Sugar Creek Publishing

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

# 127

October 15, 2012

“TV Land”

It might help if you are a fan of old movies and the TV Land cable channel or into a deeper history of crime in America; but neither serves a benchmark for this discussion.

Since the inception of 24-hour news channels, I have been a devotee´ of televised White House news conferences. Since the early days when CNN was the only choice for viewers, daily broadcasts have been a blend of both the historical and the hysterical. Helen Thomas provided color in spite of herself, while other reporters pressed the Press Secretaries throughout varied administrations for details of seminal happenings.

If the topic was hot, no reporter let up in the questioning; and, often, the presidential press secretary felt as if he or she was in the “hot seat” and not behind a stately podium.

That atmosphere changed with the current administration. These days I sit rapt with attention, and yet I feel as if I’m seeing an episode of “The Untouchables!” With rare exceptions, few pointed questions are posed and few really credible, sensible answers are given. Giving the White House a “bye” on hard situations is irresponsible and dangerous for all of us.

Since Benghazi and the terrorist attack of September 11th just a few weeks ago, the discussion has dissolved into an effort of futility for the White House. This is no Watergate, folks. Nobody died in Watergate. Furthermore, in the “anything goes” campaign waged by the DNC these days, a break-in of the Republican National Committee would position itself as a badge of honor and not the devastating, resignation-promoting presidential event of the Nixon administration of the 1970s.

How sad that our independent press has abrogated its duty in the face of a threat of terrorism. Where is the term “war on terror”, by the way?

Where is the Eliot Ness among the White House Press Corps? Why aren’t the reporters digging hard for why the White House is willing to throw the blame on the State Department for misleading the public into a belief that a 2-minute video trailer with barely 19 hits on the net over the summer is responsible for the death of an ambassador and three other Americans? In a land where village electricity is rare, just how many Jihadists are surfing the net for a little snippet of film? Think they all carry cell phones? Hardly!

Why did our tax dollars pay for a nearly immediate televised apology in the Muslim world for the aforementioned video? Why has the U.S. State Department remained silent when Libyan leadership knew immediately that terrorists were responsible and in the wake of congressional testimony this past week?

The administration dispatched its UN Ambassador to the Sunday television news shows to reinforce the implausible story. That Susan Rice was complicit in this speaks volumes as to the loyalty of the president’s staff to lie to the American people? How sad. Where is her honor? Or is she as much in the dark as the rest of us?

I’m ready for an onslaught of intense questioning for Jay Carney and a demand for the president to get up in front of reporters without a teleprompter and be forced to answer. Let him squirm at the depth of the queries. Let viewers see how nonsensical the whole situation truly is when it comes to common sense.

The role of the press is to hold every administration, regardless of political party, accountable for its actions. We haven’t seen much of this, have we?

Isn’t it time that we did? We need to appeal strongly to all news networks and print media. We need to urge them to vault into this chaos and deception with the zest once seen on a regular basis in the nation’s capital.

Let’s change my take on the press conferences from “The Untouchables” to
“Dragnet.” As the inimitable Jack Webb would say, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Remember, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but not to his or her own facts. That goes for everybody from you to the president. It’s time for facts about Benghazi. Think about it.

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

#126

“’Nuf Said”

If you have any sensibility about you, I think we have one thing in common: electoral burnout. I am weary of all the hype and the spin coming from Washington to excuse a president who is so busy campaigning on nothing at all that he complains about preparing for a debate.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to contrast one element of background between these two men. One worked either in community organization or government while the other worked in private business.

Government operates on the most addictive drug of all OPM, not opium. OPM stands for Other People’s Money. Government jobs produce services, not products. The services span all genres and the only visible product is paper — primarily in the form of rules and regulations that infringe on the lives of people over whom they hold sway.

Private business, on the other hand, accounts for the wealth of this nation. Business must generate a profit to remain viable. Government remains viable at the expense of the taxpayer, who foots the bills for bad decisions and poor investments such as the ongoing love affair with green energy.

