I couldn’t believe it when I received this file so I’m posting it to share it and see what you think.

Please leave your comments.

IACOCCA SPEAKS OUT ON OBAMA

Just as true today as it was when his book first came out. He was, and still is, a brilliant businessman!    Often we need to be

reminded of Iococca’s words.

Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from its death throes? He’s now 82 years old and has a

new book, ‘Where Have All The Leaders Gone?.’ Lee Iacocca Says:

‘Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage with this so called

president? We should be screaming bloody murder! We’ve got a gang of tax cheating clueless leftists trying to steer our ship

of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even run a ridiculous cash-for-

clunkers program without losing $26 billion of the taxpayers’ money, much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting

mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, ‘trust me the economy is getting

 better..’ Better? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned, ‘Titanic’. I’ll give you a sound bite: ‘Throw all the

Democrats out along with Obama!’ You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But

someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.. The most famous business leaders are not the

innovators but the guys in handcuffs.. While we’re fiddling in Afghanistan , Iran is completing their nuclear bombs and

missiles and nobody seems to know what to do. And the liberal press is waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard

questions. That’s not the promise of the ‘ America ‘ my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough.

How about you? I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and

willing to have. The Biggest ‘C’ is Crisis! (Iacocca elaborates

 on nine C’s of leadership, with crisis being the first.) Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s

easy to sit there with thumb up your butt and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a

battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down. On September 11, 2001, we needed a

strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a

mess, so here’s where we stand. We’re immersed in a bloody war now with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. But

our soldiers are dying daily. We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the world, and it’s getting worse every day!

We’ve lost the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.

Gas prices are going to

 skyrock again, and nobody in power has a lucid plan to open drilling to solve the problem. This country has the largest oil

reserves in the WORLD, and we cannot drill for it because the politicians have been bought by the flea-hugging

environmentalists.

Our schools are in a complete disaster because of the teachers union. Our borders are like sieves and they want to give all

illegals amnesty and free healthcare. The middle class is being squeezed to death every day. These are times that cry out for

leadership. But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: ‘Where have all the leaders gone?’ Where are the curious, creative

communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a

sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.. Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than

making us take off our shoes in airports

 and throw away our shampoo? We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is

react to things that have already happened. Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping the government will make it

better for them. Now, that’s just crazy.. Deal with life.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing.

Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when ‘The Big Three’ referred to Japanese car companies? How did

this happen, and more important, look what Obama did about it!

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving theenergy crisis, or managing

the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking

the middle class dry. I have news for the Chicago gangsters in Congress. We didn’t elect you to turn this country into a

losing European Socialist state. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on NBC or CNN news will call them a

name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change? Had Enough? Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice

of gloom and doom here. I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope – I believe in America . In my

lifetime, I’ve had the privilege of living through some

 of America ‘s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises: The ‘Great Depression,’ ‘World War II,’ the

‘Korean War,’ the ‘Kennedy Assassination,’ the ‘Vietnam War,’ the 1970′s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years since

9/11. Make your own contribution by sending this to everyone you know and care about. It’s our country, folks, and it’s our

future. Our future is at stake!!”

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Thanks for stopping  by the website.

Check out the book “Freedom’s Call.”

John

Independence Day.  Yes..it’s a movie…July 4th has inspired many songs…it is full of booms and bangs…it is a platform for political speakers….it’s a time for barbecue and get togethers of all sorts.

It is a celebration of our Declaration of Independence.  Have you read it recently.  Why not now?

Declaration of Independence

Here is the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.
The original spelling and capitalization have been retained.

(Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776)

The Unanimous Declaration
of the Thirteen United States of America

• Teachers & Students: Free Downloads of Rare Scenes Of Early America’s People, Places & Events!

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776

Happy 4th of July.

John

Okay…I’m sorry I haven’t written a new blog post for this whole week but I’ve been very busy taking care of my folks place while my sister took them to a family reunion and to visit some relatives.

