The Perfect Storm: Emergency Plans in Place

If you've been following the current economic crisis, you know it's been building for years. I'm not interested in playing the ever-so-popular blame game, because the truth is that this mess is completely bi-partisan. If you want a particular person to study, however, check out Henry Cisneros, former Housing Secretary under the Clinton Administration. George Bush chose to continue those policies, however, calling it "Compassionate Conservatism." What is now being called "predatory lending" was once called "affordable housing." We're reaping a bitter harvest for wanting to feel good instead of demanding accountability, responsibility, and self-reliance. What some members of Congress are now calling "a failure of capitalism" and "the woes of de-regulation" was once called "eliminating prejudice in the banking system" and "insuring home ownership for the poor." Regardless of the motivations -- whether it was greed, stupidity, moral superiority, love for all people, or a marked misunderstanding of capitalism -- it resulted in the same mess: this perfect storm we now face. I just feel sorry for the people who are currently stunned by the stock market, housing market, and faltering economy, who are walking around blank-faced, in a state of shock.

If you've been staying informed, searching out alternative forms of news and information, you are already prepared. If you haven't, I'm not about to start crying, "The sky is falling." However, I tend to think one should prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Neither a pessimist nor an optimist, I try to be a realist.

If you do nothing else, please make sure you have plenty of water (or ice), gas, and non-perishable food on hand. Cash in small bills is particularly important. These are the items you'll need regardless of what happens. Often times, it's not the crisis that produces the need for these things, but rather the panic in the face of possible crisis.

What you can do: Prepare

• The Federal Government has been pleading with us for several years to prepare.
• Popular Mechanics put out an interesting article in August of 2007. Read it. Prepare your home, car, and a backpack. Their .pdf file is an easy checklist of items.
• The LDS church has perfected organization and preparation; I found one of their websites that has some great resources. Check it out as well.
• If you type in 72-hour kit or first aid kit into google, you'll come up with lots of lists.

The idea is to continue to be as prepared as we can be. We may have to hunker down and weather the storm, but at least this way, when others panic, we can be calm and ready. We can provide stability for our loved ones when it feels like the world is falling apart. Because, in the end, the only things that matter are the people we love.

Just remember: Water, Gas, and Cash. With silver prices falling, you may find it wise to purchase some junk silver in the form of pre-1964 quarters, dimes, and half-dollars.

The Struggling Writer Files: What You Can Do

Conflict simmers along quite nicely when large bodies of intent, replete with significant gravitational pulls themselves, can squint down their individual pathways and envision the coming collision.

Take this one, for example: struggling writer (actually, fill in this blank with any writer, struggling or not) glances up from precious work-in-progress to note several items of import...

• The economy is faltering.
• Book sells are down.
• The US trade book market faces a rough immediate future.

Panic flares in multi-hued edges; what if there are no buyers for my book? What if books are banned because they use precious resources? What if amazon.com pushes through legislation requiring all texts to be read via kindle?

Oh, wait. Writers don't think about things like that. What was I thinking? However, on the off chance that things like this do prickle along your subconscious while you're doing a find for all -ly words in your manuscript, I have a truly scintillating piece of advice.

Go forth and buy books. It's your civic duty. Actually, it's you single-handedly saving the publishing industry. After all, shouldn't we writers support the very companies we want to someday work for?