The cogs and wheels of business forge ahead in spite of the government, event though it is hampered at every turn by immense burdens of not only taxes, but inane rules that make no common sense at all.

Business profits generate jobs and equipment. The demand for tools and or equipment generates jobs in other areas, and the spiral continues and benefits opportunity that spreads throughout the nation and accounts for the financial well being of people of every economic stratum.

If a business cannot make money, it must — if possible — declare bankruptcy and has the option of reorganizing and structuring debt so it has a second chance. There is no second chance for a country that is bankrupt. We face this situation now.

I am tired of empty promises and poor decisions. I want a proven problem solver, not a glib salesman. The American public was sold a bill of goods four years ago. I must trust that voters who recognize that mistake will see fit not to repeat it.

A person with a keen financial eye and good judgment can turn this country around, and it won’t take decades. I heard an economist last week. He explained that for every one percent increase in GDP, there is a corresponding trillion-dollar decrease in the national debt.

Do the math. If we could achieve a three or five percent rise in GDP — and that is not impossible if the government will get out the way – balanced with needed decreases in ridiculous spending, the debt would drop to a level that we could handle — and eventually erase. Now, that’s progress, folks!

This is not just a game of one side against another. This is a race for our lives and the future of this nation. I find it amusing that the faux pas of “You didn’t build that” has gained a life of its own. One thing is for sure, the government didn’t build this country, its people did.

In our expansion years, the federal government stood aside and let risk takers do their thing. So, in 200 plus years, we earned status as a nation that was the envy of the world. Our strength is in a strong defense. A mouse doesn’t attack a lion. The lion roars and often doesn’t need to defend its territory because weaker animals know enough to let it alone.

Throughout our history, the American lion held freedom so dear that it sacrificed untold numbers of its young to spread that freedom to others, all the while remaining a good neighbor in the world. It’s time for the lion to roar again, but the lion needs the teeth to back up that roar! Systematically dismantling and demoralizing the military, while ignoring looming foreign threats, is not the way to do it. Peace through strength is the path.

As my Grandpa was accustomed to saying, “’Nuf said!” Let’s chart the right path in November. Every vote counts. Don’t let anyone discourage you from standing up for the greatest nation on earth. I would end with “Think about it,” but if you must think about it, you aren’t thinking at all!

# 125

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

September 26, 2012

“Second Story Man”

When you hear this term, most of you think of a home burglary and access over a roof, but there is another, more ominous meaning currently.

Reminisce a bit and return to early 2009. We faced an economic mess with a new occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. More and more people were losing their jobs and the answer we received? “Pour federal money” into the situation and it will improve.

The first story we got was wrong. The second story — as Paul Harvey would have put it, the rest of the story, although never properly acknowledged as truth — was that things became worse. The claims made are hollow. Drilling has been on private land, not federal land. Executive orders and regulations are the order of the day. It doesn’t work, folks. It is a pipe dream.

You cannot resolve debt by incurring more of it. It just doesn’t work, no matter how much someone pushes it as the proper thing to do. Jobs do not appear magically when federal dollars flow. Personally, I found the term used comical: “shovel ready”.

Consider the plethora of signs that attribute public projects to the Recovery Act. One might ask, “Just how much those signs cost?” The project is the goal, so why an expensive road sign? If the sign had said, “This sign cost hundreds of dollars to inform you that your federal government has no common sense at all when it comes to money!” It reminds me of an alleged philanthropist who insists on putting his or her name on anything donated. Identity is everything to those people, as it is to this administration.

Since brevity is the soul of wit, I give you a second, and most recent, instance and then you can mull over the information and come to your own conclusion.