I have checked my emails through, and I’ve had a couple of interviews about my book “Freedom’s Call.”

The interviews were fun and I’m thankful that there is interest in the book.

The emails were a little disturbing.

I have to admit, in all the confusion of this past week, I missed the fact that Monday was “Flag day.” A day to honor our national symbol.  My Flag was flying proudly however.  Which brings me to those disturbing emails.

One was showing our President with four military officers standing in front of a big American Flag , with all but our President, saluting or having their hand over there heart.  Our President was doing, what the email called, a Crotch salute.  I found it discouraging.

Another email showed him at a press conference about the Gulf situation without an American Flag behind him.  I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a press conference where our President didn’t have an American Flag close.  It was a barren yellow cloth with a couple of gold or brass stands with flowers on top, I believe.  This was also discouraging.

Is there a subliminal message here? 

I, for one, have always respected the office of the Presidency and given whoever the President at the moment was, the respect that he deserves as our leader.  I wasn’t happy with many over my lifetime.  However, he is our President, and whether I voted for him or not, agree with him or not, give him the respect he deserves as our leader.

I wasn’t happy with the attics of Clinton.  George Bush before him made some decisions with which I couldn’t agree. George W. Bush certainly had his short comings.  Through out history, many Presidents have had controversy following them and their decisions.  But, they were our Presidents.  They made it to the top. 

I think it all comes down to common sense and respect. 

We have the power to elect our leaders.  We have the right to feel the way we do about our leaders because we are Americans.  That is what this country is all about.  Freedom.

I never understood the vitriol feelings towards President George W. Bush.  If you were harboring those feelings towards him, you had the right.  He was at least, indisputably American.  He was cocky.  He was irritating at times. He was our President in a very tough time.  He could have handled things much better.  He was and is a proud American. Proud to be American.  Proud to stand in front of our country’s symbol, the American flag and stumble, be human, and our President.

By not standing in front of and saluting our flag, what is President Obama saying to us?

This is the first time I can remember that I’m having a hard time respecting my President.  His actions are speaking louder than his words.  His words seem hollow and his promises fleeting rhetoric. 

We need to send him a message.  Give us your birth certificate.  Give us your college records. Tell us how many Social Security numbers you have.  What is your real name?  Put to rest all the questions that have been asked about your citizenship.  Who supplied all the money to get you elected. Just do it!  Take the bull by the horns and prove that you are truly American and that you love this country.  Show us you are a patriot.

Stand before us and salute your national symbol.

Call everyone in the world that can help and get this oil spill stopped! Cut through the political red tape.  Get the job done quickly before we destroy the only reason we are on this rock. The water.  This is a global problem.  It needs strong leadership and a global response for a solution. BP money is not going to mean much if our oceans are ruined.

Where is your common sense?

Be our President!  Be a true leader!  Show us through your actions!

We’ve heard the rhetoric. Give us reason to respect you!

You are our President.  It’s time to act now!

November could be very interesting.

John

Sunday is a favorite day of mine.

It’s a beautiful morning this morning.  Blue sky as huge as Montana can provide.  The birds are calling and the little animals are scurrying around doing their business.  From where I sit this morning, I can imagine the Deer, Elk and other wildlife making the most of this morning.

Tomorrow I’ll get back to work on all sorts of projects but Sunday is a day of rest and reflection.  A chance to just goof off and not feel bad about it.  You know, stop and smell the roses.

I’m sure it’s not as relaxing and beautiful in the Gulf right now.  My thoughts and prayers go out to those who are caught up in the mess physically.  I’m also really getting worried that our leaders are not taking this oil spill more seriously.  This is not just a U.S. problem.  This is a global problem.  I would like them to consider what will happen when the hurricanes start taking the oil into our atmosphere.  Has anyone considered the possibility of acid rain? The currents in the oceans are going to take this stuff all around the planet if we don’t get it stopped soon.

