LOOKING A GIFT HORSE IN THE EYE

We recently attended a birthday celebration for our lovely granddaughter. The birthday girl was 22 and the friends who attended were near her age. One friend, lovely intelligent and well educated, recently completed a year in South Africa as part of her education curriculum. In response to our inquiry about her stay in South Africa, she related her experience with enthusiasm and told us how rewarding her visit was to her personally.

We were stunned by her revelations of culture shock and feelings of guilt for the lifestyle that she had always known. She said after a year of doing without, learning how to manage with no conveniences, hanging onto the bed of a big old open truck rolling down dusty dirt roads (or no roads at all) and living a “bare bones” lifestyle she felt uncomfortable in the lifestyle she always took for granted. In some ways I found this attitude reassuring but in other ways, it was sad. Our young generation does not realize that there are those among us who have "been there -- done that".

As my husband and I listened to this young lady, who was raised in an affluent home, educated in a private school and graduated from an excellent California College, we were surprised by her expressions of guilt for the good life that she had been privileged to be born into. We read into her comments a feeling of guilt – perhaps even shame – that we, in this country, have so much and the people in South Africa where she visited so little. My first reaction was one of dismay and disappointment. Here was a representative of a generations best, who will be teaching our children and introducing them to ideas and thoughts that have formed her opinions of her country and I was not encouraged. I recognized that she would be communicating to her students those feelings of shame and even guilt that she had gained for her experience. I was offended by her statements and I felt defensive and yes, hurt.

I have reflected on that short conversation and the attitude that it unleashed in me. I have now come to realize that the year that dear sweet young girl spent in South Africa was not unlike the life that I and many of my generation knew and lived through. Undoubtedly, we did not have the poverty that is reflected in much of that country but neither did we live in the luxuries that are available in our country today. Our family grew our food, toiled daylight to dusk and worked hard to avoid the hardships of poverty.

I spent my childhood on a farm in the Midwest. My Grand daughter and her friend know only pristine lawns that surround well furnished homes in which full refrigerators and well maintained comforts and conveniences of modern city life occupy their world. . They know only the comforts provided by hard working parents as a result of the hard work and, sometimes, sacrificial efforts of their kinfolk. I wanted to cry that day. It is disheartening to see our younger generation ashamed of that which we have worked so hard and sacrificed so much as something for which they should be ashamed.

In my youth, my family had no car – not even a truck – only a horse and wagon. A trip to town meant hitching “old Daisy” (a mare then old and already in her last days) to a wagon on which my mother and father would sit in front with my brother and I in the back for the four mile ride into town and return. The wagon was sometimes smelly because a few days before manure may have been carried out to fertilize the fields. Young people today know these excursions only as portrayed in rerun episodes of the television series, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE”. They do not assimilate that there was no electricity, no indoor toilet (imagine running – and I do mean running – to the outhouse in the middle of a blizzard or an electrical storm of monumental velocity; We had no running water. We pumped our water from a well outside our kitchen door and carried it into the house in a gallon bucket where the pail sat with a dipper inside for easy access to water as needed. We had a wood cook stove on which my mother cooked our meals and, in hot summer temperatures ranging from 80 – 100 degrees, she would stand over that hot stove to can the fruits and vegetables that would provide our sustenance for the coming winter. I can still see the light in my mother’s eyes and the smile on her face that expressed her delight when my brother and sisters gave her a pressure cooker to ease her burden in the hot kitchen during the canning process.

I was six years old when my oldest brother bought a used Ford Model A car and I had my first ride in an actual moving vehicle. That purchase represented fastidious saving and hard work but we had arrived, it was a replacement for the horse and wagon. In another four years, my father would be able to afford a car of his own, thanks to World War II and the work that was provided by a nearby weapons depot. He had to have a car to go back and forth to work. Our roads were simple two lane roads of gravel or dirt – although there were paved roads on the major routes under construction. My life as a child was happy, carefree as well as difficult. We accepted the bad along with the good and when the war broke out in 1941, our community and our nation rallied around the President and did what needed to be done.

Do I feel guilty about the lifestyle in South Africa? No. But, I am sorry that they did not or have not had the opportunities that we have had to raise themselves above their lifestyle and find a better way. Am I responsible for their plight and should I feel guilty? I don’t think so. Perhaps we need to help them find their way, help them recognize that they too can rise above their positions but only they can do it for themselves and therein is the problem. Do they want to?