The first story of September 11, 2012, is that the torture and murder of our Ambassador to Libya and three other brave Americans is chalked up to a very amateur video that originated, ostensibly, from California. Even after Secretary of State Clinton said that the attack was terrorism, Obama continued to cite an ongoing “investigation.” The video story was trumpeted by the administration until it could not ignore the facts. Oh, how inconvenient — facts. They are lethal to those with an agenda based on disinformation. The truth is that the consulate attack was premeditated and perpetrated by Islamic terrorists and planned to fall on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The President of Libya stated the facts while our president blamed a video and the supposed insult to Muslims.

It’s too bad that the Muslims don’t adopt that policy when it teaches its small children that Jews are pigs and deserved to be slaughtered. Their animosity toward Christians isn’t lost on me, either. Try building a church in the Middle East today and you will ignite a firestorm — and riots.

Well, I am tired of the “second story man.”

Give me someone who acts on principle and facts — not on feelings. I will never apologize for the fact that untold numbers of Americans have fought and died to give others the opportunity to live as free people. I will never question the Founding Fathers’ wisdom when they wrote the U.S. Constitution to protect us and bless us with a gem of a republic.

It’s time for us to take the high road. State the facts. If they hurt, so be it. Act on facts. Judge people by their actions. If you can’t trust your leaders to speak the truth, you can’t trust them at all. I don’t want to have to worry about the first story I hear. I don’t want that lingering dread that a second story looms — a story that cannot be ignored because it IS the truth.

A second story doesn’t deserve a second chance. Think about it.

# 124

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

September 19, 2012

“Poll Cats”

Well, if you are like me, you tire of all the latest “poll” results. When in a doctoral program at IU Bloomington, I took a class on crafting polls. It was more than an eye-opener. It was an education in itself. My Ecuadorian professor was very intent on teaching his students that it wasn’t so much the tenor of the poll — or the meat of it, for that matter — but it was the way in which the question was asked and the sample of respondents. He was aghast at the way polls were cited as actual reflections of current opinion. He said that they were a reflection the sample and the wording of the questions themselves.

It is well known that voter registrations are imbalanced across the nation. Traditionally, more Democrats are oversampled in the statistics – far more so than Republicans, Independents, or Libertarians. Given that, you cannot trust polls the way you might believe.

Recently, the longest sitting Senator (from Indiana) was unseated in what was deemed a close race. Pollsters did forecast Mourdock victory over Richard Lugar. But the spread was 22%, 17% higher than the pollsters 5% estimate.

So much for the poll cats… If you are dissatisfied with the current leadership and ache for a change, don’t be dispirited by the supposedly accurate poll results. They are misleading at best.

Many researchers cite that the Democrats are oversampled at thirteen percent. That’s huge, folks. I haven’t received a call yet, and I doubt if any of you has either. Remember, polls cannot accurately forecast turnout, especially this year if the baseline is drawn from 2008. That year a unique candidacy evoked as much as a celebrity response as a political one.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a celebrity who jokes around with his sleeves rolled up that he would wash an opposition member of Congress’ car to get cooperation. I want a leader who projects bold ideas in the face of financial collapse.

And the threat against China launched by our incumbent president only AFTER Mitt Romney hammered down on the abuses of currency manipulation???? In light of the current, serious Chinese threat against the Japanese bond market, what would keep them from going after our markets and destroying what’s left of our financial base? The answer is nothing.

We now fund most of the Chinese military. Even Ancient Rome, at its zenith, didn’t do anything as stupid as funding the Visigoths. Folks, that’s like feeding the tiger poised to eat you. Forget about the manipulated polls voiced in sync from the mainstream media to discourage conservative voters. Don’t be discouraged! Be ready and urge anyone with whom you speak to do the same!

Israel sits as prey to Iran, our Ambassador to Libya is raped and murdered, American flags are burning around the world, and our esteemed leader is busy fundraising, then appearing on Letterman and rubbing elbows with Hollywood and entertainment stars. Meanwhile, The White House tells Israeli Prime Minister that nobody has time to see him.

