Sugar Creek Publishing

School has begun in earnest and the bus routes are humming. Parking lots burst at the seams and kitchens echo with the clang of pots and pans as the cooks prepare meals for thousands of students around the county.

The introduction of student laptops rule conversations at some schools, while the upcoming football season is the topic of the day in others. Teachers ramp up their lessons plans and backpacks strain the spines of the younger set as a fresh semester gets underway.

Nobody sings the old refrain “readin’ and writin’ and ‘rithmetic” anymore, but the specter of the report card still holds forth from day one in the classroom. Over the past thirty or so years I have noticed an alarming trend in the schools. I noted it when my own sons were in high school in the mid to late 1980s and it continues to baffle me.

I suppose it is a reflection of some of the baby boomers that don’t want officials to keep score in ballgames. These are the same people who scream to high heaven at a Colts game when the call goes against the home team. Do you suppose that they would buy tickets to a pro game where the scoreboard stayed blank? Hmmmmm…..

Then, how — please tell me — does it make sense to water down the grading system? Once these students are out of high school, their performance will be measured. If they go to work, their supervisors and/or bosses will rate them on how well they work.

It only stands to reason that children should learn — from an early age — that work and results are linked. That goes for expectations, too. If you don’t expect much from another individual, you won’t be disappointed.

Let’s stand for high achievement among our students. No matter the grade, let’s emphasize academics to the hilt. If we want to take a measure of our actual achievement, look at the exchange students who come to America for a high school year. Most of them are at least two grade levels ahead of their US counterparts. And why, pray tell, is that?

Their teachers and parents expect them to excel. Are we ready for a world in which our children will take second or third place to foreign children in the workplace? I hope not. If you have any connection with a child in school — whether a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, neighbor or friend — make it a point to learn about what the children are doing in school and if or if not the educators place the bar high for them. I remember when it took 95% or above to get an “A”. It’s not that way now, and I have never heard an adequate, or common sense, answer as to why.

Schools should prepare our kids for the future, not allow them to slide along in an atmosphere that fails to parallel the world after high school. Think about it.

Well, now I’ve heard it all. I thought every modicum of common sense had been exhausted, but evidently I was wrong. Mexican drug cartels have placed a bounty on Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Phoenix. And how much? One million dollars. Ladies and gentlemen, we are not seeing immigration by any stretch of the imagination. We are facing an invasion.

Legal immigration has, for more than century, been paced, monitored and controlled. This movement of millions lacks such characteristics. Exactly what does the term “illegal” mean today? In common terms, illegal means against the law. And what happens when one violates the law? Consequences. Good luck with that one.

Tens of thousands of Mexicans have been shot, stabbed, beheaded (where have we heard THAT one before?) and slaughtered over the last year. To a person, we Americans bristle when more than five people die in any violence incident. Meanwhile, our government ignores the great numbers killed in the drug wars raging along the border and the huge numbers moving across the borders. Let’s face it. The identities and motives of these people are unknown.

Don’t delude yourselves. Not all of these illegals come merely to work. Only 19 terrorists murdered 3000 innocent Americans on 9/11. How many among those invading our country share equally heinous aims? It doesn’t take many, does it?

In a column several years ago, I suggested that the national emblem was degrading from a proud eagle into an ostrich. Sadly, the administration is sticking its head into the sand. You can’t see what’s coming when your eyes are buried and your rear end is in the air, can you?

It’s not the severity of the punishment that forms the basis of justice; it’s the certainty of it. Over the past forty years, America has been sliding into a position where criminals have more rights than victims. Prisons are no longer a place to dread. With libraries to research possible appeals, exercise areas and top rate medical care in an atmosphere of three “squares” and a bed daily, prisons offer better living than some of the criminals have ever experienced. Oh, they are incarcerated, but one would hardly deem the surroundings harsh.

What ever happened to isolation from society augmented by hard labor to deter a felon from ever committing another crime? We lost that in a blur of “human rights” that defies rationalization.

Are innocent people wrongly convicted? Undoubtedly, but in very small numbers compared to the general prison population. And then, there’s Sheriff Joe. His tent city with harsh conditions and hard work speaks volumes. Criminals leaving his facility vow to never return again. How’s that for a statement for recidivism?

In the wake of a compassionate rancher who was murdered by an illegal to whom he carried water, the specter of what we face is there in stark blood and treasure. An American lending a helping hand to one in need, his loss is no less bleak than that of one of our soldiers overseas.

