It's About Tranquilizers and Seeking True Tranquility, a Precious Thing

Dear America,

"Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.  She is more precious than rubies, nothing you desire can compare with her.  Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.  Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.  She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who hold of her will be blessed.
By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew." Proverbs 3:13-20

beautiful.

happy friday, everyone

and oh thank God, FOX Breaking News just now:  Richard Simmons is alive and well, so says the LAPD.  We can all relax.   Phew, that was a close one.

Not even sure where all that panic originated... for by golly, it was as if, all of a sudden, there was an all points bulletin to find him.  So happy day, rest assured, he is "perfectly fine."  

And all I can add to that, is that that claim of being "perfectly fine" is perfectly debatable.  teehee...

when has the guy been perfectly fine?  

His line of crazy is perfect for him; he made a career at being anything but perfectly fine; he is off the charts nutty, and quite possibly, damn proud of it.  But of course, what do I know -- as I do not know Simmons; this girl is one clown short of a circus, herself, and really has no way of truly knowing and understanding the man.  All I really know is what he chooses to show to the world, right.  And who could not understand the inclination to retreat for a wee bit -- just imagine the kind of energy that guy had to manufacture day after day...that was testosterone/progesterone/macaroon laced circuit training, infiltrating living rooms and escalating heart beats, of a whole 'nother level. 

Which reminds me of a stat I heard from Joel Osteen's sermon, just last weekend:  America holds about 6% of the world's population, and yet we consume nearly 90% of the world's tranquilizers.  

Isn't that astounding?!

How sad, right?!

And taking an immediate segway to things Trump related -- the naysayers and objectors and leftist far and wide predicted total chaos with a Trump administration; calling the guy a nutcase, wondering if he even had the wisdom to be president and even further, be the guy in control of, you know, the button to go nuclear.    

The guy doesn't drink alcohol or coffee, let alone need to pop a pill just to get his day started. It's also been said, he requires very little sleep.  

And perhaps, some might even say -- and that some being just me, right now -- that his body and mind are more pure than the rest of us.  Just sayin'.  Speaking for G, this girl enjoys her Makers Mark, and can't wake up until two cups of joe are sipped.   And even though this sipping and savoring in the quiet morning hours is devoted to saying my prayers, reading anything that lifts and fills my spirit, and turning my day over to God in a "do what you will with me"  kind of way. if being truthful, it sheds a shady light on a vicious cycle that goes up/down, up/down, up/down...where she stops nobody knows :)

At least Americans can be rest assured, Trump is normally on the level, chemically speaking, all the live long day.   And I for one, am not only pleased to recognize that, but shamefully can't give you that same assurance, k.    and when I say shamefully, that isn't entirely the truth.  teehee

On another note, and reaching back to the top of this post, this verse found in Proverbs just makes my heart go pitter patter...Isn't it marvelous that this thing called wisdom is referred to in the feminine?

 "...She is more precious than rubies, nothing you desire can compare with her.  Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.  Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.  She is a tree of life to those who embrace her..."

True wisdom requires us to know thy self; it requires a receptive heart, open to being in relationship with our one true path as designed by the Creator of all living things and the Divine Providence from which this understanding comes and moves and has It's way with us.  It never truly is about our way of doing things, unless of course, we want to march down the path alone and aerobically challenged.

This morning I am reminded of America's beautiful beginning, as written in the very first words of our Declaration of Independence:

"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..."

Our RIGHTS and our liberties come from Nature's God, the CREATOR.  Boom.

This is the foundation; this is where wisdom lives and where understanding flourishes.

Oh how I wish the "DAY WITHOUT WOMEN" crowd simply started their day, and their cause, simply reciting America's Declaration of Independence!    The truth is, this -- and the Book of Proverbs -- is almost all anyone ever really needs in the pursuit of Happiness. 

 [Notice, happiness is not a guarantee; that result is tied directly to the individual's methods and means in the pursuit of it, to reach nirvana, to get to this place called Happiness].   

Siddhartha found one way; just as each one of us born into this world must do the same.   God, as Creator of all, loves creativity -- which only means, there is no ONE way to do it.  There is like hundreds of billions of ways -- just look at the life and times of Richard Simmons....

However, wisdom and understanding of Nature's Laws and Nature's God, would conclude a certain amount of devotion to the Source, and the wealth waiting for each and every one of us while sitting under God, under the righteous limbs of the tree of life, seeking first HER wisdom.  Can you just imagine if all the world took this stance in finding remedy for the world's material, spiritual, physical, painful woes?   The disenfranchised, the gender-oppressed and oppression itself, men and women alike, being young and old, and from one continent to another.... all things fallen of this world can be course corrected.  Seek and ye shall find.

Humanity falters under the weight of humanity itself; and the only Thing that puts us back together, and keeps us together, is a life centered around the All-Knowing Grace of God, Truth and the Wisdom of the ages... for Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.

Our Founders recognized this truth;  decidedly and with full confidence, our essential liberties and freedoms and duties -- endowed by our Creator, that which do not come from government -- is written into our foundation.  

Our founders never said it would be easy, they never promised us a rose garden, and we can only assume they never saw a time in America when we consumed 90% of the world's tranquilizers just to make it through the day (especially, if we are to add in the mother lode of modern day conveniences....like washing machines, telephones, blogs, instant messaging, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, the light bulb, aerobics by Richard Simmons and brought to you by the miracle of T.V.....all these things AND the Bible?  It's almost like we have heaven on earth, heaven on earth.  But I digress).

One last thing before I go -- feel free to feast your eyes upon a wonderful answer to the Day Without Women Charade and on parade yesterday.   It comes from Lifezette.  Nina May responds with this: "A Day Without Whiny Women." -- think of it as a natural elixir to lift you out of the political doldrums of our days; it's like a peach Bellini with an extra splash of sass.  

Gotta go now, for this girl has a lunch date with a lady more precious than rubies.

True tranquility is in the eyes of the beholder, in the arms of the Almighty, and lives within us, no matter what corner of the world we live in, in the pursuit of our Happiness.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's Just What Happens When We Let Ourselves Go Thing

Dear America,

you know what I'm thinking this morning...I'm thinking much of what we are witnessing today, experiencing today, enduring today, stems from having let ourselves go in America.

Initially this thought came from an unexpected candid remark of a remarkable and conservative and beautiful woman, my mom.   But that's what happens, right?  Something takes root inside us, we marinate on it for a little while, and just when we begin to think we have totally let it go, escaping  all recollection, it rebounds off the back of our mind like a boomerang.  bing.

It takes great effort, and good energy, to keep something alive, to stay in relationship, to uphold the integrity and strength of any given thing.

It's not like we can buy a home and expect it to maintain itself.

