Sugar Creek Publishing

# 117

“Travels with Bear”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

July 21, 2012

As a camper, you must have one prerequisite or you’re lost — a sense of humor. I don’t care if you tent, a pop-up, tow a trailer or a fifth wheel or drive sumptuous motor home, the parts within are man-made. Ergo, they break.

We have been extremely lucky during our most recent camping trips. Oh, I towed a pop-up when my sons were small, but that was about forty years ago. And, as time would have it, memories do fade. What once was critical becomes laughable. That is, if you vow to take it in stride.

This summer, we coordinated camping schedules with a young family we met three years ago. The five of us met along the North Shore of Minnesota north of Duluth. A pair of talented people the age of our grown children, he is a computer systems engineer and she is a nurse practitioner. To our eyes, their five-year-old son had suddenly morphed into a lean, tall, beaming eight-year-old on in-line skates or astride a mountain bike. It’s understandable. After all, we hadn’t seen him for three summers.

His parents’ hobby of diving the shallow shipwrecks in the Great Lakes with occasional trips to the Caribbean was a highlight for us. From them and other members of their SCUBA club, we not only learned more about diving equipment and underwater cameras than we had expected, but we also came to appreciate the odd mix of exploration and danger so familiar to anyone with a hobby that involves personal risk. Bringing their son into the mix first involved snorkeling. They tell us that he is so adept at it now that they plan to enroll him into various levels of SCUBA training at ten and twelve.

One day the “big lake” rolled with high waves, a situation incompatible with diving from one of the two boats accompanying the diving club to the campground. Their other option was diving off the shore and one site was not only perfect, but in a very unique area.

The ship Madeira lies offshore near one of Minnesota’s treasured sites, Split Rock Lighthouse. Perched atop steep cliffs overlooking Lake Superior, the lighthouse is a real gem. Immaculate grounds and many learning opportunities draw more than a million visitors in any given year. If you choose, you may watch a 22-minute film on the lighthouse and its history, tour the light keeper’s cottage, hike the trails surrounding the light house, or simply relax and picnic in one of the park’s picturesque glens overlooking the water or nestled deep in the woods.

Traveling RV style affords folks very singular experiences. What other vacation accommodation offers you the chance to sit around a campfire with Americans, Canadians, Swiss, Germans, and Japanese — none of whom you had known even hours before? Oh, hotels are both hospitable and lovely, but seldom does a mix of complete strangers gather on the grounds around to roast marshmallows at twilight.

After three days of sweatshirt weather and watching the great ore boats enter and leave the Two Harbors port, our time was up and we needed to find another campground. We ended up along the South Shore of Superior close to Bayfield, Wisconsin and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

A mix of Victorian homes, small shops, restaurants, bookstores and a busy marina, Bayfield also boasts great store called Keeper of the Light. Never have I seen such a variety of lighthouse items. Want a small paperweight under ten bucks? It’s there. Yearn for a huge lighthouse model running into the thousands of dollars? You can buy that, too.

We checked into a campground on the outskirts on short notice. They had a site for us, and we jumped at it. Did I mention a sense of humor?

The shady shite was not set up for the picnic table to be on the right side of the unit featuring the awning and the entry door. However, since we only planed to stay two nights, we opted to eat outdoors at local bistros both evenings and cook breakfast and lunch at the trailer.

One step out of the truck greeted us with a hot blast. The 66-degree temperatures of Two Harbors were history. Back to reality and hot July weather. About fifteen minutes after we parked, a large truck rolled up at the end of our trailer and began to empty the septic system. I didn’t think too much about it, because sites with “full hook ups” (water, electricity, and sewer) require such attention.

Once the hitch was unfastened and everything was level within the trailer, my husband went inside to initiate the cooling system. Accustomed to what we do when we first arrive at a campground, Bear, our big Newfoundland dog was antsy — anxiously looked forward to a cool place to nap.

Not so fast, boy. No air conditioning! The trailer was new in January of 2011, so we had no reason to consider a main system failure. Were we wrong!! With temperatures approaching 90,the three of us were not the picture of “happy campers!”

After a call to the factory, we learned that the digital thermostat had lost its link to the air conditioning unit. Somewhere in all that wiring was a glitch. Well, we chose to make the best of it, unpacked the comfortable outdoor chairs, grabbed the cooler with iced beverages and put a rug under a tree for Bear.

A couple of hours later, with every awning out and every screened window open, we headed for the charming harbor area. The shady deck was perfect and the waitress even brought Bear a huge bucket of ice and water. We watched the ferry traffic alongside lovely sailboats skimming the waters in the stiff winds so familiar along Lake Superior. Madeline Island glistened in the late afternoon sun while tourists walked the streets with their purchases, boosting the local economy so dependent on the summer season.

You can snowmobile at Bayfield — even cross the ice to Madeline Island in the winter — but summer revenue rules.