It seems unconscionable that the world leaders can’t pull this thing together and get this problem behind us. 

Our planet is hemorrhaging and it is not just some little local problem for the poor folks in Louisiana.  This is a major problem and should be first on every one’s plate. 

Why is our government not accepting and asking for help from other countries who have experience with this kind of problem?  Why are the people who have proposed simple, but effect, clean up answers not being given an opportunity to try their theories and expertise?  Why are those who make their living in the wetlands of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida not being allowed to put down their sand bags and stop the oil from ruining their resource? 

Put the politics and ego’s aside and get this done before it’s too late!

Sitting here on this beautiful sunny calm day in the clean environs of Montana almost makes me feel guilty this Sunday morning when I think about what is happening in the Gulf.  It may make you feel helpless.  However, I think , if we make enough noise about this and hold those in charge accountable, just maybe we can save our planet.

The HOLE is dumping 2 million gallons a day into the reason we are survive on the rock.

Without the oceans we would not be inhabiting this planet.  This is a global problem. 

I would like to pose this question:  If there was an asteroid bearing down on us with no doubt that it was going to hit the planet, don’t you think all the government leaders on the planet would be pulling out all the technical experts and working together to alleviate the problem?  

This oil spill could be devastating to our way of life on this planet.  The global community needs to realise that this is not a little problem.  This problem needs to be alleviated.

Now my Sunday, although it is environmentally beautiful, seems a little less relaxing.

Writing our congressmen and emailing our views to someone who may have some pull and care enough to pass our concerns along may help put pressure on the right people to help with this problem.  Do your part as you see fit.

OK…I guess I’ll mow the lawn.  It’s Sunday, a day of rest, but now I’ve got to do something.

Have a nice day.

John

My friends,

I had a message on facebook yesterday regarding the government and the final line in the message was “I’m really Pissed off!”

I have to tell you my sentiments are starting to run in that direction myself.

Why, in this vast world of technological miracles, can’t we shut that oil down?

Are the leaders of our world so stupid that they don’t realise this is a global problem?   With the amount of oil that is being released on a daily basis with no immediate end in sight, I’m asking, along with a majority of other concerned citizens, why the human race is not rallying to get this thing stopped.  Why are we leaving this up to BP?  

It is not just their problem.  It is OUR problem!  We the human race need the energy.  We have caused this to happen.

It really isn’t the oil companies fault for trying to supply us with the energy and manufacturing needs.  It really isn’t the local gas stations fault for trying to keep us rolling.  It is a tradgedy.  It is an accident.  It was unforseen. OKAY!

All this pontificating about who’s fault it is and the boycotting is foolish in my opinion.   We need that oil now.  We need all the oil we can get.  We need alternatives to the oil.  We are not equipped now to  operate without it.   Maybe we will be in the near future.  Moratoriums on drilling and shouting at the top of our lungs about this catastrophe will not do us any good in the long run.   Do you want to pay 7 to 10 dollars a gallon for gasoline?  Do you want all the products that depend on the oil dirivitives to go sky high in price? Do you even realise how much we depend on the black tar oil and natural gas that is spewing out in the gulf in our everyday lives?

I’m extremely excited about what I saw on the science channel last night about synthetic life.  If you are not aware of the great leap, and yet baby step, molecular science has taken recently, you should make yourself aware.  It is amazing and it could be an answer to the very problems we are having in the gulf and many facets of our lives.  It will take awhile to develope this amazing technology, but, it will be of immense importance as we try to clean up the dirty deeds we have done to our planet.

What I don’t understand is why the governments of the world haven’t rallied, with all their technological know how, to stop this oil spill.   Get all the submarines available and all the top notch techs available and get this thing shut down before we reach the point of no return on this potential global pollution disaster.

If a simple American citizen like myself can have these thoughts, why are the pros not thinking the same things?  Why are they not taking action?  Why would the Federal Government stand in the way of any ideas that may help in the clean up of the already polluted shores of Louisiana?  