How many decades have American soldiers died to enforce the borders of a foreign land? Does it make sense that our government will not enforce its own borders? If America is the beacon for peace and opportunity, then it should be worth the effort to come legally.

Miles after miles of “noise barriers” abut our interstate highways in populated areas. How much money do we spend to insulate ourselves from noise? It defies common sense that we cannot build a fence to defend ourselves.

Pray for Sheriff Joe. Pray that more law enforcement officials follow his example. He is a no-nonsense man. What we need at the federal level is “more show and less blow”. Hot air is useful — when it’s in an oven. Otherwise, it only makes life uncomfortable. It’s time we lifted our voices like the man in the movie “Network”. His words are prophetic when it comes to the border: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” The question is will anyone in authority listen. Time will tell.

It may be that another American Revolution is underway. If you love your country, join it.

Me thinks the end of beautifully written English is close at hand — most emphatically at one’s fingertips. Once, written communication was accomplished by dipping a nib point in an inkwell and painstakingly moving across delicate paper with flourish and style. No more.

Sadly, we’ve eclipsed even the rudimentary elements of the written word. I hate to say it, but one of the most marvelous inventions is at fault: the personal computer.

I would wager that at least five times a day I receive an email with no proper names capitalized. Some poor blokes don’t even bother to capitalize “I” when citing self. My business education teacher is bound to be rolling over in her proverbial grave.

Oh, I know nobody wants to go back to the days of manual typewriters and carriages that chimed at the end of a line. Nobody wants to revert to carbon paper, stencils using only brute force minus a ribbon. Nobody wants to return to the day when one mistake plunged the writer into another entire page of typed copy. But, where, I ask is simple pride?

First came the electric typewriter. For those of us who learned on an old manual machine, the electric successor was really impressive. Not only was it much quicker with a lighter touch, but much quieter. Next came the early word processors and the electric wonder could store text and type it repeatedly. I recall the IBM “Selectric” was very popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Then, the age of the personal computer hit.

It existed far back into the 1970s, but ownership was narrow and few households owned one. My first Apple dates back to the 80s. A 512K, it featured a boxy, fairly heavy monitor and a separate keyboard. Over the years, I have been a “Mac” user. Not susceptible to viruses, Apple’s Macs are very user friendly and are the tool of choice for both graphic artists and publishers.

How is it, then, that the pride people once took in written letters on company stationery or personal notepaper is not reflected in their ordinary Internet communications? I don’t have the answer. As for me, I take as much care in an email as I do a formal letter that I put into the mail.

To me, it’s just a matter of courtesy to send a note or letter to someone and not corrupt the King’s English. It doesn’t take that much time to capitalize a letter. I did it just now. Did you note that I was not “i”. Maybe it’s as much a statement of how the writer judges him or herself as the attitude taken toward the recipient. If you think of yourself as a lower case “i”, then I’m sorry for you.

It only takes a second to write a proper salutation… a few moments to compose a proper sentence… a minute or two to review the message before you send it off into Cyberspace. Be polite. Write well. If you are — as some put it — what you read, then aren’t you also what you write? Think about it.

We have all heard this question and, undoubtedly, there are thousands of explanations. Thank goodness for The Village People. At least their oft-sung anthem will not abandon its name.

Sadly, though, the YMCA is changing its banner. If you haven’t guessed the particular omission, you aren’t paying attention to the politically correct crowd that is, slowly by surely, dismantling every nuance of documented religious history from the American scene. Ah, yes. Young Men’s Christian Association is not to be known only as the “Y”.

My question is “Why?” Oh, the retort will be the much-overused “diversity”, but is the reason. I doubt it. Day by day, more and more of us turn to history for details of our founding. Yes, Christians founded American. Yes, Christians do reach out to non-Christians and give aid with little fanfare or push for recognition. Yes, Christians gladly go into third world countries — places that do not espouse Jesus Christ as savior. These Christians not only offer up physical labor, money, medicine, and emotional support to the poor of the world, but they do it without asking for anything in return.

How long will we stand by and ignore the constant attack on Christianity? We ban school prayer by Christian students yet respond to pressure and provide prayers for Muslim students. Network news covers any small disagreement or bad behavior on the part of Christian groups but ignores the incessant brutality of other religions.