A walk down the pier topped off the evening. A tall white-haired man stopped to ask about our dog. A sailboat captain who offered either three-hour or five-hour tours around the harbor, he laughed when learned the dog’s name was Bear. Then, he told us what had happened at his home just days earlier.

His erratic schedule involves coming and going from home at different times on any given day. Days earlier, he hosted an out of state sailboat captain at his home. When the visitor heard noises coming from the kitchen around noon, he assumed that his host had returned. Walking toward the kitchen, he began to talk to his friend. Imagine his reaction when cleared the doorway to see an adult black bear leisurely eating lunch from the garbage can in the corner behind the door.

Just as the man grabbed the doorframe in shock, the captain opened the kitchen door. The bear simply looked from one man to the other and continued to munch. He had no fear of humans whatsoever, so he didn’t see any good reason to interrupt his repast even if he did have visitors. In the captain’s words, this could have been a cartoon bear.

The two men eventually got the bear out of the house, and went back to their business; but I’m not sure I would have been that calm about the whole thing. He was out one screen door, but he explained that locals are accustomed to bears and their foraging about in homes or garages. It goes with the territory.

Tummies full and rehashing the bear story, we headed back to our campsite. The weather failed to cool down and trees blocked what breezes did come from the lake. Alas, we resigned ourselves to a less than comfortable night’s rest.

We made sure to walk the dog before night fell, because bears frequent the campground. The park owner maintains a huge bear trap next to the office. Made from a large metal barrel with plenty of air holes, it offers something tasty and then slams shut once the bear takes the bait. Since this type of trap doesn’t harm the animal, the park owner simply calls the DNR to come and pick up Herr Bear for a return trip to the woods.

Windows open, we knew it would be a long night. Sadly, there was more to it than the heat. When we registered that day, we noticed the owner toting a concrete septic cover with his front-end loader. There was more, of course. The storage tank next to our bedroom window put a skunk to shame and no other sites were open. In short, we were there for the duration. Closing windows was not an option.

At one point, we did muster a smile. We spied that huge Newfoundland with his paws over his nose! It was even too much for him. The double-edged sword was that our only respite was when the breeze stopped. I think that I may tell this story to the service center when we go to have the air conditioning fixed.

I suppose that smell doesn’t outrank an animal encounter, but just “bearly”. Our air conditioning problem probably won’t be the only failure we experience, but I hope that the next one won’t involve “Uncommon Scents.”

Excuse the pun with my column title, but I just can’t resist. It’s that sense of humor thing again!

# 116

“Mourning in America”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

July 10, 2012

Well, I took a hiatus. I’ve been in mourning. Ten years ago when I began this column, I entitled it — as most of you know — IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE. I knew she was ill and failing, but after the SCOTUS decision, I realized that Common Sense truly was dead. Sadly, her children logic and reason are both in critical condition and nobody seems to be stepping up to do anything about it. You can’t count on socialized medicine, that’s for sure.

When was the last time you heard of someone running to Canada or flying to England for medical care? Sure…. Here we are with the finest medical care in the world and the progressives and liberals are vaulting us into the abyss of mediocrity. There might not have been any “smoke filled rooms” in the Pelosi House of Representatives when that unwieldy, 2000-page-plus bill was pushed through in the middle of the night, but it lives up to the “back room deals” we heard about when we read about corrupt politics during the height of the immigrant period in the late 19th century.

So, what do we do now? Well, for one thing, we can get the word out to anyone and everyone to work for a landslide replacement of the White House and the Senate to throw the balance of power to the other party. Every time the House passed a budget bill, it died in the Senate. Thanks, majority! Good job! Maybe YOU should look into the benefits of the government’s much-touted unemployment insurance.

I know that my professor of Constitutional Law is wringing his hands and shaking his head. I loved his class, and at no time did I hear him point out the portion stating that the government was permitted to force anyone to buy anything! This was not just the ordinary professor, either.

He grew up in Taiwan, the son of parents who fled Mainland China just in time to escape the “Cultural Revolution” that stifled the country for decades. He revered the U.S. Constitution and held it as the ultimate standard for the world. The very reason early colonists waged The American Revolutionary War was to insure that no citizen would be subjected to a government with unlimited power.

Where are the Madisons and Jeffersons of today? We need them. Repeal is the only avenue open to us, and we had better make sure that we do everything we can to turn over this behemoth before a committee holds sway over your life or the life of your spouse, your child, your parent. You remember the camel, don’t you — the animal designed by a committee?

I wish I knew the intricacies of our Congress and its rules more thoroughly. If this health care mandate is truly a tax, then can the House reintroduce it as a tax? I can’t help but think that if it had been introduced as a tax, even the then component body would have had a hard time getting it through, day or night given constituent opposition.

All money bills must originate in the House of Representatives and it would be interesting to see just how all of this shakes out in the end. As for now, prediction is the only route left. Like an opinion, everyone has one….