Did you see the email circulating about how we could use certain hays and grasses to soak this oil  from the ocean.  If a couple of Bubba’s can come up with a solution like this, why can’t we get action on it?

Throwing oil on a BP station will get us nowhere.  Being political about this will get us nowhere. 

WE NEED LEADERSHIP.  WE NEED ACTION.  WE NEED THOSE WHO ARE IN POWER IN THIS WORLD TO UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH OF A CATASTROPHE THIS COULD TURN OUT TO BE.  WE NEED COOPERATION.  WE NEED UNDERSTANDING AND WE NEED ALL THE TECHNOLOGICAL KNOW HOW OF ANYONE WITH A SOLUTION TO ANY PART OF THIS PROBLEM.  WE NEED IT NOW.  WE NEED IT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.

Okay, I’m off my soap box. 

I would like to recommend that every citizen in the country flood the emails and in boxes of all the representatives and congressman from their districts to put pressure on whoever they need to, to get some real action in the gulf to stop this oil from gushing into the only reason we are on this rock.  Waiting till August for counterdrilling doesn’t seem like an option, given all the oil that is filling the gulf on a daily basis.

If we don’t get action soon, life the way we know it shall change in ways we will not be happy about.

Humanity as a whole can rise to this occasion and get this done.  We can do this.  We shouldn’t wait to let our voices be heard.  This is not a time for politics.  This is a time for action.  Action on a world wide scale.  This is bigger than one little oil company.  This is our children’s future at stake.

Do your best.

John

Democrats are not bad people necessarily.  Republicans are not bad people necessarily. 

I’m sure you can find anyone to be difficult if you look hard enough.  However, because you are Democrat or Republican does not make you white or black or blue and red on the issues.

If you are being led around by a political party and take whatever they say as gospel then you have your head in the sand.  Politicians for the most part seem, in my opinion, (and that , along with 5 bucks, may get you a fancy cup of coffee at your local caffeine dispensary)to be pretty much for or against whatever it takes for them to get your vote. So judging someone by their political party affiliation seems like an excercise in futility. 

It all makes for good heated debate around the table or on the tube, but it does not mean much to good friends.

I believe alot of the members of both parties are members because their families are members.  Dad was a Republican so I’m a Republican.  The family has always been Democrats so I’m a Democrat.

What about Independents?  I’ve always leaned toward being Independent.  I was a very independent child, or so my mother says.  I’ve had to register as a Democrat or Republican in order to be able to vote in a primary.  How silly that seems to me.

Our country was formed from independence.  We have a Declaration of Independence.  We fight for freedom and independence.  We have independent rights.  Wasn’t this country formed and shaped by those independent entrepreneurs who developed businesses that supported people and made our system work?

So Independents are not necessarily bad people.

Another stalwart party in the country would probably be a healthy thing.

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican or an Independent, you should first be Americans and be proud to be American.  Your fellow Americans have the right to chose what they want to support.

The problem as I see it,  is that these days everyone wants everything in a tidy little box with a label on it. If you are this, then you stand for that.  That can’t be right because it does not fit in my little box. 

That is one of the reasons that this country got off the ground.  Our forefathers did not want to have to do the bidding of those that said they had to worship this way, or they couldn’t stand up in the town square and give their opinions without fear of retribution.  Is that what we want? To bring our country full circle to those circumstances again.

We should all celebrate our differences and rejoice in the fact that we can be different and still be Americans living in the greatest country on the planet.  We can agree to disagree.  We can stop being apathetic and take our responsibility as citizens seriously.  We can stand and give our opinions.  We can literally do that in the town square if we want.  We have those freedoms.  If you will sit back and be afraid of retribution then you will get what those who make their feelings known and pursue avenues of action to see their wishes realized, achieve.  We can make change through our votes and our voices.  Do not give up. Do not give in.  If you can stand in the middle of a crowd and voice the right reasoning even if it is unpopular then you are a true American.  As a true patriot, whether Democrat or Republican or Independent, you will make this country stronger.

