I Could Be Wrong.

    A lot is going on in Washington right now that in my opinion will affect future generations more than it will affect me. I am a white male with heart disease that will be lucky to see another 10 years. We have an Infrastructure legislation that the majority of the country seems to be in favor of. We have the Jan. 6 th commission that seems to be moving very slowly. We have the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We also have a crisis of funding our government. The Infrastructure legislation is something that is long overdue. It is one of those situations of pay me now or pay me more latter. The longer we wait, the worse it will get, and the more expensive it will get. A lot of it is going to have to happen whether we like it or not. As our population grows the needs of the country grows. I know that there are a few things that are tied into the legislation. There is what they are calling the Social Infrastructure that many conservative and a couple of moderate Democrats are objecting

  I think about what has become of the world today. When my wife and go out on Sunday morning for breakfast with our pup we always meet some real dog lovers. I have always thought that dog lovers were the best people in the world that will treat the people around them as well as they treat their own dog. Have I been misjudging dog lovers? I always thought that a man that did not love dogs would not be a good person in the White House. Bill Clinton was not a dog lover and look at the mess he got into. Trump was definitely not a dog lover and he was a real mess. Dogs teach us just as much as we teach them. They teach us valuable lessons on love and loyalty. One of the problems is that there are a lot of bad dog owners. A lot of dog owners will whip and beat their dogs thinking that they can beat them into submission. There are some people that use that same philosophy on other people. As I saw those pictures of the Officers whipping the Haitian immigrants I was shocked. What makes men

  Every morning when I am having my coffee at my favorite place along the Intra Coastal Waterway two words are always going through my mind. Freedom and Suppression. I remember from the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain Jack was explaining what the boat the Black Pearl meant to him. He said the boat meant freedom. Being a person that spent 30 plus years sailing my boat on Lake Michigan I could kind of relate to how a sailboat could give you freedom. Freedom to go wherever the wind will take you is a great feeling. I miss those days and am envious of the people my age that still have the body to enjoy that freedom. Freedom and suppression seem to be two sides of the same coin. The generation before mine, the one called the greatest generation I think really understood the meaning of freedom. During World War ll they liberated millions from the suppression on the Nazi’s, millions. At the time I don’t think that most of them even realize what a murderous mob the Nazi’s were. They

  I was reading the other day an article that the people in the United States were some of the unfriendliness people in the world. To tell you the truth I have never really been outside of the United States very much to be able to compare. In fact the only foreign country I have been to was Canada. I have been all around the United States and I really have not notice a difference from one area to another. Maybe the problem is me. Maybe if I was friendlier people would be friendlier to me. I will admit that I am hesitant to allow many people within my space. I wrestle with whether I want to associate with people that would put me in harm’s way. I have heart disease and non cancerous scarring on my lunges from exposure to asbestos. During the pandemic I have had to be very careful. Even though I am vaccinated I still wear a mask. I am having a hard time trusting people that they will be concerned about the person standing next to them when that person could be me.   That is the one thing

  It is frustrating that voter suppression is still a problem in America. Having lived through the 60s and the civil rights movement and to see that we are returning to or have already returned to those days is heartbreaking. The great principle of “one voice, one vote” is not longer true. We even have the Supreme Court trying to tell us that their support of not supporting voter rights is not political like we are to believe that there is something that it in the Constitution which makes is ok to suppress voting. When the very tool that is supposes to protect our democracy is the tool that is being used to diminish our democracy we have a real problem. Clarence Thomas has tried to convince the people that when he writes an opinion while sitting on the Supreme Court it is not a political opinion. I for one wish that was true but I for one know that is a lie. Yes, I do believe that a Supreme Court Justice can lie. Being a Conservative Judge in the first place is being part of a politi

  My dog and I most mornings go to this little place along the Intracoastal Waterway for breakfast and a cup of coffee. The sun, most days, has not risen yet so we can sit back end enjoy the birth of a new day. Sometimes we see a dolphin or two. Sometimes the Black Skimmers are feeding. It is a good way to refresh your soul every morning. It is also a good way to realize what is really important in life. The older I get the more reflecting I do. I am closer to the end than the beginning but that’s ok. History is important to me. I love checking historical facts. A lot of the time I find out what I thought was a fact growing up really isn’t. You can’t stop studying history because our knowledge of history is always evolving. In today’s digital age it is so easy to research any subject and, as new facts are discovered, they are easy to share with the rest of the world. Yes in today’s digital age all history is world history. You can try to burn all the books that you want but because o

  Every day I wake up hoping that this new day will be better than the last. We are kind of in a rut and every day is the same it seems. The fires keep raging out West, and we are keeping a constant eye on the weather. We have rain where we don’t need it and no rain where we desperately need it. We have a virus that just won’t go away and we still have people that think it is an over publicized hoax. People every day are dying that don’t need to die and we still have too many politicians that do not want to protect the public. Living in Florida is always interesting. We have people that fight wearing a mask and a Governor that doesn’t seem to want to protect our children. We have a vaccine that appears to work but we have a Governor that would rather not prevent you from getting sick but treat you after you get sick. He seems to be ok with more people dying than should be as long as he keeps on getting that national news. He seems to want to make sure that Iowa voters do not forget h

