall, we heard a great deal of noise about doctored data, and misrepresentation.  Then when the rates continued their slow decline, we heard only silence.  Recently, the out of control deficits have been shown to be under control and falling steadily, with no response from those who spent 4 years harping on nothing else.  Today I see that housing prices have been rising steadily for the past 3 months, last month posting their biggest gain since 2006.  I expect to hear a great deal of nothing from the failed housing market crowd..

What all this indicates, is a recovering economy.  While there is still much to be done, things are improving.  Perhaps they will improve faster if our government can stop trying to score points and start trying to fix problems.