Across the Horizon

It has been just over two months since I published my last blog. I decided to step back and just drink the water of our world to assess direction, pitfalls and concerns.  We have just gone through a GOP Convention  and Trump, I feel, presented his case well.  I think the greatest and overshadowing reality is seeing so boldfaced the bias in the  media.  It is not wonder We the People are misrepresented, confused and angry.  The racial reporting by the talking heads and the police hating in print and on cable news leaves no doubt when our nation is residing in a cesspool sadly.

In seeing this bias via observant assessing, my stomach turns on CNN which is really sad yet eyeopening after so many years.  We are now facing a Democratic Convention so I will have more of a sense of the Liberal bias by the media.  In my whole life I have never felt more strongly that the Clintons back in the White House after this last eight Obama years would be a global disaster with corruption in the mainstream.  Perhaps I am wrong and frankly hope I am but my gut and my heart says Trump and the GOP, as divided as it is, must be the new resident.

With all this choppy water with sharks swimming everywhere, my greatest concern is for my grandchildren and their world. Too much national debt and rising, drugs galore, societal values eroding; yes my concern is great for Logan, Isabella, Noah, Gracie and Hopie.

I am absolutely convinced that America has turned so far from God that we are witnessing life without God after so many years of ridding schools, churches and lives of God's principles.  There are those that will read this that will scoff or rationalize I am just an old man ranting but in my heart, I believe my sentence of this paragraph is exactly what is happening.

So we will see what Philadelphia provides but my greater concern is the deterioration for the rest of the Obama presidency as the Middle East melts via ISIL.  This is inexcusable and will be a black mark on the Obama legacy as will the Iran Nuke debacle so prepare for nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorist soon if not already.

Your thoughts on my comments are appreciated.

The Values from the Post WWII Era

 A little earlier I was watching through tears a Charlie Rose interview with Michael Kinsley who now has latter stage Parkisons Disease. I have watched him many times in interviews and contributions and always appreciated his insight and energy. To see the devastation of this terrible disease was cutting to my heart in realizing we are both basically the same age.  In one of his responses to Rose, he spoke of the four stages of life which always interests me. Sadly, he never spoke of Heaven nor anything spiritually but that is a choice he has made. 

Interestingly and thus what caught my attention was about the "value" he had been given and experienced from his parents for he was a typical, whatever that means, Baby Boomer with two parents at home, calmness in the home and time investment by both parents into his young life.  He is a brilliant man thus I found myself probing and prodding the canals of my own childhood looking into the mirror he described to see if I could see mine in there any where.  Mr. Kinsley's childhood and mine are sort of but not very similar.  

Please keep in mind the predicate of my mindset is on the horrific nature of that dread disease for but for the grace of God I would be there as well as would be each of you reading this.  His closing comments fundamentally were about with only minutes of life remaining, what becomes most important?

All the cars, the wealth, the desires that tend to fallow our lives on the journey turn to mist and what you are left with are memories in snapshots.  Wow, think about that!  I have no doubt that when my time is no more on this earth that that next moment I will be transformed to my heavenly home in my heavenly body so it only gets better from here and I believe that in my Faith in God.  For those that do not share that faith, I realized per Mr. Kinsley that one moment after end of life, there is no hope and that really purged me into the reservoir of what the essence of life is and why. 

The values I derived from my childhood are certainly unique to me and quite ununique to Kinsley. He was reared in wealth, two parents doting on him, assured of college at Harvard where his father attended.  He was apparently smothered in love and adoration by both his parents and that yielded a scholar with amazing writing skills that loves his family and even more is that love as the reallity of the Parkinsons looms ever near his time remaining on earth. Watching him through this lens took me to tears and near sobs.

My life, destiny and journey based on experiences is quite different and in fact completely different. Yes I had two parents but being doted on, loved on, energized, pushed, etc, were not the verbs I can recall.  Alcohol was a major force in my upbringing due to my father. My mother was a hard charging, tough love, saving, work for every nickel lady that I admired for her drive.  A value she bestowed on me which lasted me to this moment was "always work hard for your boss and he will always take good care of you."  Well, that did not always hold water through the trajectory of my life but still the value equation was sound and I still adhere to its merit. Another value was always be on time and never quit. Amen to both as those that know me will attest.

