Big Problems. Little Problems.

 

There are many big problems right now. Our military is still engaged in a war in Iraq. Crisis is striking the nation's financial markets due to unfettered greed combined with the chowderheaded, anti-government, anti-regulation platitudes and attitudes of Congressional Republicans and George Bush and his administration.

If that isn't bad enough, the GOP has also nominated an incompetent person for vice president and an unprincipled person for president, John McCain. John McCain has for decades promoted the environment from which today's financial crisis has emerged. And the federal government that these Republicans have demonized and cannibalized must now step in and fix everything. This situation is . . . aggravating.

Yes, things are a mess. And in the middle of all this, small problems remain. Those leaves outside the house will fall, and the gutters must be cleaned, a job the New York Times calls "one of the dirtiest and most dangerous chores around the home."

To retain my sanity with respect to the big problems, I will continue to do what I can in the next few weeks to elect the candidate of my choice for President, Senator Barack Obama. And as for the little problems, I will consider some of these tips on gutter management from today's New York Times. These are small steps but as the cliche goes (and with leaf-management on my mind): from a tiny acorn grows the mighty oak.