Where, for example, is the National Organization for Women as headlines proclaim the imminent stoning of a woman in Iran for adultery? And the details? The woman’s husband died, and a man claims that she had an intimate relationship with another man while a widow. Who is the accuser? Is the charge simply a power play? A grudge?

A growing part of the American population regards adultery far differently today than the majority did a few decades ago. The Scarlet Letter is dead, folks. No longer are women considered “fallen” if they stray from marriage vows and enter into racy trysts with other partners.

Today, adulterous women are glamorized on soap operas, lauded in cinema, and praised in romance novels. Even though I believe that solid majority view adultery for what it is, our children are exposed more and more to images that reinforce bad behavior and put a stamp of approval on it.

I suppose the NOW would take a stand in this Iranian case —- that is, if the woman in question were pushing for an abortion. They will, undoubtedly, stand by without comment as she dies. However, they would cry from the rafters if she were unable to terminate a pregnancy. Their logic is predictable, but inexplicable to someone who tries to understand or find a balance in their actions.

I have yet to hear the NOW group come to the defense of the women in the Muslim world who are treated as chattel. We hear people dredge up slavery at any opportunity, but they turn a blind eye to modern day slavery in Islam.

Fear is a great motivator, as is exposure. Why do you think that the powers that be in Iran seek to ban Internet access? Could it be that women might realize that women outside Islam have real opportunity… are equal with men in the workplace… are able to make personal choices? Talk about a threat. Masters never want slaves to yearn for freedom.

The freedom lacking in gender among Muslims is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to society as a whole. Justice is not blind; it is channeled. Theocracy runs amok. There have been men who saw the shortcomings of such governments and moved for democracy. Egypt’s Anwar Sadat was one. The assassin who gunned Sadat down at a formal parade silenced a voice that could have transformed the Middle East as a region.

Dissent, whether in leadership or among the masses, are systematically eliminated by a theocracy determined to hold power sheer force. Nothing that threatens their power is tolerated.

If you doubt their low regard for life, consider this. There is a size limit the stones used to kill this woman. The rocks cannot be too large, lest she die too quickly. All the wider world can do is hope that the practice of female discrimination and maltreatment dies, too.

The attitudes rendering women to subservience won’t go softly into that good night. Muslims proclaim that the entire world change to their ways. Why can’t the rest of the world demand that Muslims change? Why wosn’t
freedom-loving countries call for the emancipation and education of Muslim women? Think about it. Oh, and think about the woman facing death by stoning. Surely we can’t ignore her. We can’t.

Today, when five civilians die in a military skirmish abroad, the media go amok. I guess they never heard of the Korean War. Over 500,000 children died. As horrid as that number is, many children were saved by our American soldiers. Recently, Dr. George Drake of Bellingham, Washington told the story of the love that saved these tiny victims of the war.

GIs rescued more than 10,000 of these children. The soldiers made an orphanage from ammo boxes and gave them a chance to survive. Drake erected the Korean Children’s Memorial Pavilion in his hometown. In September will travel to Korea to see the dedication of a companion memorial on Korean soil, along the border with North Korea and dedicated to the half million children who died in what many dub “The Forgotten War”.

“You don’t have to be taught to pick up the crying child… help the injured child…. find food for the hungry child… or shelter for the homeless child. That comes with being American.”

You might want to consider this when you see Islamic terrorists use women and children as human shields as our brave military men and women fight to loose the average Afghani from the Taliban’s grip. Say what you want, there is a mindset within the American that puts honor first and protects innocents.

Many critics of current policies claim that if today’s rules of engagement had been in place in WWII and Pacific Theater WWII, Allied victory would have been impossible. A non-uniformed enemy that so easily sacrifices its women and children challenges reason and logic, but it is real nonetheless.

Take a moment and reflect on the honor of our men and women. Then, ask yourself if you want them hampered by unreasonable restraints. Collateral damage in a war is a given. It is an undeniable truth. Media of the past knew that. They didn’t leak critical information to the enemy. In contrast, they would print misleading information to confuse the enemy.

Along with Ernie Pyle, Edward R. Morrow’s radio broadcasts from England captivated American audiences nightly. “This is London…” Who of us can ever forget that compelling introduction? And what would he think of current network news?

I firmly believe that Morrow would be aghast at what passes for journalism today. He knew the value of honest reporting and wanted television news to distance itself from the pressures of the marketplace. This attitude summarily ended his career with CBS News. Just ponder this Morrow quote:

October 15, 1958, in a speech before the Radio and Television News Directors Association in Chicago, Murrow blasted TV’s emphasis on entertainment and commercialism at the expense of public interest in his ‘wires and lights’ speech:
“During the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: Look now, pay later.