There was never discussion nor expectation of a college education as to my parents being financial partners in the journey.  Basketball provided me the means to get my college thus I poured my heart and soul into that venture. The force that fueled I realized in retrospect was the overwhelming desire to leave the place where I was, to be part of something big and good to experience the nations of the world. I knew that by age twelve or so. Happily I can say that I got to experience all of those in that last sentence but it came with a cost and it came with much good so while Kinsley's value source was quite different than mine, I would not change one thing, now, about what I was given to work with.

The Values of the post WWI, the Baby Boomers some call us are a vast list to accomplishments based on pushing and driving to accomplish and then to thoroughly enjoy the pleasures of the accomplishments. Some chose to use their bodies versus their brains and that never turns out well. But what I see lacking so vividly today is a lack of driving, pushing to accomplish and a desire to succeed.  I do believe social media, electronics and the economy are part and parcel to the why but the value to accomplish through hard work is direly missing. My wife and I are so blessed to see that push and drive in both our children and in their chosen spouses so we know our grandchildren are being filled with the Post WWII values still.

So the question, what are your Values you are instilling into your children and grand children for this is a generational matter?

B R E A K I N G N E W S

Good morning with now cup one under my belt, I am emboldened to venture to the cave of words that I have remained distant from for too long some say. Let me first say that it is still amazing to me to realize in so many ways and places that people actually read what I write and even more strangely to seek my thoughts and advice; kind of creates a glow in my belly when those times fly by.  

Our world is a vineyard of dichotomies and misadventures that is fraught with the minefield of a bitter and embittering election cycle for President of the United States. People may wish or choose to ignore the unignorable but the POTUS election 2016 is epic and will be studied by historians long after I am gone and the ignition cap is spelled T R U M P.

Even inside my family there is angst with any hint of a comment that might have an odor of supporting Trump. It is actually quite funny to me to watch people on tv that will posture their comment with a smirk or insinuation of negative about Trump, worthwhile I wish to add, but then as the words flow you realize that at the root of what I think is a majority of the electorate is that they are less for Trump the man and more for the disgust with the others still in the race. I know that is the category where I reside.  

For me, I cannot envision another Obama-type in the White House but then I could not imagine that Obama that is in the House now being there so the old adage about politics creates strange bedfellows is so very true.

Last night as Trump cleaned out by landslides five states, it is my belief we will see the caustic rhetoric subside, perhaps, as I believe there is a clear view that Trump might actually have a clear path to the convention with going above the 1237.  

The shenanigan pulled by Cruz and Kasich showed the degree of desperation and the results of last night I am quite sure have both of them reeling rightly this morning. For me the real concern I have for my nation is with the Clinton Machine and that is, by any other term, what it is in getting a two-for-one package with huge dollops of corruption, criminal activities, heavy baggage and then then age old Bill issues and societal values that will be rolled out yet again for the camera lights of the world to drink from the overflowing well of salaciousness the Clintons provide. 

Please know I am certainly not over sighting Trump's history of wives and no doubt other dealings we will learn about but it all shapes up to be a Trump / Clinton Duel at El Diablo that the Americans will be sickened by and the world will scoff about and in the end, it will be We as a Nation that will be pushed further toward the scrapyard of greatest we once were.

If there is an absolute reality of this POTUS slug-fest it is this; AMERICANS ARE SICK OF THE ESTABLISHMENT and I am one of those. I sincerely believe the entire Congress should be given a sixty day moratorium under threat of impeachment for nonperformance on any piece of legislation that is not heavily bipartisan with a metric on how much legislation time is spent each day working on crafting. To learn of across the street from the Capitol huge, fancy call centers where Congressmen are directed to spend several hours each day calling for donors since law prevents them from calling from the House, I find that deplorable and rancid of a grand scale.

As I have written many times, there is simply too much money and too many lobbyists in an ever bloating Federal government and I think the conglomeration has surpassed manageability. Look at the VA for just one example.  The VA is a metaphor for what I believe is the impossible task of bringing true accountability to the table thus making it a political pawn in a sickening, embarrassing game. There are so many VA-types that is just inspires this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought and impact on millions of veterans and their families.

