I was a hippie in the 70s. I was young and naïve and I believed that our government was doing something wrong in Viet Nam. I believed in equality. I believed in the civil rights movement, in Martin Luther King Jr. And I believed in non-violence and Gandhi.
I wasn’t stupid or wrong. I was just naïve.
I still believe in those things. I believe we are all equal. But I know we are not all the same. I believe we should all have equal rights. But I don’t believe your equal rights should step on my equal rights.
I believe in free choice. But I don’t believe abortion should be allowed past the viability time, the time a fetus can survive outside the womb. So absent those usual horrible things, like rape, the danger to the life of the mother-to-be, etc., I don’t believe that an abortion should be allowed after viability. I believe there comes a time when the woman’s free choice is superseded by the viability of the unborn child who cannot exercise a choice.
I believe in a lot more too, things like being independent and paying my own way. I’ve worked since I was eight, paid taxes, worked sometimes three jobs to make ends meet. I’ve never asked for handouts, but I do believe that anyone and everyone who really needs help should be able to get the help they need. So I also believe that the freeloaders and those who don’t belong in this country should be taken off any kind of government services like housing, medical insurance, food stamps and social security. If they need medical care, it’s already established that they can be seen in an emergency room.
And there’s lots more.
So my father was Big Red One, go army! He spent three and a half years in a Nazi POW camp, Stalag 3B Furstenberg. The government, despite his illnesses when he came home, physical and emotional (PTSD before they knew about PTSD), saw fit to only give him an eight percent disability. This was not enough to be eligible for any benefits or services and he couldn’t even be buried in Arlington.
I still paid my taxes and was a good citizen, despite what they did to him.
I paid off my student loans, worked extra to do so, three jobs and longer hours and taught summer school. I didn’t buy name brand sneakers, new cars or take vacations. I worked and supported myself and my wife.
Throughout my life I’ve assessed and re-assessed. I believe I’d rather live in the strongest and freest country there is, which is the United States. I believe that sometimes governments make mistakes, but that even if ours does, it is still the best place to be. If Viet Nam and some of the other wars lately, maybe even all of them, were/are mistakes. At least we, here, can correct those mistakes. And even if the wars are mistakes we should honor, support and take care of our Armed Forces and veterans. And I do.
But I’m beginning now to feel about our government like I did back then, hence cycles and circles.
I’m beginning to see, you’d have to be deaf and blind not to, that individual self-interest is running the Despicable Democrats. The Despicable Democrats, caught in lie after lie and exaggeration after exaggeration, do not care at all about our country or the American people.
I’m beginning to feel that we need to form a coalition (back then it was the anti-war people joined with the Civil Rights people joined with the women’s rights people) to protest and effect change.
A good start would be term limits for all Senators and Congressmen.
And just as an aside, Bloomberg and Steyer spending now over 200 million dollars in political advertising is obscene. Spending more than two billion dollars on an election is even more obscene.
