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KidAlarmClocksLast Thursday, I issued the September Issue of my Front Porch newsletter.  With all that was going on, I decided to change the topic for the lead article to address our current economic crisis (seemed like a topic worthy to be chatting about on the front porch!).  Regardless of your stripes of political persuasion, there are times where our nation needs to come together.  And if we can’t do that in times of crisis then we have certainly lost our way. The point of my article was simply about “finger-pointing”.  No, not between Democrats and Republicans (although I am disgusted with both parties when they choose to do it) … but rather about individuals who make irresponsible personal decisions and then want to point their finger and blame everyone else.  I have never had so many readers respond to an article with such pent-up enthusiasm.  I know there are many angles of this problem … but most of the problems did not start in Washington.  They started with individual families making bad decisions.  It always starts with individuals … just like it did in the dot.com era of a get-rich-quick craze … or with individual executives addicted to the drug of greed, ego or arrogance … or with everyday American mutual-fund holders who just wanted their investments to grow without regard to how they are growing!

When I wrote Silent Alarm, I was driven out of a passion that something was seriously broken in our culture … all the way down to the individual level.  I see it again.  The truth is all of our alarms should be ringing … the bell tolls for everyone of us.

I first thought everyone was looking to Washington to do a bail-out so we could all just hit the snooze and go back to sleep.  It appears many members of Congress heard differently from those they represent.  Many American citizens were saying NO BAILOUT.  Wow … a let’s see what happens? Crisis is always a huge opportunity … for growth or failure.  I think we better buckle-up.  The ride is getting interesting … especially if we choose to wake-up.  Your personal alarm is ringing.  Can you hear it?