It seems that this attitude not only infects the broadcast news world but also the highest echelons of our federal government. Pay later? What a dismal eulogy to our country. Public interest? More like unending, unfunded public debt. Think about it.

Each of us is the product of that to which we are exposed. A sad commentary when you think of the entertainment aimed at children these days. Just before we left for church on Sunday morning, I happened to come across the ending of a movie starring Edward G. Robinson. Not one of the gangster, tough-guy films for which many of us remember him. This was a heartwarming story of true American values and faith in God.

“Our Grapes Have Tender Vines” starred Edward G. as Martinus Jacobson, Margaret O’Brien as his daughter Selma and Agnes Moorehead as his wife Bruna. Set on a Wisconsin farm, the film was released in September of1945. It bears a disclaimer at the end explaining that it is among the films to be distributed to our military personnel.

Tony Fontana condenses the plot as follows: Life in small town Wisconsin. Selma and Arnold, aged 7 and 5, pal around together between their two farms. Selma has a newborn calf that her father gave to her. She named it ‘Elizabeth’. Nels is the editor of the Fuller Junction Spectator and the kids just call him “editor”. Viola is the new schoolteacher from the big city. While Nels wants to marry Viola, Viola does not want to live in a small quiet, nothing happening town. The biggest news is that Farmer wFaraassen has built a new barn.

This might seem mundane to you, but the core of the film has neighbors and friends rallying around one of their own who suffered a crushing loss. One line in particular struck me. Martinus is explaining milk to the Selma and Arnold. He tells them it is a good thing… good for the children… good for cooking… good for the farmer, but it isn’t free. Like all good things, they are not free. You work for them.

Today, growing number of Americans look to the government for support. They do not think of work as the prime avenue to financial stability. How sad. Would that we could get back to the work ethic and patriotism of 1945. Would that we could return to the days when doors were unlocked… screen doors wafted breezes of fresh cut grass into a kitchen… where Mama prepared supper….

Those days are gone, but their mettle can be revived. We can demand that our government reform the warped welfare system. How many able-bodied people exist on government checks? I’ll bet the true number would astound you. Nothing, it seems, does come for free — unless, that is, it comes from the government.

This nation was built by people who did for themselves. Did they struggle? Mightily. Did they suffer losses? Often immeasurable ones. Did young boys have to take over entire families when parents died? Indeed. Were things fair? Oh, please. When has life ever been fair or even-handed?

Of course, some people fell through the cracks and descended into criminal activity. Yet, by and large, Americans were known as hard working people who loved challenges.

Sadly, our challenge today is to reclaim that attitude and extol the work ethic to the youngest of us. If we don’t, we will fail. Rome was once great. Then, it fell into a pattern of leisure and entertainment — the antiquarian version of “quality time”. Does that sound familiar?

Movies and music are peppered with violent, sex-laden images and harsh lyrics. Advertising appeals to the prurient. Plots are thick with raw language and nudity. Is this how to rear young boys to respect women? Is this how we teach strong family values? Pretty awful to contemplate the results of such exposure, isn’t it?

The Hollywood that opened the Hollywood Canteen and supported our troops now thinks nothing of putting out films about political assassinations, praising dictators, and portraying characters of low degree. Is this how far we have come from 1945? A mere 65 years to this?

Oh, I forgot. The studio moguls of the 1930s and 1940s were immigrants themselves — men who knew the value of freedom and wanted to support those who defended it.

Think you can’t do anything to change things? Think again.

Vow to never pass up an opportunity to encourage someone who struggles in difficult circumstances. Impress youngsters with the rewards of self-achievement. Spur their vivid imaginations to new inventions. Explain how pride comes from a job well done. You can do it. It only takes a little time.

Moreover, don’t let the grass grow under your feet when it comes to decrying the attitude that “government knows best”. Oh, it knows best, all right, but not like a father, like a “sugar daddy” — self-righteous, boastful, arrogant, and all knowing.

What government does know how to do is spend OUR money. Oops! Correct that. That money is our grandchildren’s money.

Unfunded federal liabilities top $130 trillion. If you can’t get your mind wrapped around that number, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger.

