RANDOM THOUGHTS

This is my “sound off” blog, a time when I sound off about some of the things I see or hear that bug me. You have the right to respond and tell me what bugs you. In fact, I welcome your comments.

Grammar and Spelling: When did it become all right to ignore the rules of grammar and to dismiss spelling as too much trouble? E-mail is just one exasperating example. I’ve read so many e-mails that require me to decipher what the writer meant that I just want to scream. If it’s too much trouble for you to say what you mean, why should I take the trouble to translate what you mean?

For god’s sake, use capitalization, where appropriate, and a sprinkle of punctuation marks here and there. It’s not that much trouble, especially if you use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works or some other word processor program. All such programs have grammar and spelling checkers. USE THEM!

If you are so ignorant that you cannot make since of spelling or grammar rules, then you should definitely use these programs. If you want to send a short e-mail or post a note in Face Book and want to hide your lack of skill with the rules of punctuation and spelling, you can still use the word processor program to compose your note, and after checking it for grammar and spelling you can copy and paste it into your e-mail. That’s how I write my blog. I compose it first in MS Word, run the spell and grammar checker and then re-read it to make sure it makes scents.

(Did you catch the glaring misuse of proper words above? If not, you can stop reading here for I have nothing to say that you will understand.)¬

Most e-mail programs come with a built-in spell checker. Find it and use it. If yours does not, download a free spell checker at www.iespell.com. Grammar checkers are available but the ones you find in word processor programs are better.

Now, I appreciate that brevity is the rule when texting or instant messaging. And I’m OK with that. Call it shorthand, if you want. BTW (by the way), we all use it not only in texting and instant messaging but in our daily conversations. When the boss says he wants something ASAP, we know what he means. When Sarah Palin uses the phrase “you betcha,” we know what she means. I am pretty sure you knew what I meant when I wrote MS Word in the previous paragraph. Besides, the tiny keyboards we use to compose text messages on our phones encourage brevity. BTW, those tiny keyboard on phones are exactly the reason no sane person should be texting while driving.

Forwarded E-mail: I enjoy receiving jokes, funny pictures, awesome pictures, interesting comments made by others and other forms of forwarded e-mail. Well, to be precise, I enjoy most of the forwarded e-mail I receive. Some of it though is tedious because the sender has not learned how to highlight and delete all the names and addresses of the several hundred people it went to before he or she received it. These Internet illiterates just hit the Forward button and start typing in addresses. You and I get the mind-numbing task of wading through this garbage to find the supposed jewel the sender meant for us.

To be honest, I frequently just delete the entire message – especially from people I know from past experience are too lazy or too dumb remove the aforementioned garbage. If the joke is any good, I am sure I will receive several other copies. Other forwarded junk from these people is probably not all that interesting anyway. How clever can something be from a person not intelligent enough to learn how to delete names and addresses of previous readers?

The U.S. Post Office: The U.S. Post Office lost something like $3 billion dollars in the last quarter of last year. (I may have the wrong amount but it was a big number.) The last quarter of the year is when the post office traditionally made money because of the holiday mailings. Their proposed solution to the problem of declining revenue is to eliminate Saturday deliveries (which, actually is all right with me) and to raise postal rates.

When people are not using or buying your product the way to get them back is to diminish your services and increase your rates. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Right. Try that in any other business and you will be out of business.

Actually, the post office is between a rock and a hard spot. More and more people, me included, have switched from using the U.S. mail to using the Internet. My banking is done online. My statements are all sent to be via the Internet. These steps were taken after going through several seasons when my forwarded mail either wasn’t forwarded or was lost in the process somewhere. You get smart in a hurry after having to pay a late fee on a credit card a bill that arrived after the due date.

In short, I can no longer rely on the U.S. Postal Service. Forget the stuff about rain, snow and gloom of night. They can’t get more than half my mail forwarded properly. I’ve received none of my magazines this winter, magazines that carry first class postage and were forwarded in the past. Two packages that should have been forwarded, one containing medication, were never received. I don’t know where they are – and neither does the post office.

I don’t have a solution to propose. The U.S. Postal Service is a government agency and I am sure has to operate under a multitude of rules and regulations – much like schools – and so is not free to make changes that might make business sense. Just the same, it is losing ground to UPS, FedEx and the Internet and cannot survive much longer under its present way of operating.

The Sanctity of Marriage: Can we get real about the gay marriage thing? You can be opposed to gay marriage for a variety of reasons: because it disgusts you, because it goes against something you read in the Bible, because Pat Robertson has threatened to have God smite you, or for whatever other reason you may have. But, please, don’t tell me you are against gay marriage because you want to preserve the sanctity of marriage.

What sanctity? Fifty percent of people who enter into marriage end up divorced, often before dad finishes paying for the wedding. Probably more than 50% of married people have lived together, had sex and, in some cases, had children before they were married. Wives and husbands regularly cheat on each other. Spousal abuse is rampant in the country. Abused and abandoned children by married parents are a national disgrace.

Just what part of the marriages we have is it that you want to preserve?

Booting Everyone Out of Congress: Can we get real about the jerks in Congress? We elected them! We elected each of them, except for the few that have been appointed to fill out the term of someone who died or was forced to resign. We can change that – but not overnight. Even if we booted everyone out of Congress, WE would vote most of them back into office. They may be scoundrels but they are smart scoundrels and know how to push our buttons, promise us what we want to hear and spin every event to make themselves look good while tarring their opponent. And we fall for it – every time.

We do not want honest politicians. We want politicians who will bring home to their constituents some of the money in Washington. We want businesses brought to our state. We want laws that are favorable to our concerns, our locale, our security and our welfare. That isn’t going to change by starting over with a new bunch of candidates, so let’s stop circulating those stupid e-mails demanding that everyone in Congress be turned out and we elect a new batch.

If we are no smarter than to think that way, we are not going to be smart enough to elect a better batch of politicians to represent us. We need to start using the Internet and other means at our disposal to influence the people we have elected. Remember, the first concern of every politician is to get re-elected. Our individually voiced concerns will not be ignored if our representative fears for his or her job.