When holidays approach, anyone who writes, has to do the column and talk about what they are thankful for. I will not disappoint.
First and foremost I am thankful for my fantastic, beautiful wife, Pat. She has come to mean everything in life to me. With her we have two wonderful daughters, Jessica and Nicole. They in turn have blessed us with five grandchildren that mean the world to us. Jayden, Miyah, Miriah, John and Elijah, have brightened our world as each year goes by. Jessica's husband and John's father Wes, rounds our family out nicely, and it all returns to the love and devotion Pat and I have for each other. If I were to stop there with my thanks, I could be happy. But there is more.
I am thankful that my family and I are, for the most part healthy. For without our health the rest of life can be a struggle.
I am thankful for being an American. For all of our struggles and weaknesses, we also have much to be proud of. We have accomplish more as a nation in less time then any our civilization in the history of the world. I am critical of America and it's political system, but that is because I care. It would be totally UN-American to not speak up. We must all stride forward and continue to improve as individuals and a country. This is our greatest strength.
I am thankful for my extended family. My mother, my in-laws, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, that are too numerous to mention here. My even further extended family, in our friends, neighbors and co-workers, all of who make my life better because I know them.
Lastly, did I mention my wife, Pat. I know I did, but to not mention her at least twice would be to ignore her importance to me. For thirty seven years, she has been the constant in my life. The reason I smile each day. The reason I have learned to love so deeply in my life. To her I have to say I have had over thirteen thousand days of happiness and love. It would have been very dark without her by me. So I have to reminder her again, just how much she means to me.
To all of my readers, "Happy Thanksgiving." Take a moment tomorrow and remember the reasons and most importantly the people, you are thankful for.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
November 22, 1963. Our President is Killed!
Every year on the 22nd day of November I pause to remember. I think about a time that in some ways feels like yesterday and in some ways like another lifetime ago. The young people today will always remember where they were when the news broke that airplanes had flown into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. People my age and older will always remember that day in November 1963.
For me I was at Emily Brittian Elementary School in Butler, Pennsylvania. I was eleven years old and in fifth grade. Vietnam was just some distant place where we had, "advisers" and did not dominate the nightly news. We had a young President, Jack Kennedy and an equally young first lady and family.
Our President had, in three short years, started the Peace Corps. He challenged us to, "by the end of the decade, land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth." He had stared down, racist Governors of our southern states and paved the way for blacks to attend state universities. He was in the lead to turn back our segregationist nation and start us on the path to true equality. Kennedy stood face to face with Nikita Krushchev as the two nuclear super powers had us on the brink of annihilation. The Soviet Union blinked as our President forced a showdown with a blockade around Cuba. He gave a courageous speech at American University, in June 1963 where he challenged the Soviet leaders to establish Nuclear Test ban Treaties, that even received praise from his Soviet counterparts. His famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) speech showed the world that America would not abandon it's allies, but join them in search for peace through out the world. All of this in such a short time and now we heard reports that shots were fired on the President's motorcade. Shortly after, we realized the worst. John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was dead.
We cried as a nation. Our innocence evaporated on that November day in 1963. What once was Camelot was now gone. As a nation we mourned and moved on, but it was not the same. What could have been, was changed. Forty eight years later we cry once more, a shining light has been extinguished forever. We hardly knew you, but will always think of you.
For me I was at Emily Brittian Elementary School in Butler, Pennsylvania. I was eleven years old and in fifth grade. Vietnam was just some distant place where we had, "advisers" and did not dominate the nightly news. We had a young President, Jack Kennedy and an equally young first lady and family.
Our President had, in three short years, started the Peace Corps. He challenged us to, "by the end of the decade, land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth." He had stared down, racist Governors of our southern states and paved the way for blacks to attend state universities. He was in the lead to turn back our segregationist nation and start us on the path to true equality. Kennedy stood face to face with Nikita Krushchev as the two nuclear super powers had us on the brink of annihilation. The Soviet Union blinked as our President forced a showdown with a blockade around Cuba. He gave a courageous speech at American University, in June 1963 where he challenged the Soviet leaders to establish Nuclear Test ban Treaties, that even received praise from his Soviet counterparts. His famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) speech showed the world that America would not abandon it's allies, but join them in search for peace through out the world. All of this in such a short time and now we heard reports that shots were fired on the President's motorcade. Shortly after, we realized the worst. John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was dead.
We cried as a nation. Our innocence evaporated on that November day in 1963. What once was Camelot was now gone. As a nation we mourned and moved on, but it was not the same. What could have been, was changed. Forty eight years later we cry once more, a shining light has been extinguished forever. We hardly knew you, but will always think of you.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Newt To The OWS, Take A Bath And Then Get A Job!
The arrogance of Newt Gingrich, was very apparent during an interview he had over the weekend. His advice to the Occupy Wall Street Movement was to first take a bath and then get a job. He also pointed out the people were occupying parks and using facilities that were funded by the very people they were protesting. Isn't that grand! Newt feels that these people are protesting against the very people that support them and make their lives so great. I have a newsflash for this idiot. The OWS and millions of ordinary people are protesting people, like you. You sit back with that wry, little smirk of yours and act so superior to the millions of peasants that dare to inhabit the same country you are bend on destroying.
You say we have become a secular country recently, and in reality, a little writing, called the Constitution of the United States, actually made the separation of church and state, a tenet of our country. I for one want it that way. I do not want leaders that will take us down the same route, as some other countries that are driven by religious zealots. Keep religion out of the decision making in America. People that have an issue with that need to find some other place to destroy.
Mr Gingrich is now calling for firing all union janitors and allowing the students to clean their own schools. He wants to eliminate all child labor laws that were set in place to keep companies from exploiting our children and depriving them of their educational responsibilities. Now children, and he advocated children as young as nine, can stay after school, not for learning purposes, but to work. One of his last statements, was one of his dumbest. He said they can start to rise up in society, this way. In other words we can produce more low paid janitors, instead of a society of better educated people ready to compete in the world arena.
Gingrich was paid almost two million dollars, plus a retainer of thirty thousand dollars a month by Freddy Mac. He opened doors on Capital Hill for the semi private mortgage giant to make more money while they ripped the American people off. This is a man that does not deserve any support for the office of President of the United States. This is a person, that has no moral values and exemplifies the root problem in our country. Greed and stupidity.
You say we have become a secular country recently, and in reality, a little writing, called the Constitution of the United States, actually made the separation of church and state, a tenet of our country. I for one want it that way. I do not want leaders that will take us down the same route, as some other countries that are driven by religious zealots. Keep religion out of the decision making in America. People that have an issue with that need to find some other place to destroy.
Mr Gingrich is now calling for firing all union janitors and allowing the students to clean their own schools. He wants to eliminate all child labor laws that were set in place to keep companies from exploiting our children and depriving them of their educational responsibilities. Now children, and he advocated children as young as nine, can stay after school, not for learning purposes, but to work. One of his last statements, was one of his dumbest. He said they can start to rise up in society, this way. In other words we can produce more low paid janitors, instead of a society of better educated people ready to compete in the world arena.
Gingrich was paid almost two million dollars, plus a retainer of thirty thousand dollars a month by Freddy Mac. He opened doors on Capital Hill for the semi private mortgage giant to make more money while they ripped the American people off. This is a man that does not deserve any support for the office of President of the United States. This is a person, that has no moral values and exemplifies the root problem in our country. Greed and stupidity.
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