Break a leg

Preface:

This is a bit more serious that most of my posts.  As I've said before.. I never expected that anything I write here would redound to the betterment of mankind.. I always felt that if I could just get a few laughs by allowing others to take a stroll though my particular take on things then this forum would have accomplished its goal.

But I have been watching... for about the past 30 years now, with great interest, what has been happening in our culture and especially within our schools with regard to so much violence.  And I'm not just talking about after-school fights.  We've always had those and probably always will.  What I'm talking about is the utterly psychotic rage and emotional breakdowns that seem to be occurring almost on a monthly basis.  Something has gone terribly wrong and no one seems to be able to get a handle on it.

This is not a rant about gun control.  This is not a rant about putting God or prayer back in the schools.  (Frankly, I'd be happy if they could just put Education back in the schools.) 

This is an observation drawn from what I call a 'video tape' view rather than a 'snap-shot' view of some rather stark changes during this period and what I feel is the core cause... as well as how it might be addressed.  Because up until now we just seem to keep pouring on more of the same things that have caused the problem in the first place.

We didn't get here over night.  You don't change an entire culture over night.  And so it will take some time, if people are willing to at least explore .. how to begin to heal this wound.. because what we're doing now simply isn't working.

It's about a 10 - 15 minute read.  No pictures this time - this subject is too important.

Thank you for reading with an open mind.

BREAK A LEG:

Other than a theater reference wishing ‘good luck’, there can be no good connotation for the notion of breaking a leg.

Imagine if you will, a boy comes home from school one day having been abused by a bully.  His leg has been broken.  The parents, as any parent would be, are deeply concerned and want to know how this happened.  The boy goes on to explain that there’s this big kid in class who picks on others... and sometimes he gets a little rough.

They listen with great concern and empathy, and as the story unfolds they are making haste to get him to a doctor as soon as humanly possible.

Good call… or so you’d guess.

The doctor examines the boy, and while looking down at him and rubbing his chin, he says: “Yep, that leg is broken alright.  And there’s only one clear fix - we need to...

…. break the other leg.”

I’m sorry,,,  what??

“You heard me – I’m a doctor…  I'm in charge and clearly know what I'm doing.

 The other leg has to be broken....  we should get him prepped for the procedure.”

Let’s get serious for a moment..   of course this is an absurd scene; and of course exaggerated to make a point:

We are losing an entire generation.. and will continue to lose subsequent generations to the fiercest bully of them all if we keep trying to fix the problem with the same ‘remedies’ that caused us to lose this generation in the first place.

When I was growing up I lived in a world where if you were having a bad day at school, or trouble with an assignment, the teacher could pull you aside and put their arm around you and give you a little pep talk – sometimes a shoulder hug and perhaps a little kiss on the forehead just to let you know they understood, and to let you know that everything was going to be alright, and that together… you were going to get through this.

They might have used humor to defuse the situation, or perhaps draw from personal experience about a time when things weren’t going so well for them and how they dealt with it.  But either way, the goal was to make a human connection.  You knew that you were not alone. 

They took the time and made the effort so that you knew and felt, that as a person… as a human, your problems mattered to someone else… that there was someone in authority who not only understood, but cared and could help do something about them.  It meant that you were Connected on a human level.

And it was because of this connection that the very same teacher who patted your head one week could look down over their glasses the next week and let you know that they were disappointed in you... or that you were not living up to your full potential and this meant something to you. 

It is because of that same connection that they had earned the moral authority… and it was because of this connection that what that person Thought of You…

….was important to you.

These people set the bar high because they wanted the best for you and understood that no one ever “rises to low expectations”.  It was a good system.

But … no more.  

Sadly, that kind of caring or concern on the part of a teacher is at the very least considered ‘suspect’, if not total perversion.  So in an effort toward self/ or career preservation, those teachers must disconnect: 

“I’ll be damned if they think I’m going to put my life and my career on the line for that nonsense in this day and age… not for a crying student… I just can’t”  And so..