I began this write with BREAKING NEWS for that is a new tv event to get your attention.  Our nation is sick and the populace sees Trump, because he is bold and blunt and not part of the infamous Establishment as a hoped for fix for this ever growing cancer of a government made more cancerous over these two terms with Obama and a truly inept Congress. Americans want change out of sheer desperation and Trump appears the tallest of the pygmies; that is truly sad but very true I believe.

At the root of all of this, I believe, is the result of a nation that has grown more European meaning more godless.  Heroin, abortion, suicides, aberrant behavior and lifestyles have and are becoming the sick norm in our nation.  Never forget Sodom for reference. America has walked away from God; THAT IS THE BREAKING NEWS.

The Rhetoric of our Today

Scorched earth, bodies in shallow graves, Cleveland in flames ... This is representative of the discourse in our America I hear more and more by the pundits, talking heads and the world is listening. As I listen to this poisonous use of the language, I am disheartened and frankly, quite disappointed for when you factor in rhetoric like that against the context of a world that needs the traditional American leadership and assistance and oversight, the real gravity of the legacy of this environment strikes at the heart of who we are or were is probably a better grammatical expression.

As I have sought to distance myself from the never ending BREAKING NEWS and other bright light approach to saying the same thing in different hues every fifteen minutes designed to stoke the fires of worry and concern, cable news, I have found this sense of calm, better sleep and enjoying the other things of my life via my detachment from the news. But the reality still remains that our essence as Americans is under threat from outside as well as from inside.  

We as a nation are growingly, apparently, liking each other much less. The scourge of drug addiction, suicide, premature deaths, bursting jails and prisons, the infamous "Movements" that breed and feed on themselves; all are cancerous polyps eating away at the internal structures of who we are or once were. Social media has been an enabler and a catalyst for people to bash each other, attack other's thoughts and opinions mercilessly. The politics of our time is truly startling and down right distasteful.

In today's WSJ, Mr. Trump has an op-ed that I have read three times. Whether you like Trump or not, forget the man for a moment but reading his words or somebody's words with his name on them, he captures the realities of where we have come.  Ducking and weaving, shuffling, cheating, berating, attacking for the sake and the joy of attacking has become a new norm in America politics it was seem. 

I still believe there is more than enough blame to go around but at the head of the line, for me at least, resides this most ineffective and disruptive presidency under which we now struggle plus this absolutely worthless Congress.  It is simply amazing to just try and figure out what Congress is doing. I would highly suggest taking a few days and just watch the live feeds on CSPAN channels asking yourself what is really happening and and why is this not about the major issues chewing our future as a nation to shreds.  I honestly believe the system and the institution has been so corrupted over time and the precedents and procedures of Congress preempts even the feasibility to working as an effective lawmaking body.

In other words, I have decided our Constitutionally-based three branch system is in need to a major overhaul for when I see smart,  good, well intentioned people go to Washington and become part of the money-fueled swamp of ineffectiveness, then it is, for me, a systemic cancer that triggers and sucks in the newbies lead by the veterans. The blind leading the blind seems appropriate to describe what is a Biblical statement of this current reality.  When I have smart friends that work in the political realm tell me "not to worry for this is all quite normal and it will all work out .." I find myself getting really angry for what is not said is "hey idiot, we got it so not to worry." Well, an idiot I am not and I want answers to my questions and I demand solutions to the problems. 

Please know, I am not angry but just concerned and fed up with the whole mess.  I think Trump has done one thing and that is to cast a bright light on the political class and creates the explosives that implodes all great empires through the ages. For that I give him full credit.  In this lighting of the torches for Americans to see for the first time the depth of the graft and manipulations of the legislative system and body, the too long silent majority are speaking and thus the political class are circling the wagons to protect the class; not to enhance the nation. THAT IS CRIMINAL!