I recall one inane comment from the earliest days of this administration. A critical presidential advisor quipped, (sic) “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Well, this group IS a crisis in itself and has let the country go to waste. What’s more, they have had a determined, inexperienced president complicit in this effort. Perceived weakness is quickly becoming actual weakness.

Paraphrasing Clint Eastwood, if someone doesn’t do the job, let him go. In this case, it’s not hard to figure out who that is. Think about it.

I purposefully do not write on 9/11 if it falls on a column day as it did earlier this week. I was nervous at the 11th anniversary of the attacks on America, and I cannot — for the life of me — figure out how the U. S. State Department and the military contingents assigned to protect our overseas embassies and consulates did not heighten alerts and strengthen defenses.

All that aside, we have four Americans dead for no good reason at all. These men served their country and tried to help a beleaguered, Third World nation attempt to right itself and assume responsibilities in the family of nations.

On 9/11, as has been my habit, I defer from writing. Instead, I put that time aside for sober reflection on the events of that day and say prayers for the survivors. The deaths of the thousands on that day include people of virtually every ethnicity, religion, and origin known on this planet. Peacefully going to work was their doom.

Television stations aired the images of the planes hitting those buildings and the smoking hole near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a little less than two weeks. We saw the threat and felt the warning for a time, but then we seemed to put all that aside and go on as if nothing happened.

The echoes of The Alamo and Pearl Harbor faded as fast as a summer-achieved tan in the fall. In the wake of the events of THIS 9/11, what did we hear from our government??? An apology for possibly offending Muslims. Oh, please. Give me air.

These same folks at the helm of our government were decrying Christians faced with a Crucifix suspended in jar full of urine. Where was the defense of Christians? Absent, as usual.

So what if someone doesn’t believe in God? How does a blessing from God hurt someone? If they are right and there is no God, the blessing is benign. If they are wrong and The Deity DOES exist, they are blessed in spite of themselves.

I have had it up to my ears with apologies to dissident or splinter groups. If same sex marriages were the norm, the human race would have become extinct at its beginning. These folks don’t reproduce. They recruit.

Schools are for learning. Schools are for inspiration. Schools are not for indoctrination. Books on why a child has “two mommies” should be read in a home of that description, not to a classroom full of impressionable children.

What was once unacceptable has moved beyond the tolerated to near normalcy at a rate that should scare the pants off of any thinking person. That, readers, is the crux of it. People who are ripe for these ridiculous positions of “political correctness” don’t think. Listen to their words. You seldom hear the statement, “I know.” Instead, you hear, “ I feel.”

Well feelings are fine if you hand is on a hot stove, but useless if you are expected to logically assess a dangerous situation and need to base your decision on facts!

Our Secretary of State has heralded herself a champion of women’s interests for as long as I can remember her in a public life. Yet, the most heinous crimes against women are routinely done by Muslims.

Forced circumcision, birkas, small girls forced back into a burning school because they lacked proper headdress, relegation to property status, and the list goes on….

Where is Clinton’s outrage at the treatment of Muslim women? Sadly, the appointment of three recent women Secretaries of State might have fueled an even higher fervor to hate Americans, given the fact that Muslims have no respect for women whatsoever. What we consider accomplishment, our enemies in the Muslim world see as an insult and an abomination.

At what point will the American people see this threat for what it is?  Where are the peaceful, hard-working Muslim-Americans in all this? Why don’t we hear their voices? I fear that they are so severely threatened by the Islamic fanatics in their mosques that they fear for their own lives.

The time has come for us to stand for our values. You don’t negotiate with an enemy that rapes women as sport and beheads Western journalists and airs the video like a soccer game.

Among the more than a thousand mosques in the United States may dwell the next wave of terrorists and yet leadership are want to call the threat for what it is. Never before the last three-and-a-half years did  I fear for my country. Undoubtedly, I am not alone in this, yet the press ignores the situation and puts it under the rug.

When I was young, news reports were just that: news reports. Reporters and news agencies put forth the facts. The public stayed informed. Today, other than one particular cable network, televised news is rife with a push to keep one party in power and sully the reputations and opinions of anyone who dares to disagree with the current administration’s position.