… no more Human Connection.

When I was growing up it was not uncommon, in fact a regular occurrence for an adult to make casual conversation with a child in the grocery store line: 

“My, what a handsome young man… what are you going to be when you grow up?”  Or “What a pretty little girl! … How’s your summer going?” 

There was a time when parents would actually smile as they watched this time-honored exchange… of youngsters learning to interact with adults because they understood that this sort of ritual was essential to human development; Children desperately need this level of interaction and connection with adults as part of the maturing process.

Sorry - Not anymore.  That sort of thing is now considered ‘suspect’ as well. 

“Why, only a Pervert would initiate familiar conversation with a child out in public like that!”  Or “They’re just CRUISING for their next victim.. that’s what that pervert is doing!!”. 

And so rather than face that level of risk…  Adults sigh… and give up… and stop making the effort… and leave the child alone to text in peace.  And so.. no more Human Connection.

When I was in high school and the star football player made a touchdown he could slam that ball down in the end zone and dance to his heart’s content.  The whole community rejoiced with him. These types of reactions are a completely natural human response.  It was just a given:

“Kid who makes the play has earned the right to show off a little.”

Sorry - not anymore. 

If someone had told us back then that there would come a time when that sort of thing was not only frowned upon .. but would actually be Forbidden – we’d have reckoned them utterly mad.

But here we are – in the year 2014, when supposedly we’ve ‘come a long way, baby’, and actually doing everything we can to separate our kids from natural human emotions and responses.   Responses and reactions that were given to us by the Creator as a part of who we are as humans. 

Think about this – to live in a culture where it is wrong to CELEBRATE ACHIEVEMENT or victory at a high school ball game….  and instead…

Ready for this.......?? 

Glorify the Kartrashians. 

Seriously??

Doesn’t anyone see what’s happening here??

And what have we instituted in place of natural human responses and growth patterns?

A system supposedly designed to ensure that no one is ever offended, nor will ever have their feelings hurt again!  A culture where no teacher will ever be considered a pervert for simply wanting to help or mentor a child. 

A system which completely separates our kids (and the rest of us, for that matter) from the Human Connection.

A system that is completely counterintuitive to who we are as humans.

A system ultimately designed to produce robots who will never question 'The System'.

The reasoning given goes something like:  “Now we mustn’t celebrate victory excessively…  we don’t want to (and I’m not making this up!) hurt the feelings of people on the other team…  we don’t want to offend the other side.”

NOTE:  The feeling of Triumph over Challenge and Adversity is God-given.  It is the feelings which come with defeat that inspire us to press harder.. to seek answers.. to fine-tune our performance..  to Get Better.

And so rather than celebrate the Human Spirit..  we crush it.

As a culture, for whatever reason, we have worked hard, , , in fact, especially hard over the past 30 years to completely separate youngsters from who they are as humans...  to remove any and all semblance of human connection, having attempted to replace it with an attitude of non-thinking, non-feeling total uniformity.    

Rather than striving to equalize opportunity, we have worked toward equalizing outcomes and the results have been disastrous.  This is a perversion equal to the exact same perversions we have sought to avoid… by avoiding all appearances of human connection in the first place.

And so over time..  when these kids and future generations… naturally and subconsciously begin to rebel from this madness, as evidenced by so many news stories over the past few years – they are simply branded ADHD and drugged. 

There now... that’ll fix that!

Please get this - - - And when they rebel from this insane indoctrination…  we chemically lobotomize them.  Rather than address the actual problem - this sin of systematically destroying Human Connection, in our attempts to heal this broken leg -  

….we simply break the other leg.

…

with things like Ritalin… or the passage of  more feel-good, do-nothing legislation... or rules in school that forbid natural human emotional responses - apparently geared toward the wholesale elimination of this thing called the Human Connection. 