The Facets of this Thing Called Life

Yesterday I was deeply moved by watching a television interview by Charlie Rose with the writer for the New York Times, David Brooks. I have always found Brooks to be a clear minded, precise, incisive wordsmith. I have watched him in interviews many times before with each time causing me to drill more deeply into my own heart, life, being. Yesterday was an especially much deeper drilling to the point I recorded the hour interview so my wife and I could watch it together as we did last night.  I will say right up front that I do not embrace the whole of Brook's responses and ramblings but the essence of this comments and the amazing questions tossed to him by Rose put me on a much deeper and, I believe, richer plain spiritually and emotionally.

As I lay in bed after having awoke somewhere around 2 am, I lay there in the quiet darkness pondering what I had experienced viewing the Brooks interview. I even made some copious notes on my planning calendar during the interview hardly none of which I can read this early morning. I decided to start my day about 3:30 am even though I was basking in the black quiet of the laying down time serenaded by the breathing and small movements of my sleeping wife.  Yes, I even found myself in the darkness listening to her breathing patterns with this smile of thanks for the years she has invested in me and the many, many things, places, events we have shared together.  I recommend this therapy and it will only cost you some sleep but worth every breath.

Many years ago I heard of Viktor Frankl that wrote many books about his horrific experiences at Auschwitz; a place I have trod on four different, unique occasions.  Frankl was a brilliant Jewish doctor and reduced, in essence, via his writings after the experience of the daily hell hole of the death camp, to looking at the experience through the eyes of a sociologist meaning its impact on people and how they individually dealt with the unimaginable daily doses of torture, pain and suffering.  As I listened to Brooks' comments, my mind kept retracing the steps to Frankl's learning and teaching.  I will paste in a link that will give you a broader and deeper insight into Dr Frankl's view from the inside which, turned out, was quite learned and unique.  The essence being that even in the midst of an existence a normal person could not imagine, focusing on the value of the work and the contribution from the work was a means to stand above the pain and suffering of the Holocaust.  His work was groundbreaking and relevant to this day I believe.  http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/viktor-frankl/.

Perhaps, for me at least, the most predominate take-away from the Brooks interview was framed in the question; What would you do if you were not afraid?  That question literally changed my breathing pattern as I began the personal drilling of my heart and soul with a dull drill bit. My wife has always described me to others as "fearless" which can be a two edged sword as you can imagine. But we all, as humans, have fears that serve to create boundaries, flashing lights and stop signs. True, we can choose to ignore the eminent danger but still, the warning signs are there. So the question, if all the warnings, lights and signs were psychologically removed, what would each of us do differently?

For me, in reflection, I believe what spoke most loudly to me through the hour was about what are the priorities we set for our lives.  Those that know me realize very quickly I am driven, ever hungry to understand, love to encourage those on my journey, love to see people encouraged even in the tough days and times and want the best for every person I know and will do what I can do to be part of getting them to meet their capability and potential. Brooks spoke of men and their masculine and feminine components with both being vital to the man as his life meanders through the cycles and channels of life.  Four major priorities Brooks spoke of for a man; choosing a spouse, selecting a vocation, determining one's faith and integrating into a very personal community. I have found myself, now sixty-eight years old retracing in my own life and journey how very telling and true those four phases truly are for me personally.

There was much spoken of on the topic of emotional connectivity  and sensitivity to others which is where the vital reality of the blending of the masculine and feminine traits meet the grinding wheel of life. I think it was the first time in my life where I fully processed the whole concept of a man having and needing feminine reservoirs from which to drink at pertinent times.  

I have known people, many people, in my life, that have developed such a hard edge to people, issues and events that I came to realize that edge was constructed from the hurts and scarring of past hurts. Brooks also rightly spoke of and with example the amazing implication's success in life and vocation being directly linked to the degree of love that person was imbued with from one's mother. The special type of love is amazingly vital to the channels demanded of effectively working with others as life goes forward. I fully believe that and see that love abounding in my grand kids by their mothers and their grandmother, Alicia, that loves in so many and so deeply ways. I realized in what I get to see within my own family, easily taken for granted, is the arming mechanism for these five grand children's lives and interfaces with thousands of other humans on their journey. It is truly an awesome thought process to seek to fully grasp but I believe absolutely correct.