This complete lack of responsibility has to stop. If it doesn’t, America’s outcome is grim. It’s your country. It’s the future for the children. Think about it.

Just in case you might not know it, there is another person by the name of Hayek, and it’s not Selma. Meet an economist who saw one of his works printed in the Reader’s Digest Condensed series in 1945. 1945, you gasp?
Yep. 1945. End of WWII. Economy emerging from wartime. Major changes in the sociology of the country. Women, many widows, in the work force in stunning numbers when compared to prior demographics of the American workforce.

Now, what on earth could a book like this have to do with you? Well, take a deep breath and ponder what happens when (1) 70% of the new jobs are in government, (2) more and more of our industrial base exits to once third-world countries, and (3) average government salaries are above those in the private sector. Just how can a country defend itself without the industrial capacity to manufacture war materiel? It doesn’t, i.e., we don’t. Oops, again! Isolationism is one thing, so-called globalism is another, but this is neither. This is insanity.

One old definition of that mental condition is going about the same process again and again only to expect a different outcome. There is only one outcome when more people depend on the government than on themselves. It is an extension of what we saw in the Middle Ages, and Hayek had it right!

Why would you be interested in just one of the books written by an economist born in 1899… whose work spanned more than a half century… an Austrian who eventually worked in both New York and Chicago? Let’s delve into Hayek. Once we do, I’ll bet you will be compelled to learn even more.

The book I cite? The Road to Serfdom. If you think a widely circulated 1940s book could not be germane to the present, think again. Currently, a projected 19-volume set of Hayek’s works is in the pipeline. Thus, as we teeter on the precipice of financial doom made slippery by a growing bent toward socialism, we return to one Friedrich A. Von Hayek. With the facts on our side, we can fuel a movement to overturn the current pattern endemic in our federal government — more and more intrusion into Americans’ everyday lives.

You would have thought we had learned something years ago. Surely, we saw what happened to the leaders bent on socialism. Dare I mention the Soviet Union? Ah, but that is another problem. World history is not taught as it once was, and often it is an elective course instead of a required one.

A more critical problem is our own history. US History is getting short shrift in our schools, and that is not to say that it is not being taught. It’s just that the precepts and tenets of the US Constitution are not focused in the texts. Editing has abbreviated and dulled the fires of liberty within history curricula, and our kids are really at risk because of that.

If you doubt that, get your hands on a text from the 1950s. There is a difference, folks, and many of you would see it at a glance. True, more and more history amasses each decade, but there are red flags that cannot be ignored. History is a great teacher, IF we appreciate it in its true form — as fact. Sadly, an increasing level of editorializing has taken root in these books.

I am a firm believer that every student should take US history in three parts: (1) The Federalist and the US Constitution; (2) Military history; (3) Personal Liberty – the critical importance of citizen involvement.
Thirty-five years ago, Hayek shone on the world scene. When the 1974 Nobel Prize in economics went to Hayek, interest in the Austrian school was suddenly and unexpectedly revived.
Peter Klein states that when Hayek came to the The University of Chicago, he found himself among a dazzling group: the economics department. Led by Knight, Milton Friedman, and later George Stigler, it was one of the best anywhere, and Aaron Director at the law school soon set up the first law and economics program.
Hayek’s writings were taught to new generations, and Hayek himself appeared at the early Institute for Humane Studies conferences in the mid-1970s. He continued to write, producing The Fatal Conceit in 1988, at the age of 89. In 1992, at the age of 93, Hayek died in Freiburg, Germany, where he had lived since leaving Chicago in 1961.
Hayek’s book, The Road To Serfdom, is available on Amazon.com for around $9, just about the cost of a lunch out. Skip the lunch. Pack a sandwich. Buy the book. You won’t be sorry.

We live on a very busy county road. Even twenty years ago, one could pad along relatively undisturbed by passing traffic. Those days are gone. Today, you take your life in your hands if you step off your lawn and begin to take a leisurely walk down the road. I haven’t done that in a long time.

Because our road is both scenic and challenging, we are a hot spot for every teenager with a first car, a friend who wants to scare the pants off a peer, or a cavalcade of all manner of motor clubs.

My favorite parades are those of the Model A Fords that ply down our little road summer after summer. Some of the occupants actually sport attire to match the vintage of their vehicle. Others opt for current dress styles. Nonetheless, all of them have a great time out in the country.