“If we dehumanize them we’ll eliminate all the problems that come with that.”  “Rather than teach them and mentor them how to work through life’s problems.. we’ll simply ‘deprogram’ them by allowing those particular ‘muscles’ to atrophy … to the extent that’ll never be a problem again – we’ll eliminate that entirely…

….along with the next Einstein… or Hawking..  or Saulk… 

In essence, we have normalized and legitimized the Crushing of the human spirit – but it’s for all the right reasons...      right?

And so eventually,,,  when one of these poor disconnected victims of this social perversion just snaps, as they are beginning to in great numbers… and there’s no one in their mentoring up-line… No level of human connection to ground them …  No teacher who cares and waiting to be proud of them… no minister, who was not about to be “seen as cruising for their next victim” … when there’s no one to look up to…  When the ultimate goal is reached and they are no longer connected to humanity…

… they walk onto a school campus with a gun, or some equally bizarre activity.

And, to be very clear:  this is not a rant about gun control.  Haven’t you been reading?  Guns are not the enemy.

This is a rant about reversing the cultural evolution which is destroying the process of maturing young people into successful and well-grounded adults.  This is a rant about what is actually causing the problem, and it is not “access to guns”.

This is not a rant about the ‘wayward trigger’.  This is a rant about a set of conditions.. and conditioning, which would inspire someone to pull that trigger. 

We’ve had access to millions of triggers throughout our history, but never, ever, have we seen a time when so many people wanted to pull them – and for all the wrong reasons. 

It’s not about the trigger.. it’s about the motivation.

This is a rant about a concerted effort to destroy what it means to be human and turn it into something else… because we have forgotten how to deal with these precious jewels as individuals.  Seriously.. who can be bothered, right?”  There are so many of them.. it’s just easier to zombie them up with propaganda and drugs.

And so rather than address this problem, what we hear in each of those situations is

“We need tougher gun laws.”  Or

We need to ban words like “bossy”

Wow – really??  As long as we continue to say that broken and disconnected children got that way because there aren’t enough laws on the books and we need even more laws – we will continue to sound like the doctor who says:

“We need to break the other leg.”

In essence the doctor is saying, “we need to engage in SOME type of activity for the sake of appearances, but to actually address the core problem doesn’t accomplish the ultimate goal.”

We don’t need more laws.  What we need… is to do whatever it takes to re-humanize our precious youngsters or we are going to continue to lose generation after generation.  

Children desperately need the Human Connection – not more laws.

What we’re doing now isn’t working.  It seems like more and more, as these horrific events unfold in our communities.. the answer is always to pour on even MORE of not only what isn’t working…..but can NEVER work.

This is the reality you earn when you allow people into positions of leadership with absolutely no leadership skills or vision.

It’s a mess of unimaginable proportions.  The President doesn’t get it – or won’t get it.  The congress doesn’t get it.  Limbaugh doesn’t get it.  Hannity doesn’t get it.  O’Reilley doesn’t get it.  And what’s more, they don’t want to get it… because it doesn’t promote their “Us vs. Them” agenda.  It’s not an official ‘talking point’.

In order to get the point across…  In order to shed light…It’s going to take a leader who knows something about leadership to begin work on this and frankly, I’m deeply concerned that there doesn’t appear to be one on the horizon.  

But until that time, for anyone reading who would venture down this far down the page..  Please, Please.. Speak to children in the grocery store line.. Please Engage them in friendly banter..  Please Help the student who just can't seem to grasp the concept and will be lost without your insight..  Praise the winner of the spelling bee, or the science fair..  CHEER like Hell when the young man or young woman scores..     Help us all to restore the Human Connection .. the Art of Conversation...  the Beauty of Mentorship... To hell with "diversity" ..  Praise Achievement ... And please, let's all do our best to turn this thing around before it's too late.

And should there be someone .. anyone.. with the particular type of leadership skill of which we're in such desperate need right now...    If that person does come along... they’re going to need all the luck and support they can get... and to that end I send to them my sincerest good wishes and would say to them from the bottom of my heart:

“Break a leg.”

