I was always more of a history buff than a fan of geography although I enjoy traveling the world in search of historical places with a meaning.

As I sit here near year’s-end listening to the Gulf of Mexico lapping gently on the shores of the West Coast of Florida, yawning to cool down my brain of global warming thoughts, I reflect more about where we have been as a nation and how we might  seek solutions to the future for mankind rather than trying to save the planet which has done very nicely over the years without our help.

Although there are some, like former Vice President Al Gore who would travel the world in a private jet to pick up global warming prizes while in doing so contributes to his very own thesis, there are others who are looking to resolve problems of the people.

For it is the people, that for the first time since the Great Depression, who are without jobs, loosing their houses to foreclosure, watching their pensions, 401k’s, college, homes and other savings being depleted.

Because President Bush doesn’t want a Hoover-legacy, he has bailed out financial institutions and the auto industry and President-elect Obama has promised more relief and stimulus packages when he arrives on the scene next month until we as a nation spend a trillion in bail-out dollars.  This Obama says will provide jobs strengthen our infrastructure and stimulate the economy.  In addition he promises energy, healthcare and environmental spending along with eventual tax increases which will just about complete the cycle from capitalism to socialism.

Obama is requesting his new administration ‘to think out of the box’ for new solutions to problems of old.

I was born in 1934, a year that was recorded as the depth of the Great Depression.  If we look at history, it took our nation 8 years to recover from this economic crisis and it didn’t occur because President Roosevelt spent a lot of money or because he created the Workers Progress Administration WPA to create jobs,  it happened because we entered World War II.

And if you carefully examine Germany in the 20′s and 30′s you will find that this nation was in a similar economic state as we are today before it became Nazi Germany.

There are very few new or ‘big’ ideas, we must often look upon the past to learn from history before we continue to pour good money after bad thinking that this will be the magical solution.  As the new old saying prophesizes, ‘What goes around comes around.’  Just a thought.