Jesus for Everywhere….and everything....

. Last week, the California legislature refused to honor John Wayne because Mr. Wayne had made some derogatory remarks about some racial groups fifty years ago. “Off with his head…” That ninny, how could he have been that crass, that uncaring, that racist, that sexist, that insensitive, that foolish, that dumb…oh wait …let’s see he’s a human …right? So, we are going to condemn any and all for anything they may have said during their entire lives, is that the picture? Have we lost our collective minds or what? We can’t talk about God, Christmas, or just about any other thing without some group getting their panties in a wad and wanting to protest and tear down a building or set fire to a neighborhood or some tax payer funded police cars. Very smart….brilliant. I venture to say that all of us, I mean everyone of us has used some expression in the past or present that could be offensive to someone, somewhere, no matter how innocent we may have used it in our conversations. Hillary Clinton was talking about her husband the other day and said… ‘Sometimes he (Bill) went off the reservation.” An apparent reference or slur to American (Native) Indians, I suppose. Is the correct term Native Americans or can you use the word Indian any longer? I am so confused. I am surprised that the NBA, NFL, and MLB haven’t banned ticket (wait for it) scalpers from operating around their arenas since that word is, of course, verboten as well…Is verboten ok to say? So, here’s my proposal…if we take offense to poor old John Wayne giving out his OPINION which is his right as an American, then we need to avoid any references to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and a host of others since they made remarks over two hundred years ago that I am sure are offensive to someone, somewhere. This morning, the paper reports that folks in Egypt are protesting over the violence in the old ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoons…. It seems their behavior is unacceptable and promotes violence. I can’t help but think that this bodes ill for Wiley Coyote. Stock in the Acme Explosives Corporation will surely drop. As far as I can tell the only person that cannot be credited with any violence or wrongdoing, (unless you want to focus strictly on the money changers in the temple scene) is Jesus Christ. Let’s rename all of the buildings which represent failed and flawed humanity for any reason with HIS name and use Him as our benchmark for our future role model. Take those guys off the mountainside at Mt. Rushmore and replace with four images of Christ. Let’s eliminate violence from all television, movies, newspapers, internet, books, plays…well just about anything you can consider. If we write anything about anyone, you can bet it will be offensive to someone for some reason or another. Make a play or movie without any minorities involved….you will be criticized for not having enough minorities. Make the same play with the majority of the cast minority; then you get criticized for stereotyping minorities. Jesus for everything…my answer to the insanity that surrounds us.

Do The Right Thing

. After I graduated from police school in 1964, I was assigned to work in the patrol division while I was on probation. I asked one of the old hands for some words of wisdom that I should always remember. He told me in no uncertain terms…. “Never put yourself in any kind of a position where you could not or would not be comfortable with arresting someone is you had to do so..” In other words… ‘Do the right thing.’ Don’t take an offering of any kind, even a hamburger or some favor from anyone for any reason if it could jeopardize your ability to put someone in jail or file charges against them if it was necessary. I am watching as are most of you, the ongoing debacle with the Republican National Committee over the upcoming presidential nomination convention. As you know, the front runner in this race Donald Trump got beat out from any delegates from Colorado since the voters themselves did not vote for any delegates, the party choose who the delegates were to be. The chairman of the Republican Party was trying to spin the matter by saying the practice was allowed under the rules for that particular state. Try telling that to the millions who felt they were cheated out of the nomination process. Another spokesman made the comment that … “We (the RNC) pick the nominee, not the people.” Perhaps the rules do allow for this kind of action, but like most of you I thought we all got to participate in the nominating as well as the general election process. Apparently not. Apparently we, the lowly taxpayers, are not to be trusted with the power of the vote. Why we might actually choose and elect someone outside of the reining power base. Heaven forbid. So I suppose our votes are just really a sham so that we feel good and think we are actually helping to choose our national leadership….but not really, just let them vote and throw away the results since they are too stupid to know what is good for them. We do know, we have experience in running the country, The problems you see each day? Like the runaway deficient… ineffective foreign relations…poor defense results? We inherited those from the previous administration. Who inherited them from the one before them and so on and so on. No, we take zero responsibility for our actions, you see it isn’t about you…it’s about us. We don’t care to do the right thing….we are not interested in your problems, we have our own. Such as how to get our ill-gotten gains into safe offshore accounts now that Panama and Switzerland are no longer safe places for my cash stash. I know and I suspect you do as well know when we are doing something that just isn’t right. It comes from that small voice we have inside of us called a conscience. It disturbs me to believe that electing people to politics requires the suspension of your conscience. I don’t see much evidence of it otherwise.

The Parties Over.....