If this keeps up, we are lost. After about forty years of university faculties full of left-leaning professors, we can’t expect much, can we?

I’m waiting for the press conference with hard questions requiring informed answers backed with facts. I’m tired of the “Alice in Wonderland” attitude displayed by the majority of the press corps entrusted with the responsibility of bringing actual news to Americans.

These attacks Tuesday 9/11 are likely just the beginning of what we can expect here on our own soil. I keep remembering the way that our president kept bragging that he took out Osama Bin Laden. Think that might have offended the Muslim fanatics both here and overseas. Duh!

The blame placed on a film made in California is nonsensical. It’s time to stand for freedom — of speech and of action. America has always come to the defense of those who struggle against dictators. Today, while Syria is slaughtering its own people (and Clinton hailed Assad as a reformer, by the way) and Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map, what are we doing?

We’re going through the United Nations (better spelled Untied Nations) and talking the game that needs to have force behind it. My husband is a Purdue economy grad, but he had ROTC as a student. A military history professors told his class that if they remembered nothing else, there is a mantra among soldiers. “There is not such thing as a partial victory.” The enemy we face may not have a uniform, but it has an ideology bent on destroying us.

Our military must be so strong that nobody would dare provoke America into a confrontation. The only thing that the terrorists understand is force — unrelenting, overpowering force — in a word, defeat.

Anger management? Oh, give me oxygen. We don’t need to manage our anger. We need to fuel it. You don’t negotiate with murderers. You take them out and make it clear that if they threaten you, they lose.

Unless and until we face the worldwide threat from Muslim fanatics for what it is, we remain vulnerable. And, as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said (sic), “Weakness is provocative.”

War on women? Not here America. War on America worldwide? Amen. Oh, dear, I referenced God. Think about it.

#122

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

September 5, 2012

“Sin of Omission”

Do you shake your head when you read about government regulations these days? They are endemic and intrude into even the most mundane of our everyday activities.

Forget about warning labels. Almost any tool has a danger, but spelling out every conceivable mishap and putting it on a product is stupid with a capital “S”.

The smallest category of workers in America is probably farmers. At two percent of the population or less, these hardy individuals not only place their very lives on the line because of the dangers inherent to the machinery itself, but they also qualify as the biggest gamblers. Farm families invest huge amounts of money every spring when they plant the crops and hope that the weather cooperates to reward their effort at harvest.

Most media spokespeople focus on farm subsidies, yet they ignore the bulk of the Agriculture budget by failing to mention the key expenditure for the entire department.

This year that doesn’t hold true and the poor yields due to the drought will rebound in food prices nationwide. The slings and arrows aimed the annual Farm Bill fail to tell Americans that 80% of the annual Farm Bill is allocated for food stamps,  allied welfare programs and foreign aid.

To say that welfare fraud is absent is to be blind to the situation. When you calculate the high percentage of the American population that receives some sort of government aid, you should shake in your boots. Moreover, many of us have been behind a well-dressed person checking out of the grocery store with food stamps only to walk out to a late model car and stop to use a cell phone. Please…. There are people who need these monies, but there are those who take advantage of the system and use it with zest.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that many of us do need help. The question is why does our government put so many stumbling blocks in front of business to discourage hiring? Why did our Congress pass a bill that they never read that will cripple the wider economy and put us on an equal footing with countries where people clamor to come to the USA for medical care? In Canada, you would be lucky to be seen in 18 hours in an emergency room. This bit of information came to us from fellow campers this summer, residents of Ontario. They say they are lucky to be well and hope that good health will last and they are not involved in an accident.

Unless, and until, government steps out of the driver’s seat and allows the people to drive the economy, this will not improve. When push comes to shove, people react.

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is actually proud of the fact it is distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever!

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, issues this decree: “Please Do Not Feed the Animals.”

