Category Archives: American Character

January 3, 2024 · 7:32 pm

Getting on the road to achieving dreams

Many people start the new year with “resolutions” to start fresh, make big changes, and optimism about following their dreams. While this may sound like being a killjoy, figuring out where you’re really at in life is probably more important than the dreams of where you want to go. Knowing where you’re really at, not just physical location, but also age, physical health, financial health, responsibility load (time constraints) and actual skills you possess right now, will help center your plans for the future on reality – not the big dreams. This isn’t intended to burst your bubble or dissuade you on pursuing dreams, but more a statement of fact to help ground you in how you go about achieving your dreams.

Wherever we’re at in life, as long as we’re alive we can all work toward tackling new challenges and pursuing dreams, but there’s always that “but” and often we might have to chink away at some of the more unrealistic and impractical dreams and focus on the doable for where we’re really at in life. Often once you start working on the doable, you’ll build a solid foundation of skills and knowledge, that will make achieving those loftier dreams possible. The idiom “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” means building something great takes time and dedication.

Benjamin Franklin was probably America’s first self-help guru, as he set about developing personal virtue as the path to building civic virtue in our new republic. The centerpiece of building our American republic was a citizenry of people committed to civic virtue. Civic virtue is the willingness of citizens to put a high value on commitment to the community and be willing to make personal sacrifices for the good of the community over their own self-interests. America’s founding fathers believed in the importance of civic virtue for our American experiment in self-governance to thrive.

You can’t become a nuclear scientist or a doctor or even a good cook without practice and building a foundation of skills and knowledge. That learning to practice and develop skills is how to learn self-discipline, which is the key to building good character. Our culture has completely lost sight of the importance of developing virtue, which all comes from learning self-discipline. I wrote about this in a 2017 blog post: When everyone gets a gold star. Once you start developing more skills and knowledge through dedication to practice, the larger accomplishment is you’re learning self-discipline, which will carry you through on more challenging endeavors.

I’m going to use needlework as an example, because years ago I offended some cross-stitchers online for pointing out that a popular online challenge in May some of them promote, they call it Stitch Maynia, focuses on the wrong thing. The idea behind Stitch Maynia is to start a lot of new projects in May. Some participants start a new cross-stitch project every day in May and others pick a set number of projects to start in May, but the goal is about starting a lot of new projects. Upfront I don’t “participate” in online challenges of any sort, but this one bothered me a great deal.

I was watching videos online of people new to cross-stitching preparing for Stitch Maynia and I knew they would likely never complete those projects. While they were enthusiastic about all the amazing projects they’d be doing, I knew from things they said, that some of them were taxing their budget to buy the patterns and supplies for a month’s worth of projects at one time. It’s easy to spend a lot of money on needlework quickly (I speak from experience here). The larger aspect of this Stitch Maynia, is rather than being a wonderful way to inspire new stitchers, I still feel this is a recipe to waste a lot of money and acquire piles of projects that will never get finished. Even more importantly, I saw videos of experienced stitchers talk about their regret and disillusionment about starting so many projects at one time. I’d expect most of the new stitchers quit cross-stitching quickly after participating in this, but plenty of cross-stitchers participate in this challenge. Counted cross-stitch takes a lot of time, even small projects can take 8-12 hours (or longer) of stitching and large projects can take months, even with stitching a few hours a day.

So, what happens when you start a dozen or more news projects and then the reality hits that you can’t possibly keep up with stitching that many projects? I saw some YT cross-stitchers who do elaborate spreadsheets of rotating through their numerous projects and stitching so many hours on each one a week. Most of us aren’t going to keep to that sort of commitment and the other big reality is for most people, something that started out as a dream we were excited about, becomes a chore, or worse a burden, and then there’s the guilt factor of spending a lot of money on all that stuff that’s just sitting there. All the excitement with “being inspired” in the beginning can wane as the reality that even hobbies can require a lot of hard work and time to achieve the beautiful end result you’re dreaming about.

Trust me, I’ve been there on starting too many projects, but the bigger problem is the focus shouldn’t be on starting lots of projects. To become a better stitcher takes time and developing the basic skills. You’ll make mistakes and have to learn to fix them. Where the focus is on developing basic skills and finishing that project, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment. There’s nothing but looking at defeat if you start dozens of projects and realize you will likely never finish them. That’s all about instant gratification hits, as you pull out something new and exciting each day, then push it aside to start something new the next day.

Shortly after that gold star post in 2017, I wrote another post, Dutiful women and needlework, about how from one generation to the next, America went from the old way of rearing children to learn basic skills with daily chores as the norm, to a much more permissive parenting model by millions of American parents who lived through the Great Depression and WWII. I am a product of parents, who were part of that Greatest Generation and although my mother was big on assigning us chores and teaching us skills, she didn’t want us to struggle as hard as she had growing up. She learned from a very young age to put duty above her personal wants, because that’s how most children were raised back then. My mother had a lot more self-discipline than I do. We’re now a few more generations down the road and everything is about how children feel, not making sure they develop practical skills and knowledge, learn how to work through adversity, but most importantly – learn self-discipline.

Rather than starting all sorts of new projects at one time or chasing some big dream this new year, perhaps most of us would benefit at figuring out where we’re really at in life, then focus on small steps to take every day that lead to building more skills and knowledge. I need to start an exercise routine and make changes to my diet. I’m also working on dealing with my lifelong cluttering habits – especially with paperwork and craft/needlework supplies, however this really stems from my bad habits of hanging on to too much stuff, in general, and my totally delusional belief that someday I’m going to use all this stuff. Reading more is one of my goals too.

Everyone has areas where they could use some work – whether it’s more self-discipline with diet, exercise, getting things done on a timely manner, tackling tasks we don’t enjoy and put off, and the list goes on and on. We can all find things we can improve in our habits and new challenges to tackle that put us on the road to becoming more disciplined. And then we’ll be well on the road to achieving those big dreams.

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character, General Interest

December 19, 2023 · 10:34 am

On the hunt for our American spirit

This is going to be a politics blog post of sorts, but here are three pots of cherry tomatoes I stuck on my back porch a few weeks ago. I had neglected the plants in my fall garden, so these have stunted growth and the tomatoes are tiny, but amazingly the plants are still producing. Out of the eight containers of cherry tomatoes, I picked three that looked like they might survive. These are from Burpee Veranda Red Hybrid tomato seeds and I’ve had more success in my backyard with this type of tomato than any other ones I’ve tried. Hopefully, some plant food and regular watering will help them along.

Now to the politics… Looking at where America is at and somehow believing a highly contentious presidential election year and an election, are going to do a single thing to pull Americans together seems delusional to me. I expect the divides to further deepen in the next year, but that doesn’t mean everything is hopeless..

After giving a lot of thought to our American political divides, first I’d like to give my short take on the 2024 presidential election. The 2024 presidential election can’t fix what’s broken in America.

The divides in our country can’t be healed with a presidential election, that half the country won’t accept as legitimate, and that’s where we’re at. However, I still hold out hope for America and after my quick presidential election take, I’ll explain why I’m still hopeful.

If Biden were to win – Trump supporters would be screaming the election was rigged or stolen. Mayhem would ensue.

If Biden dropped out and some other Dem. candidate won – same thing Trump supporters would be screaming the election was rigged or stolen.

If Trump won – Democrats and liberals would take to the streets with a march that would make the 2016 Women’s March and #Resist look like small fries. They would not accept the election as legitimate.

If DeSantis or Haley were to win the GOP nomination – Trump would not accept that gracefully and he’d set about to attack the GOP primary as rigged or stolen and discourage his supporters from showing up to vote. If either of them won, well, the Trump supporters and Democrats and liberals wouldn’t accept that as legitimate, especially DeSantis, since he’s determined to push back against the left’s “woke” agenda. Even though some leftie mouthpieces aren’t as harsh about Haley now, if she were to win, I just harken back to how Dems and the liberal media ranted about GWB and compared him to Hitler. This delegitimizing elections kicked into high gear in America in 2000, not 2016. The Clinton impeachment scandal and that scorched earth spin war effort (Carville called it going scorched earth) set this delegitimizing and stolen election politics into motion.