As I reflected on our conversation with our young friend, I realized that I had missed a rare opportunity to share with a member of the younger generation a reality that she and others of her age group have not considered. We have had our time of living without the things that we now enjoy and take for granted. We have done our without the conveniences of our modern life style. I am sorry that our younger generation cannot experience a look back at those hardships I experienced as a child. Without actually knowing and experiencing that lifestyle it is easy to feel guilty for the things that those of us who “did the time and paid the price” have achieved. We need to tell them that they do not need to feel guilty, their parents and their forefathers had the vision to lay out a guideline for this country. We committed a grave error. We should have reminded our young friend that our people “have been there, done that”. Isn’t it sad that our schools do not teach the realities of our past? Sadly, it does not sound like this promising young teacher will either.

ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY

Our task is evident. The current conduct of the Democratic controlled Congress makes it evident that we must DEFEAT every politician who does not support both ANWR and off shore drilling. The Democratic controlled Congress refuses to act to provide a roadmap to either security or energy self sufficiency for purely political reasons. This must not be permitted.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid must be replaced as majority leaders. We must elect candidates to office who will look beyond the political expediency of party politics and do the Country’s work. Our elected officials are more interested in supporting their liberal bias toward the environmental protectionists than in what is best for the Country and its citizens. It is time we elect people who will take on the work of running our country. We have been bogged down too long by political premises that serve only the political goals of the liberals and their supporters. It is a sorry state of affairs.

Come on America – write your elected representatives and tell them to politics aside and act on your behalf. Together, we must demand that our sitting politicians act now to free up our energy resources by supporting the President’s plea for approval to open up off shore drilling. And, in the process, we must demand that drilling in ANWR should be approved as well. Our politicians must pass and implement laws that will free up both ANWR and off shore drilling while supporting alternative energy independence research and development. It is time we make our views known.

Write to your Congressman and Senators today. It is time to fight back and that means act now. Not until our representatives recognize that their jobs are in jeopardy will they act. Let them know and let them know now that time is running out. Tell Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid that you ALREADY know that approval today means oil 10 years from now – but if Bill Clinton and his Democratic henchmen had not vetoed ANWR in 1995, we would not be where we are today. We have got to begin to bring sense to these senseless politicians who have had our eyes covered for too long. Every billion dollars that goes overseas for oil, is another billion dollars that has been removed from our liquidity. .

TIME FOR REAL CHANGE WHERE IT COUNTS

We have just concluded our annual Independence Day celebration. On July 4, 1776 our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Some liberal folks used this occasion to opine that this day was somehow no longer relevant because we, the citizens, are unworthy. I resent these comments since I consider them to be paragons of stupidity. It is that liberal thought process and our inept politicians who have clouded our independence and compromised our freedoms.

Good, hard working, well intentioned American citizens actually seem to believe that the liberal news media and their elected representatives seriously know what is best for our country. They actually believe that these people have some “edge” on insight and somehow, are capable of making the hard decisions that are right for us. This reflects a chronic malaise that empowers mediocrity. Why are so many good and loyal patriotic Americans caught up in this bamboozle? Why do we Americans continue to elect and reelect people who have already proven themselves incompetent, inept and without vision? Is it because we are too lazy to think? Do we not recognize that we have allowed ourselves to put more emphasis on a "political thought process" than on what is right or wrong?

Polls reflect dissatisfaction with our politicians. However, there is a common thread in those polls. – “All politicians are bad except mine”. That, in my view, is the epitome of our American irresponsibility. We tend to believe that the representative who sells his vote for political expediency but gains a Federal gift in the form of unearned pork barrel spending benefits us and thus,is a good representative. Too often, we think only of ourselves.

I suggest that we should remove every politician who does not confront the issues of today and especially those issues related to our energy crises. Whether Democrat or Republican, we need to "fire the deadbeats" who are making enormous salaries at taxpayer expense and who refuse to confront our energy crises. We need to replace the sitting incompetents with men and women of vision who are not afraid to act and who will base their performance on values that will secure their reelection.