Common sense held sway a mainstay of American thought until the onslaught of liberal tax and spend policies. Today, sadly, it appears to be dead in the water within The Beltway. One takes a deep breath in disbelief that “interpretation” has replaced a clear reading of any law. I think many of us have shaken heads in the wake of a SCOTUS decision, but perhaps never more than now. If, as some think, there is a silver lining in all this and a clear legislative solution will rise to erase this health care bill, we would all breathe a little easier.

With too many in the wagon and too few pulling it, only time will tell. My worry is that the wagon will mire my grandchildren in a lifestyle they didn’t ask for and require them to pay for others’ mistakes.

Words are important. Words count. At least the 10th Amendment upheld guaranteeing the states powers not specifically designated to the federal level.

Remember, the Constitution limits the powers of the federal government in order to assure freedom for the states. If that were to fall under the bus, it would be hard to fathom what would follow.

Take a hard look in Spain and Greece where more than half of their young people cannot find work. Does the length of benefits here in the USA directly link to the length of time to find a job? A current graph confirming that European unemployment benefits over the past decade proves that the shorter the benefit period, the quicker folks go out and get jobs.

One newsman visited an unemployment office in a major US city and found that there were dozens of businesses within a few blocks advertising for workers. Bottom line, if you hand out money, the incentive to take a job is low. One social worker from within that unemployment office said she thought the government was encourages people to be dependent? ‘Ya think?

Hope and pray that Americans can turn back the clock a bit and return to common sense. Defend our borders. Slash spending. Ask for sacrifice in the spirit of John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address so often quoted. That’s real sacrifice, folks, not just window dressing.

As for Common Sense, she lies buried in a potter’s field. Once held to a finite standard of worthy thought and honored as a valued elder, she reposes among the ashes of ignorance, greed, and sloth. Pray that people realize that her loss is truly theirs and vow to work to awaken her spirit once again.

Mourning in America? Yes, but let’s hope that doesn’t morph to Mourning FOR America. Think about it.

# 115

“Initials — these count!”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

June 16, 2012

It’s a simple word, really — one we use everyday. What a shame that some go about their work in such a cavalier fashion that the word is lost to them.

All of us are accustomed to receiving packages via the US Postal Service, UPS or FedEX. Rarely does a box arrive in poor condition. Not so when a package must undergo a series of stops in warehouses along the route.

First of all, I have the utmost respect for semi drivers. My father drove a semi for years in his business and my husband does so in his business today. Not only am I in awe of their talent in maneuvering these behemoths around small roads and parking lots, but also I shudder at the way most drivers behave when around them.

It seems that ordinary drivers think that a semi can “stop on a dime” or make turns without allowing for length and load. Not so. I cannot tell you how many times I have ridden along with my husband and had a driver cut whip in front of us or begin to turn without signaling first. It’s all the truck driver can do to avoid a calamity.

Back to the warehouse. While the semi drivers are fastidious in the way they load their trailer to balance the load and tie down objects that could easily shift, the forklift drivers work as if a tornado were bearing down on the building and they only have ten seconds to get the package on the truck!

I speak from experience on this one. I have watched warehouse forklift operators. While some are careful, others rush at their work. I’m not sure if their bosses require too much work in too short a time span or not, but it looks that way.

Forks are marvelous tools. Whether on a ground bound forklift or on a boom truck, they can maneuver in tight spaces and place objects with precision. I have seen forklifts set objects down so gently that one would assume the box contained eggs!

Ah, if only the warehouse people took such care. A box arrived at an area lumberyard marked for us. Marked “FRAGILE – HANDLE WITH CARE” in BRIGHT RED every five feet of its 30-foot length, that crate should have been babied from its origin to its destination.

So much for what I expected! One end of the crate hung wildly, separated from the pallet beneath it. The other end had a hole punched in about 8 inches in depth. Thankfully, the company that shipped it made sure it was encased in a particleboard box banded with 2x4s. About four or five feet down one side, a huge hole stopped just short of the cardboard box cradled within. Had it not been for the care taken at departure, we would have been recipients of a trashed product.

It all comes down to initials. Alas, pride should be read as Personal Responsibility In Daily Effort. I’ll bet if all workers took real pride in a job well done, the prices of many items would drop. Just total the costs of “en route” product damage, return shipping, replacement and additional shipping. Adds up, doesn’t it?

Preach to your teens on that first job. Insist that the follow instructions. This, of course, ignores a poor boss who pushes speed over accuracy. Why can’t we hope and pray that the employers see the value in taking those extra few minutes to do it right. Great idea, huh?

I know, that’s a lot to ask. Yet, in the greater scheme of things, I recall an old saying: “The hurried’er I go, the behind’er I get!” Think about it.

Column # 114

“Scary Tales”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
Hetty Gray

June 5, 2012

Forget about that “second childhood”. Youth, as we knew it, is history. It’s gone, folks! When I was a child, I learned how to handle adversity through tough experiences. I learned humility by example from stern but fair teachers and parents who expected me to do well. This holds true for most Americans over the age of 50 as well as others who were younger and were reared in traditional homes where parents paid attention to what their kids were doing and instilled faith as a major part in their lives.

