Times are tough right now for many. There is no doubt of this. There are people who through no fault of their own who are homeless. We have become a society in which there is less and less regard for the downtrodden, because it is mistakenly believed that the downtrodden did it to themselves.

What can we expect in a country where abortion is frowned upon and the death penalty is embraced? Not much.

Today, thoughts like this are coming to mind, going out of mind, and coming back to mind.

Pete called me at noon today and said that the state’s education budget might be cut by $139 billion. If this goes through, there will be deleterious consequences for this state, now and down the road. One example: Pete and my strength training coach and his wife Summer now live in Alaska. She works as a

communications specialist at the Tsunami Warning Center. He is a coach at Active Body Gym. They have been thinking about having a child. But he said today “I won’t raise my child here,” the inference being that the already low quality of education will be lower.

Another example: I was talking with a woman at the gym and she said that her daughter is finishing up her coursework at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She said that no one is providing her with advising at this end of the world, but that she’s being courted by very good east coast schools. The inference here is that the best students are choosing to leave the state after graduating rather than stay here.

We are going to end up with a state full of croutons.

I think the budget cuts are being made for political reasons. Dunleavy met with Trump a while back and Trump praised him for continuing to create a “natural resource warehouse.” So how do you pay the bills in a state that has no state income tax? You cut the budget and you drill, baby, drill. That’s the state bread and butter. And most will applaud the governor’s decision because they don’t have the smarts to consider alternatives.

Boom and bust – we are in the midst of a bust and waiting for another boom.

We do not know right now what the future holds for Mat-Su College where Pete teaches. He says that because he’s tenured and his classes fill that he most likely will continue to have a job. But you never know. What we do know is that there is going to be considerable acrimony in his workplace. How could there not be? And who in their right mind would want to teach in an environment like that?

Why are things the way they are now? It seems to me the human race has now gotten in the habit of taking one step forward and several steps backwards. What we are seeing is another instance of reverse evolution. Whoa is me, indeed.

Next: 45. 2/14/19: Holding Pattern