The Parties Over……. Years ago, I was sitting in a green room with a lady who was married to a US Congressman…In the few minutes we sat waiting to go on the program, I asked her what her husband was going to do now that he was no longer in congress. She looked me square in the eye and said without hesitation…. “Why, he is going to be President of the United States.” This was years (maybe 15) before he actually ran and was elected. I went home that night and told my wife what this crazy old lady (or so I thought) had told me…but sure enough he did get elected. How could she actually believe this so far in advance? I have always grown up with the theory and belief that anyone, anyone at all could eventually become the president of our nation if they tried hard enough to gain the votes necessary to propel him or her into that office. So, what happened to that idea? The idea that we, the people actually got to choose the people we want to represent our interests in governing our country. It is obvious by what is going on now that you and I have no influence upon the outcome of what goes on in our national political arena. Ask the millions of people in Colorado who just lost their right to vote in a presidential primary because the Republican Party does not agree with or like the current frontrunner….Donald Trump. Why have elections in the first place since the outcome is going to be decided by a group of insiders who want the status quo to remain the same? What effect can my one vote have when it (along with millions of others) is being tossed aside and disregarded because the establishment leadership wants to maintain their control on the reins of authority and to hell with what we the people want? What do we know about government and what is in our best interests, anyway? We are just the hardworking men and women who don’t lie, cheat and steal from the governmental coffers and pay our taxes year after year while the fat cats travel first class, stay in 5 star resorts and commit fraud and theft for billions of dollars with little retribution ever extracted. “Oh, you stole 25 million from the XYZ Agency fund? Shame on you….there is a black mark by your name and you get probation for 5 years….don’t do it again.” Hardly a day goes by, that we don’t read or hear about these situations, is there? No, the Republican Party has taken a stand and made their intentions very public. We, the people don’t matter to those in power. Our beliefs are not welcome. Our opinions are not wanted. Go home…let the big boys handle these important matters. You just report to your jobs at the salt mines of America and send us your tax monies. Keep your head down and don’t ask questions. We really don’t need to hear from you at all. In fact we would prefer not to hear from you for any reason. We may wave at you as we are passing on our way to some exotic destination for a week or so in which we discuss the granting of a billion or so bucks (to some of our friends) for the research study on the mating habits of cockroaches. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams…..those names ring a bell? King George III didn’t listen to the people in the colonies either, did he?

'THEY' Exist

“They” Exist!!!!!!!! How many times have you heard someone say …. ‘They’ did it.’ or ‘they’ said’? We have often questioned ourselves with the puzzling question of just who in the heck is this ‘they’ anyway? Where do ‘they’ live? What do ‘they’ do for a living? What do ‘they’ look like? Well, folks… here is a newsflash for you. THEY….are the establishment politicians living amongst us and supposedly looking out for us in Washington, D.C. But are THEY really? That is the question. Former governor Mike Huckabee was on the news this morning stating the obvious, this is not a good year to be thought of as a member of the ‘they’ group. He goes on to state that we are in the middle of a political revolution. I could not agree more. The people we have elected have set themselves up as an elite group without any concern for those of us in the trenches slugging it out in the muck and grime of our daily lives. We are not in the ‘in’ crowd that ‘they’ belong to. We do not get to fly first class or dine in expensive Georgetown restaurants at the expense of the taxpayers. Huckabee pointed out that the 6 richest counties in the nation are those next to our nation’s capital. He states that real estate is booming with houses selling for more than their asking prices. Not happening in my neighborhood…how about yours? Just as the frog gets slowly boiled in a gradually heating pot of water, so have the average America taxpayers. We did it to ourselves; we never questioned or paid much attention to what ‘they’ were doing for far too many years. Now the water is boiling and some of us are jumping out and escaping, much to the chagrin of those in public offices. Every day, some politician gets his hand caught in the national cookie jar and generally skates with a limp promise of… “It won’t happen again…” Why did it happen in the first place? Is it any wonder that people are fed up with self-serving professional politicians who have been sucking on the governmental teat for so long they cannot see how far removed they are from those of us struggling to pay rent, food and taxes? I suppose when you live in an Ivory Tower far above the maddening masses it is hard to identify with us average old Americans. The political establishment is in a flee or fight mode at this time, it appears they are absolutely astonished that those of us still able to fight would eventually get tired of their behavior and start to push back. How dare we? How dare we question their authority or their actions? How dare we ask about their insider deals or insider trading? How could we dare question their relationships with lobbyists and governmental contractors? How dare we question their voting records on matters that mean a lot to us and that concern our daily lives, but not theirs? Don’t we know who THEY are? Yes, yes we do.