About three Sundays a summer we see motorcycle rallies. In many instances, there may be up to 100 cycles. Bikes may host single riders, couples, or sidecar passengers. I worry when I see so few helmets, but until and unless Indiana elects to impose a helmet law, we will continue to see a high toll of brain injuries and deaths in motorcycle accidents.

Are helmets uncomfortable? Probably, but speaking as a snowmobiler, I know the value of a helmet. They come in all styles and price ranges. The upper end helmets have more protection, but choices are up to the rider and budget.

Indiana has increased motorcycle registrations markedly over the past few years, and nationally statistics tell us they have doubled since 1997. That means we drivers must be more alert than ever. Understandably, in a car- motorcycle accident, the motorcycle ends up on the short end of the stick.

Manners are core here. Oh, there a few cyclists who misbehave will sully the reputations of the majority who ride responsibly — those riders who don’t endanger themselves or drivers they encounter. We see that in snowmobiling, too. A few crazies can make a big impression — a wrong one — on the public and stifle trail expansion for fun-loving riders and families.

I have very few complaints about motorcyclists. It’s the non-motorized rider that can cause me no end of grief. Bicycles are more popular than ever. Specialty stores market high-end bikes, custom apparel, and all manner of accessories. Yet, all those accoutrements don’t guarantee good manners. I’ve seen more road hogs among bicyclists than drivers or “bikers”. Rally cars observe the speed limits, stop at stop signs, and generally behave themselves. Their vehicles are not average conveyances, so they don’t want to take a chance on a ding, dent, or — heaven forbid! — a wreck.

What makes pedalers ride down the middle of the road hugging the dividing line? I know it’s probably a lot more dangerous to ride along the berm, because any loose gravel can cause a cyclist to lose control. Yet, I wonder why they can’t ride in the middle of the traffic lane and ease to the right when a car comes up from behind. After all, most of them have rear view mirrors. (Don’t get me started on bicyclists and snowmobilers who ride without them!)

Just last Monday, we had to stop because a car was trying to pass a slow moving bicycle on the centerline and the rider simply would not pull over. He hugged that centerline as if it he were wired to it.

No matter whether you drive a car, ride a bicycle, a scooter, or a motorcycle, practice good manners. Your taxes didn’t pave that road for you alone. Others traverse that pavement, and at higher speeds if you are on a two wheeled vehicle. Good manners only enhance the public’s respect for your sport. Think about it.

It is delicate, shades of orange and red catching the sunlight. Its outermost parts so soft and nearly transparent that they defy anything man can manufacture. Too often these marvels of the floral world are associated with heroin, but to a generation gone and one rapidly aging, they mean far more.

In 1956 while a sixth grader at Thomas A. Hendricks School, it was a joy to walk down the hall from to the art room. There, Frances Liles always had a project for us. To this day, I use many of the methods she taught. Our civic projects were varied, but the one that sticks in my mind is the poster contest sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

My generation, born in the 1940s, heard whispered comments about “The War to End All Wars” (World War I). Later, when adults, we would learn the horrors of mustard gas and the trenches. But, as innocent children, we learned the simple respect for the American soldier that would follow us for the rest of our lives.

In the spring, the blackboard (and it was black at that time!) would remind us of the Poppy Poster Contest and our minds would whirl with ideas. I made my last entry in sixth grade and I can still see it in my mind’s eye.

A white cross centered on the paper, a metal US Army helmet draped on the top and a spray of poppies at its base. I wish I had saved it. Even after 55 years, I feel the power of its message.

The VFW will be selling its poppies this weekend across America in anticipation of Memorial Day. I knew it as Decoration Day and it dates to
5 May 1868, and General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and his General Order No. 11. Its beginning was 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The name changed in 1971 and is celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May
(The Congressional National Holiday Act of 1971).

Watch for flashes of red and smiles from men holding them this coming weekend. They will be there, as devoted and dependable as ever. Veterans will stand in malls, outside big box stores and groceries, on street corners and along thoroughfares. The locales are varied. Sleepy hamlet or large city, the message is the same. Honor our veterans. They fought proudly around the world to safeguard strangers. They won your enduring freedom and put your lives before theirs. Teach the children. We have lost the fervor once felt for the military and that is a sad commentary on the public condition.

The small paper flowers, made by disabled and needy veterans in VA hospital facilities across the nation, help fund worthwhile efforts. Monies from their sale finance the maintenance of state and national veterans’ rehabilitation and service programs as well as partially support the VFW National Home for orphans and widows of our nation’s veterans. It only takes a moment to stop and pay respect to those selling the poppies. Won’t you help them in this time-honored effort?

