Somewhere along the way, Americans have missed something. Many of us spend way too much time worrying about, and demanding our “rights”, and none at all pondering our responsibilities. The left, mainly represented by the Democratic Party, has been the moving force in this phenomena. It is typical that our current president (I don’t like even saying his name anymore) is blaming a large portion of what became a Republican landslide in this election on the fact that Fox News is on the television in many bars and restaurants out there in “Flyover Country”. Yes, including the “Rust Belt” where jobs have been disappearing at an alarming rate because of his policies, and that of the Clinton administration in the 1990’s.
For the first time in their lives, many supposedly staunchly Democrat union members crossed over and voted Republican . Why is that do you suppose? Did they finally connect the dots and figure out that the Democrats, and the union leadership which supports them were lying to the union membership? I was a union member for nearly 36 years, and a union officer for nearly ten of those. My union, the Air Line Pilot’s Association or “ALPA” fell under the spell of the Democrats, and my airline, TWA, was destroyed because of the actions which ALPA, and it’s Democrat allies in Congress took when corporate raider Carl Icahn bought the airline in 1986. But that’s a story for a future series of posts on this blog.
There comes a time, unless you have been totally brainwashed to filter out all evidence to the contrary, you must accept the truth about an issue. For Americans, that time is now. The issue is whether the faith of Islam can ever be compatible with life in a non-Muslim, western country. I believe that the answer is a resounding NO!
Hillary Clinton, who expressed outrage and indignation when Donald Trump indicated during the debates that he might not accept the results on election night, is back. Her campaign has agreed to help in recount efforts of fourth place Green Party candidate Jill Stein in three of the formerly “blue” states which went for the Republican candidate on November 8th.
Fidel Castro is dead. The brutal Cuban communist regime under his brother Raul remains. What does all this mean to us as Americans? To answer that, we must first look back in time.
One of the most cancerous things that was allowed to come into existence in the last century has continued it’s relentless march into the current one. Namely, the “Them and Us” mentality of the federal government and it’s bureaucracy towards the average citizen. Some great thinker at the beginning of our nation made the statement that: “Congress will never vote a rod against itself”. In other words, the congress would never pass onerous legislation because as fellow citizens, they would be equally affected. They didn’t, they just conveniently exempted themselves, and frequently their staff, from all the bad stuff.
I’m going to get this over a day early. I know we all are being bombarded with advice about how to behave at the Thanksgiving table. NO POLITICS, we are told. I basically agree. However, if your family is deeply divided as to their political leanings, the issue will still be there in the room like the proverbial 900 pound gorilla.
There was a time when Hollywood produced real “American Idols”. Men and women who typified the ideals of an America that their ancestors, and millions of people around the world looked up to and aspired to be. Beginning in the 1960’s, things began to change. Perhaps because of the unpopularity of the Vietnam War. The “hero” rolls of John Wayne in “The Green Berets” and “perfect mom” rolls of women like Donna Reed were replaced by Dustin Hoffman In a dress as “Tootsie” and a smiling Jane Fonda sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in Hanoi. Hollywood had turned hard left, probably never to return.
An old joke about Marine Aviators goes: Question? “What do you do if the girls in the bar at closing time don’t live up to your standards?” Answer “Lower your standards!”
When I was a journalism major in college I had a professor who stood up in front of the assembled students in the lecture hall one morning and made this statement: : “Good writing is clear thinking made visible”. Ponder that thought for a minute. We could transfer that concept to almost every aspect of communication. If the reporter can mentally clearly define a point of view, they should be able to transmit that thought to others. The problems arise when the methodology used to arrive at the aforesaid conclusion is faulty.
Somehow, I have managed to survive 74 years on this earth as of today. As is the case with most “Ancient Bird-men”, I’ve survived more than a few scrapes when that seemed unlikely at the time. The old saying that: “There are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots” certainly applies to my long flying career. You survive by learning what not to do and where not to go. My credo has always been: ”When in doubt, don’t”. Your subconscious is trying to tell you something, and you’d best listen.