Add in all the other corruption into the mix – Trump corruption, Biden corruption, media corruption and seeing how the partisan political corruption has seeped into some of our most important institutions, like those tasked with safeguarding our national security and safety, well, I just don’t see much hope of Washington or politicians changing course and trying to work on unifying America.

However, we’re not hopeless. When people talk about other things, besides politics, usually they can still find some common ground. Although, just about anything can become a contentious political issue these days, we all have the power to try to start changing that. I need to work on moving away from the politics stuff too and especially the politics news. I’ve been trying to wean myself off politics news for a while. Then I’ll get caught up in some hot button political topic and do a bunch of googling, trying to figure it out – like the Twitter Files reporting after a House hearing a week or so ago. I wrote some blog posts and now I’m done with that (for now), because nothing I write about that is going to make a bit of difference. Plus, in the bigger scheme of things, what really matters is our families, our friends, our communities.

The partisan spin information war will continue to blow hot – because a lot of media and politicians get rich and powerful by fueling it. The rest of us just get played for suckers. That’s where the hope comes in. I think that since all the pandemic drama, the protesting dramas and all the never-ending political drama, many Americans long for a return to some sort of normalcy, where people aren’t consumed by political drama constantly. Most Americans also don’t want civil disorder or lawlessness. I still believe most of America wants a return to living where there’s a bit more tolerance and definitely stronger communities. These are things that are within the reach of every community to build, if we start making the effort.

We have the choice to buy into the media-driven and social-media driven drama or we can work at weaning ourselves away from all the hot takes, the endless fearmongering and drama and the steady stream of “Us vs. Them” conspiracy theories that try to drag us down rabbit holes of distrust and division.

My father was a kind and good-natured man. He worked hard, was dedicated to his family, and he was one of those people who never met a stranger. He did watch the news and read the local newspaper every day, but he had no interest whatsoever in politics. He was more interested in local news and what was going on around him, oh, and his garden and yard. He had a gift for getting things to grow. That’s probably a healthier perspective.

Most of these tempest in a teapot “national conversation” stories aren’t accurate or honest reporting, are skewed to advance a political agenda and have no relevance on anything really. There’s an entire class of political/culture punditry that makes locating videos on social media of the most extreme weirdos and then hyping them as representative of “the other side.” There are a lot of people who get rich off of this – on the left and the right.

The demise of local newspapers has also pulled us away from paying close attention to our own communities. Cell phones leave many people living almost every waking minute transfixed on the little screen, and completely oblivious to what’s going on around them. Years ago, I quipped that America could be invaded and taken over and a sizable percentage of the country likely wouldn’t notice, unless it interfered in their cell phone service.

What’s happening right around us is way more important than some “national conversation” topic drummed up for clicks or to feed a political agenda. In any type of emergency situation – what’s going on locally is what we’re all going to need to be paying attention to. If we start working on building even a tiny bit of community around us, before there’s a crisis, well, we’ll be way ahead of the game in trying to weather those storms. We also might get better at bridging divides, one smile and small goodwill gesture at a time.

America is blessed with many natural resources, but one of our most under-utilized is our American spirit. Yes, that American spirit is still alive, if we just dig it out from under the pile of fear and hate-driven news/social media “information” overload. Americans are a people with a do-gooder gene in our national DNA. We pitch in to help other people and even countries, we rush to donate money, resources, and offer a helping hand. We can rekindle the American spirit without any government studies, new laws or government spending. We don’t need politicians for this at all – we can all begin to work on it and pass it on with a smile and lending a helping hand, as we can.

Changing our attitude and rekindling our American spirit doesn’t require some big national movement or setting up some organization or group. Any of us can work on this on our own or within our families or with a few friends or in our communities. Important things in life don’t really start with just a change of heart – it requires taking those first steps to really start. You can think about something for the rest of your life, but until you get up off your butt and start doing, nothing’s going to change.

Rather than looking at everything as Us vs. Them, I’m going to work on looking for tiny bits of common ground with people I disagree with on politics and hot button issues. With Christmas days away, this might be a good thing for many people in America to try.

Leave a comment

Filed under 2024 Election, American Character, General Interest

October 10, 2023 · 11:57 pm

There’s no excuse for the Biden border fiasco

“God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.”

Daniel Webster

Today I worked on more pressure canning – some soup and ground beef. I also have chicken in the fridge to use to can chicken and vegetables in a “meal-in-a-jar” recipe, I want to try. I was thinking about the horrific attacks in Israel, but I want to stay focused on projects and things I can do in my own life. The nature of the surprise Hamas attacks, using paragliders to fly over the Israeli border shows that determined people can defeat even very careful security measures. Babies, children, elderly people were murdered in cold blood and some kidnapped. The horror goes beyond words.

Some of my direct ancestors came to America in the mid 1700s and settled in PA. During the French and Indian War, that area of PA was part of the American frontier. That war was fought largely along the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontier – where settlers dealt with the threat of attacks on their homes and small communities continually. The Hamas hostage-taking made me think of how hostage-taking became a deliberate tactic by the Indian tribes in that long ago conflict too. At the end of the war, agreements were signed for the return of all settlers who had been taken hostage. Many of the children had become attached to their Indian tribal family and did not even remember their real family. Brutal tactics are nothing new.

I turned on the news this afternoon on the free app, Haystack News, and a reporter in Jerusalem was being asked about what daily life is like in the past few days. He said his family is staying at home, close to a bomb shelter, except for short trips to the grocery store for milk and bread. There have been news reports online where victims in Israel described rushing to safe rooms and shelters to try to escape Hamas terrorists. There are plenty of scenes from Gaza, where the Israelis are inflicting massive damage on Hamas (and Palestinians), because that’s the nature of war. And, while this all seems like it’s far, far away, America is not immune from terrorist attacks inside the US and all that post 9-11 worst case scenario strategizing came to mind… like sleeper cells and other awful possibilities.

Between the Biden open border threat, not knowing who all has entered our country, there were also thousands upon thousands of unvetted refugees brought here during the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, even though the WH insisted they were all vetted. Back in 2016, when Trump was running for president and made building the border wall a major campaign pledge, the usual estimated number of illegals in America cited was 11 million. Here we are in 2023 and since Biden became president he reversed the Trump border policies, resulting in floods of illegals pouring across the border every single day.

The Biden unvetted refugees and border fiasco creates a very serious national security threat.

A recent news media report cited “10 million illegals in America.” Those 11 million from 2016 are still here and some were still getting in during Trump’s presidency, even though he had imposed stricter border enforcement policies. Biden opened the border in 2021, so how on earth the estimated number of illegals is 10 million, when it was 11 million in 2016, boggles my mind. Our government probably doesn’t even have a clue how many illegal immigrants are here and how many have bad intentions, but never fear the FBI is still hunting down every single person who attended the J-6 rally, even if they didn’t enter the Capitol or break any laws. They probably spend more time on tracking “MAGA Republicans” than illegals with criminal backgrounds. Here’s a NBC report from September that states the same things as the FOX News link at the top of this blog post: Number of people on terrorist watchlist stopped at southern U.S. border has risen. That report stated that so far this year, they had apprehended 160 illegals, who are on the FBI terror watchlist, trying to enter the US. One can only wonder how many have gotten through, who weren’t apprehended.

Awful possibilities are always with us, but that doesn’t mean we need to stop living or get worked up constantly, but we should be aware of potential threats.

We all like scapegoating, because it’s easier to blame someone or some group we don’t like for being “the cause” of complex events unfolding than it is to realize there are a lot of people, countries, leaders, whose actions compete, clash, jostle for power, and even before Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia and China (and other countries aligned in their sphere) have been planning and working toward replacing the US (and the West) as the main powerbrokers on the world-stage. Russia and China have actively aided Iran, who in turn funds and facilitates terror operations all over the world – including Hamas.