~A.B. Miller

“The Man of a Thousand Opinions”

03/31/14
 ________________________________________________
 
Better guide well the young than reclaim them when old,
For the voice of true wisdom is calling.
"To rescue the fallen is good, but 'tis best
To prevent other people from falling."

Better close up the source of temptation and crime
Than deliver from dungeon or galley;
Better put a strong fence 'round the top of the cliff
Than an ambulance down in the valley.

~Joseph Malins - 1895

Don't leave school without it

Most people who know me have heard more than once the story of Mr. Abell and how he took me under his wing years ago, helped shape my philosophy and set me on a lifelong search for things of value.

I can remember clearly, as if it were yesterday, his words to me - "No excuses, only Results... the name of the game is Results." "The market won't pay for excuses and apologies; apologies are not solutions to problems, they are a salve, but not results. The marketplace will pay only for results!"

What an amazing time in my life, and it's only taken 20-some years for the power ideas of Mr. and Mrs. Abell to come full circle in my consciousness. But they are just as poignant today, if not moreso, than they ever were.

Another great awakening for me were his thoughts and ideas on education:

"It doesn't take money to make money. Get that idea out of your head right now. It takes Education to make money and to make something out of yourself. The Lord himself created the Earth in six days and didn't have a business plan." "Ignorance is NOT bliss... Ignorance is devastation! Ignorance is illness and poverty!" "What you don't know CAN hurt you.. can hurt your bank account, can hurt your future..."

"That's the thing about education, Allan, Don't leave school without it."

"Learn now to Love and Master the disciplines it will take to turn Your dreams into reality."

And so I did - and still do. So much so that education and the education process has become a major passion of mine. As my dear friend and Master Educator Ms. Dianne Gum says: "The goal of education is not just to teach, but to ensure that Learning Takes Place." Incredibly powerful words to be sure.

In recent days, I've been hearing about the mass layoffs in the Los Angeles public education system. It seems the system...

(by the way, the system that says to parents:
"We're NOT going to allow you the freedom to alot your dollars for education the way that YOU see fit to educate your children, because WE know best. Instead we're going to require you, by force and government mandate, to surrender a substantial portion of your income to us and in turn WE shall decide what is best for the education of your children - grades K - 12." And whether or not WE achieve the desired RESULTS (oops... There's that word again!) is of no consequence here. There are Plenty of excuses to go around, and we're actually not accountable to anyone and there's really not much you can do about it.")

.... is having some difficulty living up to its promises. And so their answer is to just reduce the number of educators, increase class size and in general make an already horrific system with zero accountability just that much worse.

Excellent! And this is from the same mindset which is hell-bent on taking over health care, but I digress.

And so in the recent news story I heard on the way to work this week, there are outtakes of recordings of the teachers' protests on the steps of the Los Angeles County courthouse. You can hear them shouting:

"Who got the Pow-ah??!!" "WE got the Pow-ah!!"

"Who got the Pow-ah??!!" "WE got the Pow-ah!!"

UH-mazing.

Could I just make this one little observation, please?:

If .......... I were an 'educator'... and RESULTS.... (i.e. ensuring that learning takes place) were the goal... and my job was about to be cut due to budget shortfalls...... and I wanted to prove to society at large that I brought a certain sustainable Value to the marketplace as a professional....

I would CERTAINLY not be standing on the steps of the courthouse, attempting to plead my case at the top of my lungs,,, using the most HORRIFIC GRAMMER possible to prove my point:

"We GOT the power." (???) Good Lord, my parents would have been mortified.

To me, this would be like the surgeon who wanted to prove his value by NOT washing his hands before he operated. It's just difficult to fathom.

~~ A little boy on the street corner with a little stand and a sign: "Smart Pills - only ten cents."

One of his friends happens by and asks with great skepticism: "Smart Pills? Are you kidding me? No way!"

The young man reassures him: "Yes, they are bona fide Smart Pills; you won't BEElieve the results!

At this, the young man can't resist and reaches into his pocket for a dime. Sampling the pill he notes: "Hmmm,,, I don't feel any smarter..."

