I finally did it, fwiw.
10,000 times I punched the button .. and plop, like magic, there it was. I wanted to make this one a little more personal than most of the others.
Congratulations on your 10,000th punch of the button! You just never know which particular punch of the button is going to have a profound affect on a newbie or a lurker.
Thru it all, I've tried to be respectful , altho in some eyes here, I am likely to have failed miserably.
Some wise person somewhere told me to take what I liked and to leave the rest. Personally, I've never noticed you to be disrectful but maybe that says more about me than it does about you.
You see, I don't continence BS too well, I grew up on a farm and I can tell a pile of poop from art or hooey with the best of 'em or at least like to think I can.
Well, I didn't grow up on a farm even though we spent time in the summer at the ranch. When the wind was just right, the stench from the feedlots could be mighty strong. As we've found (with certain artiste's) there are people out there who really can't tell a pile of poop from art. I consider them to be deprived in one way or another.
231 years ago, a nation of laws like none other was founded on this continent. It sought to establish a land that all individuals could have opportunity and freedom afforded to them as long as they weren't abusive of those inalienable rights we are all endowed with weren't abused.
Of late, I'm not sure why, but I get an uneasy feeling that something is afoot, ya see, I don't walk the same corridors of power that our elected officials do. I don't get spoonfed what I want to hear, I see and hear things I don't want to hear and believe and then have to come to my own terms with them.
Now, I see where a lot of folks only want to tell me what to think and how to act and who to vote for and not ask questions.
That disturbs me, to say the least.
If I were to give you any advice, it would be to continue to ask questions, realize you are perferctly capable of feeding yourself and don't need any one to spoonfeed you anything. You aren't the only one to see, hear and then have to come to terms with what you're having to hear and have to come to terms with.
We all have a finite set of days and I reckon I've used up a fair share here at FR the last 5 plus years but I'd like to think they weren't all in vain.
So if I sound like I'm reaching out for something but I'm not quite sure what, that's OK. I know I'm just like so many others here.
Many of us reach out and there are times when we find a nugget or more and other times we end up with our bucket empty.
We are all captives to a degree of our own upbringing and raising, the things we have experienced and shared with each other.
When I see someone being wronged, I'll do what I can if I know I can make a difference, but as Dirty Harry once said, "A man has got to know his limits."
I guess I am at a point in my life where I am asking myself is, have I made a difference? Does what I say really matter?
Every day you wake up and continue on with the fight, you've made a difference. The thing is, it oftens doesn't come up and knock us on the head. (Wouldn't it be easier if it did?)
Which leads me to the nugget of the thread.
This nation is on the precipice of greater opportunity and greater challenges up the ying yang for all of its citizens.
Yet, we are also encumbered by a millstone of a government that has in some if not most ways lost touch with what this nation originally was founded for and that is to nourish its people and help them to grow free and string, unafraid of the future and what lies ahead.
FRankly, I don't like what I see today, a once proud nation is chastened by its allies and enemies alike, accused by many of its own citizens of not doing enough by some and doing too much by others.
This nation is divided like it hasn't been since the Civil War and in need of unity when it is under attack like never before.
I'm not sure I'd use the analogy of the Civil War but I'd say if was as divided as it was during the Viet Nam War.
In the end, what I think or say really won't matter that much to most and I can live with that, but still, when I see those who should know better seeking to undercut the principles and laws we have held dear for so long and replace them with global compacts and international laws that govern us without care for the individual, I have to admit, it ticks me off.
When I see a 2 party system that seems to be going thru identity crises and can't seem to figure what or who they represent and actually embrace foreign law and leaders and their doctrines, it really ticks me off.
And when I see those who once fought for this country, now seek to surrender to a larger governing body or to a few "special" folks, well, I won't say what I feel.
Anyway, let this be my own way of warning to All that seek to surrender our sovereignty or our way of life to any entity for any reason, don't expect me to support it.
Now isn't the time to throw in the towel or to silence your voice. Is there more we can be doing? Yes there's more to be said and more to do. We can't just give up because then we lose.
Ok, now I went and done it.
Oh well. That's what its all about it, isn't it? Gittin' it done.
and it looks like that's what I can close on.
That no matter what happens in the future , folks can look back and say
American Patriot
Ya got it done, again.
God Bless.
God Bless you as well as our country!
See ya all around, Folks.
This better not be a good bye!
Thanks for your kind comments.
I thought of using the Vietnam war and not the civil war, good point .
If nothing else , I used the thread to blow off a little steam myself, I did little pondering of what to write and chose to wing it. It took about 30 minutes or so to put together. and you're right you never know what will register with who here.
I realize I am but one individual but I also know that an army is built of a lot of ones and when united with a common purpose and plan, can accomplish great things.
I also caught a typo, thought I got them all, darn.
I meant to say .. help them to grow free and strong,, not string.
Again, Thanks, and I still hear cows in the foothills above our tract, so I may have left the farm long ago, but those cows help to remind me of where I came from.