LeMon Aid: Nation's problems call for mind over miracles

At this time of the year, we all are searching for one. You know, a miracle.

And, wow! Did we hit the mother lode of all miracles!

With gasoline at $1.57 per gallon, we assumed the best Christmas gift had been unwrapped a little early.

Why, some of us have been so positively touched by this miracle we have become giddy with glee by starting to kick a few gigantic tires and taking some smooth, lumbering SUV out for a test drive.

We are such fans of the fantastic. With the touch of OPEC's miraculous hand, we are now desperately searching for a Jimmy Stewart who will end our dismal economic nightmare by hugging all of us into singing a rousing chorus of "Auld Lang Syne."

I believe in miracles. The topography of my life has been marked by the miraculous footprints of the divine. But, there is God's work - and there is our work. We have serious work to do.

First, we all knew the "good life" was a mirage. Living in homes requiring just a monthly interest payment, driving vehicles that could not pass a gas station without a rest stop, swiping credit cards that promised paying the minimum balance was good enough and traveling on exotic international vacations then taking three years to pay for the bliss all had a payday.

We are undeniably entitled. We reason that as the greatest nation on the earth we deserve the best. And we wrapped our monthly payment coupon books around the best and now we are beset that we have become paupers.

We don't need a miracle; we need to live inside a budget and learn to say "no."

Second, since the advent of James Hansen's Ad Hoc Group on COb emissions, which was submitted to President Carter in 1979, the mean temperature of the earth has continued to climb. In 2007, the shrinking of the summer ice in the Artic went far beyond the predictions of any Al Gore look-a-like.

I have traveled in cities around the world where man-made smog, accented with natural temperature inversions, is so lethal that surgical facemasks are required.

Any eighth-grader will tell us a molecule of COb absorbs the longer wavelength of light thereby trapping radiant heat. If the heat is radiated from the earth, the simple, nonmiracle conclusion is the more COb, the more heat will be trapped.

Our assumed entitlements of two homes, two cars, one pickup truck with "hemi" in the name, one ski boat and one gooseneck camper complete with air conditioning and pop-out dining room all fuel the American dream.

We don't need a miracle; we need to wake up and smell a dying globe.

Third, our nation's educational system is underperforming.

The United States is rated eighth in the world in math and science competency for high school graduates. The easiest place to target is the classroom teacher. Are there teachers who are underperforming? Yes. Are they in the majority? No.

I could never figure out why the people who are the caretakers of our collective national mind have been historically underpaid. If we have been sued in a court of law, we spare no expense on the best lawyer in town. If our physical heart was malfunctioning, then the best-paid physician is our only option.

We don't need a miracle in our nation's schools; we need an honest conversation about getting what we pay for.

Ah, this season is begging for miracles. Come on, we will get misty-eyed when Ralphie spies his Red Rider nestled under his Cleveland Christmas tree. We will celebrate with Clark and family when the 100,000 lights on his house actually light up, throwing two states into a blackout. And we cannot wait for Jimmy Stewart's daughter to remind us in candle glow, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings."

And then there is Springfield, Missouri, in 2008. We don't need a miracle; we just need to use the good minds God gave us.

Cal LeMon of Springfield-based Executive Enrichment Inc. solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. He can be reached at execenrichment@aol.com.