I Could Be Wrong.

The election is over, but the fight needs to go on. We need to start talking about the issues that we will be facing not only in our country but also in the entire world. To conquer those problems we first have to recognize that there is a problem. One of the biggest obstacles is our ability to separate the truth from the lies. You would think that would be an easy thing to do but this is what makes it so hard to solve today's problems. In today's world of alternate facts, the truth becomes very elusive. This is what I'm going to be concentrating on in the future and I hope there are people out there willing to help me.  We have many issues that need to be tackled. There is Climate Change. There are shootings in our schools that take the lives of too many of our children. There is the drug violence on our streets. There is a growing homeless problem. There is the healthcare problem. I know there are many problems and, I'm going to continue to write about them.  Living i

Veteran's Day is a day I never really started to appreciate until I visited two National Cemeteries, Arlington National Cemetary and The Little Bighorn National Cemetary. The peacefulness of those two cemeteries left me with a feeling of the peace that was fought for with the lives that were laid to rest there. Another place that moved me was the National Mall, where the Vietnam Memorial, the World War II Memorial, and the Korean Memorial left me with a great appreciation of the sacrifices made by those few for what is supposed to be a grateful nation. Have I honored them properly? Probably not. Has the nation honored them properly. No! Veteran's Day is more of a way to make a political statement than to honor our Veterans.  I was watching TV the other day and a commercial for the Wounded Warrior Project came on. Like many charities, it has been marred with scandals of misuse of funds by the people who run the charity, and not enough of the money was actually going to the peopl

  The nation has spoken. That is how it is supposed to happen: We go to the polls and vote for who to guide the country's direction for the next four years. Some of us are happy with the results and some of us are sad with the results. This election, more than any other, has polarized the nation. We are a divided nation, and this election has made it so we will remain divided. I don't know if I will live long enough to see a united nation. Maybe I am just ignorant and we have been this divided all along because what I am witnessing now shows how little we have come since the 1950s.  I remember the racism from the '60s and the struggles we, as a nation, tried to overcome that hatred which is racism and bigotry. Many things have changed since then but many things have remained the same. The one thing that has remained the same is that we still have a race that believes it is superior to all of the others. When much of America talks about American Exceptionalism what many beli

  I grew up in Kenosha, a city in the very corner of Southern Wisconsin. It was the home of the Rambler and was once written up in Playboy as Sin City, USA. The year was 1980 and there was a hotly contested Mayoral election between John Bilotti challenging Paul Saftig. I was sitting around, watching TV about an hour before the polls closed, I decided to vote. I had never voted before so I made sure I had my driver's license and a current gas and electric bill to show proof of residency. I registered right there at my polling place which just happened to be Saint Joseph High School just two blocks from where I lived. I voted that night for John Bilotti. When I got up the next morning I saw the guy that I voted for won by one vote. No one will ever convince me that my one vote didn't matter. From that day on I have voted in every election since then.  Since that day I have also been in favor of making it easier to vote, not harder. I was able to register to vote, even on election

 Living in Florida can be really interesting at times. Some people may use other words like bizarre and strange, but I still like to say interesting. The interesting thing starts with our governor, Governor Ron DeSantis. He is the guy who started calling us the Free State of Florida. He began calling us that about the same time, he began to eliminate things like Diversity, Training, and Inclusion. We are the Free State that bans books. We are the "Can't Say Gay" State. We are the state where Climate Change is not part of the Government's vocabulary or record. We are the State if you disagree with the Governor's interpretation of things he may threaten to sue you. Yes, Florida is a very interesting State but, if you want to say disturbed or bizarre I won't argue with you.   Florida was hit by two hurricanes in just a couple of weeks so we have been seeing an awful lot of DeSantis trying to look like an effective leader during a crisis. He is in front of the cam

 The Free State of Florida. That is what DeSantis has called us. I see freedom first as what our Forefathers gave us when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The freedom they gave us was the freedom of self-government. The freedom to create our own unique government that had never been done before. After they finished they came up with a way to amend that form of Government as time passed and the needs of the people and society changed. Still, the basis of the government was self-government. The first ten Amendments are called the Bill of Rights. The people's voice is their vote. Whether they are voting for a candidate for office or for an Amendment to the Constitution their voice is their vote and that is something that should never be suppressed but too often is.  We have several Amendments on our ballot in the State of Florida. Two of the hottest are the Marijuana Amendment and the Abortion Amendment. Both amendments are controversial both statewide

  Why all the lying? Do people really think that it is good for America? Two major hurricanes hit the country in just a few weeks, Florida needed more time for all the trash to be picked up from Helene, and along came Milton. It is like first being punched in the face and then being punched in the gut. The people are suffering enough but the lies are making it just worse. Where are these lies coming from? Would you believe many of the lies come from a man wanting to be President? That's right, Donald Trump is the one who is mostly responsible for most of the lies that are being told. This is a time the nation needs to unify because there is a huge number of people in desperate need of help and having a political candidate lie for votes should automatically disqualify that candidate.  Let's look at some of the lies that Trump has said about FEMA, Hurricane relief, and President Biden's response to that Hurricane relief. Right off the bat, Trump said Georgia Governor Brian Ke

I just can't become a believer. As I get older and the more I reflect on my life I find myself drifting farther away from the church than moving closer to it. Some of it could be when my heart stopped for six minutes. Mostly it is because the lessons I learned in the church as a child and as a young adult don't seem to be working today.  What I see people practicing today is not what I learned in my youth.  I have never had trouble resolving the difference between science and the Bible. It was always easy for me to understand the science that we know today would never be understood when many of the books of the Bible were written. 2000 years ago most people couldn't read or write. They believed what their eyes told them and their eyes told them that the world was flat and that everything revolved around the world. We were the center of the universe as far as they were concerned. Everything they were told they would have to be able to understand so things were written as sto

And the lies continue. I have heard it said that both sides lie to the American people. I used to believe that but not anymore. No time in our history have we been lied to more than we are being lied to by the Republican Party and by their candidate running for President, Donald Trump. With all the lies we have been told I can no longer trust anything that the Republicans say.  Yesterday, Trump went to Georgia saying he was there to help. What he was there was a photo op. You don't show up to a disaster area in a suit and tie to help. Jimmy Carter would have been there with his work clothes and his gloves and would just start pitching in and not having an impromptu stage built so he can give a speech. When it comes to being a humanitarian Trump can't hold a candle to a person like Jimmy Carter but the Republicans will try and project him as such. Trump's presence was more of a distraction than anything else and he should have stayed away. In my opinion it took away availabl