Their stated reason for the policy is because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.

This ends today’s lesson. Think about it.

# 121

“Today’s Fairy Tale”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

August 28, 2012

If you had the choice, would you encourage someone? Would you discourage someone? Of course, you would encourage another. Yet, today there abounds a fairy tale that robs the younger ones of us of their ambition, their drive, their aspirations, their very lives.

“How is that?” you ask. The answer is before our eyes, yet too few of us recognize the portent of it. Promised help is tempting, and addicting. If you doubt it, take a hard look at what has happened since the 1960s. The once close-knit black American families have fractured into a shattered mosaic of single mothers and absent fathers. Pre-marital sex and living together without the benefit of marriage, once labeled unacceptable, now beckons young people and is flaunted by their idols in entertainment and sports.

It’s as if the conjugal act is just that, an act — devoid of any commitment. Any competent observer will tell you that the basic building blocks of any civilization consist of three elements, and a fourth if the people are especially fortunate. The first three are family, faith and language. We have seen family attacked from every quarter and aberrant behavior lauded as something to copy. Faith, when viewed by the liberal portions of our society, is seen as a weakness — not for the strength believers draw from it. Language is threatened in a myriad of ways.

Proper speaking is not exalted in our schools and profanity heard in the hallways today would never have been tolerated in the generations that brought us “the greatest generation.” I cannot begin to calculate how much money we spend on children who cannot speak English. It is an anathema, since moneyed folk send their children abroad to be “immersed” in a foreign tongue. But what do our schools do? They invest millions upon millions of dollars across this nation teaching bi-lingual classes and try to convince the general population to do less is some sort of discrimination.

Someone needs to ask these so-called educators why the only language spoken among planes and controllers worldwide is English. I can imagine the answers. You see as long as twenty years ago, I spent a fair amount of time as an adult student in university master’s classes taught by instructors who put forth a stilted “politically correct” approach to schoolwork and students. I could see the forest for the trees, since I had reared three sons, one of whom was an undergraduate at the time I was getting my master’s degree.

Speaking up as an adult gets you nowhere, because professors often view you as a threat. Furthermore, since the only things you can salvage from classes like that are your grades; you shake your head (mentally), bite your lip, and count the days until the term ends.

Now, when I see the results of all this “correctness”, I wince. Standards are so much lower than when I went to school. I had a better education in the eighth grade— except for higher math — than seniors do today. History is shortchanged, and so are the students.

Without recognizing the red flags for warning signs of what might be just “down the road”, young people are hobbled and rendered unable to fend for themselves politically or economically.

I titled this column “The Fairy Tale” for a reason. I firmly believe that our young people are in danger, not because of America’s values, but in spite of them. Told they are “discriminated against, “minorities”, or “at risk”, they see themselves catapulted into a hostile world where — with encouragement — they would have succeeded. Entrepreneurship is alive and well; but, for the most part, the younger generation doesn’t know that.

If they are poor, they are promised support. If they are uneducated, they see no improvement in public (in truth, government) schools. Nobody demands excellence. What makes that such a travesty is simple. If you expect nothing, that’s precisely what you will get.

If people are discouraged and despondent, they are coddled. The once-proud movements among the churches in our cities are crowded out by gang violence. Sadly, far too many of our youngsters are in cemeteries long before their time.

Outreach is alive in the inner cities, but the media seldom focus on it. Instead, anchors count the bodies and describe the latest murders on the nightly news and seldom challenge to the community at large to bring pressure to bear on the thugs that ruin lives and devastate futures. In short, threats and violence work.

When young people feel lost and lack goals, some element of the government offers to reinforce their angst and provide some sort of “help” to assuage their plight.

Is this the America built by the blood, sweat and tears of our forefathers, their wives and children? I think not. If you want a picture of what happens when government takes over and individual incentive dies, study Russia from 1917 until the fall of the Soviet Union.

