First Saturday as the World Turns

Education and hunger

By Ed Rogers

I believe, as we look ahead and see the road much shorter than the one behind us, we have moments where we reflect on where things went wrong. Everybody thinks that the movement in the sixties was about the Vietnam War, but that was only a part of it. There was a war on the poor even back then and many a debate centered around what we could do about the poor. While Nixon was bombing the hell out of Vietnam with operation Rolling Thunder, his "Re-elect the President" campaign was blaming those on welfare for pulling the economy down.

First Saturday as the World Turns

Parkinson’s disease

By Ed Rogers

As is the case in most things, we never really pay serious attention to diseases until we are confronted with them personally. That is how it was with my wife and me. Things were going along just fine. Then her right hand began to shake.
    Parkinson’s disease is not uncommon: There are over one million Americans who live with Parkinson’s disease. This surpasses the number of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and Lou Gehrig’s disease combined.

First Saturday as the World Turns

A little of the shine has worn off Pura Vida

By Ed Rogers

I have lived in Costa Rica for almost two years now. While I still love living here, I have begun to see cracks in my idea of the Costa Rican government.

First Saturday as the World Turns

Why have homes lost value?

By Ed Rogers

I had a thought the other day. It came to mind that house prices going up and down made no sense. If it cost you $100,000 to build a house today, and five years from now it cost $150,000 to build the same house; why would your house only be worth $75,000.
    The first answer I could come up with, in my mind, was it had to be the banks. I’ve always believed in the saying, “Follow the money.” In the past, as it is now, market value has little to do with what your house is worth. Before all the crooked dealing throughout the nineties, the cost of labor and material set the bottom line for value. These costs the bank covered by a building loan, which the contractor paid off from selling the house.

First Saturday as the World Turns

It’s not about the poor, stupid—it’s about the rich!

By Ed Rogers

While debating how the Congress and your local elected representative act—or, more often, don’t act—toward the poor, I have seen idea, after opinion, after facts even when they are not facts, and a whole gambit of crap that has nothing to do with being poor.
    I was raised poor and came from what folks called land-poor people. That is to say, before WWII, my family were farmers. My father and most of the young men who grew up helping farm the land joined the WPA as soon as they could. No one had money to buy your crops and it was cheaper not to grow more than you could use. Going to work for the WPA meant there would be one fewer mouth to feed.

First Saturday as the World Turns

Minimum Wage

By Ed Rogers

Minimum: The point on a curve where the tangent changes from negative on the left to positive on the right. The smallest amount possible.

It would seem that there are people out there who have no idea what “The Minimum Wage” is all about. Facebook is alive with statements about how stupid it is to pay someone $15.00 an hour to put a pickle on a bum. These same people would be the first to bitch if the pickle they had asked for was overlooked, and their bun came without it.

First Saturday as the World Turns

The Southern voter

By Ed Rogers

[The first of Ed Rogers's new monthly column appeared on November 2.]

Let’s face it, I’m a Democrat. My mother, father, and grandparents were Democrats. All the way back to the New Deal, the South was Democrat. It was the New Deal—or government if you will—that brought the South indoor plumbing so people no longer needed to rush across their yard to the outhouse. Because of the New Deal, or government, the South got electric lights and telephones.

First Saturday as the World Turns

The 2014 election

By Ed Rogers

[This is the first of Ed Rogers's new monthly column.]

It would seem that for all practical purposes the “Tea Party” has shot itself in the foot—both feet to be correct. However, many things need to happen before you will be able to call the beast dead.