It's not like we can buy a plant and expect it to water itself.

It's not like we can bear a child and expect the darned thing to raise it's self [as a mom, I feel privileged to say things like that in an endearing way, of course.]

It's not like we can be in a marriage and expect it to nourish itself.

And we could go on and on....but will keep it to just one more:

It's not like we can live in America and expect it to honor itself, all on it's own, without every single one of us doing our duty to protect and defend and most importantly, understand, what this great land is all about.

The ideals set forth by our founders required all generations that follow to actually follow!  And they knew -- because they also recognized the weaknesses of being human -- that it would be a constant challenge; "If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  If angels were to govern men, neither external controls on government would be necessary."  (James Madison, the Federalist Papers)

The founders counted upon the nation to maintain the integrity of  the Republic by recreating an informed, educated, virtuous, and morally upright citizenry.   As Madison said:

"Is there no virtue among us? If there is not, we are in a wretched situation.  No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure.  To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.  If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend upon their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them."

Compounding this notion with a thought from Thomas Jefferson :  "Virtue is not hereditary."

Meaning, we have to work at it -- collectively and individually, we must learn and develop and maintain and dare I say, even nourish! our own virtuous life in the every day.   For if we were to let ourselves go, then "no form of government can render us secure."

In The 5000 Year Leap, the author, W. Cleon Skousen, spends a great deal of time on our nation's foundation; I'm inclined to say 'America's foundation' is the red thread throughout the entire book.  Everything seems to bounce back to the firm, structurally sound, reliance on good self-government in order to create a good, foundation-ally and functionally enlightened Republic to last the generations.

Not only do we in America no longer teach the ways and means of a virtuous life - - we neither model it, speak it, or defend it....in the collective, that is....generally speaking, of course.

We can't even talk about living by our virtues (and that especially goes for all the time our children spend in the public school  domain) -- unless of course, we wish to be quickly labeled a fanatic, an extremist, a religious zealot.

Indeed, "a wretched situation" may be upon us.

The aim of our founders was an emphasis on creating an enlightened electorate in every stretch of the imagination, in order to keep this republic whole.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

...a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for education the common people.  Let our people know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [of misgovernment]."

...all in for more Jefferson, all the time.

It takes work --  it takes effort -- it takes energy, to maintain a free people in a republic; we cannot expect it to grow and nourish itself.

The wretched thing is, we seem to be more disenchanted these days to do the work; or, we expect other people to do the work for us.  And now, it appears, to even utter so much as one word about it, we might as well have committed an act of violence against all humanity.

Take for example Bobby Jindal, yesterday....

Oh wait... first, it all started with this -- Mitt Romney, to supporters on a recent conference call:

“In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” Mr. Romney said.

 “With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift,” he said. “Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.”

Romney said Obama followed what he called the “old playbook” of seeking votes from specific interest groups, “especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people,” the New York Times said. “In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” Romney said.

continue reading here.

Mitt was only calling attention to a reality created by, and for,  the political life-force of progressives (we can't even call them liberals anymore).

But just how did Jindal -- aka one of his own -- respond?

"I think that's absolutely wrong," Jindal said. "We have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent. We need to go after every single vote. ... So I absolutely reject that notion, that description. I think it's absolutely wrong. I don't think that represents where we are as a party, where we're going as a party. That has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election."

continue reading here.

With all due respect, dear Bobby, the GOP is NOT the party doing the wooing and the dividing; that civic infidelity honor goes to the progressives.  And it isn't anything new, by the way; they have been working this demographic bombardment for a century.  How about we talk about that, Jindal?

For the Left, for the typical progressive, this kind of divide and conquer is so fundamental to their trickery and tactics, apparently, for some of us, it goes unnoticed, as if totally acceptable -- as if the Left holds a special clearance, some kind of politically-warped exception to the rule,  to systematically, unilaterally  (and oh so clandestine) be allowed to go there.

The problem is NOT in the governor going there.  The problem is that we, the Right, behave as if we are afraid to go there.

Earth to the new reality, and to the so-called new demographics we must compete against, and to the republican establishment that wishes it were bigger, brighter, bolder just like the democrats -- find some balls, juevos rancheros, cajones, before speaking up in public.  [yeah, and I don't even care if I spelled any of that wrong]

It is US - -conservatives in general, the masses in particular, and the liberals in droves -- who seem to have let ourselves go.

We have let ourselves go -- virtually without a fight for what I can see -- to those just waiting to pounce and take advantage of the unimaginable evolution of a certain wretched situation amongst us!

One of my favorites from Samuel Adams:

"The Utopian schemes of leveling [re-distribution of the wealth] and a community of goods [central ownership of the means of production and distribution], are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the Crown.  [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional."

Perhaps Mitt stopped just shy of calling our new, cool governance "unconstitutional" -- but why not?

It is true, Bobby.

It is as true today, as it was in yesterday, in yesteryear.

[These ideas -- our Nation's Ideals]  Just because we have stopped teaching it, leading with it, modeling it in every way, doesn't make it any more unreal or untrue in the real world.

we've let our Truth go, America...

that is just the sad, sad truth.

But make no mistake:  Our Truth about Good Governance is not the problem; it is not the evil one. Our truth about maintaining Good Governance is by the Grace of God what has protected us, united us, and enriched us in every possible way....until quite possibly now... clearly stuck, aimlessly, it would seem,  in a wretched situation.

Contrary to popular belief -- or is it just a wave of modern day mainstream propaganda -- our ideals truly do work for every one, equally under the law, in true free form.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the foundation -- unless of course, you consider how humanity has perverted, corrupted, abridged, defiled, and defied our most precious principles, virtues, and Constitution, bringing it's very integrity into question and, ultimately, ripe for utter ruin.

other than that, let's keep on keepin' on, right?

Make it a Good Day, G

It's Nobody, and I mean nobody, Has the Monopoly on Women Thing

Dear America,

"freedom is never more 

than one generation 

away from extinction"  

Reagan

not all of us agreed with the endorsement of Newt Gingrich by a certain someone -- someone who just so happens to have grown into becoming the iconic face of conservative women everywhere, the Queen B of all things grizzly, gritty, and running sometimes rogue; the very same someone who, honestly, and courageously, chose to go against the republican establishment, and even the big bad oil companies, long before it even became vogue...not all of us agreed with her.  [even though I still love you, sarah]

But don't look now, her chosen one is bowing out of the race -- so much for that idea huh?

cut to the chase, G...

so I happen to be a card carrying member of a group that declares that it is "the nation's largest women's public policy organization"  -- Concerned Women for America.  Recently, they published the results of a survey and sent a letter to the Speaker of the House with it's highlights. And a few things -- things that I want to share with you now -- made me go wow.