Unless one has — for want of a better term — skin in the game, it’s a lost cause. Working and saving for something instills pride and a sense of accomplishment unsurpassed by any form of assistance. Contrast the stability of neighborhoods with property owners with areas designated as “public housing.”

Upward mobility is still possible, but if you believe what the media spouts, everyone is stuck and cannot rise to a higher level. What’s more, the envy and enmity now launched against very successful people is inexcusable. This is robbery and strikes at the heart of the American Dream.

Undoubtedly, you will hear people decry what many term “American Exceptionalism”. They term it a fantasy. If it is, then let them explain why hordes of people from around the world — downtrodden to the highly educated — yearn to come to America.

We have been that “shining city” of which President Reagan so eloquently spoke for generations. That light has dimmed over the past few years, but the spark is still alive. We need only to fuel it by abandoning government regulations and embrace freedom.

Demand politicians from the local to the federal level get their heads on straight and stand for what we are in danger of losing: precious freedom.

Insist on excellence in all areas, from school to the workplace. Demand English as the primary language of America. Reject economic robbery by illegals. If that is acceptable, then burglary victims need to post signs asking the burglars to come back and get what they missed. Don’t allow our young people to be misled by the Fairy Tale that the government is the be-all end-all of everything. It isn’t.

In the end, we are a nation whose government is “of the people, by the people and by the people.” Think about it.

#120

“Just in case you missed this…”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

August 21, 2012

Nothing pleases me more than finding a memorable quote. In this case, it is an
entire talk — given incidentally — on a television program hosted by Tom Brokaw recently. The words are those of one Dennis Prager, an incoming high school principal in Colorado. Heed him. What we need are thousands more like him!

A professor friend of mine sent this along — oddly enough, a conservative professor!

“I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.

“I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas
that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.

“First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity—your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American.

“This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans. If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity, race and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values—e pluribus Unum, “from many, one.” And this school will be guided by America’s values. This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.
Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism—an unhealthy preoccupation with the self—while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interested in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.

“Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America ‘s citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here—it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English—but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.

“Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning’s elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.

“Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school’s property—whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you
can’t speak without using the f-word, you can’t speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus
epithets such as “Nigger,” even when used by one black student to address another black, or “bitch,” even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend.
It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the
degraded, the holy and the obscene.

“Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way—the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago—by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.

“Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you
about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately fortunate—to be alive and to be an American.

“Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand
them to you.”

Not to avoid being correct in my mind, and you may quote ME: “Amen to that!”

# 119

“No surprise here!”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

August 13, 2012

How many times have you said this or heard someone else say it: “If our business operated like the government, we would go broke.” Well, guess what. The government is broke.

The scary part of all this is that I fear the nation lacks the patience to live through any kind of a real adjustment. In this day of instant gratification, everyone wants news in tiny sound bites, tons of information at their fingertips, and rosy outlooks for everything.

Those ideas, though technologically applicable in the first two cases, are not feasible today. A rosy outlook is only possible if you are wearing rose-colored glasses. We are at the end of our financial rope and the end is tightening around the bottom line.

Red is a great color for clothing, but terrible when in ink. Instead of instilling the concept of thrift in grade-school children, we thrill them with video games, computer generated images and cellular phones. Yep! I’ve even seen small children with cell phones.

The combination of no time to use an imagination and constant stimulation does not bode well. Oh, we will have youngsters who are very quick with the mouse click, but not swift on the up tick — when applied to real work and the effort it takes to achieve economic security.

The very idea that 40cents of every dollar is borrowed should strike fear in the hearts of every American. Sadly, it does not. Instead, we plod ahead through a sea of red ink and ignore the fact that everything will implode.

Analysts tell us that Social Security and Medicare cannot sustain themselves under the present system and that by 2030 they will fail. That’s only 18 years, folks. Paul Ryan authored a plan that does not affect anyone over 55 — giving time to change the format for younger workers to be under a newer, more streamlined system.