I’m not less of a person because of those years. I am better for them. I could tell that things began to slide when my sons grew up in the 70s and 80s, but they have hit the pits now. The first hint began to surface in competitive childhood sports.

I thought I had heard it all when parents pushed for coaches to do away with keeping score to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. Oh, please! Winning is winning and losing is losing. Each outcome, in its own way, serves as a valuable tool and a real character builder. No scores? Good grief!

Yes, I thought that movement was stupid. I still judge it so. If you think I’m off in left field, just apply that wisdom to professional sports. Forget about a playoff game or a Super Bowl. Scores don’t count, right? Yeah. That would go over like a lead balloon. Just who would pony up money for NFL, NBA or professional baseball tickets if nobody won the game?

I never adjusted to that mentality or the contention that little boys shouldn’t be allowed to play with army men or act like cowboys and little girls should avoid playing “house.” Well, that worked out well, didn’t it? I can’t tell you how many middle-aged men tell me that they do the cooking and the laundry because their wives don’t do “those things.” As the church lady said, “Well, isn’t that special?” Role models require roles.

All that said, the media just reinforces that image in popular films. And if that weren’t enough, they’ve moved on to the younger set and hit a new low.

Who among us over 40 didn’t fall to sleep to the sound of a parent’s voice reading a fairy tale? There’s nothing wrong with a little girl imagining herself rescued by a handsome prince… or a little boy taking on the role of the hero in a desperate struggle to save the maiden… or the relief when the main character saves an animal from the jaws of a predator at the last minute….

The animated version of “Snow White” featured perhaps the most famous song of its time — I’m Wishing From “Snow White and the seven dwarfs” Music and Lyrics by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. Released in 1937, “Snow White” was Disney’s first full-length animated feature film, and you might be interested in the identity of the vocalist.
According to IMDb.com, Adriana Caselotti (1916–1997) was born into an operatic family — her father Guido, an immigrant from Italy, taught music in New York City, her mother Maria (from Naples) sang at the Royal Opera, and a sister Louise was a noted opera singer and voice teacher. She was 18 when Walt Disney personally chose her for the voice of Snow White.
I adore that movie and I really need to purchase the DVD and enjoy it, both for the story and the music. As I take a deep breath and relish the memories of the film, I am shocked back to the present by a commercial touting a new film that turns my fairy tale into a “scary tale”.
Now, I must admit that I don’t intend to see “Snow White and The Huntsman,” but the very thought of turning that story on its head goes against the grain for me. The evil queen was true enough in the 1937 film, and Disney’s animators didn’t have to rely on special effects and wild chase scenes to get that message across.
Once, a family night at the movies was a treat and a special night out. Now, with movies available on cable or on DVD, families avoid the high cost of refreshments and enjoy those movies at home. Yet, it’s a shame that picking a movie isn’t as easy as it once was. I’m not sure it’s even possible to insulate children from the film violence that is so widespread we are turning out entire generations of young adults who are not shocked at all when it comes mayhem and death. They’ve seen too much of it for the reality to ring true.
The shock value of yesterday’s films was often left to the imagination. Not so today. The childhood innocence so valued by previous generations is a thing of the past. This poses the question do we care? Think about it.

# 113

Memorial Day 2012

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

The radio airs program after program today, all focused on the memory of the fallen — those who gave their very lives that America remain free and we sleep safely in our beds at night, unthreatened by war on our own soil.

My parents instilled in me a great reverence for the soldier. I use the term generically and mean for it to describe every person, man or woman, who serves in the name of our beautiful country.

Few civilizations last more than a few hundred years, and I worry that our way of life and our peace and tranquility are on the line unless we step up to the plate and recognize the Islamic threat for what it is.

Not since the 1500s has the world seen an influx of Muslims into other countries in a push to change societies at their core.

Today, thousands of our brave men and women toe the line in far-flung places where zealots kill in the name of their diety in deference to any form of law or decency.

To those who have given their lives in this cause, we pay homage. We cringe at the thoughts of what they might have seen or suffered in their last moments. We pray for their surviving loved ones and hope that healing comes over time.

We are a good people. We give more of ourselves than any other nation on earth. When our armed service members remain in a foreign land for decades, the native inhabitants are thankful for their presence and worry for their safety should their defenders leave.

God bless this nation and its servicemen and women. They take on a burden few of us would assume, and they do it for each and every one of us.

To take one day out for remembrance is important, but more important is a sense of support and respect for them every day of the year.

Happy Memorial Day. Amid the barbeques, the picnics and the leisurely walks with small children in tow, remember that you walk free because other walked a far harder road.