The tiny flowers reflect a promise began in the 1920s. Here is the precise history taken from the VFW website:

The VFW conducted its first poppy distribution before Memorial Day in 1922, becoming the first veterans’ organization to organize a nationwide distribution. The poppy soon was adopted as the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

It was during the 1923 encampment that the VFW decided that VFW Buddy Poppies be assembled by disabled and needy veterans who would be paid for their work to provide them with some form of financial assistance. The plan was formally adopted during the VFW’s 1923 encampment. The next year, disabled veterans at the Buddy Poppy factory in Pittsburgh assembled VFW Buddy Poppies. The designation “Buddy Poppy” was adopted at that time.

In February 1924, the VFW registered the name “Buddy Poppy” with the U.S. Patent Office. A certificate was issued on May 20, 1924, granting the VFW all trademark rights in the name of Buddy under the classification of artificial flowers. The VFW has made that trademark a guarantee that all poppies bearing that name and the VFW label are genuine products of the work of disabled and needy veterans. No other organization, firm or individual can legally use the name “Buddy” Poppy, and partially supports the VFW National Home for orphans and widows of our nation’s veterans.

Why the poppy? It quickly became associated with war after the publication of a poem written by Col. John McCrae of Canada. The poem, “In Flander’s Field,” describes blowing red fields among the battleground of the fallen. Flanders Fields is the name of World War I battlefields in the medieval County of Flanders, spanning portions of southern Belgium and northwest France.

And so, among all the flowers that evoke the memories and emotions of war we recognize the red poppy. After nearly 90 years, the poppy reminds us of a war that cost millions of lives. Touted to be the last of the wars that man would see, it was not. The VFW has raised millions of dollars to support of veterans’ welfare and the well being of their dependents.

Be a patriot. Buy a poppy. Then, take a little time to read the poem that inspired it all.

In Flander’s Field
by John McCrae
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw,
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us, who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.

From time to time over the past eight years, I have dipped into the inkwell of the past and recounted great stories of the men who put their hearts and minds into the founding of this great nation.

Drawn from all professions, they had one thing in common above all others and that was faith in the Almighty. King George and his national church had spewed forth enough venom and exerted enough control to push the colonists over the edge and push them to revolution.

In the midst of all the chaos was the genuine belief in the freedom of man. When debate ground to a crawl in the Constitutional Convention, what did they do? They took three days off to pray.

Our national monuments bear not only images from Scripture, but text. Murals, sculptures, friezes on buildings, great passages from the Bible — all these and more can be found in Washington, D.C.

What amazes me is that of the 535 members of the US Congress, so few publicly avow the sacred principles that wrought the very government that they serve. Don’t they see what is around them on a day-to-day basis? Can’t they take in the not-so-subtle messages underscoring the close relationship between God and Man?

Oh, there are the blowhards. They step to podia and expound colorful rhetoric, but their core message is anything but God-fearing. The few Congressmen and Senators who openly proclaim their faith in public find themselves labeled as belonging to “the Christian right” by detractors — as if faith in God is a weakness.

If any one event has shocked me over the past two years, it is the behavior of many of those in Congress. Despite spirited town hall meetings and inundations of mail and e-mail messages, countless members vote in direct opposition to their constituents’ wishes.

Tyranny is not the American way. You will hear many claim that America is a democracy. It’s not. We are a republic — a representative republic, but a republic nonetheless. In essence, representatives pledge to vote on behalf of their constituencies. Sadly, that seems to have fallen by the wayside.

The operative question here is “Why?” We may never get a single answer, but the response is looming. You see, the answer will come in the results of the November elections.

Your job as a voter is to keep track of how you are represented. This applies equally for all levels of government — municipal, county, state, and national. I know it is difficult to maintain equilibrium between personal life and being a responsible citizen, but it is a precious freedom.

It is interesting to note that among the current 25 top selling books on Amazon.com, 17 of them are on Founding Fathers, Founding Principles (faith among them), and The US Constitution.

Well, it’s about time. As an author, I’m happy to know that more and more people are reading books. Computers are fine, but the relationship between a reader and a book is more personal than a lit screen.

Go get a Copy of the Federalist Papers. Read about the Founding Fathers. I think they would be appalled at what we face today. Think about it.