I’ve watched elections for decades and I’m weary of the scare tactics aimed at the elderly. Many of our seniors depend on Social Security for their retirement income in its entirety. Never mind that the system was designed for “supplemental” income. That’s water under the bridge.

In the 1950s, a retiree received up to seven times what he or she had paid into the system. Those were the glory days of Social Security. Now the ratio has dropped and the numbers of working Americans simply will not support those due to retire in the next decades.

Manufacturers constantly change their designs to attract new buyers. Consumer choices rule in any other realm of our economy. Yet, we are still slipping into 1930s garb when it comes to our retirement.

The concept that there was a “lock box” for the monies paid is ludicrous. It didn’t take long for those in Washington, D.C. to see all that cash as a great prize and they raided it. If that money had been invested, we would be in great shape. Even in light of ups and downs in the stock market, returns would have been very good for older Americans.

If you wouldn’t climb into an 80-year-old automobile or expect an operator at the other end of a wired-to-the-wall black telephone when you need to make a call, then why would you settle for a system that is not only outmoded, but also outdated? Few items in everyday are the “latest” for long. Buy an item today and in three months, a new version will hit the shelves.

I harken back to President Kennedy’s inaugural address in 1961. “Ask not,” he stated, “what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Well, it’s time we followed that suggestion.

We need to do three things and do them right away: (1) Demand that the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid systems be overhauled so that those 55 and under can expect some sort of retirement benefits, (2) Put a time limit on government aid to able-bodied people and expect work as the number one prerequisite for receiving such aid, and (3) Clean house when it comes to drugs and resolve to instill the work ethic, honesty, and incentive in our children so that they can experience pride in accomplishment and look forward to a brighter future.

Face it. If you work for something, you appreciate it more. If you expect nothing, that’s just what you will get. To take a title from an English work, “Great Expectations” is what we need more than anything else. When 9/11 shook America to its core, people came together as one to face danger.

Economic collapse is the danger today. Are we up to facing it? Can we put aside partisan biases and decide to band together as Americans and return our fiscal house to order?

I hope so — for my grandchildren’s sake. We owe the children more than the mess that looms over us now. Think about it.

# 118

“Timing”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

July 31, 2012

With the problems attendant to the drought, there is little to boost my sense of humor, but the silver lining may — nonetheless — be alive and well. Every modicum of nature has its own rhythm. Life itself has a rhythm undeterred and undefeated by time.

The weather patterns that three or four generations consider “normal” are but a reflection of anything to which we become accustomed. In 1995 my husband and I were privy to a wonderful speaker whose expertise was western hemisphere weather.

He set forth a set of facts that amazed me and I wish I knew where to find them so I could put them down for you to read.

In short, he explained that the weather from about 1900 until 1995 had held incredibly constant. Any constancy over that amount of time becomes so rooted in the human psyche that an aberration from that constancy is alarming. He told us that the extremes experienced by the pioneers constitute “normal weather” for this area of the world.

Although dry years do occur over time, he saw a distinct pattern in the seeming chaos of meteorology.

What’s more, he cited a precise cycle. He told us that, beginning in 1936, severe drought strikes every nineteen years. His research found that major US droughts occurred in 1936, 1955, 1974, and 1993.

Add another nineteen — and VOILA! — you get 2012.

If nothing else, the time frame gives me hope that next year bodes far better for those of us in agriculture to lessen harsh burdens of the rapid food price rises that certainly face Americans in short order. Oh, I know that forecasters claim prices will go up after the first of the year; but there’s a good chance your grocery bills will rise much sooner than that.

Ranchers and farmers are forced to sell off their animals at lower weights because feed costs will be very high. Cattle, chickens and hogs thrive on corn. Because drought impacts corn yields to a high degree, you can count on our talented and resourceful farmers and ranchers to do amazing things aided by modern technology. Yet these folks operate at the caprice of Mother Nature, and she can be less than kind.

If that climatologist’s pattern continues to hold, we can breathe a bit easier
— at least for nineteen years.