America, please come back! There have been times in my life in which I did not agree with our political leaders. The issues seemed to be somewhat petty on the part of the party in control at the time. Probably the most disturbing was the war in Viet Nam. In my opinion, we tried to be too nice. I have always been of the opinion that when you went to war, it was an all-out effort to win. That did not seem to be the case. I have and had friends who were injured and died during that event. Some are still suffering the effects. I have yet to determine what we, America, accomplished during that event. Some of the other disturbing events were ‘Watergate, Iran-Contra affair, ‘I did not have sex with that woman’ and the Iran hostage situation. There are others, but that will suffice for now. These events seemed to be rather embarrassing to our nation. This is a nation which was founded on Christian principles and ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’. I was going to save my comments about Christianity for my ‘spiritual’ notes, but I feel compelled to mention them here. It seems that the very constitution which allows freedom of speech, freedom of religion and many other freedoms which are available only in the United States of America is the cause of the loss of our freedoms today. Because we are and have been trying to not offend anyone, we can no longer state what we feel in our hearts. That has lead to changes in the laws which prohibit the expression of our beliefs outside our churches and homes. We can no longer greet people with an expression that alludes to Christ. How can anyone be offended by the very concept which allowed them to live in a nation like no other in the world? If you are so thin skinned that you cannot stand to hear “Merry Christmas”, then, I suggest that you move to a country which will only allow you to be a Muslim, Hindu or one of several religions or sects. Of course you won’t go there. You would probably be executed for expressing your opinion about your leader. But, just to put the record straight, our president, in a public forum, stated his belief in the Koran and made several references to it. He did not reference the Holy Bible. I want to give you an example of how we are being manipulated. I don’t know if it was intentional, but it is a fact. As I was writing this article, I did not capitalize the word "Koran" and the word processor automatically changed it for me. I tried it with the words “holy bible” and it left it in the lower case. This seems strange because even the word ‘torah’ is not automatically changed to upper case. I am not grasping at straws. It just seems odd that I should only notice these things while writing about discrepancies. Children cannot discuss religion in school. Prayers are not allowed. They cannot read their bible. They cannot thank their Lord for anything in a public address. However, it is okay to discuss Islam, evolution and other beliefs in our public schools. I believe there is something seriously wrong with our educational system today. We have allowed special interest groups to invade and control every aspect of our lives. What has happened to majority rule? Was it written out of our constitution? I believe we have become so complacent in our freedoms that we don’t want to be bothered by what is happening outside our own microcosm. It is too much to be bothered by politics and other socio-economic issues. We have become so materialistic that we spend the majority of our lives trying to pay for things. We want the lifestyle that can only be had in America. However, we have had our heads buried in the sand and while it was there, we lost our freedom. Who do you think provided you with that freedom in the first place? It wasn’t “they”, it was “we the people”. We have to get involved and pay attention to what is happening and who is making the decisions for us. We elect people to represent us and we have not put forth due diligence in electing our leaders. A political party affiliation is no longer enough. We have to discern the truth about them. Rhetoric is not necessarily the truth. I believe we have been sold a bill of goods and those goods are spoiled. I have been trying to determine the motive for a lot of the political decisions which have been made this year. I have never been a conspiracy theorist, but I am being forced into a paradigm shift about it. Let me explain my concern. Czar: According to the TIME dictionary, a czar is a Russian emperor, autocratic ruler, a despot. Our current president has appointed several ‘czars’ by executive order (the number is 21, I believe) to serve as overseers of several of our executive branches. They are accountable only to the president and they have control over several agencies and are not accountable to congress. The federal government now has control over the automobile manufactures. It controls GM and Chrysler financially and executively. It now has control of the banking and housing industries. It is trying to take control of the healthcare industry and force us to have health insurance even if we cannot afford it. It will provide a government issued insurance plan in competition with private companies. We are now told by our president that we are a Muslim nation. We are to accept Islam and embrace their friendly views and we are no longer a Christian nation. The last statistical information I saw was that 52% of Americans said they were Christian. You can draw your own conclusion from that. Another item of confusion for me is the federal budget. I personally know that if I spend more money than I earn, I will be in debt. Our government is trying to tell us that if they fund a healthcare bill, it will save us money. I was fairly good at math in school and I was under the assumption that if you had a negative number and made that number larger, you owed more money and now you have a larger payment. I have not had health insurance for the last four years because I could not afford the premiums and now they want me to pay for insurance for other people who cannot afford the premiums. That will save us money? I guess I need to go to a school which teaches current math methods so I can understand the rationale. Socialism/Communism did not work for the USSR. There are many reasons for this. Corruption, greed, power struggles, oppression, lack of monetary control and many others. It seems that our democracy is rapidly approaching socialism and leaning very strongly toward a ‘one world order’. In other words, a “World Leader”, total control of the world. Under such rule, there will be no such thing as “Freedom”. Words like ‘competition’ would cease to exist. Free enterprise will be history and you will