I will conclude with what Brooks and Rose spoke much about which was C.S. Lewis's works especially in his book, Four Loves. I have researched that this morning and have ordered a paperback copy to read. I look forward to what will be revealed in me and about me when that reading is done.  It is my belief that my faith has been deepened in other's, about life and my relationship with Jesus Christ.  Given that alone the time to put some words from my heart together and the deep pondering these last twelve hours have been invaluable.

We are blessed to walk this journey together though we may not always see it or realize it. I see so many people in my life, now, some imprisoned behind bars, some imprisoned in the jail cell of aging and disease and some by just choosing to imprison themselves via drugs, hate, dissension.  I feel completely free of cells of constraint due in full measure to my belief that there is a life after this one that will far exceed anything I can imagine. I believe, as well, God is not done with me yet as more and more doors of opportunity and challenge continue to be opened and I never met a door I would would not walk through if I believe others would be made better as a result.

We live in a world more transparent that any of us can remember and this both a good thing and ac curse I am realizing. The current presidential campaign is proof positive of that assertion.  But just yesterday via FB an interesting dialog ensued with a former very special, most unique student that I have utmost respect for. I pushed back on a post the put up on FB for it, the post, was not reflective of the person and the woman I know her to be.  Add to that as I preached semester after semester, is that employers now immediately go to social media when assessing the potential hiring of a person so what is on FB becomes a mirror of what the employer sees and assesses.  I addressed that directly with this student and she pushed back on my comments defending her "right" to be who she is and it is "unfair" to be assessed by an employer from a social media post.  Others were chiming in supporting her position. I chose to address this more personally in a private FB message which turned into an amazng, uplifting dialog between two people that respect and admire each other. 

I use that to say that we all need each other even though we may need see it, realize it or even choose to ignore it but the fact still remains, People need  People more than ever before. Thank you for taking the time to read this rendering from my heart. I feel closer to my family, my wife, my friends, my Lord than I have in quite a period of time. I wish you the best and hope something in this rendering has touched your heart as well.

Attacking the Problem

Daily we are bombarded by this cancer called ISIL.  Daily I am still dumbfounded by the apparent lack of will or capability to vaporize what we are told is a relatively small group, say 30,000 people in a global grouping of recruits that are radicalized; whatever that means.  I see world leaders after a major blast say all the right things, pine about the need to annihilate this threat but here we are several years and many thousands of deaths later reading the same script.  I find it unacceptable and down right ludicrous.

Every problem appears insurmountable until you bring the right people together, identify the real threat decide an end state vision develop a small set of strategies, staff out the strategies and attack the problem.  Why am I not seeing this simple, non-complex approach?  There has to be some much greater forces at work for this to be allowed to go on as long as it has.  I fight the populist view that all Islam is corrupt and thus supportive of the ISIL movement but all evidence to the contrary I will state that if Islam is truly concerned about the view of their religion, then that religion is culpable to be part of the solution. I am looking for that but not seeing it.

I learned a long time ago that if you want to get to the heart of an issue, follow the money trail. Somebody is funding this ISIL movement so I find it hard to believe it hard to identify the funders / donors to this bloody cause.  It takes a great deal of money to fund a war machine so I cannot escape the belief that there are Islamic nations, families, royal families, global donors sending money to keep this movement alive and growing.  Let me underscore GROWING for from the apparent reach of ISIL as evidenced by Paris and now Brussels, the ISIL reach as grown to global proportions.  And STILL there is minimal military involvement by the nations of the European Union in the fight against ISIL. I find that sad and very interesting!

Often I wonder in retrospect what FDR did in the early days after December 7, 1941 and visiting Cuba to attend baseball games I doubt was on an agenda item along with half of Congress to enjoy the weather.  My belief is FDR immediately brought his generals and intelligence leadership together and gave them a timeline for a plan with options back to him for review and selection of core strategies. Why are we not seeing this approach?

Let me be frank, from all outward appearance, the tail is wagging the dog meaning ISIL is rattling the capitols and their leaders to the bone and we seem to be cowering and hoping they will not do their dastardly deeds again. Hey, it is not going away and it will escalate!  How do you handle a bully? By out bullying him.  He hits you, you hit him back with a 2X4. He his you with a 2X4, you stick him with a knife. Hit harder and more lethally until the message is clear. The message obvious is not clear and that is ridiculous to have the greatest war machine ever known to Man be jerked around like a school kid on a playground.  