His merchant friend replies "Maybe you should try another one." And so he digs for another dime and pops another pill. Still no change.

"I'm not sure about this; I tell ya I just don't feel any smarter and I only got one dime left!"

The clever young entrepreneur counters - "Well, try just one more and if you don't see it working the rest are on the house!"

Seems like a fair offer and so he profers his last dime and takes a Third pill.

"HEYyyyy... These don't taste like Smart Pills! These taste like Rabbit Turds!!"

And running away, laughing, his friend yells over his shoulder "See?? You gettin' smarter already!"

Will we ever learn?

StRaying The Course

~”….Now, for when (not "if" but "when") Russia decides to set their foot over there I sure am glad that Bush already has us standing and waiting. It's going to happen, it's just when is it going to happen.....All in the name of Oil….”~

Recently, a well-meaning friend made this comment on an earlier post: "And He is Us." I started to respond with a comment in that same section, but it sort of took on a life of its own and I felt it significant enough to warrant posting in this forum. Enjoy.

First things first:
So that someone reading will understand when I use the word ‘poster’ here.. I am referring to the person who Posted the response to my blog; as in “one who posts”.


MY RESPONSE: to the delusional tirade, or notion that The President knew what he was doing all along:

I was going to ask the 'poster' "is that your final answer"?? - and are you SURE that this is the point you want to make? I wanted to mercifully give you some avenue by which you could back out.. to give you the opportunity to say.. "Gotcha! I was just kidding." But since I know you well old friend, I'll forge ahead.

However, before I do:

Let's first of all define and illustrate (that would be "explain" for those of us educated in government schools) the concept of an incorrect premise vs. a correct premise:

If I were to ask you if your mother still "works the corner" at Peachtree and Sixteenth street - Yes or No?? You could not Answer that with a yes or no.

The reason you cannot answer with a yes or no is for the simple fact that your mother does not, nor has she EVER worked the corner at Peachtree and Sixteenth. My question to you is based on a completely Incorrect Premise; the premise your mother ever worked ANY corner anywhere; which in fact, she has not.

Your comments on this blog speak to a premise that is non-existent in this debate. (Like the politician who would not dare answer the question he had been ASKED, but will instead answer the question he WISHES HAD BEEN ASKED).

I understand that your hatred for liberalism (whatever that is) is so strong that you will defy logic to support ANY supposed opposition. But in this case...the so-called opposition is so unbelievably and provably spot-on that it is difficult to imagine any rational person taking exception.



My point was, and still is, that they claimed there were weapons of mass destruction - and there were none. They said THEY KNEW... that these were not suppositions... They KNEW. They lied.



Our Commander in Thief NEVER, EVER made assertions about protecting Iraqi or Iranian oil deposits from the Russians, with regard to the march to war in Iraq. What he did tell us however was that Saddam Hussein had "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and that he was a "Threat" to our national security. He spoke of "Mushroom Clouds" and "Unmanned Aircraft", possessing capabilities which would allow them to easily deliver "Chemical Weapons" to any of our major cities. THAT's what the President said.

Think about that for a moment - The Commander in Chief of the world's preeminent fighting force and intelligence gathering apparatus NEVER EVER, EVER, EVER TOLD US that we needed to protect 25% of the world’s light crude (as YOU Said) or that we needed to keep the Russians out of the thing they’d long hoped for: a Warm Water Port. I might have even been able to accept that, HAD THAT BEEN THE PREMISE he chose to send us into battle. But he didn’t.

He ……Never ……Said those things.

What he SAID was that we were in "Grave and Immanent Danger".

What those “Democraps”, as you call them, DO understand, for the most part …is the English Language, and those words or assertions NEVER CAME UP …in English.

(For the record, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, as I cannot see any difference in either party other than the spelling of the names. I am a registered Libertarian)

He NEVER said “All in the name of oil” Never said that, my friend. He said: “Immanent Danger”.