First is that, of the members -- 53% describe themselves as Republican, while 33% "generally vote" Republican.   But of the entire body -- 98% consider themselves clearly conservative, be it a little or a lot; while only 70% swing conservative with respect to social issues.

Putting these numbers together quickly -- even though we may consider ourselves "conservative" in general, and most times in the particular, we don't always agree with each other.  Generally speaking the group is really a group of independent women who lean conservative...in most every situation.

Yet, contrary popular belief (how the mainstream media generally characterizes the hot buttons of conservative women, along with the prevailing left wing/feminist/progressive party line) -- when asked to identify "the single most important issue" -- this is what we got:

42% "identified restoring the Constitution (up 12% from last year) -- 15% said "government spending -- and then we get a huge split...8% said "economy", 7% said "abortion", and 6.5% said "religious liberty."

so what does it mean --

It screams get things under control first and foremost and the rest will follow. 

Nearly 2/3rd's of the group says STOP, go back, do not pass go and do not collect another 200 dollars until we pay up and fix this; stop.  do not pass go.  go back to the basics, respective of the rules, living within our means, individually and collectively, restoring liberty and freedom for all, in accordance to the integrity of the game.

What conservative women recognize above all else as the culprit, the cause, of most of our issues we are dealing with today, is the slow and steady crack(s) starting way down deep in our foundation. Honestly, there are so many at this point, who's counting anymore, right? 

That after, perhaps, the last  hundred years, or so, watching our overzealous government change over time and with, let's face it, overwhelmingly sky high interest... along with the utter stupidity and corruption of our people from the inside out... with both, as luck would have it, running at the same time and totally incongruent with our first intentions [which, as a rule and a quick reminder, is defined as a firm grip on spending, a small federal government, and being wholly beholden to the Rule of Law (not man), according to our Constitution, blah blah blah]   has ruined us.  And surely, if a run-on sentence is going to be used, it might as well come in unadulterated free abandon...can I get an amen...

But lo and behold, the consensus is in, 'the general situation' we are experiencing today will require all of us to go back to our roots -- avoiding, if not totally dismantling,  the B&O Railroad if at all possible; fix the cracks in our foundation, and all else shall be added.

And it would help matters greatly if everyone would just stop calling conservative women extremists just for saying so -- especially for recommending the obvious -- and for consciously choosing not leave America's future to chance.

Women play games with ourselves, with our mate, with our children -- literally and figuratively -- all the live long day.  As a rule, we don't always agree with some of the moves we've made from one day to the next; but by golly, we keep on keepin' on.  We are independent.  We are brave.  We are strong.  While, admittedly, we hate to admit when we are wrong; and prefer to think of ourselves as perfect in every way.  For we are, heart and soul, top to bottom, in good hair days and bad, WOMEN, so hear me roar.

But heaven's to betsy, make no mistake, we are NOT all alike (just a heartfelt heads up boys, nothing more, nothing less).

My girl reminds me often, that when she grows up (which feels like yesterday), she will call herself "independent."   The last thing she wants to be is predictable; the most important thing -- growing into that one great thing that requires a constant gage and undivided attention -- is her natural independence and ability to think for herself.   True American girls are born with it; and with the proper nurturing, learn to expand it, relish in it, and create a life rooted in success, self-reliance, liberty, and happiness with it.

Sarah Palin is fully entitled to endorse any candidate for president she wishes.  Having done so, publicly, the results are now in; after nearly a year of campaigning, Gingrich is out.  Game over. Even the intervention and endorsement of someone as huge as Sarah didn't change the outcome.

The good news, independent thinkers are deciding this election and the future of this country.

We may not always agree on everything; but I heard Sally told Mary, and Mary told Suzy, and Suzy told me, that the very ideals and principles and values this country was founded on is making a come back.

It has been a laborious process -- and a long three years (give or take a hundred) -- ranging from declaring total bankruptcy to living many days hand to mouth, yet with many a few and then some (by the luck of the dice or just plum hard work)  doubling down as bakers and bankers to candlestick makers.

But in the spirit of the great generic WE -- conservatively speaking anyway -- we can pretty much all agree on one thing: we need to go back to the beginning and retrace our steps.   What we really need to do is read the rules of the game all over again and abide by them, otherwise we all lose and nobody, and I mean nobody, will have any more fun.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a Rubber Chicken Thing

Dear America,

happy tuesday.
is it?  is it?

spinning faces, leaving traces... just what kind of president did we awake to this morning?  Will he be the fiscally responsible one (the kind willing to eat his peas first like a big boy) -- or the blame-game-name-calling-fear mongering-playing chicken-with-politics-liberal puppet?  It all happens so fast, you know.  The flip -- if you blink -- you could easily miss it.

Stephen Hayes, of the Weekly Standard, takes the Obama vs. Obama to task this morning.  Steve makes a couple of stunning highlights, including this Obama-ism from 2009:

“We have not proposed a tax hike for the wealthy that would take effect in the middle of a recession. Even the proposals that have come out of Congress – which by the way were different from the proposals I put forward – still wouldn’t kick in until after the recession was over. So he’s absolutely right, the last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would just suck up – take more demand out of the economy and put business further in a hole.”

Where did this guy go? 

This was in August 2009, during an interview with Chuck Todd of NBC, when Obama was the happy-go-lucky-stimulus-toting-business-is-booming-fresh-young-bird.  Oh my, if he only knew then, what we all see happening now; he might have just toned down the rah rah free market rhetoric like a chicken with his head cut off.

I'm into chickens today, but it is not my fault.  Everybody keeps claiming the sides are playing chicken with each other -- daring each other to take it to the limit, or something. As a two party system, we can easily slip into this strategy when digging deep into negotiations.

Besides making me crave a bucket of the Colonel right now -- with an extra large side of coleslaw -- the whole debt ceiling narrative is beginning to sound like a barnyard of chickens... squawking, and pecking at each other, like the sky is falling...after awhile, it becomes more like white noise, just something going on in the background.  (Being a mama, myself, this chatter is like child's play -- continuing with a subtle theme on G thing from just yesterday -- just dare you guys to really give us something to talk about.)

Well, peck this:  the GOP has been clear from the start -- they have never considered raising taxes even remotely part of the equation.  What is the big problem?  No taxes means no taxes.

And in 2009, even Obama agreed that it would be ludicrous to consider raising taxes in a recession.  And believe you me, we are in a recession.  The economy is not growing.  We are not hiring.  We are falling back into another dip.  And a brand new stimulus (our president's go-to-answer-for-everything) is the last thing we can do; it isn't even up for consideration.