# 112

“Rules of the Road”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

May 19, 2012

With days remaining until tens of thousands of teenagers across Indiana finish the school year, it is tantamount to stupidity to avoid mentioning grim facts that are generally ignored by the media. Even the most cursory search confirms that the highest teenage driving deaths occur in June, July, and August — summer vacation. Now that proms are a memory and graduation ceremonies loom on the horizon, it’s time that parents and teens sat down around the kitchen table and really discussed the dangers.

This morning, as I listened to the radio, the timing for the column wasn’t lost on me. You see, a Hendricks County crash over the weekend took one senior’s life just days from graduation, left a second teen in critical condition and injured several others. It’s sobering, but true. Teenagers and cars can be a deadly mix on our highways.

It’s been fifty-plus years, but I was once a novice driver. However, I was required to do my “homework” and that included driving in bad weather, pulling and backing a two-wheel trailer among traffic cones and knowing to check the oil or add anti-freeze. Papa was fond of cars and in those days, many men took care of basic car maintenance themselves.

Add to this the firm sense of responsibility both in me and in my older brother by our parents, and our brother-sister duo began driving with a better background than most. Kids listened to their parents in those days and shuddered at the thought of having and accident and trying to explain it to them! Ah, yes, were days when parents held sway and their words were law. Oh, my, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

Our family had just moved into a home that our folks remodeled. It had a large backyard that was over 200 feet deep and about 75 feet wide. Among the peach and cherry trees stood some really big maples. This scene was set for entry-level driver training. However, the star of the production was a little car seldom seen outside of rallies or auctions.

Enter Papa’s 1940s Crosley. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this little beauty, go to . Ours was a convertible with wood trim. Many laughed and said that the Crosley was simply a refrigerator on wheels. All joking aside, that Crosley provided us hours of entertainment. More importantly, it exposed us to driving before any of us far earlier than most of our peers. Small and sturdy, that little Crosley gave us all an important head start on traditional high school driver’s education.

After bolting immense men’s belts from a local haberdashery beneath the front driver and passenger seats, Papa turned us out in the yard — one at a time. It’s hard to describe the thrill as each one of us headed down that yard for the first time and made quick turns around the trees. What’s more, if we did manage to turn the car over on it side or top, it only took two or three of us to upright it and put the trainee back on the road. Those were days before seat belts in cars, so Papa was ahead of his time as he implemented his keen sense of safety.

We all looked forward to “Driver’s Ed”, but it didn’t hurt to have a bit of driving before you ever began to learn with a teacher.

Today, with the distractions of cellular phones, teenagers are far more at risk than their parents were at the same age. You’ve seen bad driving among adults, haven’t you? If you’re like me, you probably dodge people on phones every time you take to the road. I’ve even seen people with clipboards on steering wheels while using cell phones. Talk about dangerous!

The talking my generation did — on the home telephone — pales at what today’s teens do behind the wheel. It’s enough to make anyone cringe.

For every dream that the new high school graduate embraces, a nightmare lurks on the road. Understandably, teenagers do not consider themselves mortal. Oh, I’ve seen teenagers’ reactions to a sudden, violent death of a classmate. Unfortunately, those feelings are fleeting.

When you combine speed with any dangerous ingredient — alcohol, cell phones or texting — the result is no surprise. Things go south in a hurry.
These same behaviors, when mixed in a moving vehicle, conjure up a deadly mix. The highway safety research that I read confirmed that, even though teenage driving deaths account for only 6.4 % of the total driving deaths in the USA, they also account for 14% of all drivers involved in fatal crashes and 18% involved in police-reported crashes.

Considering that, nationally, homicide accounts for 14% of teen deaths and suicide 11%, authorities warn that no one hazard comes close to claiming as many teen lives as automobile accidents.

As this school year comes to an end, take the time to educate your children about safe driving. Begin early. A ten-year-old passenger is a captive audience for you. Serve a good example. Don’t speed along the interstate and then expect your child to do otherwise. Many adults refuse to answer a cell phone in a moving vehicle. Because a cell phone records incoming numbers, a driver has the option to pull off the road safely to use the phone.

Rules of the road should come early with youngsters. Instilled in a child, the rules of the road are real life survival skills. Teaching moments are easy when driving with a child. It’s up to every adult to serve as a positive role model for a child. At home? Set rules and stick to them, especially about cell phones in the vehicle. Remember, a teen drivers accompanied by other teens account for the highest number of accidents. In fact, the odds rise exponentially. A bad decision kills in seconds. Lives hang in the balance. For all the freedom that driving offers a teen, it also bodes ill. Think about it.

# 111
“Kettles and Pots”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

May 16, 2012

There is an old saying about “the kettle calling the pot black” and the near hysteria from administration spokespeople is a good example. These folks have the gall to decry J. P. Morgan Chase for its recent $2 billion-dollar loss, yet it fails to acknowledge the fact that it the federal government borrows that amount DAILY. Yes, we are up to our wazoo in debt and it’s getting deeper every hour.

The salient point here is that the bank expects to make over $10 billion yet this year. Now, a 20% loss is painful to the bank, but it is solvent. That’s more than we can say for the government! Kettle #1.