And when ambassador Joseph Wilson went to Nigeria, Africa to substantiate the claim that Iraq was purchasing yellowcake uranium from them, and came back with the news that there was no sale of yellowcake uranium from Niger to Iraq – his wife, Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA operative was thrown under a bus and out-ed by our very own vice president and his own henchmen, destroying years of networking and undercover status for many covert operatives working in the area.

Apparently the only Real parties to be in “Immanent Danger” were those who understood (Please see the ‘Downing Street Memo’) that this whole Iraq thing was totally bogus, and would seek to expose the madness and lies.

From the United States Senate Iraq Report, July 2004:

1999
An Algerian businessman, Baraka, allegedly arranged a trip for the Iraqi Ambassador to the Vatican, Niger and other African countries.

2001
On 11 September 2001, terrorists attacked the United States.

On 15 October 2001, the CIA issued a report, credited to a foreign government service, that Niger planned to sell several tons of uranium to Iraq.

On 18 October 2001, the CIA wrote a finished intelligence report that said, in part (36-37)
According to a foreign government source, Niger as of early this year planned to send several tons of uranium to Iraq under an agreement concluded last year.

Iraq and Niger had been negotiating the shipment since at least early 1999, but the state court of Niger only this year approved it, according to the service.

There is NO corroboration from other sources that such an agreement was reached or that uranium was transferred.

United Nations Security Council (UNSF) Resolution 687 prohibits Iraq from purchasing uranium although the transfer would not require the application of safeguards.

In view of the origin, the uranium probably is in the form of yellowcake and will need further processing to be used in an uranium enrichment plant.

Iraq has NO known facilities for processing or enriching the material.

The quantity of yellowcake to be transferred could support the enrichment of enough uranium for at least one nuclear weapon.

On 20 November 2001, the Director General of Niger's French-led consortium said "there was no possibility" that Niger had diverted any of the 3,000 tons of yellowcake produced in its two uranium mines.

2002
On 5 February 2002, the CIA issued another intelligence report from the same foreign government service. This report included more detail and indicated that the agreement between Iraq and Niger totalled 500 tons of uranium a year.

In a 15 February 2002 report, the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) aserts: "Iraq probably is searching abroad for natural uranium to assist in its nuclear weapons program."

NOTE: that two key qualifiers observed in the original CIA report are unchanged: there is no new source corroborating the claims and no new data on Iraq's (in)ability to process yellowcake. Also, there is no evidence offered to counter Niger's denial. However, the DIA reports to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.

This is from the United States Senate Report on Iraq, for the love of God – And even if any of the Complete Fabrications (those would be "LIES" to you and me) were even remotely true – none of them reflect the PREMISE that you, the poster, established in your response to my blog, which was that we were actually there to KEEP RUSSIA FROM GETTING IT’S HANDS ON A WARM WATER PORT SUCH AS IRAN.

I could go on all day, literally, and put up one fact and truth for every lie the administration wants to tell, but A: I don’t have the time, and B: nor do I have the space.

What I do have, however, is the wonderful use of modern-day technology to show them in their own words just what miserable, lying, treasonous bastards they are:



"Misperception"?  Wow!

In conclusion –

Liar in Chief??…..you be the judge.. EITHER…. We went to war….to keep Russia from getting their hands on a Warm Water Port…. And to control 25% of the world’s light crude...

OR…… as the President Said, we went to war because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.. and we must act Now.

I’d have just much rather seen him come out and tell it like it REALLY is/was… rather than to have to wonder constantly about what other lies were being told to me.

(You see, a liar isn't a liar because he tells lies,,, he tells lies BECAUSE he is a liar... and can't stop... any more than the alchoholic can stop drinking 'any time they want.'

"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." (James 1:8 KJV) )

But what is disconcerting to me in the extreme is that it's not just that he seems to lack the ability to do that ..... apparently, what he lacks is the capacity.
_____________________________________________________________

Addendum:

The story is told of a man in a mental institution who is convinced that he is dead. His Doctor, his wife and his children exasperated, keep telling him he is not dead. But he continues to insist that he is dead.