A neighbor of mine gave our dog, Boo Boo, a play toy just this past Sunday.  It's a rubber chicken.

and it got me thinking...

We are kind of being led by a rubber chicken:  it doesn't really have a life of it's own -- it responds to the environment, the handler, the life we give it.

By itself, it doesn't really understand what it is, or how it is made, or where it really comes from -- as that is merely the natural response of any inanimate object; it only knows that it is on the receiving end of something else -- a toss, a fetch, a poke, a squeak.

Sure, bloggers and pundits have compared him to a talking puppet -- a talking head of the Power Elite; but in reality, he is acting more like one of Boo Boo's play toys.  An identity appears only when in concert with other action, other people, other things that make him tick; otherwise, he just sits wherever he is left, unclear of his next step, unaware of where he will stand -- or sit -- or play -- or be tossed -- or roll over in the tomorrow.  And the flip can happen, unexpectedly, in a flash.

We have a rubber chicken in office -- he is simply full of hot air and squeaks when poked and prodded.  And the more we bother it, the more it reacts right back.

The thing is, no evidence of real substance can be found.

At least, no evidence as far as this girl can see; he, himself, is an empty vessel  who can only DO when stimulated by something else.  His integrity, rests on the integrity of who he associates himself; his honor, depends upon the level of honor at the heart of the hand who holds him. His action, is directly related to he who holds his attention, through agenda and charm -- as an arm of the unions, as a boot on the neck on business, as a knee-jerk reaction to capitalism, much like a flick of a fly off his shoulder.

The things he says he holds dear -- in speeches, in inaugural addresses, in press conferences -- are merely tools, fluff perhaps, just part of the innards of transformer material, offering a means to end to get from one place to the next.  He pounces on freedom and liberty when it serves a purpose; he hones in on the ideals of our founders when it fits a cause; he rests his hope upon this nation's foundation, only as a platform of changing it and jumping into the next phase of play time, fueling the creative process.

He, himself, has no allegiance to it whatsoever -- "it" being the things most of us hold dear; for him, the it continues to morph into something else, fundamentally, from the grassroots; it is as if the it is alive, as a living constitution, if you will, acting as the intrinsic, ideological material from which everything a new age comes, using only green energy of course.  IT is meaningless, really; what truly matters falls back to one thing and one thing only:  where IT gets him.

For me, it's kind of like how the president referred to the unemployment rate just yesterday -- he said, "it's a stubborn thing."   Exactly.  
 
America is made of perhaps a few stubborn things to a spineless-gutless-empty-rubber-chicken-of-a-president who appears baffled by what most of us deem just supernatural inclinations, the substance back behind our every move, our every breath of life.  He just doesn't get it; as it is just not in him.  He is just not cut of the same cloth, he is just not aligned with the same things,  and he just doesn't know any better.  It is not his fault.  It is just how he was made.

He is simply a president going against the natural, organic, grassroots, American, corn fed grain.

You know, I had in mind to go into the difference of Shared Sacrifice ideology vs. Shared Prosperity -- and I went off running around like a baby chick on speed feed.  With any hope, may tomorrow find this girl settling herself down -- you know, it's not like I'm anybody's play toy, or something. 

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

For this week, just another day in the life of an American girl, we come to a flourishing finish of the things we take for granted.  As the things we cherish --- Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness -- witnessed time and time again, can be swept out of our arms in a heart beat.

We go about our lives, during the wee hours of the 21st century, hardly taking a moment to keep our liberties in check, our freedoms understood, along side the various things only prosperity can bring.  As a country, as a nation of people of great faith, we have created the very conditions to grow family and fortune without prejudice.

But above all, the greatest duty arose from the powers of Congress and our leadership, to protect everything and everyone within our borders -- by force, if we have to.

And ever since, a Force for Good was written into the cornerstone, lasting as a permanent fixture upon which this land was made and saved and honored.  Memorial Day is merely one day, out of 365, that we set aside to give thanks to those who have served and have given their life for us.

The day is also known as "Decoration Day"  -- and with that, let us pause to make a mental note of how wearing our memorial day has grown more for show over substance.  Do we stop ourselves, whether at the BBQ or beach [recognizing news just out today that my hometown, is home to the #2 beach in the world -- in Coronado], to recognize our inherent duty and delight that protecting our freedom brings?  Or have we long grown unaware, unaffected, ungrateful or forgetful of the force behind our good?  After all, after awhile, life begins to hum along so easily, overwhelmed by our own delight, forsaking our duty becomes almost natural.

We can keep up appearances for quite some time, but eventually, everything falls back to substance -- doesn't it?

Sadly, we have grown accustomed to our superficiality in nearly every aspect of life -- unless perhaps you are lucky enough to live somewhere where God and Country still reign high on the list of priorities (thinking Joplin as just one stellar example).

The thing is, a strong military isn't just something a country throws on just before heading out for the parade -- it is the single most important element of our federal government's duties and responsibilities (granted, the one thing we are absolutely supposed to pay for and sustain).

And for the most part, it has been fully and successfully, managed, operated and upheld, solely by volunteers.  Patriots -- fellow Americans willing to give their life, and give everything of themselves, to protect our liberties; and not only defending America, but around the globe --  no matter where the call, no matter what the duty -- self-assured, having not a doubt in the world of their capabilities.  Soldiers, band together, and take up arms, to save something greater than themselves. [And they are so handsome to boot!...oops, but I digress...]

And what do they do:  oh just a little Freedom saving ... Liberty bell ringing...protecting, basically, all the things our lucky stars take for granted...  To police a safe and democratic election.  To stabilize a budding democratic government.  To save a people from genocide,  To protect a land. To honor and hold accountable a nation's security.  To stand up to repression, oppression and the works of tyrants.  To bring water and aid.  To defend borders, agreements, whether by armistice or by hand shake. To fight to the death, if they must.  And finally, to simply reign by reputation just knowing they are there -- on the ready -- winning a war that never needed to be fought in the first place; fully recognizing that just by reputation, association, organization and sheer might, America defends herself and has frightened away countries and armies who might try.

Memorial Day is that kind of day.

What we take for granted becomes the thing we must never forget.  This military, this protection, the defending of something intangible to the naked eye,  should be our primary concern every single day.

Which ties into something else I read this morning...upon the news of discovering a "missing mass" in the galaxy. 

"Whenever I speak to people who have influence, politicians and so on, they sometimes ask me 'Why should I invest in physics pure research?'. And I sometimes say to them: 'Do you use a mobile phone? Some of that technology came about by black hole research'.

"The pure research has knock-on effects to the whole society which are sometimes difficult to anticipate."