As we make our way into the deep weeds of media bias in this election cycle, remember just what has really happened in the halls of Congress for three years. The Senate has never passed a budget. The House has offered up bill after bill with substantive measures to decrease the national debt, cut spending and alter entitlements.

I hate the term “entitled”. It rings hollow. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are out of money, folks. There are fewer and fewer workers paying into the government and more and more receiving checks. No entity can survive with this kind of tilted bookkeeping, yet every time someone waves the red flag that it’s time to do something the opposition screams starving children, seniors on dog food and women in reproductive peril.

What we “owe” is to pass on a viable working environment to the next generations. We aren’t doing that at all. Instead, we are writing checks to Middle Eastern potentates and dictators while sitting on our own vast reserves of oil and natural gas. All the bragging about “more drilling now” than in the past ten years fails to state that it is on private land. Federal land is off limits. Kettle #2.

With the economic catastrophe staring each one of us straight in the face, what does the current White House occupant banter about? His minions warn of a fictitious war on women and voice support for same sex marriage. It’s not as if women, gay men, and lesbians are the only ones with jobs. How many of them are unemployed or underemployed?

There are 340,000 fewer available jobs today than in January of 2009 and over 7 million more eligible workers vying for them. Sounds more like lottery odds than job searching, doesn’t it? Kettle #3.

You can’t spend your way out of a financial hole. It’s time to put some adults in the leadership roles. I am weary of name calling and searching back decades to find out if someone acted like a teenager when a teenager. What is important here is money — how we keep from squandering it, from whom we choose to borrow it, and the possibility of said borrowed funds being used as leverage against the nation as a whole. That is a real threat and few news outlets even choose to mention it.

Given the latest forms of communication and the decline of print media in all forms, we find ourselves immersed in a world of information that could disappear in the click of a hacker. Imagine, if you will, what would happen if no computers worked — even for a day or two.

The majority of retailers would be stymied. You can probably count on your fingers the number of clerks who have waited on you in the last year who were capable of making change. Schools that abandoned textbooks in favor of tablets and laptops would be between that proverbial rock and a hard place. Banking done on line would cease. Instant messaging would disappear and I shudder to fathom what would happen in the transportation industry. Since trains and planes rely on computers, you can scratch travel and shipping. Set aside cars and trucks. That would be a nightmare, too.

People would yearn for the days of hand-written receipts, old cash registers that opened when the TOTAL button or lever was engaged, and they would find themselves in a world that doesn’t work very well — if at all.

For every advance in technology, its malfunction bodes ill — and not just for Americans. Let’s hope that this election cycle includes a serious debate on the economy and a long-range plan for recovery. These problems didn’t surface in four years and four years won’t fix them, either.

America is great because its people have always worked — yes, worked! Job applicants just two generations ago didn’t ask about “quality time”. They had no conception of “family leave”. They wanted a job and were willing to come early, stay late and do more than the boss expected. When that attitude morphed into the attitude we see today, America began to slide.

The pride and sense of accomplishment that comes from a job well done should be the battle cry of the next team to lead this country. A hobbled horse cannot run. Take off the hobbling regulations that have defied common sense since the so-called “environmentalists” hit the scene.

If they had been alive and had their way when this nation was on the cusp of expansion, we would still be living east of the Appalachians and railroads would have been labeled as “destructive.”

I’m not sure of your opinion, but I remain convinced that people come first. All those morons who call an end to clean coal would change their tune abruptly if the coal-fired power plants would shut down their juice to all but essential facilities — hospitals, etc.

Oh, they scream at what others should and should not do, and they climb into their corporate jets and settle down onto a stool with a cold one and laugh at the lot of us — calling us names in the bargain.

We here in Indiana benefit immensely from coal fired power plants. It’s about time we stood up for the coal industry. Do your own research. Clean coal is more than a term. It is real. Don’t let a bunch of well-funded naysayers destroy all the progress the coal industry has made over the years and imperil the future of generations unborn. Dismantling the power grid piece by piece without a dependable, cheap alternative is madness.

Remember that jobs and electricity are inseparable. Without subsidies, wind and solar wouldn’t be able to compete at all and WE pay those subsidies!!!

Jobs and a business-friendly environment are paramount for this nation. Every time laws clamp down on entrepreneurship and business innovation, jobs evaporate. We need a new generation of inventors and dreamers, not preventers and screamers.

Don’t rag on a bank that remains in the black and must recover from some bad decisions. Federal law enacted by Congress in 1933 forcing a separation between commercial banking and investment banking. This act, which required commercial banks to dispose of their securities affiliates, bears the same name as the Banking Act of 1933, and is part of the landmark 1933 act. Since then, the name Glass-Steagall has been more commonly used when referring to the four sections of the banking act (Sections 16, 20, 21, and 32) pertaining to underwriting and sale of securities.

This law met its end in 1999. That was a great way to start the new millennium, huh?