They try telling him, "Look, you're not dead; you're walking and talking and breathing; how can you be dead?" But he continues to insist he is dead.

Finally, after a bit of inspiration the doctor, thinking that the man simply doesn't have enough information; that once he is shown by way of medical fact and data that there is no way that he can be dead - will see the light and come to his senses.

So the good doctor pulls out some medical books and is able to demonstrate to the man that dead men do not bleed. After some time, the man is able to admit that dead men do not bleed.

The doctor then takes the man's hand and a needle and pokes the end of his finger.

The man begins to bleed. Armed with his new awareness he looks at the wound and says:

"Well, what do you know? Dead people DO bleed!!"

And he is Us

I read early this morning about a shooting at a mall in Kansas City this past Sunday afternoon… A few people are dead, including the gunman.

Just two weeks ago, a student at Virginia Tech, shot and killed at least 30 students before turning his bullet launcher on himself. (If this had been in Iraq, he’d have been referred to by our media as a “Suicide Bomber”… an “Insurgent”, if you will. )


I live and work about 15 minutes from a not-so-cozy area here in south Florida known as Riviera Beach, where there is literally …and hardly a week that goes by that you don’t read about yet another murder or two in that town. The chances are better than average that as you drive through Riviera Beach at night that you will hear the strains of the local “Insurgents” battling it out in the streets, if not actually see people running across Broadway with their heads down, trying to escape the madness. And yes, I have seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, which is precisely the reason I no longer short-cut that route to North Palm Beach.

In the past three years, I can’t even begin to recount the number of news stories coming out of this part of town involving innocents just walking down the street and suddenly taken down by random gunfire, or gutted by a hunter's knife; or the many children strapped into their car seats – devices, ironically, that were designed to offer these precious youngsters some degree of safety – just snuffed out.

When I read about these things my heart is poured out to parents and family. But even more so, my heart goes out to all of us; to society as a whole. These mindless, guideless freaks and predators, who would unconsciously, and instantly choose to take the life of a child, and all of that potential for good, rather than to even consider that there might be… nay… MUST be a better way.

In contrast, I think about someone the likes of Gen. Colon Powell - who stood before the United Nations, in a mad rush for approval to make war with a country that not only did NOT attack us, but did not possess even the mere capability to attack us – pointing out, with stern and grave visage, the aerial photos depicting what appeared to be trailers, mobile launch sites for delivering their horrible "Weapons of Mass Destruction”.



"We must act NOW.", he warned.

“If we do not fight them (whoever ‘them’ are) over THERE we will fight them over HERE.”, our president has said repeatedly. The ‘THEM’ in this case, incidentally, seem to be nothing more than native Iraqis fighting for power and turf.

Amazing.

So let me just see if I have this straight now: We were going to “fight them over THERE” to protect our Liberty and Way of Life, so that we would not have to “Fight them over HERE.”

And yet somehow, despite all the ranting I hear from Washington, I still do not feel one bit safer HERE in the streets of my own country than I did 5 years ago – for the simple reason that I am not any safer.

All this time in Iraq now, untold thousands of our best and brightest sacrificed… wasted,,, the billions of dollars spent (and profited, I might add), and all the other losses along with it... I know we’ve all heard those various losses mentioned over and over and so I won’t bore you with the list - and yet I STILL do not feel safe enough HERE to drive down the center boulevard of Riveria Beach.

There is evidence which now Demands a verdict showing clearly that they are already fighting HERE, and have been for quite some time; seeking to destroy what little sense of Liberty we once took for granted – and along with it our “Way of Life”.

(And they don’t wear turbans, or ride camels or any of the other stereotypical B.S. that our elected hate mongers would have us believe)

It may sound Uber Cliché, but I think we have met the enemy, Mr. President –

and darned if he doesn’t look exactly like us.


(Actual White House Photos ^)

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