We just go about our day, using our I-phones and being able to log onto Bing! in a nanosecond, and nobody seems to care about a thing.  It's done.  We connect. We live.  We prosper.  And all along the day we pick up that fancy new thing-a-ma-jig, decorated with crystals and in our favorite color, just expecting it to work.   Far from our minds is what it took to get there...to be able to talk to anyone, anytime, (almost) anywhere (can you hear me now?).

By the way, regarding that "missing mass"  --  "a 22-year-old Australian university student has solved a problem which has puzzled astrophysicists for decades....Undergraduate Amelia Fraser-McKelvie made the breakthrough during a holiday internship with a team at Monash University's School of Physics..."  wonders never cease.

And did you know that Commander Kelly gets to talk to his wife everyday from space?

As we continue to revel in new discoveries, and innovation, and science, let us not forget the things which truly matter in the great scheme of life and the protection of a country -- for these are the things fundamental.

Brigitte Gabriel, who had to leave a home country, Lebanon, after her homeland was attacked by radicalized Muslim extremists, eventually found her way to America.  She has created Act! for America.org as her way to give back to her new found homeland, as a way to reinforce America's stance and actions around the globe, waging a war against terrorism.  She knows terrorism first hand -- from a memory dating back to her childhood, to a time when her parents were killed, to a time when she had to flee everything she ever loved.

Today, she responds to the holiday with a special grace and charm, saying:


"Words tremble on my lips and emotions swell in my heart in my attempt to humbly thank you for all the things you do to protect America and the world. Words cannot express my depth of gratitude for your service, for your sacrifice, for all that you leave behind to go forth into the world and protect America’s interests around the globe.

Let my grateful words thank you for the nights you slept freezing in a tent or sweating in the desert, for the lonely days you spent missing your loved ones, for the hours you spent sick in pain and without someone holding your hand, for the moments of sheer fright in the heat of battle, for the wounds you have suffered fighting evil, for the endless days in hospitals undergoing painful surgeries, for the precious occasions you have missed back at home. For all of these sacrifices I thank you on behalf of millions of Americans who are so grateful for you. We truly appreciate these sacrifices.

A special thank-you is in order to your families, to the parents who raised you and made you be the man or woman you are today. I thank your wives, husbands, and your loved ones who stand by you and support you with their love and dedication.

And for those who returned in eternal sleep, may their legacy be honored for generations to come, may the tears shed over their coffins fertilize the fields of patriotism in our nation to raise a new generation built on strength and honor, able and willing to follow in their footsteps when duty calls to defend America. May their blood not have been shed in vain. May we prove worthy of their sacrifice.

You who have served and are serving are our brave ones, our heroes, and our national treasures. You are the pride of our nation, our strength and our foundation. Thanks to you, millions have been freed around the world. Thanks to you, those who criticize our country, burn our precious flag, and speak ill of you, are able to do so because their freedom is built upon your blood and your sacrifice.

I salute you one and all. I bow before you in respect and humility. May God bless you and bless America, land of the free and home of the brave, and the dream that became my address."

...to "the dream that became my address"  need I say more.   nope.

...at least, not without my own last two cents anyway...

THANK YOU

for yesterday, 

today, 

and tomorrow. 

Make it a Good Day, G

speaking of defending our borders and agreements...have you been party to receiving this roaming email:

Dear President Obama:

I am writing today with a somewhat unusual request.  First and foremost, I will be asking that you return America to its August 20th, 1959 borders so that Hawaii is no longer a state and you are no longer a citizen.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

Fear not -- all is not lost --  as clearly, we still have a wicked sense of humor. bravo tango charlie.

Dear America,

so day two of spring break found me and my girl tooling around the design district, Cedros, in Solana Beach -- and spending nearly two hours in just one place called The Leaping Lotus (and yes, I totally dig the continuation on a theme from yesterday's two cents).

And chatting it up the entire time, she told me a story from a documentary she watched on the Discovery Channel over the weekend, detailing life of a family from a remote Himalayan village, where basically the children had to venture a long, dangerous trek to school with their father each year (and yes, the commute happened not on a daily basis, but as an annual ritual worthy of the risks).

For six months out of the year, the children attended a school miles away from home, and in order to get there, they packed up for a nearly a week's journey, along with their father, to travel the icy crevasses and steep countryside of the region to finally arrive at a small school house in the middle of nowhere; this would be home for the children until another six months passed, and their father came back over the river and through the woods for their return (yes... just a simple afternoon pickup, indeed).

Whenever I catch glimpses of other children around the world, getting an education, having pencils and paper and school books, is accepted like a gift from God.  Have you noticed that?


Without saying a word, captured in the eyes of every child, comes this light beaming from ear to ear, in utter gratitude for the opportunity to learn something.  While many of ours, in stark contrast, bemoan an afternoon of homework, fight every second of the way off of Facebook, and cling to any and all I Pods to get them through it.

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I discovered a local, homegrown patriot, writer, and businessman from a Community  Essay in the paper: "Reading and the Public Good" by Craig S. Maxwell.  And even though his trade is officially a bookseller, there was nothing self serving in his remarks whatsoever.

It was as if he was making his own last ditch effort to awaken the citizenry of the changes this country has afoot: forewarning us on the over-saturation of our childen's minds and time with "electronic gizmos;" burying their anti-social, yet with a social network twist, heads into a gadget of one kind or another, and hardly surfacing for a genuine hello, good morning, how are you today? And the reading of a good book, the good book, (or just one like "The 5000 Year Leap" perhaps) -- anything worthy of a lesson in morality, substance, vision, or of value -- fuggetaboutit.

Throughout the entire read he makes a splendid case wrapped around ideas steeped in our history, and for me, one sentence stands out above the rest: "America's essence is identical with self-rule."

It's as if we fail to recognize our duty and delight, being born of such privilege and all.

we all fail; for if one of us goes down, we all go down, right?  Isn't that how our president thinks of it...isn't that how collective salvation works?
For if we exponentially take that number of one and track it over time, decades of ignorance and bliss overwhelmingly suffocating knowledge and constraint, with apathy reigning over ambition, especially with our young seedlings for tomorrow stuck in a box, we slowly begin to lose the memory of the original thought.

Future generations become lost as we methodically, and yet strangely haphazardly, brush away the markers beholden to the greater good and our purpose under heaven; we extinguish all semblance of a path straight and narrow; as gratitude morphs into a viscous combination of entitlement, self interest, and taking it all for granted...who needs to pay attention to the things that made America great anymore, when we can be one great big dysfunctional global nation...