President Biden came out and made a statement that the US stands with Israel, but based on past experience with Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, it’s a sure thing that the left will start trying to pressure Israel to back down and the crowd at the UN will start blaming Israel. I remember the 1972 Palestinian terrorist attack at the Olympics, where two Israeli athletes were murdered and 9 hostages were taken (and killed), so there’s a long history of Palestinian terror.

I don’t want war and I don’t think any sane person does, but the reality is events are leading in that direction and those events are being driven by various countries and entities. It’s really easy to point to some nebulous “they” and blame “they,” but the world is a big place and there are a whole lot of “theys” with a whole lot of interests. There isn’t some easy off-ramp, especially for America, who has taken on a lot of global responsibilities, that have benefited “we the people” a whole lot. Our standard of living, that we’re all used to, would not have been possible if America had been an isolationist country. I listen to a lot of people rant about how we should demand Ukraine stop the war, which a lot of anti-Ukraine Americans insist should happen, even though Russia invaded Ukraine, not the other way around and Russia doesn’t want to stop the war or withdraw from Ukraine. Likewise, Israel was attacked and has every right to defend their country and destroy the Hamas terrorist network.

After decades of “endless wars” it’s understandable that many Americans have taken an isolationist stance, but these same people likely would hate a world where America was a has-been world leader and China and Russia dominated the world. The truth is our decades of military adventures, GWOT or “democracy in the ME” or whatever name you affix to our post 9/11 foreign policy, has left a lot of turmoil in the world too, so it’s not just Russia and China trying to cause problems. We left a whole lot of power vacuums in our wake, which will likely keep blowing up in our face. We also left a whole lot of military equipment in Afghanistan and scattered about the ME, that’s going to end up in the hands of people who hate us.

While I’m definitely not like Lindsey Graham, who’s never seen a war he didn’t want to get the US involved in, with Ukraine and Israel, I do support offering intel assistance, arms and other aid. Frankly, both of these situations would be perfectly in line with the Reagan Doctrine, which I think made America stronger. Russia isn’t going to stop at Ukraine, if we abandon Ukraine. China has territorial aspirations and they’re building their military and military assets to achieve them. Iran is going to wage more terror attacks against the West and Israel. Hamas has American hostages and today I saw Biden said 14 Americans have been killed in Israel.

I’m going to circle back to the personal though, because I know how it feels to have a husband deployed to war and one of my sons deployed to Iraq in 2006. I don’t want to see other people’s sons and daughters sent off to war or my grandchildren, but frankly, Biden abandoning Americans in Afghanistan left me feeling we lost a part of our soul as a nation. It would be a terrible thing if America abandoned Israel, with Americans brutally slaughtered and some may be held hostage by Hamas.

And God forbid if something awful like what Israel just suffered happens here, I hope Americans will be able to pull together and meet the challenge. The most unsettling thing I’ve seen in the last few days has been protests, especially on some American college campuses, cheering on Hamas. Any Republican leader who rushed to virtue-signal, by embracing BLM during those protests in 2020, should be doing some serious soul-searching.

All those folks in 2020, especially the virtue-signaler on the right, who rushed to embrace BLM should be doing some serious introspection. https://t.co/RJ200iZrZZ
— libertybelle (@susan_heward) October 10, 2023

BLM was a group founded by people who openly stated they were Marxists… Hamas paraglided across Israel’s border to wage their bloody attack on military and civilians. A whole lots of American college kids and leftists cheering this makes me wonder if they’d lift a finger to defend America. Never mind, I know the answer to this. I watched the mayhem in the 2020 “Summer of Love.”

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics

August 24, 2023 · 8:47 pm

More disturbing reports coming out of Maui

“Only those who disobeyed survived” is going to be the slogan of our times. https://t.co/qqXZy24HDK
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) August 24, 2023

With the Maui wildfires, I’ve seen reports that the only road leading out of Lahaina was barricaded and I have no idea when or what the reasoning was for that, but here’s a post I saw on X today and this lady’s sentiment, ““Only those who disobeyed survived” is going to be the slogan of our times.” struck a chord with me.

Today the Washington Post reports, Maui utility may have compromised evidence in fire probe, lawyers say. Here’s a bit of that WaPo story:

“LAHAINA, Hawaii — The Hawaii power utility believed to have started the deadly Lahaina fire removed damaged power poles and other equipment from a key fire scene, potentially affecting evidence that is part of an official investigation into how the blaze ignited.”

“Hawaiian Electric — which acted quickly to restore power on the island after Aug. 8 — hauled away fallen poles, power lines, transformers, conductors and other equipment from near a Lahaina substation starting around Aug. 12, documents show, before investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) arrived on scene. ATF usually responds to bombings and shootings. This is only the agency’s third wildland fire investigation, a spokesperson said. Usually, it’s the U.S. Forest Service’s role, but since the Maui fires were not on any national forest lands, ATF is the primary federal investigative force.”

So, there’s no definitive finding on Hawaii Electric’s actions and lawsuits are already flying.

This DailyMail yesterday reported: EXCLUSIVE: FEMA officials are staying at $1,000-a-night luxury hotels in Maui amid recovery efforts in Lahaina. Here’s a taste of this scathing report:

“Bungling U.S. government bureaucrats dispatched to the Maui disaster zone are shacked up in $1,000-a-night luxury hotels on the Hawaiian island, DailyMail.com can reveal.”

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been slammed by locals over their slow response to the devastating wildfires that have claimed at least 114 lives and left thousands of people homeless after their houses were scorched to the ground.

But that has not stopped the under-fire agency from splashing taxpayer cash to put up more than 1,000 of its personnel at four bank-breaking resorts in Wailea after the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. for more than a century that caused more than $5 billion in damage.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12430203/FEMA-officials-staying-luxury-Maui-hotels.html

It’s odd that the death toll has been stuck at 115 for a couple days now, with reports of around 1,000 people (many of them kids) still missing. This story is going to get much worse, I fear, and Democrats and the liberal media sure seem to be trying to find a way to slow-roll details and downplay the tragedy.

Yes, I think, “Only those who disobeyed survived,” is a thought to ponder as the gargantuan administrative state, those trillions of dollars in COVID spending and the Dems “Inflation Reduction Act,” becomes turbo-charged as the politically-connected, big business and fraudsters rush to cash in on more government “free money” to chase the green dreams. Dems, now a year later, are bragging that their Inflation Reduction Act was really the biggest green spending bill ever passed – not about inflation reduction. Go figure… Assuredly, there will be more and more fraud, waste and downright deadly outcomes with so many incompetent nincompoops joining the ranks of the green dream federal bureaucracy. What matters most is their allegiance to the gods of social justice and regurgitating the liberal narrative, not competency.

The first GOP debate was last night and Trump’s big interview with Tucker Carlson, but rather than that, I was thinking about an essay I wrote on my blog back in 2013, The Quest For American Leadership In The 21st Century: A Few Home Truths and I recommended three steps to follow with finding leaders in America. My steps still might be worth thinking about:

President Abraham Lincoln stated “Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in the courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation.” Few would argue that our leaders should be men of good character. Defining what constitutes good character, a task that should be simple, will produce a confusing array of answers, if you do a quick survey of your friends. Going back to my father’s, “if you give your word; you keep it” belief, demanding our national leaders possess basic honesty, propels us further in this quest than dissecting political platforms, plank by plank, ever will.

The challenges facing America, from the war against radical Jihadists to our escalating economic crisis, demand leaders willing to build renewed faith in our governmental institutions; to find solutions and protect our nation or we face the very real possibility of massive civil unrest and collapse. Machiavelli, endlessly quoted for his “the ends justify the means” line, offered advice for republics too. He stated, “A republic may, likewise, be brought back to its original form, without recourse to ordinances for enforcing justice, by the mere virtues of a single citizen, by reason that these virtues are of such influence and authority that good men love to imitate them, and bad men are ashamed to depart from them.” We need to demand that type of leader in this century.

