I Started Here Sixty-Nine Years ago

I am sitting here wondering how do people keep up blogs and keep them interesting. Well it is true I simply read my kids blogs and their lives are very interesting to me. However, life seems to be going by so quickly for me that I seldom have time to check on life around me.

The voices I hear way too much come from the Media. Are they telling me what is really important? Whatever they are telling me is certainly filtered to what someone else thinks is the truth plus there is so much going on in the world every second it is mind boggling.

Random killings of students in our country; reports from around the world about places where groups of people are being murdered simply because they are from the wrong group or tribe; families in our country being notified their courageous loved ones have been killed or maimed in the Middle East for a war, that is not a war but is a war. Our troops should always and forever be honored --- our leadership --- well, once again we are seldom told the truth and may never know for sure why we started a war in the Middle East. You can check people at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Artesia, New Mexico ---I, from day one, thought it was a bad idea to 'invade' a country without even a pretext of backing a treaty and for WMD's that were not there! I strained meaningful relationships with friends in the church I served as pastor; not a fun thing to do!

From there I think about the politicos who are running for President of the United States. The number of candidates has dwindled. We lost some truth-sayers (they can never get elected).

What we have before us now I am not sure --- if I could pick and chose from various traits and some of their positions I might be able to come up with a meaningful candidate for me. I always respected McCain when he was a maverick but now at 72 years of age he wants to be President and he is no longer that needed maverick, he now is trying to bring together those he in my opinion rightly disagreed with throughout his career and he has embraced the war and economic ways of the current administration. The only changed position he openly admits to is: he has changed his mind about immigration and that the first priority must be to secure the borders. Well, since we will be fighting in the Middle East for 100 years I am not sure we will have the resources to secure any border. Then we have Gov. Huck, please, we had the attempted take over of the Republican Party by the Evangelical Christian Right who still want to tell everyone that their morals and ethics were going to be the ones for everyone, and by golly, let is change the Constitution to guarantee their moral majority agenda. Not a very good idea in my humble opinion.

By the way, I feel I have a right to say what I did in the last paragraph because I am a life-long Republican who does vote and found out that my party was highjacked a long time ago and middle-of-the road Republicans no longer have a place in the party and God-Forbid any liberals say they are Republicans.

Once again, I will end up having to vote for a Democrat because I have had nothing but trouble in the last 8 years with anything this Administration has done. Yes, some very bad things happened to the Bush Administration when it first started but they from those times forward have made one mistake after another at home and abroad. Now we have an America that is disliked and not trusted by many more in the world including many who were our allies. The President however is winning one war, the one on the Middle Class!

I hear a lot of people have become Independents --- well, that has been going on for many years for members of both parties have found themselves voting for the 'best of the lot' and certainly they are not in any one party and extremely hard to find. There are less and less people who are going to vote totally on party lives for there is so very little difference between them -- both parties are flip flopping like, about to be, dead mackerels.

Obama --- well, he will probably get my vote --- not because he is young (but that is not a bad thing) not because he is black (though I think it maybe helpful for the world to see we do accept minorities as leaders) certainly not because Queen Guru Oprah adorned him, for she is a 'legend in her own mind' and has made bad endorsements in the past! I will vote for him because he did see the folly of invading a country and 'saw through' the twisted intelligence reports and voted against going to Iraq. Obama also still speaks passionately about "Hope" and without it we are finished as a people. Hillary, well, she is a very intelligent women but she does not really connect with the middle class though she is sympathetic and she has been part of the Democratic machine too long and she just cannot match her husband's charisma. Oh, by the way, yes, I voted for Clinton both times --- and no, his private life did not bother me for his lifestyle was not very different than some others before him --- our culture simply has turned its interests to and 'Inquirer's" mindset, loving to get into other's private lives and dig up dirt.

Well, I started out 69 years ago in that house above and now retired and can admit I know much less that I ever thought I knew with all those years behind me.