I wan to see somebody in leadership get really angry. Wonder why Trump is popular? Trump shows that anger Americans are starving for from our government leadership but we are getting dosages of pablum, nice politically correct sound bites to the point it makes me sick.  So if you do what you have always done you will always get what you have always gotten as we are seeing over these last two agonizing POTUS terms.  I say again; the great blame of this global mess resides at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

So you can know, America and the civilized world, whatever that means anymore, is losing yet another war to a bunch of thugs!

The Gettysburg Address 2016

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln

November 19, 1863

Gettysburg is a very sacred place for me for I have blood on that field of battle. Having walked the fields and read many books and the movie GETTYSBURG many times, my heart rate elevates each time I have the honor of the trek to the field. Walking its unique terrain, imagining moving hundreds of thousands of troops into Napoleonic formation assuring mass death and yet these men did as they were taught with great result.  

Each time I trod the fields, the elevations and my mind is a whirl to synthesizing what I had read to the actual locations on the ground, walking the paths of large troop movements on a hot July time in the heavy wool uniforms as massive road marches add color to my mental walking through the battlefield in hopes to grasp the reality my forefathers did for me. I always leave the lastest Gettysburg adventure feeling renewed, refreshed and more proud of my relatives that made that horrific journey into the cauldron of lead and hell for a cause and a purpose.

Today will likely decide the actual people that will vie for leading our nation.  As you read through the text of the infamous Lincoln speech that touched so many so deeply at its enduring application since the Autumn of 1983; in that brief 130 year span, I cannot escape the sense that our nation has transgressed to a nation much like the one that was unfolded in the lead up, during and after the Gettysburg Campaign.

Lack of trust in generals and political leadership was the norm and not the exception.  The balance of a nation's future hung in the balance of the outcome of the Union after the 1863 bloodbath Lincoln so aptly put to words.  There were widely divergent views of the President that swung from love and respect to date and disdain.  There were institutions that hung in the balance Lincoln knew had to be abolished from the face of the earth. Lincoln clearly saw the mandate for close international diplomatic relationships and for me most of all Lincoln knew the nation has to bee joined as never before the forces of our nation to be able to achieve its true greatness.

I believe it very ease to see that the world Lincoln faced with the agenda of hard work to get accomplished via his leadership and fortitude is as viable and distrait today on steroids. I believe our nation has chosen the path of all defeated empires by turning insides, erecting real or imagined walls to protect with the fence. In every case we as a nation have attempted this, we end up in a global war I see that as inevitable unless the walls are opened via trade, diplomacy and must pure leadership

Recently I watched the UN Ambassador from the US indicate that America does not need to lead everything global initiative but for every global initiative, the world want and needs America nearby for we have been the stabilizing forces since before WWII. We have elective via this current President to abandon that sacred high group. That, for me, is criminal and the great indictment of the Obama Doctrine whatever that turns out to be for I still certainly see nothing but more Keynesian economic and monetary policy, broader entitlement safety nets and every increasing Big Government that somebody must pay for which, of course, will be additional borrowing and increased taxes regardless of what they say in the campaign.

If the next generation of POTUS leadership is determined today by Ohio and Florida then so be it. The campaigning has turned mean, sour and unproductive and America is quite tire of the spectacle; this American is. One this for absolute sure shown vividly in this election is that Americans are fed up with the Obama tenure and the gridlock in our nation's Capitol thus the likes of Mr. Trump ride high in that saddle. He may be an irrelevant POTUS in office but he does offer a cool drink of water of chainsawing decades of dead wood embedded in Congress, the White House that has our nation stymied.  The rest of those still standing, for me, clearly represent continuation of the way it has been down this primrose path was have stumble down via the last eight years of ineffective leadership. 

Racism is worse than in the 1960s due in large part to the cadre media outlets such as CNN has collected of African Americans bent on creating negative rhetoric that is creating this atmosphere of race baiting and cop hating.  I must believe our nation is better than this but you know, perhaps we really are not better than this and that is very, very sad.

We need to very new beginning; not more of the same old same old!