Many analysts point to this decision and link it to the 2008 bank crisis. No kidding? Turning bankers into bookies was not a good idea and then forcing banks to loan money to people who had no way to pay it back was even worse. Now we are all paying for it. The next newscaster or bureaucrat that bandies about more government regulation should set your hair on fire. Government needs to get the heck out of the way. Let the economic engine work without starving it for fuel. Kettle #4.

There are many more kettles out there today, but you get the point. Our Founding Fathers worried about overreaching government and now we see what it can do to us. It’s doing it right now— but we can turn it around. It happens one vote at a time. Think about it.

# 110

“Hiatus — an odd term…”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

May 3, 2012

Well, readers have been victims of hiatus. Like most of us, the best-laid plans, so they say, often go awry. I can’t count the times that I’ve put my domestic chores aside to sit down and write a column, but over the past two weeks I’ve done the opposite. To further complicate matters, I spent ten days out of state on family business. Ah, well. Life calls! The “to do” list is nearly exhausted, as am I. Apologies are moot, so I will chastise myself and I vow not to allow this to recur unless faced with a dire emergency.

Suffice it to say, prevailing thought among the movers and shakers has not reappeared in my absence, so the column title remains valid: “In Defense of Common Sense.”

Spring is, traditionally, the time that scholarship applications fly into the offices of high school counselors around the nation. Career choices loom over the latest generation of soon-to-be-graduates and parents’ stomachs churn with that old sinking feeling at the prospect of paying for college.

Often cited statistics vary a bit from state to state, but according to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, it costs less to college educate than to incarcerate a person. It probably hasn’t escaped you, but one of the highest growing enterprises in the nation is that of penal facilities.

It is incredibly sad to pass by what was once known as Bunker Hill Air Force Base near Peru. Now a combination business and prison site, it offers employment opportunities, but nothing in comparison to the zenith of the facility as home to the refueling unit of the Strategic Air Command.

Daily, more lives are taken and more injuries incurred on our streets than in a war zone. Few talk about it. I suppose that we are so immune to the constant list of crimes described on the radio and TV broadcasts that we hardly pay attention.

Drugs are at the heart of many crime sprees and fueling a habit is very expensive. The so-called “War on Drugs” is as an abysmal failure as the social bomb known as “The War on Poverty”. There are more people living in poverty today than when this governmental program launched in the 1960s.
It all boils down to the fish theory. Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

Bigger is touted to be better, but it is a hollow claim. Whenever there are too many cooks around a pot, the result is not palatable. Schools belong at the local level. Parents know what their children need. Whenever the federal government gets into any sector of private lives, the boon is to administrative salaries and not to results.

Many of us were flummoxed by the “No Child Left Behind” legislation that moved through Congress in the previous administration. The real bold step would have been to close down the Department of Education. When a national government “educates” you have real reason to worry.

Ask any local school board member how much he or she can really decide in terms of school direction and curricula. Very little. Mandates from the state rule and there is little “wiggle room” for those closest to the students.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to extrapolate that educational big stick to health care, either. When an Ethics Committee can decide if you or a loved one “deserves” a high level of medical care, beware!

As we move through the primary process and select slates of candidates at the local, county, state and national levels, keep in mind that the closest the governmental unit the more responsive. That is the beauty of a federal system. States have clout and can react to constituent needs far more smoothly and efficiently than national bureaucrats.

Patience is the byword. A change in administration is sorely needed, but don’t be anguished if the wheels of progress move slowly. It takes less time to incur debt than to repay it, and the current president has wracked up more debt in three and a half years than ALL previous presidents combined!

It would be one thing if all the debt was backed by solid currency, but ours is not. What we owe debt is a result of the “fed” authorizing money from a printing press and/or bonds sold to the Chinese and other foreign governments. Our leverage is nil. Wake up and smell. It’s not coffee, folks, it’s trouble and not in River City. It’s in every city or hometown across America, no matter how large or small.

The only growing sector of jobs is in government and those jobs don’t put out a product. They put out paper and regulations — just what we need, eh? Those jobs pay more than private sector jobs, too. Sobering? You bet.
It’s time we cut the corporate tax rate to encourage companies to return. Remember the Neil Diamond song “Coming to America?” Someone needs to play it for the U.S. Senate. It has gone without submitting a budget for years. It tables every piece of meaningful budget legislation that comes from The U.S. House of Representatives.

How does it make you feel when determined people draft bills that have clout and they are buried in a pile of paper on the Majority Leader’s desk? If your household went without a budget and spent twice what it took in, you’d be faced with losing everything. Not so with the government. It simply lifts the debt limit and goes on its merry way and spends with abandon.

Abandon is a good word for it. The current administration has abandoned every tenet of good stewardship and heaped a debt on generations unborn. So much for that lost ball slogan “Hope and Change”. The leadership in the White House is one syllable short. The word is not hope, but hopeless. And change? That’s for November to decide.

