30 October 2016

Move The Capitol !

Some years ago I wrote about moving the nation's capitol from Washington D.C. to a central U.S. location.
It makes sense to me for a couple reasons:
-Geographically, it makes NO sense to have our center of government so close to the edge of the country. A missile fired from say, a submarine, could literally land on Congress' head in seconds.

-How many of us here in "Flyover Country" feel our elected reps have NO idea how we struggle to deal with their poor decision making?
Would their attitude be affected if our government's heart was moved to somewhere like Omaha, Nebraska, where legislators would be surrounded by corn and wheat fields?
I can't imagine it wouldn't.

Will it happen?
(Are you kidding?)
Should it happen? Would our country be a better place if it DID happen?
The fact I'm posting this shows how I feel about how our "representatives" are representing us.

I'm hoping for change.

21 October 2016

Rigged?

This is not NEW news:
It's generally accepted that the 1960 presidential election was thrown to Kennedy by Mayor Daley of Chicago.
Elections since, (the Franken election in MN comes to mind), have been situations where the democrats simply kept finding new votes to count until they won.
But I have a story to relate that may surprise some:

Sara Jean had a brother with Down's Syndrome.
"Pat" lived in a facility designed to care for 16 children/adults needing special care.
The closeness of the 2000 Bush/Gore vote numbers, (less than 600 in Florida?), caused me to wonder-

Did Pat and his 15 disabled housemates vote?
So I called the facility and asked.

"Oh yes, they all vote!" was the enthusiastic answer.
"But Pat has the mind of a 3 year-old. How does he have the ability to discern who he wants to vote for?"
"They all watch the news on TV."
"Really? So he goes into the polling booth alone and votes?"
"Oh no, there is a staff member that asks how they want to vote and assists them."

Sigh.
This is a State-supported facility. Do you think any of those 16 "kids" voted for a conservative candidate?
And what is REALLY scary to me is to imagine the numbers of mentally challenged adults across the nation being "assisted" by State-supported employees in the polling booth.

Bush won in Florida by a paper thin margin in spite of this fact.
I wonder...
At what point do folks like me get tired of being trampled beneath this "rigged" bureaucracy?

We used to have journalists to expose this sort of wrong.
Now?
We have our own version of Pravda.

16 October 2016

Destin, 2016

So here we are, a few feet from where I wrote the initial post for "Pitchpull" in 2005.
It's been a month since I've posted here.
Hard to explain what's going on in my heart...
I've come to the realization that the country I was willing to die for no longer exists...
How is it such a large portion of my countrymen are willing to vote for an admitted socialist?

I... we, have to move on.
But for me, this is like learning an alternative way to breathe.

Destin Florida is one of the more beautiful places on the face of the earth.
Near last-minute changes find us planning on spending our Winter here again.
(It's hard, but someone has to do it.)

Back home now, at least four people we know and love are dealing with critical health issues.
Survivor guilt... it's hard to be here enjoying an adult beverage on the balcony overlooking the Gulf while we know others are praying, frantically hoping for a miracle.
We want to be here, but we simultaneously want to be home comforting those we love.
Instant communication is wonderful, until it isn't.

Think I'm confused and conflicted?
You're right.

We have a spare bedroom.
We've offered it often.
In three years it's been used three times, one week each.
Let us know you're interested. I need the chance to vent...
Therapy.


We'll leave the light on for ya.




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