The quest for our 21st century American leaders starts with you. Step One: Think for yourself; move away from being swayed by political partisans hurling talking points at you. Take the time to study issues, candidates and find your own moral compass. President George Washington, my favorite founding father, wrote a list titled, Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior In Company and Conversation”, 110 rules covering everything from admonitions not to clean your teeth with the tablecloth to don’t run in the streets. He ended with #110: “Labour to keep alive in your breast that Little Spark of Celestial Fire Called Conscience.” That should be your guide.

Step Two: Be the leader of your own destiny. Don’t be a follower of populist movements. left or right, unless you have completed Step One. Before becoming a political lemming, allowing professional media figures to press your political hot buttons, calmly discuss issues with family and friends. In our 24 hour news cycle, internet-connected world, misinformation, disinformation and outright lies can circle the globe in minutes. Don’t let these control your political reasoning, refer back to Step One.

Step Three: Follow the rules. President Lincoln’s call for reverence for the laws provides the keystone to rebuilding a stronger America. When political aspirants lack personal integrity, obfuscate on public issues, or find excuses for not following the rules; move on and continue your quest for worthy leaders. To honor those who sacrificed all, to secure our blessings of liberty, at the very least we all have a duty to become informed citizens, who demand men and women of character to lead us in this century.

In 2023, I’d add one more step to my 2013 essay:

Step Four: Pray for our country.

1 Comment

Filed under American Character, General Interest, Politics

July 27, 2023 · 12:31 pm

About “benefiting” from slavery…

This post isn’t about whether you support DeSantis or Trump or Biden or Cornell West, or whoever else is running for president, even though I’m going to mention another of those “Racism” dramas in the 2024 presidential election. I’ll tell you upfront, the point of this post is about reading history, not just repeating partisan talking points you see on TV or social media.

The Florida Department of Education has been working on their own African American history standards, after rejecting the AP standards in mid-January, which they claimed focused on Black Lives Matter, reparations, Black feminism – you get it, the woke topics. So, Florida put together a work group to come up with Florida’s new African American history standards for grades K-12. A few days ago those standards were approved by the Florida state board of education. Then the backlash started.

Democrats “pounced” – here’s a NBC headline to give you the gist of the complaints: New Florida standards teach students that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught useful skills. The big issue was mentioning “benefited.”

FL governor, Ron DeSantis backed the new standards, Democrats, liberal media and activists rushed into full-throated condemnations of DeSantis and the usual “Racist!” smears, but Trump’s campaign also decided to jump on the Dems’ smear effort too. Vice-president, Kamala Harris, usually mercilessly mocked for her ridiculous, disjointed speeches, rushed to Florida to grandstand about… how dare they teach children that slavery benefited slaves.

After all this brouhaha, members of the work group that developed the new standards spoke out and defended their standards. Here’s Megyn Kelly interviewing, Dr. William B. Allen, Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University, who was part of the FL work group:

Dr. Allen mentions Frederick Douglass in this interview (at minute 5:32), as an example of a slave who “benefited” from skills he learned as a slave.

Then last night DeSantis’ press secretary tweeted out information about the AP African history standards, which include the same point that the VP, Dems, liberal media and Trump campaign were ranting about to attack DeSantis:

Remember when Florida wouldn’t allow that AP African American Studies course because it focused too much on CRT and not enough on history, and the @WhiteHouse lost its mind?

Well, here is one of the standards considered “essential knowledge.”

See it here https://t.co/MFjfBjEFc9 pic.twitter.com/s8boDdYzks
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) July 27, 2023

And what ticks me off the most is this is just another idiotic political media circus, to label DeSantis as a racist and this actual point – the power of how individuals persevere in even the most awful conditions – is something every American should learn in school. In the Megyn Kelly video, Dr. Allen mentions Frederick Douglass, who grew up a slave, became a abolitionist, writer, and famous orator. Dr. Allen says we should listen to the words of these people in history. I find Douglass’ words truly inspiring.

I wonder how many of the people ranting about the FL standards have ever read Frederick Douglass’ writings? I have a high school education, but I’ve always been a voracious reader. I also like studying history and researching things just to satisfy my own curiosity. I always want to know, “Well, what really happened?” and “Why?” With the internet, you can easily hunt down Douglass’ writings and read them free online.

This bogus racial drama brought to my mind Frederick Douglass immediately. I’ve mentioned Douglass in other blog posts and I believe every American should read his story, My Bondage and My Freedom, if they want to feel the inhumanity of slavery, in heart wrenching, but eloquent words. I’ve linked it to a free copy at guternberg.org.

Douglass related that while a slave learning to read was forbidden, but a white mistress began teaching him how to read, until her husband found out and forbade her to continue. Douglass, then undertook a secret and dangerous mission to learn to read and educate himself. I have these quotes in a 2015 blog post, The power of free thinking:

“Seized with a determination to learn to read, at any cost, I hit upon many expedients to accomplish the desired end. The plea which I mainly adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of using my young white playmates, with whom I met in the streets as teachers. I used to carry, almost constantly, a copy of Webster’s spelling book in my pocket; and, when sent of errands, or when play time was allowed me, I would step, with my young friends, aside, and take a lesson in spelling. I generally paid my tuition fee to the boys, with bread, which I also carried in my pocket. For a single biscuit, any of my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more valuable to me than bread. Not every one, however, demanded this consideration, for there were those who took pleasure in teaching me, whenever I had a chance to be taught by them.”

Douglass, Frederick (2009-10-04). My Bondage and My Freedom (p. 85). Public Domain Books Kindle Edition.

Douglass wrote about hearing white schoolboys talking about a popular schoolbook, The Colombian Orator, which was filled with essays and speeches on republican virtues (learning about liberty and good citizenship) and he determined to get a copy. I located a link to The Colombian Orator years ago, because I was curious about why Douglass found that school book so inspiring. I am always curious about books that inspired important people in history. Here’s what Douglass wrote about what The Colombian Orator meant to him.:

“I had now penetrated the secret of all slavery and oppression, and had ascertained their true foundation to be in the pride, the power and the avarice of man. The dialogue and the speeches were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and poured floods of light on the nature and character of slavery. With a book of this kind in my hand, my own human nature, and the facts of my experience, to help me, I was equal to a contest with the religious advocates of slavery, whether among the whites or among the colored people, for blindness, in this matter, is not confined to the former. I have met many religious colored people, at the south, who are under the delusion that God requires them to submit to slavery, and to wear their chains with meekness and humility. I could entertain no such nonsense as this; and I almost lost my patience when I found any colored man weak enough to believe such stuff.”

Douglass, Frederick (2009-10-04). My Bondage and My Freedom (p. 87). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition

When I compare the stirring, eloquent words of Douglass, a man who grew-up in slavery and basically educated himself, to the bumbling, blathering of our Vice President, Kamala Harris, a woman who attended both Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of Law, I feel sad for the state of our country. Sometimes, it seems to me that we, with all our modern conveniences and advantages, fail to even understand how ridiculous most of our political and culture war dramas really are. VP Harris could learn a lot studying Frederick Douglass’ writings and speeches. It might improve her public-speaking skills.

Douglass absolutely “benefited” from those few reading lessons his white mistress taught him when he was a slave and then he set about doing everything possible to learn more. Douglass’ soaring oratory helped drive the abolitionist movement in America.

Frederick Douglass’ life is a slave story every American schoolkid should learn about. He fought against slavery with every fiber of his being and his is an American freedom story every American should know about.

7/27/2023, 8:54 pm, Note: Just like in the Jason Aldean “racist” song allegations, with the pushback from DeSantis and the work group who developed the FL African American history standards, the attacks from the left are shifting. A new term was floated today – “policy violence.”