I have many Military friends and something that I’ve noticed is that they do not put down the fact that someone is saying something with which they do not necessarily agree.  In fact, they seem to take pride in the fact that they fought for this person’s rights to be able to say what they please even if they do not agree.

What I would like to say to Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike, is do not be apathetic.  Be accountable for your actions and beliefs when casting your vote.  Send a message.  Tell it like it is by putting people in office who will do the right thing and have the right stuff to lead and listen to their constituency.  If you do not like what is going on in our government then vote out the incumbents.  Just do your research on who you vote for to replace them.  You could even decide that you will not vote for any incumbent.  If everyone did that the face of our government would look entirely different.  New and fresh.  Probably more exciting to boot.  Whether they are Democrat, Republican or Independent, if they are qualified and wanting to make the right changes, then they very well could be a better choice than any of the incumbents.  A few good representatives and congressmen may lose their jobs but what a message could be sent to even those when they try for re-election again.

Whatever you decide, remember, this is our government.  We should decide how it is run.  Special interests could be voted out.  No PAC’s.  Term limits.  Taxes.  It’s all ours.  We allow it.  We are Americans.  This is America.  Excercise your rights and do it in an accountable manner. 

I welcome my Democratic, Republican and Independent friends to make their comments on Patriotism and cooperation on this site.

Through recorded history and our own personal history there have been some grave mistakes.  I, for one, would be the last to cast the first stone at anyone for their political affiliation.  I don’t have to agree.  But it is your right to be what you wish.  I celebrate that.  I hope you do also.

Proud to be an American!

John

I had this thought while being in New York this week. 

It came to me while riding in a cab with a driver from Morocco.  A very pleasant, Jazz loving man who has made a life in America over the past 25 years and considers this his country.  He has become an American.  I am an American citizen by birth.  As we talked, we started to share our similar ideas about what we thought about various current events, our government, illegal immigration, dual citizenship, learning the language, etc.  He spoke to me in English.  He is schooled in French and studies in French. However, in my opinion, he is an example of an immigrant that truly wants to be here and has gone through the process of becoming a citizen legally.  He is as concerned as I am about the illegal immigrants crossing the borders from Mexico.  He is as concerned as I about being over taxed.  He is as concerned as I about the government messing with our health care.  He is as concerned as I about the oil spewing into the gulf off the Louisiana coast. He is as concerned as I am about extremism.

As an immigrant to this country this man has assumed an American name to make it easier for us to address him just like many of the Ellis Island immigrants who assumed American type names to blend into their new country so many years ago.  He isn’t interested in showing off his differences and being a poster boy for diversity in this country.  He wants to blend in and share the similarities that we all have as Americans.  That’s why he is here and has been for the past 25 years.  He loves his new country.  He can complain about it but he, along with all of us, would not live anywhere else in the world because this is his land.  He has earned the right to call it his land.  He may speak up as a true American citizen freely because he has earned that right.  He can vote because he has earned that right.  He is American first.  Not French-American.  Not Moroccan-American.  Not Muslim-American.  He is an American.   He is proud to be American and he is proud to share the SIMILARITIES that we all have as American citizens.

I believe this man has a handle on what it means to be an American.  He did not seek dual citizenship.  He did not sneak into this country to take money back home.  He came and became one of us. 

We must not lose faith in the American Dream.  This is the last place on earth with true freedom.  We are the last hope for the oppressed of the world.  We are different from the third world because we celebrate our similarities.

Diversity is okay.  However, in my opinion, we should take a moment each day and remember how fortunate we are to be American and how unique that makes us.  Be proud that there are those in the world who want to come here and share our similarities with us.  Like our language and our freedom and rights given to us by the designers of our constitution.  

Celebrate our similarities.  Be AMERICAN.  Speak up.  You are allowed.