You can’t continue to operate on borrowed funds. Sooner or later you must pay The Piper and he doesn’t live in Hamlin. He lives in Beijing. Think about it.

#109

“Sound familiar?”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

March 26, 2012

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”

This week the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court begin to hear oral arguments on the Affordable Health Act, better known as Obama Care and their decision affects each of us.

Clear opposition to the law is the firmly held assertion by the countless Americans that their federal government has no business telling anyone to enter into a contract, and an insurance policy is just that — a contract.

It seems as if the three components of that familiar phrase with which I began this column are already either in jeopardy on dead on arrival. Life? Well, it is legal to kill unborn children, so there’s one down. Moreover, if Obama Care is ruled to be in sync with the U.S. Constitution, seniors’ care will be rationed (as it is in England and Canada) — again lives put at risk at the hands of “bean counters” obsessed with creating a “Nanny State.”

Liberty? With each passing day, via Executive Order or some unelected and roundly unaccountable Czar, we lose our liberty. The situation reminds me of a beaver, or that determined “ant and the rubber tree plant” that Frank Sinatra immortalized in song. Chip by chip, nip by nip, the tree of liberty is eaten away — and with it the way of life that our forefathers so desperately wanted to guarantee to each one of us.

The pursuit of happiness? Oh, sure, it’s still there, in spades. Have you noticed the movement to allow men to marry men and women to marry women? Then, add a plethora of behavior once deemed taboo in civilized society and now accepted in the name of “political correctness,” or worse yet, “tolerance” and you have a picture of a society degrading by the day!

My grandparents and parents would have tolerated none of this. I fear that untold numbers of our ancestors are turning over in their graves when witnessing the America of today.

The law labeled “affordable” in its very title is anything but affordable. Critics claim that numbers were skewed in order to keep the initial estimate below one trillion dollars and that very expensive portions of the law were not used as a base line. A recent estimate is that, once implemented, this behemoth of a law will cost a family $20,000 a year. Sound affordable to you? Hardly.

I hold out hope that Justice Elena Kagan will recuse herself, since she was a prime mover of the law before she was appointed and confirmed. It is a clear conflict of interest. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I will hold my breath and pray (yes, critics of faith). I know I am not alone and, with the rest of you that oppose this law, I hold out hope that the court will stop this expansion of government control before it destroys the economy and the nation we love.

Current members are Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Bryer, John Roberts, Jr. Samuel Alito, Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.

If you feel helpless, you are not solitary in that thought. Here’s an option:

www.toddyoungforcongress.com has a petition for you to sign. Congressman Young will forward the signatures and urge the Supreme Court to strike down Obama Care. The page comes up immediately and it only takes a few seconds to fill it out.

Remember those nine names. They are the sole arbiters of the law in this nation and now —more than ever — they hold the American dream in their hands.

I generally end a column with this phrase: Think about it. If you have to think about THIS dangerous overreach of the federal over individuals represented by their states, you aren’t thinking at all.

# 108

“Promising Senior”

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

March 15, 2012

Every once in a while, you come across a youngster who floors you with enthusiasm, verve and ability. So it was when my husband and I sat at a small ice creamery in Florida while our Newfie enjoyed a tiny dish of vanilla.

Many folks stop to see our Bear. His size attracts attention, to say the least; but, through him, we have met more people than we ever would have had we traveled alone.

The slim girl, accompanied by her mother, had purchased a newspaper and began to walk to the car when she spotted the dog. Marissa came for Bear like a moth to a flame and we began to chat with her. She had aced her national math tests as a freshman and won a laptop computer for her deft knowledge. Now, as a senior, she worked part time at the ice cream shop and pondered the hurdles of paying for college.

Admitted to South Florida at Tampa, she has a plethora of careers available to her, among them engineering. Excuse me if I climb atop my soapbox again, but I feel the urge.

Every day we American taxpayers foot the bill for illegals — education, English as a second language for Pete’s sake, and health care. More than that, our charities and churches spend millions of dollars on those folks, too. That money would better serve society if it were channeled to deserving, entrepreneurial young people.

American business is under attack daily. Instead of increasing taxes on employers, why not enable them to offer partial or full-ride scholarships to bright young high school seniors seeking a good job?

Co-op collegiate work is not new. Neither are scholarships. Yet, I wonder just how many companies actually participate in these programs. It would be interesting to see if there are more of these programs today or fewer than in past years.

Getting back to Marissa. She is valuable to each of us. Her work could produce a new product or refine an existing one to better our lives and the nation as a whole. Not all of us are able to help send someone to school, but some of us are. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that nothing is more rewarding than seeing a graduate landing that first job with no college debt.

As for me, I plan to contact several young women engineers and explore the possibility of sponsorship for Marissa. Surely, there is a company out there that would be interested in helping her.

I don’t have an answer yet. For now, I vow to immerse myself in a quest for her. She will be the first college graduate in her family, and I want to help her achieve that goal. If any of you readers have any ideas for her, let me know. I can contact her.