Civil rights leaders say Gov. Ron DeSantis' defense of how slavery is taught in Florida's new public school curriculum on Black history is the latest example of what they call a pattern of 'policy violence’ against people of color by his administration. https://t.co/UfwuE3KSYV
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) July 27, 2023

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character, American History, Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics

April 2, 2023 · 12:36 pm

Guess, we need to ponder who we are

“God grants Liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.”

-Daniel Webster, 1834

This is going to be a long geopolitical and domestic politics blog post (venting). I get weary of the right-wing news media and social media echo-chamber, where every bit of anti-American propaganda, not only gets repeated without critical evaluation, it’s wholeheartedly believed. There are a whole lot of people who trust zero hedge and various pundits without any reservations. What bothers me the most is how so few people who rush to blabber on about the hot topics and frame it to feed their own belief system, actually read anything that challenges that hot take or dig deeper into the history. Often this propaganda, and I use the term propaganda, not information or news, comes framed intentionally to incite and inflame and fuel deeper divides within America. It also invariably comes framed to advance the foreign policy objectives of America’s adversaries. The goal is to turn Americans against, not only the opposing partisan side, but to turn them against foreign policy objectives that really are in America’s national interests.

The American left has a long history of embracing regimes and political ideologies that run counter to our American foundational principles, but now the right-wing, drunk on gulping down too much Trump-era populist swill, enthusiastically wave the American flag, while at the same time embracing isolationist foreign policies and the Trump doublespeak position of making excuses for some of the world’s worst dictators and despots. This isn’t going to be an anti-Trump blog post, it’s going to be a plea for Americans to actually step back and take a long hard look, at not only the “fake news media,: but the entire right-wing media echo-chamber too. Some of the most popular right-wing punditry are total frauds and as much “fake news” as CNN, the NYT, MSNBC, etc.

My blog is filled with anti-Democratic Party foreign policy and domestic policy positions, so this isn’t that I am a liberal. I really do find Trump a phony, shallow con-man and I never lose sight that he was also Bill Clinton’s former golfing buddy. He was a liberal celebrity who liked to hang out with Howard Stern and Joe and Mika. However, I don’t think Trump is the biggest “threat to democracy.” I just put him into the same category as liberal Democrat frauds like his former friends, because under all his ridiculous rabble-rousing red meat populism he throws to his adoring fans at rallies, Trump’s moral center is not conservative, not Christian, not pro-life, not pro-2nd Amendment – it’s 100% Pro-Trump. That is it. He was a liberal NY celebrity, who hobnobbed with the rich and famous. His cheap slogans that he feeds his fans, who repeat them and emblazon hats with, are not actual policies – they’re just sound bites in an endless spin information war. Trump understood the Democrat’s spin war, especially the power and influence of social media to drive public opinion, and that’s why he became such a potent threat to them. Trump was very effective at Twitter spin battles and both deflating Dem spin narratives and hijacking many of them.

So, what is the biggest “threat to our democracy.” in my view, well, here’s my answer – I think that phrase is a silly spin diversion, because our American democratic traditions depend on confidence in the United States Constitution (our constitutional republic) and our founding principles – not on one person or political party. The biggest threat is if “we the people” no longer have faith in our system. Americans losing trust in the American system is the biggest threat to America.

Trust is the keystone that keeps America strong. and without that – we will fall. That is what I believe.

So, now to the current geopolitical mess – the Biden administration is following the Obama team playbook. The Obama playbook which was a total disaster for America and led to endless foreign policy debacles abroad, divisive racial politics, abuses of power using executive branch power to target political enemies, but most of all the Obama playbook operated off of a “rules for thee, but not for me” principle. And this is where America’s foreign adversaries took full advantage of that Obama team hubris. It was interesting reading the Forstchen novels about an EMP attack, with partisan political overtones and he included a scenario where lax security with handling classified information, like the Hillary email server, followed into how the White House, operating from a secure bunker after an EMP attack, behaved.

It wasn’t only Hillary Clinton who was reckless and disregarded the rules on handling sensitive and classified information – it permeated through the entire Obama administration and it included President Obama himself. When the FBI released the Hillary email investigation notes in the fall of 2016, I read through all of them, trying to answer questions I had and things I didn’t understand, despite mountains of reporting and media coverage of that scandal. For instance, I didn’t really have an answer as to why she set up that private email server. The FBI’s chronology of the private email server, made clear to me that former president, Bill Clinton, set up that private email server in their home for his Clinton Foundation work. When Hillary was selected to be Obama’s Secretary of State, the Clintons upgraded that private server and Bill’s aide, Justin Cooper and Hillary’s campaign IT guy, Bryan Pagliano, under the direction of Huma Abedin did that upgrade.

Of course, Democrats will chant, “but her emails,” and plug their ears whenever that scandal is mentioned, but the scandal while coming to light over classified information on that private UNSECURED server, skipped the more important question. Why did Hillary use a private email server in her home? The answer to that goes to former President Bill Clinton, who actually set-up that private server in their home for his Clinton Foundation work. Then when Hillary was ready to become Secretary of State, the Clintons upgraded that private server, under the supervision of Hillary’s aide, Huma Abedin. This isn’t my theory – it’s in the FBI Notes on the email server investigation, which were released in the fall of 2016. Why would the Clintons merge the Sec. of State emails onto their private Clinton Foundation email server in their home? That question was never asked by the liberal media and the right-wing media ranted about “Lock her Up” and about classified emails. The thing is classified emails on an unsecure server were only how the corruption came to light. The deeper core corruption was the Clintons set up a system merging the US State Dept. business with their foundation business on a private server in their home. They used US government information and a high political office (Sec. of State) to advance their private Clinton Foundation. Hillary wasn’t acting in the interests of the American people or even the administration she served in – she was out for their family business of raking in money from the rich and famous, at home and abroad.

Reading those FBI Notes, it became clear to me that several other Obama officials had been sending sensitive and classified information via private email accounts too, including President Obama. And that’s why nothing happened to anyone who mishandled classified information in that email scandal – it would have implicated the highest level of the Obama administration – President Obama, himself. Now this rehash isn’t about sour grapes that there was no accountability – it’s because in the world of geopolitics – it’s not about Democrats or Republicans in the eyes of the rest of the world. It’s about the United States of America.

Most Americans seem to have no concept that in the rest of the world they see America as either an ally, adversary, or a global superpower that can’t be ignored, well, couldn’t be ignored as long as America remained a superpower. The rest of the world pays close attention to American news and while American media and Americans live hunkered down in hostile partisan camps, foreign governments and entities saw opportunities to exploit those American divides and those glaring security weaknesses. It’s a given that several foreign intelligence entities knew about the Clintons unsecured private server and had accessed it, especially when that private server came to light in 2013, when a Romanian hacker, Guccifer, hacked into Clinton advisor and friend, Sidney Blumenthal’s email. The actual Clinton email server scandal didn’t become big news until the spring of 2015, when the 2016 presidential campaign began. During that two years between the Guccifer hack being reported and the spring of 2015 when the email server scandal erupted, it’s guaranteed that foreign intel agencies expended a lot of effort to exploit that unsecured private email server, where all of the State Dept. business was sitting unprotected. It’s also obvious to me that the story we were fed about Huma Abedin storing State Dept. emails on the Weiner family laptop was just an unintentional accident is not true. That’s the story Clinton operatives floated and it’s the story, former FBI director, James Comey, sold the American people. Huma Abedin oversaw the Clinton private server upgrade, right before Hillary became Sec. of State upgraded and Bill Clinton aide, Justin Cooper, testified in Congress that Abedin also managed the SCIFs in both Clinton residences – Chappaqua and their DC home. Abedin told the FBI she knew nothing about the private email server until 2015, when the story broke in the news. That is also a lie – she orchestrated the private server upgrade right before Hillary became Sec. of State in January of 2009. Be that as it may, this post isn’t about the Obama corruption, the Clinton corruption, the media corruption, of even the Trump corruption – it’s about our own corruption – “we the people.” “We the people” elect corrupt people – over and over and over again.