not be allowed to even read about it because it would give you ideas about the past that may give rise to a revolution. What about religion? The only religion allowed will be at the whim of the world ruler. Think about this for a moment. One world order is sold as a means to end all wars. If all governments were under one control, that would end it. Will it really? What have most of the wars in the history of the world been about? Let’s list some of the reasons: Religion, power and greed. Do you really believe that a world leader can make those things go away? If you think that what I have said is a ‘little over the top’, then let us consider the past. In the early 1950’s, we said the pledge of allegiance every morning in school. We even used the words, “Under God” in the pledge. I don’t remember anyone reading the bible in school, but it was okay to “thank God” for an event which you thought was a blessing. We had Christmas plays in school. We sang Christmas carols in school. We had Jewish schoolmates who elected to abstain from the activities and I don’t remember any animosity. They may have asked their parents about the act of giving gifts and why were they not included. That was the decision of the parents. The children had a choice when they became of the age of majority. That was a right given to them by our constitution. We, as a Christian nation, when the constitution was constructed, made sure that each individual had the right to worship as they pleased. No restrictions were placed on how or when they may do that. There is a provision in the constitution which prohibits any religion to control our government. Hence, separation of the church and state. This was to prevent a recurrence of the control that the church had over governing bodies in Europe prior to the establishment of the United States of America. We had an integrated system in the 50’s. There were American Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians, Mexicans, and Caucasians of many different nationalities in the schools I attended. I don’t know if the black people I knew came from Africa. To us they were Americans just like we were. We did not know about political correctness. We acknowledged each other by name, not nationality. It did not occur to us that there was a distinction. That had to be pointed out to me later in life when I enrolled in a university. The liberal intellectuals reminded me that those people were not Indian, Mexican or Black people; they were Native Americans, Hispanic and Afro-American. I guess that makes me a Scotch-Irish-Native American-American. But, my Native American great-great grandmother had ancestors from Africa, that would make me a ------- (I guess this could go on for a long time.). If we are born here, we are Americans. I will know you by your name and or title. I was also raised around a lot of different religions. Catholic, Jewish, Mormons, Hindus, Muslims, Baptists, etc... That is what freedom of religion is. I know there were and still are factions who despise other religions and will go to great lengths to run them down. The same is true with ethnic groups. We have a constitutional right to express our opinion. It may not always be the wise thing to do, but we can do it. I don’t know who or what organization originated the “tolerance” idea. But, it has the effect of forcing other peoples’ values upon us. I don’t have to accept the current liberal belief that homosexuality is perfectly normal. I know it exists. I believe it is a sin. I have a right to that opinion. I have and will continue to express my displeasure with the behavior. However, the people who have adopted that life style are still people and I will treat them as such. You and I probably disagree on several matters, but that does not mean that I will not tolerate you. I do not believe in being “politically correct”. By doing so, I will have waived my right to free speech. I believe I can respectfully and tactfully express my opinion. According to the TIME dictionary, tolerance means open-mindedness, allowable deviation; act of or capacity to endure. By definition, that makes me tolerant to other views and opinions. Because we have freedom of the press and freedom of speech, we have a certain amount of power. That power, when used constructively for the benefit of the people can do wonderful things for our society. That same power, under the guise of journalism and news has the ability to influence the masses. It is a fact that the majority of the news networks are of liberal persuasion. I only know of one that leans toward the conservative audience. Written publications are about the same. I admonish you to listen to what is being said when you watch/read the “news”. I want to give you an example: This was on the Yahoo news. Nov. 21, 2009. “ Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle. AP- 8 mins ago. Washington – Invoking the memory of Edward M. Kennedy, Democrats united Saturday night to push historic health care legislation past a key Senate hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barak Obama. There was not a vote to spare.” The first part of the quote is news. However, “ --- Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on Barak Obama” , is an editorial comment disguised as news. It is slanted and is dishonest. It is an opinion of the reporter and has no place in the news. They are making decisions for us. I don’t mind editorial comments when they are labeled as such. It gives us another view that we may not have considered. That is healthy and we should pay attention. We are Americans. Allow us to make our own decisions based on the facts please. If you believe everything you hear or read in the “news”, you are in trouble. Write to them. Express your opinion. Make your voice heard. Then vote. I like to read. My tastes are eclectic so I have been exposed to many political views and opinions. I have studied several of the predominant religions and have at least a good overview. I am not an authority nor am I a theologian. I am not a politician nor do I want to be. I try to stay informed. I listen. I read. I only watch TV to find out what is happening in the world. I am an American. I am a Christian. I will defend my right to be both. I will defend my right to express my thoughts and opinions of both. I will defend your right to believe or not to believe in a deity. I will defend your right to free speech. I will defend your rights and will respect them. Let us unite and stop the people who want to take those away from us. We are a democracy. We are the United States of America! I pray that the president and legislators will honor our constitution and that we may once again be a united America.