John

It’s been a very peaceful 17 days.  I’ve been in God’s country throwing out a line.  The fishing was just okay but sharing time with my friends and family was, as always, a wonderful experience.  Doing the camp chores and talking around the circle of stones about the affairs of the day and sharing personal feelings with one’s you care about can’t be beat.

I hope that you had a good first half of May as well.  Being away from the news and the affairs of the world and coming back to the catastrophe in the gulf was a lot to digest on my return. 

It seems with all the technology and know how that we have these days that someone could get that oil shut down.

Put a larger pipe over the one coming out of the ocean floor and channel it into barges or something. I’m no engineer but it sure seems like the world could muster up a team of scientists and engineers who could take care of it quickly.

Where’s John Wayne when we need him?

Now all we need is another Katrina to whip that stuff onto the land.  It surely is a sorry mess and deserves all our efforts to stop the destruction of a fishery that supports many people and supplies those fish and seafood lovers among us. 

This is unacceptable.  Fail safes need to be Fail Safe.  Perhaps there is a lesson in all of this.  Hopefully someone will get the ball rolling quickly to stop what may well be one of the biggest man made disasters we’ve seen in our lifetime.

Call your Congressman, email whoever you know with influence and let them know, if you agree, that this should be on their front burner.

BP doesn’t seem to have the answers so let’s find them wherever we can and get this thing shut down or Fishing will never be the same for our children.  The Gulf deserves more of our attention than it seems to be getting.

Do what you can.

john

We live in America.  The land of opportunity. The home of  300,000,000 people.

The hell on earth that our forefathers endured to get us where we are is amazing.  Bows and arrows, suppression by the British, the conquering of the west, immigration from Africa, the tobacco plantations, religious dissidents, Pilgrims, the gamble of a better life.  Starvation, poor soil, low food supply and disease.  Death was rampant.  The Mayflower.  Plymouth.  Jamestown was here first. The Indians were here before that.  The Spanish were here.

We are a group of immigrants.  We probably can connect our geneology back to some other country.  It is a world community. 

One of the things that we forget…or maybe chose to ignore..is that the freedom from taxation and suppression was what brought our forefathers here in the first place.

We the people, for the people, by the people…..

Think about it when you are filling out your tax return.  This is why our forefathers came here.  The right to be free.  To practice the religion they wanted and to be out from under the tax suppression they endured in the old country.

Our great country, founded on violence in aiding indigenous people to overcome an enemy.  Learning from these people how to survive.  Thanksgiving is born.  Expand your horizons, practice your religion, prosper in this new country.  Tens of thousands coming to America.  The place for everybody from everywhere.  Agriculture, Commerce, and frontier discovery.  A quarter of the taxes in England.  America was prosperous. 

 A third of all British shipping is done in the Colonies and American wood is the commodity.  In Boston, four red coats for every citizen.   The Boston Tea Party.  Exports of fish, wood and agricultural commodities are taxed going and spices, slaves and imports are taxed coming, by the British.

March 5th 1770.  King street and what happens changes America forever.  War started.  5 deaths…Boston reacts.

The Fire of Revolution is set.  The most formidable army in the world firing on an un-armed crowd got the colonies up in arms.  Word spreads fast through the night-riders.  The 13 colonies are in outrage about the Boston massacre.

Rebels dump over 1,000.000 dollars worth of tea in Boston harbor.

British shut down the harbor in response.

Job loss, stranglehold by the British.  America is on the verge of a big change.

England is all up into America.  Banning this and Banning that. 

It was time to maintain Liberty.

Philadelphia said it.  The Thirteen American Colonies became America with the 1st Continental Congress.

An attack on any one colony was an attack on all colonies. 

Ordinary Americans rose to the occasion to protect there colonies. 

The enemy was the British.

Paul Revere rides and warns everyone across the New England countryside.

“The British are coming.”

Lexington transforms the world forever. The rebels fought for freedom itself.  60 men against hundreds of British trained in battle.  They faced off.  Overwhelming would be the word.  The American revolution had begun. 