I’ve been a right-wing American my entire adult life, but I feel both a great deal of unease with how corrupt the right-wing news media and punditry crowd is, despite trusting so many of these sources over the years. I could easily see how dishonest the liberal, mainstream media was for decades with all their spin word games and selling Democrat narratives constantly, but I was blind that the right-wing media was just as dishonest and corrupt. That was a very uncomfortable revelation for me – to admit right-wing media/pundits I trusted were as dishonest as the liberal ones. And likewise, this goes for the political class too – the Republicans in Washington are as corrupt as the Democrats. All that binary choice stuff, of settling for the lesser of two evils, in politics just sinks us further. Trump is not a savior on a white horse, he’s a liberal New Yorker, playacting at being conservative. There is no man on a white horse coming to save America – it will take a whole lot of Americans to work together to do that.

Americans, especially right-wing Americans rant about loving what America used to stand for, but for many years, I wonder what they think America stood for, what they want it to stand for and how they think retreating from the world stage will return America to the “greatness” they desire.

The reality of all those indulgent “rules for thee, but not for me” antics within the Obama administration allowed America’s adversaries to easily acquire sensitive and classified information constantly – yes, it’s guaranteed that the Clintons private server was accessed by several foreign entities, but the national security nightmare went way beyond the Clintons private server – it was throughout the entire Obama administration, where officials, including Obama, did not follow sound security protocols to safeguard American intelligence and information. Back in the 1990s, a common criticism leveled against the Clinton administration was that many of the WH officials would never have passed a traditional security background investigation, including President Clinton. GWB had more old-school type people in his administration and following the security rules. However, there was the lying though, especially about Iraqi intel and WMD there too and that’s why I don’t want to make this about which party is worse. With Obama, Trump, now Biden, being the Obama JV team, it’s more of the same lax handling of information.

President Trump spent more time on promoting himself and fixated on fighting with the media than he ever spent worrying about America’s problems at home or abroad. In fact, even with that J-6 disgrace, all the people who did get arrested were left on their own. He continually fundraised off of that, proclaiming he’s a victim, but he never spent one cent to aid any of those J-6 defendants with legal counsel – not one cent. With the latest crazed Dem effort to indict him, Trump was back out there trying to incite his followers to get out and protest. I did see a former, strident Trump-supporter pundit tweet that no Repubs should listen to Trump and go protest in a blue city, because Trump wasn’t going to spend even a penny to help them, if they got arrested. I believe Trump is about Trump, but there were policies promoted during his presidency that I supported. There again Trump usually went out and threw his own people under the bus or created unnecessary obstacles to get those policies implemented.

This veered off from the geopolitics, so let me try to get back on track in this rant. America, being a world superpower, has allowed Americans to prosper and build a standard of living that can not be sustained, if America retreats or is relegated to “just another country” status. A lot of Americans want it both ways – they want all of the perks of being a superpower (all those nice things we have in our homes, a standard of living unheard of in world history, a veritable land of plenty), but they now don’t want to burden any of the responsibilities that come along with being a world superpower.

Ukraine has become an area where America’s adversaries successfully feed anti-American propaganda into the right-wing media ecosystem by masking it as anti-Biden, anti-NATO, and painting Russia as a victim. Putin launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine. Russia and China haven’t been “pushed” closer because of America and Europe aiding Ukraine – Russia and China were plotting to wage an economic war against America and the West for years – yes, YEARS. The signs were there with the ever increasing fossil fuel and economic deals they were ironing out and implementing. Here’s a Foreign Policy article:

“Just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Putin and Xi famously declared their “no limits” partnership in a 5,000-word statement that rattled Western countries. As they drew closer politically, so too did their economies. Trade between Beijing and Moscow skyrocketed by more than 30 percent to nearly $190 billion in 2022, particularly as China bought up Russian crude oil at heavily discounted volumes. That year, Moscow was also Beijing’s second-biggest supplier of crude oil, coal, and pipeline gas, according to Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.”

Got that – “weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.” What, I believe Putin expected when he invaded Ukraine, was a Western response like the Afghanistan Withdrawal debacle and western disunity. That the West actually banded together to help Ukraine came as a shock to the Russians and Chinese. Never fear though, the American right-wing media has been filled with non-stop pro-Russia propaganda, especially Tucker Carlson and that retired COL. he brings on to spew against aiding Ukraine, talk about how spectacular Russia’s military is doing and predict Ukraine failure. They also absolve Putin of blame for launching a full-scale invasion into Ukraine.

While Trump’s former friends were people like the Clintons, Tucker Carlson, was friends with Hunter Biden. I always look to where people came from and Trump was a pampered rich kid, who sought out rich and famous liberal friends. Tucker Carlson isn’t from a working class background – he’s part of the elite. His step-mother is a Swanson Enterprises heir. One of the emails on the Hunter Biden laptop was Tucker seeking Hunter’s help to get his son into Georgetown, where Hunter is a graduate. That email was from 2014, when Joe Biden was vice president. I don’t trust anything Tucker Carlson says and the text messages recently released in the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News, just highlight how dishonest some of the big name Fox pundits are – they want to keep their right-wing followers angry about the Democrats and “fake news,” and will sell any story to keep them watching. Sure, the liberal media and Democrats are hyping these FOX text messages for their own partisan objectives, but the bottom line is these text messages are legit and show just how dishonest and disingenuous those big name Fox primetime pundits really are. A Tucker Carlson is no different than a Chris Cuomo, in my estimation.

Now to the big picture, I believe aiding Ukraine is important for America and important for our European allies, if the US hopes to remain a world leader. How the Biden administration has handled the Ukraine situation and their insane belief they can wage a two-front war – aiding Ukraine to fight Russia and at same time waging a war against American fossil fuel production is where I disagree.

I’m perplexed by flag-waving Americans, who rail against any American aid and want isolationist policies, yet they rant about America First and returning America to past glory. They expect America to be a powerful country like in the past, while not caring that Russia and China have been aggressively working to build an alliance to knock America into backwater status for years, I have heard no answers. All they rant about is senile Biden, dastardly Democrats, and buying into every crazy conspiracy theory, that centers on fueling anti- US government paranoia. The right-wing news media ecosystem is as corrupt as the liberal media and as infested with hostile foreign information operations and propaganda. The left-wing news devolved into insane propaganda since 2016, when #Resist replaced any sort of journalistic standards, so they filled their news media space with every former Trump crony, who turned on him or assorted crooks, swindlers, frauds and angry women, who they could find to trash Trump and try to destroy him, by any means necessary. And yeah, the left-wing media is still hard at work on their #Resist project, evidenced by the recent Trump indictment.

Bottom-line for me is I recognized the Global War on Terror was a disaster as the insurgency in Iraq was growing and training the Afghan security forces had turned into a bottomless pit of graft and corruption, with the US pouring in arms and aid that disappeared into thin air. So, I was slower than many people, who advised against invading Iraq, but I did eventually catch on that our endless wars, with all their stupid slogans masquerading as strategy, were not being won. I understand why so many Americans don’t want US troops engaged in faraway wars that they don’t think are our fight, but when it comes to Russia and China – well, Ukraine isn’t only about Ukraine – it’s about that Russia-China alliance that’s growing and is committed to replacing the US as the leader on the world stage.

If America abandons Ukraine, America will be pushed into backwater status quickly and trust in America will evaporate. If that happens the American standard of living will drop and we will be facing an ever-increasing array of threats, at home and abroad, with fewer and fewer allies. That’s the reality of walking away from your strongest allies and a treaty, NATO, which has served as the centerpiece of American foreign policy post WWII to keep America and our closest allies safe. Winston Churchill coined the phrase “iron curtain,” to describe the Soviet Union’s aggressive takeover of eastern Europe at the end of WWII and it seems sad to me that so many right-leaning Americans, who proclaim how much they love vets and those who served, can so easily mouth excuses for Putin’s full scale invasion of Ukraine and ignore history. So many European countries, even the wacky liberal ones, quickly saw the threat from that Russian aggression and there’s been a rush for them wanting into NATO. That isn’t because they want a world war – they fear Russian aggression escalating. Putin isn’t the good guy here and Russia isn’t the victim.

