In my opinion, America has been spoiled by continued growth and affluence over the past hundred years. In the process of experiencing a century of growth in infrastructure, industry, government, and population we have all become conditioned to almost always having everything we need and being able to get almost everything we want.

This is true of our politicians, our bureaucracies, and our population. As a result, many poor management practices have become the accepted norm, and we have become conditioned to casually accepting wasteful, unnecessary, and exorbitant spending practices in our governments as well as in our personal lives. As a population we have become a debtor society, frequently living from pay day to pay day off of loans and credit card balances. The private debt in our nation has reached an astounding $36,000,000,000,000.

Remembrances of an Old Friend

As we age we seem to become more accustomed to death. As the years pass the list of people we knew, appreciated, cared for, and in many instances, loved, who have passed away becomes longer and longer. The memories of those people are usually enduring and the recollection of our experiences with them evokes a feeling of sadness and regret, mixed with fondness.

This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions.

Will America Still Be the Land of Opportunity for Today's Grads?

This year I have two grandsons graduating from high school. Additionally, I have two granddaughters who are currently enrolled in college. Each of these loved family members is about to leave the world of self preparation and development, and enter the world of work, competition for advancement, and career direction. Before long they will also be involved in accepting the responsibility for yet another generation of our family as they have babies and form families of their own.

As I look at the direction our nation is heading, I can not help but fear for their opportunities to succeed, prosper, and advance. It seems not long ago that I was also a new graduate, facing the world with eager anticipation and self assurance. The question is, does the world faced today by my grandchildren offer the same potentials as did the world I faced fifty years ago? I fear not.

The problem does not lie with the quality of the student who is graduating. True, there are those among the new graduating classes who have no work ethic, no ambition, have been victims of the "dumbing down" of America's youth by involvement in drugs, destructive liberal ideologies, and unionized, unproductive school systems. But there were also "cast offs" and developing failures among the students of my era. A large percentage of today's student population is comprised of smart, hard working, focused, and dedicated students who are doing everything possible to make themselves as qualified and good as possible. Those gifted students deserve a "Land of Opportunity" to be waiting for them.

But if America is embarking on a path of restructuring which involves a reduction in industrial, retail, and business activity as our standard of living endures decades of decline until it evolves down to some point of "international equivalence", what opportunities will the children of today and tomorrow have? What good does it do to be a smart, well educated engineer, business manager, banker, insurance executive, sales executive, marketing expert, real estate specialist, estate planner, industrialist, or other business related expert, ..... if there are no factories, no growing businesses, no opportunities, ... no jobs?

About ten years ago I was involved in helping a New York based apparel company find factories to produce for them around the world. A man who owned a big, modern, well equipped factory in Jordan made a presentation to me, hoping to get a contract to produce. He bragged that of his 500 sewing operators, almost all where men, and 90% had college educations. "Why are college graduate males working as sewing machine operators in your factory?" I asked. "Because there are no other jobs in Jordan," he responded. Is this were our nation is headed? The situation described by this man in Jordan made it clear that education alone will not solve the problem, as many politicians are professing. There must also be industry, economic commerce, and growth where those educational skills can be put to work.

America is now faced with a giant, unsustainable national debt which our political leaders have allowed our nation to create as they foolishly spent more than was coming into the government. They "Let the good times roll", for far too many years. At the same time, as Donald Trump puts it, "They have foolishly given away the farm (our industries) and allowed China to eat our lunch." I see little immediate hope. I can see no solution ahead for America which does not involve sacrifice and dramatic changes in our vision of government, the American society, self responsibility, social responsibilities, priorities, spending habits, our standard of living, and national lifestyle.

I do not believe today's population or our elected officials are prepared to do what must be done without being forced to take corrective actions because there are no alternatives. This will only happen because of absolute failure of the American economic system. I can see no way to avoid a destructive era of great social unrest within our nation as all citizens realize that personal, economic sacrifices are in store for them. Where will that situation leave these graduating grandchildren of mine? May God provide them grace and guidance. Eighty three years ago, as an infant my older sister lived with my Mother and Father in a tent with a dirt floor during the Great Depression. I hope the same experience does not await my great grandchildren when they are born.

In this instance, I hope that I am not "Getting It Right", but I fear I am. Please become politically active this election and help this nation restore its morality and sanity.

Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-

(Say something Nice) – Congratulations to those who are leading the way in the development of a meaningful Farmers Market in the new Madison Street Park in Marianna. It looks like they are going to have another banner year.

You can get arrested for having expired tags on your car or not fastening your seat belt, but not for being in the country illegally. Please explain that to me.

Our administration in Washington has apparently developed a clever solution to the illegal immigration problem. By making conditions of freedom, overregulation, and lack of opportunities so bad in the United States, we now have those illegal Mexicans fleeing back across the borders into their homeland. Some politicians are now proposing we build fences to keep them here. These politicians were apparently hoping to get their fraudulent votes this November.

The administration is also working on a clever solution to those negative unemployment statistics. If they can just convince all of those who are unemployed to quit looking for jobs and to instead just go on welfare, by the way the statistics are calculated, that reclassification step would return our nation back to full employment. Our real national unemployment calculation is well over 10%, and our inflation rate is also much higher than depicted by their politically contrived method of calculation.

Note: The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of the Jackson County Times newspaper.

It is Time For All Good Pastors To Step Forward and Lead-

Our national foundation which was built on strong family bonds is crumbling, church membership is declining, the number of people living out of wedlock is steadily increasing, the percentage of fatherless babies born is astronomical, thousands of abortions occur every day, teen pregnancies are soaring, drug usage is rampant, television programs and films are filled with sex and violence, homosexual behavior is openly portrayed and promoted, the government is encroaching on the religious freedoms of our churches, ...... and meanwhile most of our clergy hides behind their podiums, trembling in fear that if they speak out their churches might lose their tax free status. That is an indictment of their display of cowardice and non performance of Christian duties. If we are to save this poor nation, now is the time for them to step forward and provide guidance to their congregations.

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions

Government Foolishness and Waste – They Haven't Learned Yet!

"It isn't as good as it once was, but it could be worse", is the best overview I can present as an answer to the question, "How is the local economy doing in this terrible recession?".

With the closure of Dozier, the closing of River Junction, the cut-backs at Florida State Hospital, the dramatic slow down in construction in the home and commercial markets, the rising costs of electricity, food, and gasoline, and the slow down in grant funding, ... our area has certainly been impacted. Just ask any retail business owner.

We Didn't Listen Then and We Aren't Listening Now

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions

If I were the Devil....I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole world in darkness. I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I would set about however necessary to take over the United States.

Last week Judy, my bride of 52 years, and I traveled up to central Georgia to Americus to spend a couple of nights in a Bed and Breakfast and to tour the site of the Civil War POW camp where over 10,000 union soldiers died of disease or starvation during that terrible conflict. At the beginning of the tour we watched a film which honored all POW's in all wars. One of the featured speakers was Pete Peterson, the story he was telling choked him so badly he could not continue his narration.

It was a moving, touching experience to tour the site and then to tour the cemetery there. It is a smaller version of Arlington. We also visited the Indian mounds and museum located just north of Blakely. It was all a trip worth taking.

On the way home we were not in a hurry, so we decided to take the back roads and enjoy the countryside. I was shocked and dismayed by what we saw.

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions.

I think that everyone appreciates and loves the beauty and magnificence of this wonderful planet Earth on which we live. The uncountable species of animals, insects, and plants which abound, the availability of natural resources, and the wonder and power of nature provide undisputable proof of an intelligent creator. Few, if any of us would work to intentionally destroy or harm this great system.

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions

As an integral part of any plan to get our economy working properly again, we must give focused attention on the design, format, and composition of our nation's banking systems. Without a functioning, vibrant banking system our economy has no motor, it can only coast along subject to the slope of the land and the direction of the wind.

Controlling the FED - First, we must get government out of the banking business. We need to greatly curtail the authority and power of the Federal Reserve, make its operations transparent to the public and make it responsible to the Legislature's oversight. Today, it is comprised of a powerful, secretive, group of international bankers that are using it as a means of attempted regulation of the world economy. How do we know their decisions are always made for the benefit of the American economy?

Who would ever imagine a banking system where a select group of international bankers would control the money supply for the great nation and economy of the United States, with the power to print money when they want, with the power to set banking interest rates for the nation, and at the same time be totally exempt from audits by anyone, and able to operate in secret with no oversight from any branch of the government! It is an open door to corruption with trillions of unmonitored dollars at stake. Unbelievable!