I can assure you, if every parent in America, literally and figuratively,  truly led their children "to school and back", much like that Himalayan papa, half of our issues would simply resolve themselves. Of course, if our schools became think tanks for truly higher learning -- welcoming all thought, reason, debate and discussion -- delving into the greater understanding as to why America is what it is, how we got here, who we are and jut who were, in fact, the thinkers and the visionaries back behind our foundation, what made America so different in the first place, and just maybe, in the last -- perhaps then we might very well create, and make, more children exceeding expectations in every way possible (math and science included).

Responsible SELF RULE does not come about by accident or by luck or by Facebook.

Mr. Maxwell adds a lengthy quote from John Adams, and here I will lend you part:

"...Be it remembered...that liberty must at all hazards be supported.  We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure and their blood.  And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great creator, who does nothing in vain, has given the understanding and desire to know."

Right now, ignorance is bliss in America; we got too much, for too little, on borrowed time with somebody else' dime...and on top of that, we don't even make things anymore, much less strive to manufacture smart kids ready to work in the real world, fully prepared, after years of study, propped up with even a general sense and sensibility of the America who came before.  even presidents can miss the exquisite details.

Tonight, we will have a president promote -- for the second time in two months -- his budget for 2012 Take Two...   hmmm what will he say?

We spend too much, there is that.

No department will be immune to making some cuts, 

all ideas are on the table... 

but, you know, with Bush's two wars and a recession later, 

we need to have the wealthiest Americans pay even more, 

for it simply isn't fair 

for anyone to think and grow rich any longer in America...

even the debt ceiling will have to be raised for the 75th time, 

even though, 

I for one, 

was against raising the limit when a young, unseasoned Senator...

yes, after I grew government by more than ten percent, 

it is time for reform -- 

never you mind that my unfunded, unconstitutional, 

trillion dollar health care package has yet to hit the market, 

never mind that, what I propose here tonight, 

flip flops on the Bush era tax cuts 

only reinstated just a few months back;

never mind that I said all-of-the-above energy resources are warranted 

-- I change my mind about drilling for oil in America -- 

I am thinking twice about nuclear in the wake of Japan's disaster 

-- and come one way or another, 

I will nudge, oh so gently, all Americans to change 

their driving habits and more,

and perhaps buy a hybrid built for two...
and never you mind what the Other Debt Commission suggested,
it is time for a new Debt Commission to be put in place,
a commission who truly understands how to reorganize for America...

fundamental transformation of America will not be easy

we must all do our part

...but considering my salvation rests on your salvation,

and vice versa, 

we have work to do, 

and again, it will not be easy.  

But let me be clear...

redistribution of the wealth is the only way out, 

going against everything America is, was, or ever will be, 

is the order of the day;

and what we must do my fellow Americans,

is lead, after China, of course, into the new age, 

for the magnificent global economy is just waiting for us to show up!

Marking new paths of innovation,

and returning to a time when our schools, our children,

truly lead the world again in math and science again...

this is who we are.  

This is what we need to do to compete with the rest of the world.

What I will not do, is change my mind,

the trajectory is in stone, 

this is what we must do.

For in the end, 

the end will justify the means.

One love, y'll

One Nation, One World,

it is one way, or bust, over everything we know and love.

It is for the betterment of the whole.

This is what makes us who we are.

This will be what saves us in the end.

This is what our destiny 

and winning the future is all about.

God Bless you

and God Bless the United States of America (s)

Played world wide, tweeted, on Facebook, 

with YouTube hitting 3 million country strong within 20 minutes

Because that is just who we are today.

make it a good day, G

Dear America,

Your home should rise up to meet you...another Oprah-ism (I told you I was going to catch up to her more often).

It should please you, inspire you, send chills up and down your leg; our home should comfort us, sustain us, and shelter us from the world; it should be a safe place to return home to at the end of the day; and above all, be a sacred place that encircles our loved ones with unconditional love, mutual respect and protection.

Esthetically, spiritually, purposefully, our home is the cornerstone of our world -- and if it isn't, we need to make it so, pronto.

Any home can be it -- it is neither about money, nor status, nor things; the poorest of the poor can still bring a sense of home -- for it transcends the physical, our environment, our surroundings.  It comes from within us and radiates out.   It is the spirit of life, our motivation for creation, our inspiration to rise up and make our life everything God intended it to be.

The Oprah show featured Peter Walsh yesterday afternoon -- the clear your clutter, clean up your life guru -- and literally stripped a family of all creature comforts, gadgets, electronics, outside influences and anything else not nailed down, in order to restore connection with one another.  For a frame of reference, appearing like a typical family of four -- a mom, dad and two boys, ages five and teen.

In a nutshell, the family was ripe with issues pertaining to never speaking to each other, being busy into their own little world's, and basically letting the family unit degenerate and deteriorate right under their noses.  Disconnection became the norm, and they didn't even see it -- until Uncle Peter moved in for a week.

Now Peter, comes from the belief that everything we do and have around us is a metaphor to life  -- how we live, consciously or unconsciously, is how our world works or hinders us from receiving the bounty of life.  Most of his exercises stem from simply turning off the TV, computers, game boys, and phones -- and begin the habit of looking each other in the eye, and talk!  Interacting with each other becoming the new norm.

Let's face it, we've become a bit fried as a nation by our gadgets and electronics, and it is beginning to show.

With Peter taking away "the busy", the family was forced to sit with each other, and oh my goodness, did the metamorphosis begin to happen...within hours actually...and with lasting impressions and new modes of operation for all four.

What a gift; both for being able to watch this family transform and receive the blessings of an awakening right before our eyes, while naturally forcing us to look at our own lives.  Even for the lucky, self-actualized clans, already aware of the abundance surrounding them, there is always plenty of room to go deeper and grow even more.

The idea of stripping down the family to bare bones, cleaning out the clutter (as in a huge garage filled with years of crap instead of cars), ceasing the practice of "self-parenting" (using TV to settle the five year old down and keep him entertained), reinstating the ritual of family dinner, the picking up of our dirty laundry (and actually running a load from time to time), and the keeping of things that we truly love, wear, use regularly, all the while, lifting the burden of trying to hold onto things which clearly no longer serve us.

A funny thing happens when we straighten ourselves out -- to live honestly, find integrity, and live a life connected to the people we have surrounded ourselves with, along with the sacred place we call home -- all of a sudden the family machine begins to hum.

Now you would have to recognize the principles back behind the foundation of this country making it's way to the front door right now -- for within the bounty that is contained within the family unit -- connected to one another, God and to country -- the nation embodied all the nourishment and sustenance required to build generations of good character, honor, love, charity, faith, hope, encouragement, to make a home for all of us. 

For if we were to gather up all the homes, rounding up the families from within, we make a nation -- we make the United States of America.

