We need to stop whining about having to find solutions to our economic problem, a problem that will not resolve itself no matter how much contorted shapeshifting politicians do while finding new and exciting ways to keep kicking the can down the road. Before we became America's cold version of a banana republic, with oil as our banana, before the conglomerates and multinationals bought off the legislator and governor and congressional delegations, before all that we paid a graduated income tax, a sensible solution to paying for what we needed to do. Forty and more years have left this state in a bad place and strangely depleted, even though we all enjoyed the gravy train when it ran through here. The question is, Are we up to doing what those who came before us had to do, which is face the music and dance?