  For the first time in my life I am living in an area that is under a boil order because our water has been contaminated because of a water main break. The entire city of Ft. Myers is under a boil order. That is affecting over 80,000 people. Lucky for me I do not live in the city proper so we do not get our water from the Ft. Myers Water Utility even though I have a Ft Myers mailing address. It does make me think that maybe we need to update our infrastructure in this country. As we have been making war for the last 20 years other countries have been improving their services and infrastructure leaving us behind. The longer we wait the bigger that bill is going to be. I spent 4 years listening to people scream America first and during that time not once did I hear any of them talking about our infrastructure. Improving our infrastructure would really being putting America first instead of just talking about it. For the last 40 years we have been giving the rich tax breaks, increasing o

  Today is the anniversary of 9/11. 20 years. Wow how time flies. I am pretty sure that everyone remembers where they were when the towers came down. I will always remember watching the second tower coming down on live television. The whole world saw it and the most of the worlds felt for America. The horror that we were all seeing was just heartbreaking. 20 years ago the word terrorism took on a whole new meaning in America. It was something that happened elsewhere not in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We should have seen it coming but were too arrogant to think it that it couldn’t happen to us. Most people didn’t even know that Al Qaeda attempted to assassinate Clinton in Manila in 1998. The CIA also had reported to the Clinton administration that they were planning air attacks on the US. Why was the US asleep at the wheel on Sept. 11 th 2001? Someone dropped the ball and history will record who. I have seen a few historical moments in my lifetime. I was in elemen

  My wife was a Teacher. In fact, my wife has her Doctorate in Education. I asked her if she had ever seen a course call Critical Race Theory. Of course the answer was no. I know that there is a theory called Critical Race Theory and like many theories and it may be taught in some colleges.   It should be discussed and debated. To say that something cannot be discussed among children is not a bad thing. Would they understand Critical Race Theory? Probably not. I wouldn’t want unproven theories to be clouding our young people’s mind. If we taught Critical Race Theory to a 1 st grader next you would probably want that “God Theory” taught too? Oh what? You say that teaching children about god is ok, where there is probably more proof that backs up the Critical Race Theory than your religion. Of course, I am wrong to call your religion the “God Theory”. What it is your faith? Should your faith be taught to my children? As a nation we cannot hide from our racial past. It must be taught i

  I was really glad that Trump was not reelected but all the lying and fear from the Republicans after the election has sent the country into kind of a tail spin. To maintain power they have tried to suppress voting because they are afraid of losing that power. The racism that has been around since the founding of our country is still there and just won’t go away. They see an equal minority as suppression of them. They see an equal woman as suppression of them. They see my rejection of their religious beliefs as a suppression of their religion. They work very hard at trying to maintain power and are getting help from people that want to see our democracy fail. In fact, I believe that some Republicans would rather see our democracy fail than have a truly equal country. That is why it is so important that people like me continue to write and continue to resist. Maybe there really is a higher force driving us on. One question that always eats at me is why do a lot of Republicans want to

  Healthcare is one of the country’s biggest problems. Probably only second to Climate Change and right in front of voter and women suppression. Of course the order will depend on who you talk to. The reason I put healthcare so high is that it is not everyone that dies and is brought back to life like I was. As I see it I have 2 birthdays. One is where I was actually born in 1953 and then the day I was brought back to life Labor Day weekend 4 years ago. It was the Sunday before Labor Day and my wife and I had had a wonderful day. We had a beautiful morning sail followed by a cookout at home. It was pretty much the perfect day. That evening I knew that something was wrong with me so I told my wife that I thought I should go to the hospital. I had no chest pains, no fever, and no cold sweats. I just knew that something was wrong. Being only 5 minutes from the hospital we got in the car and that is the last thing I remember. The next thing I remember was waking up in the ICU on Tuesday

  Well we are out of Afghanistan but it is still dominating the news. Our forests are burning. Our children are getting sick and some are dying. We just had one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the coast of Louisiana. Voter suppression is running rampant throughout multiple states and the Supreme Court looks like it is turning a blind eye to our democracy.   What does our President have to give a speech on? Afghanistan! Why?, because that is what is consuming the news and public opinion. Yes, is was a 20 year war we should have gotten out of a long time ago but in reality it wasn’t really a war for quite some time. It was more of a lesson on how not to do nation building. We have a lot of things that are going on that will affect the lives of my great grandchildren and Afghanistan is not one of them. Climate change is not only affecting the United States but also the world. I Googled the worst forest fires in history and according to Earth.org most have happened in the last