Remaining trapped in the scorched earth partisan spin war way of thinking and ranting about “the other side” keeps America locked into reacting constantly to the latest media Outrage of the Day or racing down propaganda-filled rabbit holes, that keep Americans isolated, disunited and fighting among ourselves. We aren’t responding based on any sort of principles or calm reflection – we are just spin addicts getting the next hit. It’s way past time to start ignoring most of the incendiary political and cultural “national conversations” and piles of flaming garbage that pass for hot takes and “news.” The only way to rebuild any semblance of a united country is to begin talking to other Americans and listening to opposing viewpoints and ideas. If all you do is get fired up and angry about every alarming headline, you have ceded control to your emotions.

When we look beyond our water’s edge, we are neither Democrat or Republican, we are Americans. Many Americans don’t seem to realize that is how the world views us. How do we view ourselves as Americans? I suppose most people muddle about for some political concepts in the founding documents or for others it’s all about social justice or diversity. I think America is still struggling for a national identity since the collapse of the Soviet Union and our rise to being the world’s superpower. Samuel P, Huntington wrote an interesting book, Who Are We? The Challenges To American National Identity in the early 2000s. I think he was right that we are still in a sorting out period about our national identity, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, where the Cold War played a major part of our national identity, but a nation is made of people and the character of those people will define the national identity.

We, as Americans, probably need to take a long hard look in the mirror and first figure out who we are as individuals and ask, “What do I really believe?” If you can’t see beyond media-driven partisan anger and outrage, you certainly can’t Make America Great Again or unite our country. I come from an old school, where if you give your word, you keep it, especially with making a solemn vow or taking an oath. I swore an oath to defend the constitution. For me, it’s deeply disturbing to hear talk among some people on the American right about a “national divorce,” and I’m shocked at how easily so many Americans have rushed to embrace this idea, which would only aid America’s adversaries and make it easier for them to extinguish America’s light of liberty.

I’m not ready to throw in the towel on America. I look to all those Americans who came before me and all of their sacrifices that made the cushy lifestyle we enjoy even possible. I pray that their tears, toils and struggles weren’t all for naught.

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics

November 6, 2022 · 4:00 pm

A story worth sharing

I came across this video and want to share it:

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character, General Interest

October 26, 2022 · 10:19 am

Tipping points can happen suddenly

In my blog post yesterday I pondered how long Democrats and the leftist elites will stick to their accelerated green- energy transformation plan (the “Great Reset”.) While there’s likely no easy turning back course of action after a certain point in their transformation efforts, the thing is once there’s a massive public opinion shift, often major political shifts follow more rapidly than may have seemed possible even months before. I used the examples of growing public backlash against COVID mitigation efforts and the public backlash against the escalation in crime following Dems embracing the BLM “defund the police” policies.

There has been a growing right-wing populist movement in some countries in Europe and the US too, which bodes poorly for America’s future as a pluralistic society.

And yes, America has always been composed of people of diverse ethnic, racial and religious groups, but we’ve always managed to pull our country together by embracing some common values. Presently, it seems the more extreme views on both sides of our political spectrum scream the loudest and dominate the public spaces, where cultural and political battles keep erupting daily. Moderate voices don’t stand a chance in a spin war. Outrage theater dominates public “discourse.”

I also expect public backlash to accelerate against the transgender movement, against the media-run spin information war, and against social media word police antics that promote the leftist political agenda.

In democratic countries, where people are accustomed to and expect to be able to speak and interact freely, it seems highly unlikely that the left’s embrace of using media as a tool to herd people toward leftist ideological beliefs and coral them from other views will succeed for the long term. People accustomed to speaking freely aren’t likely to passively accept being prodded into submission by massive public-shaming/virtue-signaling political messaging efforts for long. Having social media honchos become de facto Democrat/liberal word police is already facing growing backlash, which will likely escalate.

The economic turmoil and green-energy transformation policies already in motion can’t be easily fixed, but a major derailment of this green dream plan seems very likely to me.

Tipping points often seem to happen much more rapidly than people think possible or expect. In the beginning of this year, I suspect, most Democrats believed they could still continue with their COVID hysteria and push more COVID mitigation policies (power grabs.) They were unprepared for the swift and dramatic shift (the tipping point) in public opinion on COVID policy, to the point that you aren’t hearing Dem political candidates running on COVID policy.

79% of people in an October 2022 Pew Research report said the economy is the top issue. I think most of the culture war that generates so much left vs. right drama in America are really boutique political issues, that while they generate a lot of buzz and fad followers, when push comes to shove and economic hard times hit, no one can afford to buy into these issues. Keeping food on the kitchen table, bills paid and gas in the car become the priority. As the economic situation worsens, fewer and fewer people will want to be lectured about transgender issues or hear about green-energy/climate change. That’s why I believe a tipping point is likely long before this green-energy transformation gets very far. It’s being run on hot air, without even having the necessary infrastructure in existence.

Things may get very messy. Famine, wars, some countries collapsing, civil unrest/civil wars and other awful events are possible around the world or even here, but I remain a believer that principled leadership can make the difference between getting people in a crisis to work together and total mayhem breaking loose. There are still people in America, who will put the political/cultural war drama aside and work together in a crisis.

Unfortunately, those kind of people are extremely rare in either political party these days, where spin kings and queens, people like AOC and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who can lob social media attacks and create non-stop political outrage theater drama daily are the type of people who seem to be getting the most media attention. They’re also attracting large followings, who cheer them on. On the left, if you don’t march in lock-step to the latest culture war cause, you’re toast and on the right, if you don’t foam and froth at the Left, you’re labeled a “RINO” and put out to pasture. That’s why I’m so ambivalent about this upcoming election. I don’t believe politics is going to “save our country” or even get us on a better path.

Interestingly, this same phenomenon happens on social media, where the most sensational headlines and flame-throwing personalities generate massive followings.

However, in a crisis, all these flame-throwers and “spin warriors” are completely useless, because a crisis requires real leadership, not just angry words and catchy sound bites. I’ve met loads of outstanding leaders around the military and even in everyday life. So, I don’t despair. History has shown that sometimes when we least expect it, the most unlikely people step up to the plate and lead.

This is especially true in America. There are all sorts of civic-minded people, who see a problem in America and start a fund-raiser or form a group to work on that problem or just set out and work to fix it themselves. America was built on a spirit of volunteerism.

With that I’m going to end with encouraging you to consider donating time, money or food this holiday season, to help feed people in need.

Feeding America is always looking for help to feed Americans in need. If you don’t want to donate to large organizations, just look around your own community and you can surely find churches, civic organizations, schools, local officials, who can point you toward ways to volunteer to help others.

If you’re worried about the state of America, just try to spread a little hope and encouragement or lend a helping hand to someone else.

Even the smallest flicker of light can defeat the darkness.

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character, Culture Wars, General Interest

September 4, 2022 · 6:20 pm

“Something that I can do”

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

-2 Timothy 1:7

This is going to be a follow-up of sorts to my last post, but it’s not going to be about politics. I’ve written a lot about politics and foreign affairs stuff, but here’s the truth about “understanding the political/economic/world events” going on right now – it might prod you to invest more time, effort, resources into being more prepared, but it also likely will lead to more worrying about all those big things that we can’t do a thing to change. That’s energy wasted.

There are probably as many people in America who believe that voting Republican is the only hope for our country as there are Democrats who believe voting Democrat is the only hope. Politics isn’t going to save us.

