Striving for the Brass Rattle

Everyone has obstacles. How people handle the challenges they represent shows something about these same people. Toddlers are not different. When Cassie has a problem, she has a few options. She can try and solve the issue herself, or she can get help from Elizabeth or me. If she tries to solve it herself, which is often her first choice, then she might fail on that very first attempt. The toy she is trying to grasp might be in an area that she just can’t get to.

A good example of this is a large brass rattle that was given to her as a gift from friends of ours. For those of you who worry a bit, this toy is perfectly child safe. Not only is it safe, but shiny and a little noisy as well. All in all, it is a perfect toy for an 18 month old. If the rattle is in a spot, Cassie thinks nothing of improvising to get the toy. She will use a teddy bear as a sweeper to get it, or possibly a bouncy ball to move it. In this way I don’t think Cassie is much different than most of her age group. It is very cute, endearing, amazing, etc. to see. I love to see my daughter thinking outside of the box.

It is not nearly as endearing to see grown men who cannot think outside of the box. This is a problem across the board. The Supreme Court just recently came down with their decision on the Tom Delay Texas redistricting case. Now, there was someone thinking outside of the box. Unfortunately, in this case the box happened to be labeled the United States Constitution in my opinion. The majority of Justices do not agree with my opinion.

Given the ruling, Democrats should reenergize their state level campaigns, and use those legislatures to take advantage of this decision. Let me see if I’ve got this straight, you have failed to reach that Brass Ring, called Congressional majority, since 1994. An adversary shows you how to do it, and you still don’t try the successful technique. In the business world, if you fail at your objective for 10 years plus and then someone shows you how to succeed take notes and follow them. The other option being sitting on the floor, crying and whining because you can’t get what you want and waiting to be changed, because eventually you will soil yourself.

The Administration could take a hint from my daughter as well. The current situation in Iraq does not appear to be progressing at an acceptable rate. As you can see from the table below, this conflict has come at a tremendous cost for American servicemen and women:

US Casualties By Calendar Year

Year	US Deaths	US Wounded
2003	486	2409
2004	848	7992
2005	846	5946
2006	364	2430
Total	2544	18777

Those figures go up every day. Today, you can read an article about significant mob violence in Iraq . We’ve been at this for about 3 years now. It does not appear that this policy is working. There are 2 similar military campaigns in the American memory, Vietnam and Korea. People, including Donald Rumsfeld, felt the aims of Vietnam and the secrecy of the government hindered the government’s efforts in that war. Maybe he should take a bit of his own advice. In Korea, the US worked within the framework of the UN and achieved an end it wanted.

If these men would take a hint from their grandchildren, the world would be better for them. If you want to reach that brass rattle and what you are doing isn’t working, then look at it from a different angle. If you can’t do it all by yourself get help from someone else. Don’t continue the same failed actions, over and over again. If you do, chances are you will end up crying on the floor not getting anywhere.