It seems to me that the current Democratic controlled Congress and the majority party has done nothing to change anything. Energy is in crises and they "look for excuses". They are opposed to the war on terrorism. They seem to have their head in the sand insofar as the world at large is concerned. They have failed to pass immigration reform. Our financial markets are in chaos, thanks to their lack of fiscal oversight. They refuse to pass the necessary legislation to achieve oil independence. In fact, it was the action of President Bill Clinton and his veto of the proposed legislation that approved drilling for oil in ANWR that has helped create our current crises and our dependence on foreign oil. This is the same party that polls suggest may be highly favored to solve tomorrow's problems? If what the polls suggest is true, we have a major problem and it is one you and I must confront.

FOURTH OF JULY PASSED

I am melancholy with the spirit of summer. Perhaps it is the pending holiday that pits my memory against the realities of today or – perhaps it is the “aging process” that confronts and confounds me as I fully grasp the reality of the “shortness of life”.

That said, my melancholy cries out for a dissertation and thus, I am posting my whimsy here where it can be ignored by millions of people rather than to bore one poor unfortunate person with my old age giddy.

As the 4th of July celebration looms ahead, I remember with great fondness the celebrations of my youth. Our Fourth of July was a celebration on a par with Thanksgiving and Christmas but it was different. The 4th of July was a combination of celebration of independence and renewal. Family, friends and neighbors joined together to celebrate, remember and appreciate the gift of independence that we had been presented by our forefathers. It was a day in which we celebrated that for which our ancestors had so courageously fought and left to us to appreciate. For those who may have thought that the arrival of their ancestors at Ellis Island was a big event, imagine how those whose ancestors celebrated the Declaration of Independence on that awesome day in 1776 must feel. Sometimes I think our newer arrivals fail to recognize or grasp our pride.

On the morning of the 4th, a summer breakfast of fresh melon, pancakes and coffee followed our morning chores that included milking the cows, feeding the chickens and tending the livestock and, time permitting, perhaps, a bit of hoeing in the garden. After breakfast, Mother would fry a chicken – or two, cook some green beans, make a potato salad and prepare iced tea for the lunch that we would enjoy at the park where the carnival would provide fun and frivolity.

Food, drinks and family packed safely into the car, off we went lighthearted and gay. We would arrive at the celebration early afternoon and as we left the car (my brothers and sisters remembered a horse drawn wagon) dad would give my brother and I .25 cents and that was our allotment for entertainment. How we chose to spend our money was up to us, but for sure, it would only accommodate a minimal number of rides on either the ferris wheel, the merry go round or a few exercises of skill in which my brother might choose to invest.

Sometime mid to early evening – Mother and Dad would pause in their visiting with neighbors and friends to summon my brother and I with whatever friends we might ask to join us for our “dinner”. Mother would have prepared a table and sat it with the food that she had prepared for us. Other friends would be invited to join us and others would be similarly sharing their meal at nearby tables and as we ate, the group would visit and share the news that had accumulated in our individual families during the course of the year.

I do not remember any speeches – though that is a big part of what the movies and books about 4th of July celebrations in other areas stress. I remember this event as a general celebration. It was a summer event that stressed happiness, good food, family, friends a time for renewal and appreciation. At 9 o’clock after the sun had sat in the West, the band would play and the fireworks would be displayed and another 4th of July would have been celebrated. Mother and Dad would usually have left for home right after the meal because the cows had to be milked, the pigs fed and the chores completed. My brother and I would be left to come home with a neighbor who had come for the evening celebration as opposed to the day celebration. They were night people. My folks were day people. My brother and I benefitted from both.

Today, too few of our citizens stop to remember the price that was paid by the ancestors of those of us whose life has always belonged to this country. I can remember my dad reminiscing about his grandfather and his grandfather’s brother who fought in the American Revolutionary War. My mother’s grandfather was wounded in the Civil War and even as we celebrated many of the 4ths that I so vividly remember, World War II was in progress. We had family and friends serving on the battlefield across the sea and we were acutely aware of the price of our freedom.

For many immigrants that live among us today, our country is a land of opportunity, wealth and yes, absurd over indulgence. Our freedom is taken for granted and too few of us stop to remember that someone has paid the price for that which we enjoy. We take it all for granted and as my mother used to warn, “WE DO NOT MISS THE WATER UNTIL THE WELL GOES DRY”. Let’s stop and remember and celebrate the 4th for what it is and what it means. It is a celebration of our independence and an opportunity to remember that we must work to preserve our freedom.