If you take away "the busy," our founders gave us a gift; our founders created the opportunity where the road meets the world, and fully endowed by our Creator, and with Constitution in hand, were able to construct a shelter, a sanctuary, a sacred place  -- now world-renowned --  where our home rises up to meet us as a nation.

Even though I sense we have already upturned America in the day in the life of the last 157 days in the life of an American girl, truth is, we have only just begun.  We must continue to awaken our inner Peter the Great -- and honestly clean out the clutter, the corruption, the business of being busy from the White House on down and around the block...for in this moment, what is becoming crystal clear is the absence of our big white house rising up to meet us. 

It is time to strip our government down -- take away the busy -- the viral contagions corrupting the primary and true business of connecting with WE the people, and the very reason of their existence -- restoring our inherent duty to maintain a limited, free from bureaucracy, alive with life, monument of civility and integrity home.

Once we take away the busy, it leaves us plenty of time to get at the core values, the principles that not only sustain us as a people, but allow for plenty of room to grow, expand, and live beyond our wildest dreams.

I don't know -- and certainly, do not know everything; but blame it on Oprah, with the help from her apostle, Peter; for the thought of never really knowing what happens behind closed doors is annoyingly ringing in my ear.


Make it a Good Day, G


Dear America...click it....again and again...until you find yourself home...

By the way, the spanish youtube was just by accident, really...but when I realized the irony in relation to the neighborhood continually changing, I went ahead and opened the door anyway. 

Dear America,

We can take the kid out of the socialism but we can't take the socialism out of the kid.

We are the product of our parents -- mostly the biological ones -- up until we reach such an age of independence that is...guessing around thirteen...when we slowly meld into the wide, wide world of all others that grow on us, influence us, shift us and mold us into an adult and ultimately carry with us to the end of our days.

Sure, the daughter of a conservative -- who responsibly cared for her every need all the days of her life -- could ultimately blow out of the house and freely leap into some kind of liberal paradigm -- perhaps even go so far as to raise her own children in a commune, live off the land, sing songs, and pretend the rest of the world does not exist -- at least figure they got it all wrong -- holding tight to her new found enlightenment that the rest of us are simply out of touch with the real thing, man -- that peace, love and Woodstock is where it's at -- leaving every shred of evidence of the contrary behind.  It can happen.


ah the rise of the Utopian generation (again... every century has one or two), if everyone could just share everything -- not even to have one more thing more than another -- than the whole world would get along just fine...

Even if this conservative gave the opportunity for his so-called conservative girl to be able to live on a hill overlooking the valley with a pool in the backyard and horses she could ride.  Perhaps, this little girl went through some emotional valleys, feeling a distance from a father who was seriously working all the time -- he may have been reserved when it came to expressing his love for his family -- or it may be that he was just too busy, traveling the globe for reasons of purpose and pleasure, whisking even her mother away at times, leaving her to a babysitter with the rest of her three siblings in the big house on a golden hill in the best neighborhood money could buy. 

Oh, the cruelty, of having pretty much everything you ever needed from a provider who in his day knew no better...  He was just working; doing what he felt he needed to do to earn a living and provide for his family -- and a very good living indeed.  He was just acting as a father to the best of his abilities;  and for the way it was back then, that was defined as how well you kept a job -- usually the same job for thirty or forty years -- and the ability to pay for the needs of your family and accumulate wealth from it.

Yes, admittedly, she was of an age where most women were told to 'just find a nice boy and get married.'  And when she found such a man, everyone was happy in the big house on the golden hill -- that is everyone except her, the end.

America has seen a lot of that in her day -- this girl wasn't the only woman in the world held to the standard that the best place for the woman is in the home, taking care of the children, leaving the bringing home of the bacon to the man of the house. 

But that was then.  This is now, man.

Here we are; America 2010; having a generation or two since the days where women were expected to grow up to be teachers, nurses or better yet, just find a doctor, honey, and get married and make me some grandchildren.

Oh yes, but that poor girl -- that one who was raised right and to the best of her father's abilities -- that poor dear...

Even if this conservative, who she grew to loathe and resent, provided the ability for her to get a college education and even, dare we say, go abroad for schooling at the age of sixteen, allowing her to get a feel for just how wonderful and perfect the Europeans do it...yes, their natural openness and freedom of expression, their beautiful landmarks and countryside, revealing in every nook and cranny a society of culture... refinement yet so chic; dated, yet so cutting edge; heavy heart and history, yet modern and forward thinking and always and often ahead of their time.  Now THEY are people who know where it's at, man.

The thing is, raising children, it's complicated -- and yet again

Raising children to become active, responsible, accountable, charitable, successful, solvent, kind, compassionate, enlightened, learned, appreciative, grounded, honest, good, productive, motivated, ambitious, hard working, happy people just takes work. 

It does not happen naturally or without effort or without our absolute attention -- it takes work.  And by example, even a girl with everything can grow up and take a look back and come away with nothing, even if only in her own mind.

In the macro sense, America has had plenty of time now to grow up -- to expand our horizons, spread our wings, get a taste for the good life and the not so much.  WE have liberated ourselves from a past that only kept us back!  We have seen the light and see that those founding fathers of ours man  -- boy do they have it all wrong...what were they thinkin? 

"A government of laws and not of men"

John Adams

(why, John, do you know something we don't know pray tell?)

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. 

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John again.

(got that right, man)

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary"
James Madison

(his version of utopia, I'm sure,
but knowing full and well it can't be done
-- man is human and to err not so divine)

"Dependence begets subservience and venality,
suffocates the germ of virtue,
and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition" 

Thomas Jefferson

(now that is heavy, man)

"Do not separate text from historical background. 

If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution,

which can only end in a distorted,

bastardized form of illegitimate government."

back to James

"It is much easier to suppress the first desire
than to satisfy those that follow."

Benjamin Franklin

(bend over once...bend over a thousand times)

"It is the working man who is happy,
it is the idle man who is the miserable man" 

Ben again.

"Tell me and I forget.  Teach me and I remember. 
Involve me and I learn."

yet another Ben

"The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness,
only the pursuit of it.

YOU have to catch up with it yourself."

 oh Ben, talk to me...

It is ONLY in America where we have created a system where everyone is raised under the same principles and values set forth by our founding fathers based simply on a limited government and with respect to all that is required to be in community with one another and instill order and freedom for all . 

The age of learned men and reason came to conclusions about how best to raise it's citizens upon thousands of years of teachings, natural laws already divined by the grace of God that were UNIVERSALLY accepted and believed by every citizen, but holding to ONE key ingredient -- the ability for INDIVIDUAL MAN to continue to be of good nature -- virtuous and kind, simple and hardworking, and promote the wherewithal to keep it going one generation after the next.