The Elephant in the Room

Nearly every day so far this year….. I have gotten into a discussion about the danger of Donald Trump…the success of Donald Trump or what will happen to this country if the Donald gets (or doesn’t get) elected. Is Trump abusive, abrasive, egotistical, brash, rude and just downright nasty sometimes? The answer is….yes, he is. So why is he resonating so well with so many voters in spite of his very visible shortcomings? Simple…. He is voicing what so many of us have wanted someone to say for so long. We are tired of the same old tired lies that have come out of the mouths of the folks we elect year after year. We have established and enabled an entire industry of professional politicians. Once they get there....they stay there. They never leave. Kind of like checking into The Hotel California. No sane politician wants to discuss immigration, social security, military build-up and the worst of them all…the out of control deficit. These are political suicide. Also …what kind of a nut funds his own campaign….without using millions freely given by large corporations or labor unions out of the goodness of their own hearts just for the sake of love of the United States? Seems to me we are in a sort of voter revolution….we are wanting to vote for anyone, no matter who it is….just so he or she is not a member of the elite establishment now residing in our nation’s capital. We have had our fill of these folks….good bye. We, the American public have to pay taxes….follow the rules, live within our budget…not so with the people in the political industry. And that is exactly what it is, an industry. Lawyers, lawmakers, governmental contractors, lobbyists, consultants, special interest groups, political action committees, labor unions, associations of everything you can think of under the sun, non-profit organizations, foreign government personnel, just to name a few, there are many more. These people’s lives and fortunes rely upon relationships and partnerships that have been forged and created for years, perhaps centuries with each other. You think after all these years, these people want to give up all they have invested both their time and money into creating only to lose it to some guy with a big mouth and weird hair? They are scared of Mr. Trump. Donald Trump is a threat to the status quo. He is not playing by the rules. He is an outsider. He could mess everything up. He isn’t being funded by those who have controlled the congress, as well as the office of the president for God know how many years? He isn’t making his moves based on the decisions of a few select individuals in some smoke filled hotel room. How many elections have been decided in those rooms in the past? Will he win? Who knows? Has he gotten the people in this country talking? You bet. Will it have any effect on the future? We will have to wait and see. But one thing is for sure…. We all know there is something big in the room with us …. Don’t we? Peary Perry

Turn the other WHAT?

Turn the other what? One of the great things about getting to be my age (73) is that you don’t have to impress anyone, and you can pretty much say what you want to and no one will give you much grief. I find it somewhat therapeutic to vent my frustration with life around me and hope you agree or, at least, challenge me if you believe what I say contrary to your thoughts. First off, I am a card-carrying conservative Christian, white male who is heterosexual and a supporter of the second amendment. Now that sentence should give you an idea of where I am going with this article. Let me say that I do not care if you want to fall in love with someone of your same sex, a chicken or a tree. If you wish to be married to some tall oak or a boy named Sue, then more power to you. Just leave me out of it and don’t always rub it in my face and try to change my mind…As far as I am concerned it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, but this is your business, not mine. The Christian religion suffers from a bad case of public relations. We are viewed by the world as the religion of the ‘dont's’ not the ‘do’s’. We need to change this image and show people what we are about. This is a time for us to exercise the motto of ‘hate the sin…love the sinner.’ We can indeed show compassion to anyone in need without having to agree with them about their beliefs. I participate in a program to send 1,000’s of books to various countries around the world. We hope that the recipients of these books will ask themselves who sent them and why. As a Christian, I think this is my duty. Conservatives are often blamed and portrayed as non-caring individuals. I take exception with that description. For example, I believe all of us want a better education system for our children. But, let’s face it, 2 + 2 is 4, not just what you want it to be. The kids growing up in India and China have to learn these things to escape their circles of poverty; there is no prize for ‘showing up’ or for ‘great effort.' These societies want their youngsters to learn to compete in the global market. They do not just pass them from one grade to the next to avoid any emotional trauma to their sensitive psyche. Conservatives also want comprehensive immigration policies to be put into effect. No one that I know of objects to anyone wanting to come to this country of ours to work and contribute to our gross domestic product. We do object to those wanting to get here and abusing the system and being a permanent taker and not a giver. We want to give all a hand up but not a lifelong handout. There is a difference. Erasing history or eliminating it will not make it go away. Do we all agree that slavery was wrong? Of course, we do. Wrong and stupid, but it happened. If I go to Ancestor.com and look up my long dead relatives, I don’t find any plantation owners or slave masters. I find carpenters, laborers, ministers and poor guys trying to eke out a living, not some mint julip, cigar smoking slave owners. Why blame me for the sins of those who are long dead and buried? If someone wants to honor some relative by displaying a Confederate flag, let him. On the same hand if someone displayed a Nazi flag or a Black Panthers flag….they are free to do so. I may not want to associate with you for this reason, but these are our choices aren’t they? You have a right to believe in what you want and so do I. the occurrence of history cannot be erased, but it can be prevented from happening again. If we were to share a portion of the collective blame, then I suggest we look no further that the plight of the American Indian or Native American. This group of humanity does deserve our attention and more support for the wrongs that have been given to them. Here again, I suggest we help them escape their circle of poverty and illiteracy by education and business opportunities that are uncorrupted. We cannot change the past, but we can change the future. In short I believe we all want the same for our country and its citizens. If we would get our pride and our greed out of the way and look at how we can serve the common good rather than our self-serving interests, we could eliminate a large amount of the ills we struggle with on a daily basis in this country. It is time for the conservative Christians to stand up, straighten out their backbones and voice their opposition to the political correctness and pandering that has been going on for entirely too long. We do not have to cut off the heads of those who oppose us, but we do have to rise out of our recliners and take a stand for what we believe in and not just turn the other cheek forever. Jesus was a believer in meekness, not weakness. There is a difference. Peary Perry pperry@pearyperry.com