Some of us place our faith in God, but that still requires us to get off our butts and work to save ourselves, each and every day. We can’t sit around waiting for a miracle. Even if you’re not religious, well, you’re still going to have to get off your butt and work to save yourself too. Getting worked up about all the bad news (and there are mountains of it these days) doesn’t change a single thing, except make you feel fear, anxiety or overwhelmed and it actually impedes staying focused on the things that will really make a difference in your own life.

None of us can solve the very complex and massive problems we’re bombarded with the minute we read or watch the news, but we can still take very real steps toward working on the problems and challenges in our own lives. Unfortunately, most of the people with the power to really impact or make those types of big decisions in our country seem to be less qualified than my late husband’s, almost 15 year-old rescue dog, Marius, who now gets confused a lot.

Despite whatever dire economic or other events happen, we will still have to keep plugging away, still make daily choices and still work as hard as we can to keep ourselves, our families and our communities functioning, as best we can. That’s what faith and hope are all about – we continue onward – no matter what.

In a previous post on preparedness I mentioned that each of us really needs to take a bit of time and figure out where we are, before we can plan for where we want to go. I wasn’t referring to physical location, but about where you are spiritually, emotionally, financially and if you’re married and have a family, you’ll need to figure out where they’re at too. Then try to work toward finding some common goals and assess the practical needs aspects of becoming better prepared.

Getting your head on straight, before you start rushing around in a hundred different directions to prepare, can save you a lot of wasted time and money, but also a lot of needless anxiety and worry. In our interconnected world, there’s so much information everywhere, which creates lots of distractions and noise, that can send you racing down rabbit holes, rushing to buy things that you quickly realize were a waste of money, but most of all it can derail you from staying focused on the things that really matter.

Simplifying your life requires streamlining and setting up some attainable goals, then working on those first. Many of the attainable goals don’t require spending a lot of money. They do require changing your work habits and changing your attitude.

In my early teens, I began collecting quotes, poems, verses, and mottoes that I came across and liked. Here’s one that’s always stuck with me:

I am only one  
But still I am one  
I cannot do everything  
But still I can do something.  
And because I cannot do everything  
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.  
Edward Everett Hale

I was kind of weird, in that I always wanted to know more details, like when something was written, more about the writer, other things that writer wrote or did.

Edward Everett Hale was a Unitarian minister in the 1800s. He wrote a patriotic short story, A Man Without a Country, which became very popular during the US Civil War and was required reading in many American schools for almost a century. Hale fought for not only emancipation of slaves, but also for education for freed slaves. His most lasting achievement was he published another short story, Ten Times One Is Ten, that included the motto:

Look up and not down 
Look forward and not back 
Look out and not in 
Lend a Hand

Here’s a short explanation of the story from the Lend a Hand Society:

“The Lend A Hand Society grew out of the response to a short story called “Ten Times One is Ten”, written in 1870 by Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909). The story tells of ten people who meet at the funeral of a mutual friend Harry Wadsworth and discover that he had financially helped each of them. They each resolve to follow the example of Wadsworth and to help their friends, neighbors and others in the community. They calculate that if each person they help would in turn lend someone else a hand (10 x 1 = 10, 10 x 10 = 100, etc.), the powerful spirit of charity and giving would spread and grow.”

After the story’s publication, groups sprang up spontaneously using his motto as inspiration and a Lend A Hand Society in Boston was formed, which still provides emergency financial assistance to low income people, senior citizens and disabled people. That sort of America “lending a hand” spirit still exists today and you can see it with how many Americans will quickly offer assistance and to help people in need.

Edward Everett Hale also did some Civil War public service work under Abraham Lincoln and actually worked with Clara Barton, the famous Civil War nurse and founder of the American Red Cross.

If all you have time and energy for is to start working on your own family’s needs and bolstering their preparedness, that matters too. One thing I’ve found with trying to learn more about various aspects of emergency preparedness and developing skills is it’s just like with hobbies and other endeavors for me. I can quickly find myself moving in a hundred different directions, wanting to start too many things at one time. And that’s where I’ve had to struggle to work on more self-restraint and prioritizing, because it’s very easy for me to go way over budget and find myself having too much stuff and too many projects going at the same time.

Some people are natural-born teachers and mentors, I believe and in the internet age, many of them are online sharing skills and know-how on just about any topic imaginable. For all the bad stuff online, there’s also a wealth of good too. I’m working harder to seek out good and quit focusing on the bad stuff online, which takes work on my part, because I am a contrarian and can be too judgmental (yes, I am aware of that character flaw of mine – my family points it out regularly).

We can all work on the “something that I can do,” rather than trying to focus on the everything we can’t do.

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character

August 9, 2022 · 1:10 pm

The loss of a great American historian

Yesterday, American historian, David McCullough, passed away. Above is an inspirational video of McCullough talking about George Washington. Please take a few minutes and watch this video. It offers some perspective we can all use.

I’ve read several of McCullough’s books and pulled a few of my favorites from my bookshelves to snap a few photos for this blog post. He had a rare gift to take dry historical facts and turn them into a moving, very human story. Here’s 1776, which was about America’s founding:

Rather than waste a lot of time following the latest partisan political drama today, I looked at the news online a bit this morning, then went outside to work in my little container garden. I’ve been cleaning up and started planting some things for a Fall garden. I’m working on decluttering inside my home too.

Cleaning out the partisan politics clutter from taking up too much of my time is part of my decluttering efforts too.

I also collected more cosmos seeds this morning. I’ve seen several YouTube homesteaders talking about learning to save seeds and although seeds aren’t usually very expensive, with sky-high inflation, it sure doesn’t hurt to cut costs wherever you can. I heard mention of potential seed shortages too. I have been buying more seeds and intend to order more online very soon.

There are loads of videos and sites online that can walk you through the seed saving process for various types of plants. I recently bought two books on saving seeds. Books are really important in my life and it’s encouraging to see so many preppers and homesteaders online mention reading books as an important part of their efforts at becoming more self-reliant. Being open to learning new things and exploring new ideas can keep you moving forward in life. Here’s a link to a free 1887 book, The White House Cookbook, which has recipes and all sorts of interesting history of White House meals.

I have a fascinating book on America’s founding fathers’ gardening and yes, procuring seeds played a pivotal role in America’s early history:

The small decluttering efforts around my home take way more time than they should, due to my penchant to attach sentimental value to possessions and my hard-to-break belief in my hoarding grandmother’s view on stuff – “I paid good money for this and might need it later.” My mother ruthlessly decluttered our home on a regular basis. I’m working on letting go of more stuff that I don’t use and have not used in years. Yesterday, I filled up a box with some hardcover books, which are more difficult for me to part with than paperbacks. It felt good to fill up that box that’s going to my local Goodwill store.

McCullough’s books are keepers and I would not even think of getting rid of them. A few years ago, I read his, Brave Companions, which is a series of stories about fascinating people in history, most of whom I knew nothing about. This, so far, is my favorite David McCullough book.

That said about my favorite McCullough book, I started his, The Pioneers, and it’s excellent too. I need to finish reading this book soon.

Being a lifelong news junkie, it’s hard to turn off the blaring “breaking news” political soap opera, but I’m still working to kick the habit and spend more time doing things that will improve and enrich my life. Social media politics definitely doesn’t do that. Reading more about America’s early history helps me clear away so much of the clutter and noise in our media and politics today and I’m hoping it will keep me focused on a better path than racing down rabid, partisan political rabbit holes or getting distracted by constant online noise.

America lost a truly gifted historian and storyteller yesterday.

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character, American History, General Interest

Category Archives: American Character

Getting on the road to achieving dreams

On the hunt for our American spirit

There’s no excuse for the Biden border fiasco

More disturbing reports coming out of Maui

About “benefiting” from slavery…

Guess, we need to ponder who we are

A story worth sharing

Tipping points can happen suddenly

“Something that I can do”

The loss of a great American historian

Archives

Archives

Places To Roam

Categories