In this age where "a learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one" (Ben again, and speaking frank), even a PhD does not give someone enough common sense to live by and grow the next generation -- as evident by all the talking heads today.

Hypothetically if we threw out all books and taught our children just one, let it be The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen.

Back to the opening line and considering that our own American President was raised by self proclaimed socialists... continued to broaden his family's liberal belief system with a Harvard education (studying Constitutional Law, go figure) ...ultimately teaching others what he learned based on his allegiance to both his parental influences, Utopian ideals, communing with anti-American radicals along the way, and attaching himself more firmly to all paths of social engineering and regulation than to the paths furthering greater independence and principles of freedom...now sits in the highest office of the land --  just how far back is he willing to take us?

The irony really!  You know, being that the very idea of the redistribution of wealth was considered ARCHAIC! in the hearts and minds of Franklin, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Washington... you know, based on civilizations past -- based on human nature and the laws that bind, naturally.

Isn't it fair then to question our dear young President of his intentions?  A president who by all appearances and actions thus far, clings to an age old wisdom now clearly obsolete --  an unobtainable ideal that isn't even fiscally possible let alone socially acceptable -- by American standards that is. Just how can a society based on unlimited freedom and prosperity for all NOT make any sense to a learned man of such high education and well rounded background?

Unless, he's not exactly well rounded.
Unless, you are missing something. 
Unless, you look upon the work and the efforts of our forefathers with doubt -- ignorant to the deeper message that they teach us -- or that which they stood for, fought for, gave over ever ounce of their being to create the American dream for, that extra-ordinary something that only comes along once in every five thousand years or so.

It was all for you -- you silly girl --

so that you
could sit here today
forgetting any and all value
to that which came before you
before you got here. 

and now that you're here -- you know, that place where you have everything -- you can look out from your ivory tower with every freedom in the world, man, and every need taken care of, effortlessly and without strain... it's so cool... and resent him -- a father who just did the best he could in the day in the life of your childhood

-- leaving you
with the very foundation, with all capabilities and opportunities, for you to go out and make a life for yourself, any way you like it.

It was all for you.
No need to say thank you; but, counting your blessings wouldn't hurt... gotta start somewhere.

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

It was Paul Harvey who begged the question,


"If pro is the opposite of con what is the opposite of progress?"


If anyone is actually still listening to congress you would think there is nothing good about our health care system at all, even though the majority of us like it very much. Yes, we all believe in taking the proper steps to reform the system; but not at the cost of losing our grandmothers, or starting the reform from scratch.


I am not sure I understand how we got to this "all or nothing" mentality that the President and Congress seem to be shoving down our throats with this package we should have ratified yesterday; but even if it is all or nothing, I would dare say the cons have it when it comes to the argument of a government health care takeover, there is simply too many of us unwilling to go all the way.


And since when does it make sense to rush a 1000 page bill through for signature when it doesn't speak on behalf of what the majority wants? Even the first week of September is too soon!

I have made available the entire copy of this proposed bill for your own review, while at my first glance sit alarmed in fear needing an emergency Heimlich's maneuver. What a mess. I guess creating enough bureaucracy around anything it appears complete and fortified to us simple folk. Of course, since lawyers are the most common profession in congress, litigating and writing new law comes naturally and surely a testimony of how well Washington serves the people...



Why is it all or nothing, black/white, pro/con, republican/democrat? Why? How does this work for us? As a people, it is high time to tear down the wall that separates us with absolutes and prevents us from creating true, honest to goodness American success, no matter what the subject matter. The kind of success that creates and re-creates the ability for all people to live a life in freedom and liberty is what we should be frantically seeking--first week of September would work just fine. And I hate to break it to you but the reality is congress is not the starting point; it requires us to start with ourselves. The nation will fall in quite nicely thereafter simply by our creative, intelligent force back behind it.



Remember, America was founded upon simple ideals and profound principles illuminating the way. The very foundation we seem to be falling off today, allowing America the freedom to grow into what is still considered the greatest nation in the world, was entirely built from a life in relationship with God. Even though we have been taught in America a clear separation of church and state; this one character element of America stands largely misunderstood.



For it was through religious persecution and tyranny of Europe -- specifically Rome -- and England (the Church of) that projected the entire reformation movement to seek a land where all people were free to not only believe in God; but more importantly, to live a healthy, happy and prosperous life under God, any God, in any way you so choose. If you go back to anything written in the 1700's and 1800's you will find it all over the place. God this. God that. Faith in the Almighty was a cornerstone to how we made America. An easy read to pick up today that magnifies this period is found in Christianity and the American Commonwealth, by Charles B. Galloway.

And with all due respect, President Obama, we were born a Christian nation. If you studied American history this would be a no-brainer to understand and respect. Shame on you.

Our country's foundation is shaking right now in what appears from the naked eye simply a breakdown in communication on health care; but under closer scrutiny shows a deeper spiritual imbalance and disconnect. The only reason our democracy has lasted this long, and has remained so prosperous, was due to the pure fact that each and every one of us came from a place of God in our hearts and minds. We lived a life of character in virtually every aspect of our life. Not to say we were these perfect Christian people, but we took the time to consult with a Higher Power and listen to what God speaks within our soul , individually and collectively, and that has made all the difference in the world.

Thomas Moore writes a modern account to these principles in The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life:

Enchantment needs its own specialist, and mystery its own
lobbyist. A theology of daily life, practiced by us all, would open our
eyes to a dimension solidly sealed off by the modern secularistic imagination,
and it would restore soul, because soul is fed by the eternal and the spiritual
as much as it finds nourishment in the temporal and the physical. Our
universities and political institutions could begin to take theology seriously,
placing it in the middle of the village rather than on the fringe, releasing it
from sectarianism, granting long-withheld life to our society, which confesses
its hunger for the spirit and its longing for the soul.

With the way they have responded to us in town hall meetings, our Congress and governing body is battling with us as if we are the cancer, or the devil incarnate, God save our soul. They are sucking the very life out of us under the con of bringing us everything we need -- at a price of course. Logically, we can't keep up the pace of the top 1% paying 40% of the taxes. There will just come a time then when nobody does anything.

Nowhere in the Consitution says we have a right to health care (among other things) paid for by the government, which in actuality is not the government but by the hard work and ambitions of the able-bodied citizens who happen to have a real job. Nowhere. Socialism is not the new Democracy. The men who wrote the Constitution recognized the follies inherent to both a governing body and it's own people, and protected us in every word, and every word written according to the grace of God. Take the time to look it up yourself.

And to think, there was a time when we paid 7% taxes and still raised a family; we went to church on Sunday, sent our children to school and made a visit to the family doctor, paying for things as we needed them or we went without.

Make it a good day, G