The Patriots rallied.  The Militia gathers. The Carnage begins.

The blood and sacrifice to get us where we are today is absolutely unbelievable.

Is it worth the freedoms for which they fought?  How many of those freedoms have we lost?  Do you even know what freedom’s you’ve lost…even just in the last ten years.

Just a little thought starter for freedom.

Have a free day.

John

If not now…when?

This morning the day feels fresh.  We had an incredibly heavy rain last evening and the grass has turned green overnight.  It seems like it’s time to grasp the moment and make the best of everything I can today. 

What can we manifest today that will make it easier for someone else? Can we care enough about other’s well being to actually take the time to overcome our apathy towards involvement? 

We have to overcome the idea that we can’t do anything about the way things are.  We have to stand up and voice our opinions whether in agreement with popular opinion or not.  It’s what America is all about.  It’s our duty as patriots to excercise our constitution rights.  It all starts with an idea.  Everything starts with a thought.  So manifest what is in your heart and know that one person can make change happen.

With that said, I would like to encourage you to take time for you today, or tomorrow, or soon anyway, to remember what it felt like to be a child.  I’m attaching a piece I wrote ten years ago in a compilation of poetry and prose I call Contem-Plato.  Please consider it and enjoy the idea if you can.

Embrace your Child

There is a child in all of us, young with energy to spare.

It moves the dusty old limbs of the tree gone stiff and manages to sprout a few green shoots from time to time.

Embrace your child.

Search him/her out.

Find pleasure in the innocence of discovery again.

Search your memory for dreams long since abandoned.

Forget for a moment what you’ve been told or taught about how unrealistic those dreams were.

Discover them anew.

Act on them now with the experience you’ve gained since having them and no matter how farfetched they seem, hold them to the light of your scrutiny to see them in their true elemental innocence.

Feel the excitement of the process as your thoughts carry you through the possibilities they promote. 

Bring that youthful optimism back to your resigned reality.

Surrender to the exercise.

Embrace those dreams that you’ve kept locked up in your “someday” box.

Feel your pulse quicken.

We’ve invented these responsibilities of adulthood.

We’ve capped our optimistic view of what could be.

We’ve settled for the way things are.

We’ve suppressed this child long enough!

The one who was happy to whittle on a piece of wood.

The one who found pleasure in looking with wonder on a bug crawling across the floor.

The one who couldn’t wait to go out in the snow and get wet and freezing cold and then experience the love and warmth of a mother doetting over us, plying us with hot chocolate, admiring our snow fort from the warmth of the kitchen.

Be that child in you again, who for hours could find a use for the box that boring gift came all wrapped up in.

Throw off those thoughts of responsibility for a while today and take a moment to sit under a tree and just listen. 

Think about what you’d like to do when you grow up.

Just use an hour or two for you.

The end of that innocence has only come because you have let it escape.

It’s still there tucked away in the corner of your minds eye and can be a blessing if you’ll only let it overcome the needs of having to get things done.

You have plenty of time for the statesman, warrior, or industrialist to do their bidding, but you need to find the child again or all your well laid plans and goals will have little meaning.

Accomplishment will never take the place of the magic that is seen through this child’s eyes and the discovery that looking on the surroundings with a youthful attitude of possibility can bring.

Like the family dog, who will never be more than a pup, we have a child within us that will never be more than a child no matter how old, knowledgeable, or jaded we become.

Embracing that child, for its energy, enthusiasm, and optimism about what could be, will carry you through the toughest times and help you in miraculous ways!

Sing!

Dance!

Ponder!

And Wonder again.

Light hearted you’ll find yourself, and with that, laugh at what unreal pressures you’ve brought upon yourself.

Seek the child and grow.

Age will become an indifferent consequence of new possibilities!

Jw 12/24/00

Remember…There is no room for Apathy.

Have a great day!

John