Sunday, May 30, 2010

Thank You To All

On this Memorial Day, I pause to say thank you to all who have served,
especially those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. It is because of
you that we are free today. Those who went to war did so out of a sense of
patriotism and a call to serve their country. They did so because there was
a danger to our country and our way of life.

This Memorial Day I am reminded of the Greatest Generation, the men and
women who served in WWII. They came home and quietly assimilated back into
society. At the time, they were not properly thanked. Thanks to the Honor
Flights, they are finally getting the thanks they truly deserve for what
they did. So many never made it home either. It is these men and women
whom we remember this weekend.

Please take a moment out of your busy day to remember these men and women
from all wars who gave the ultimate sacrifice. To very loosely quote a Toby
Keith song, Courtesy of the Red, White and blue, " When you see Old Glory
fly, there's a lot of men dead so we can live happy and free..." Please
remember that as you go about your day today.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Reflections on local news

Yesterday was certainly a busy day in local news rooms. You had two big
stories happen at once with no rhyme or reason to either one of them. These
two big stories happened within a half hour of each other which I'll bet is
a nightmare for any news room.

The first story was the death of Metra's Executive Director and the other
was the shooting at the Old Navy store in Chicago's loop.

The shooting , while sensless, was easier to explain but difficult to
swallow. The reason is that an innocent woman was taken down with the guy
who didn't want the relationship to end. There are better ways to handle
that situation than to murder someone and then take one's own life.

The Metra story however gives me the creeps as I have had interaction with
the Executive Director in the past when transportation issues were hot in
the early to mid 1990s. He was one who got it where disability access was
concerned and that was saying a lot for the Executives at that time. The
waythis gentleman chose to end it was what makes this so creepy as he no
doubt saw reports and handled incidents of this type while employed at
Metra. Why would you use a train, something you were in charge of running
the service of, to take your own life? There were obviously more problems
here than we will ever know because the taking of money inquestionable
fashion should not alone be a cause for taking one's own life.

Will I ever look at getting on a Metra train or any other type of diesel
train the same again? Probably not because I knew this person
professionally and that's the creepy side of this story. My condolances to
the family who is left wondering why. May the good Lord give them the
strength to get through this crisis in their lives.

November we need you now

The title says it all. We need November and it can't get here fast enough
for me. I say this for a number of reasons.

First of all, the Democrats so-called health care reform will be the death
of this economy if it isn't repealed and replaced. However, we need
Republicans in office in order to make this happen. Small business, which
is the lifeblood of our economy, will be hurt or even killed if this
so-called reform is allowed to stand. What small business will be able to
afford to open its doors given that its health care costs will go through
the roof and they'll have to hire someone just to keep up with all of the
mandates. Small business' who can afford to do so will choose to drop
their employees into the exchange and pay the penalty rather than deal with
the headaches of this travesty that calls itself reform but is really part
of the democrats plan to create a single payer system by gutting the private
insurance companies.

You also have legislators who want reform of the financial system but who
won't deal with the root cause of the problem which is Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, the two mortgage lending giants who are being bailed out by the
taxpayers because they made loans to people who couldn't afford them. The
Democrats don't want to deal with reform of these two entities because they
don't want to deal with the fact that some people just can't afford a home.

Then there's the issue of terrorism which was brought into sharp focus last
week. You had the Time Square bomber who nearly made it out of the country
and should never have gotten that close. You have the fact that the
administration still feels that this is a criminal justice rather than a
military matter. Something unfortunately is going to happen; it's only a
matter of time. Two close calls should tell you all you need to know.

Now we get to the issue of immigration. The Democrats clearly don't want to
deal with this one as they support open boarders. What else can you say
when they deem a state potentially racist because that state wants
immigration laws enforced. I'm talking about Arizona who has a real problem
with a porous border and the feds aren't doing a damn thing abobut it so
they sent a message. Obama's response is to have the Justice Department
look at it because people's rights might be violated or there might be
racial profiling. Give me a freaking break. Then there's the whole issue
of the border and federal land. That's another matter all together. Not to
metion the fact that theliberals don't even talk about the requirement, on
the books since the 1940s, that aliens carry their paperwork on their person
in orer to prove their status and that they are here legally. Why not
enforce that law while we're at it and the liberals don't need to give any
crap about violation or rights because we would e expected to have our
papers on our person if we were traveling abroad.

Porkulus and the health care debacle have only seved to raise the national
debt. These liberals who are spending like drunken sailors and worse need
to be stopped before we wind up in the same shape that Greece now finds
itself in. We're not going to spend our way out of the recession which is
something the liberals don't understand. And you can't even have a civil
debate about this without being called a racist or anything else. Just
watch how the liberals marginalize he tea party movement which is a
cross-section of America. It's not just Republican but Democrats and
independents as well. It's people who want their country back as I do.

As you can see November can't get here fast enough and we need it now before
the liberals inflict more damage on this country. I want my country back
and I will do what I can to see that this happens.