Thoughts On A Wednesday Evening

It is Wednesday evening, just over a week after an animal less than worthy of being called a man shot and killed or injured practically every member of the little Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, TX.  This shooting unfortunately became the worst multiple shooting in Texas, overtaking the Killeen "Luby's Massacre" that occurred in 1991.  Just as the "good Samaritans" in Sutherland Springs confronted the shooter and possibly saved lives, the shooter in Killeen was confronted by police officers who were just across the street from Luby's, saving lives in that situation.

But as I sit here tonight trying to "blog" I find that the weight of the vicarious pain I feel from this latest mass killing, while still not over the shock and outrage of the Las Vegas mass shooting, the truck attack in New York, the church shooting in South Carolina, and just a couple of days ago, the shootings in California, seems to dampen my spirit and drown my creativity.  So much hate and anger in just three or four people has left well over one hundred people dead in the span of just a couple of months.  And this is just in the United States.  The numbers killed and injured in mass casualty incidents around the world are almost beyond calculation. 

I like to write about light-hearted things, funny things, or factual snippets on things of interest in this nation or in our sister nations around the world.  But it is still a struggle, a week later, to feel light-hearted, or to sink my mind into research about historical or interesting things.  The thought of the fear and pain of those church members, those little children, and the hate of that animal...I guess that even from the distance at which I heard of these things, still leaves my heart, my mind numb.  My prayers and sympathy for all those left behind, those just now beginning to bury their dead.  It is difficult enough to lose loved ones in natural, normal ways.  I cannot even imagine what those left behind are going through.

I cannot begin to understand what it is like to be an that safest of all places, a house of worship, and suddenly bullets begin flying through the air, people, friends and relatives, begin falling, dying.  Yet this is becoming all too common in the United States.  Our brothers and sisters in foreign lands have known this fear as a reality for many years.  And in the United States, houses of worship have been targets occasionally for many years, but not on the scale we have seen in the past three or four years. 

One of the most horrific of those "older" church attacks occurred in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963 when a Ku Klux Klan member (whose name, which can easily be found with a few seconds' research, I refuse to dignify by writing in this post) made a crude bomb powered by FIFTEEN sticks of dynamite.  The bomb was planted in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church.  It exploded just after 11:00 AM, killing four young ladies and injuring more than twenty other church members.  These girls were Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Ada Mae Collins, all three age fourteen, and Denise McNair, age eleven.  Their deaths were just as tragic and senseless as those of the children and adults killed last week in Sutherland Springs.  If there was anything even the least positive in the loss of those four young girls, it was that their deaths were unconscionable even by the White America of that time.  Discrimination and racism continued after the church bombing, but the era of wide-spread, socially acceptable discrimination against Black Americans had been dealt a near-fatal blow.

Another thing I cannot even begin to fathom is how a man's heart and soul can be filled with such hate, rage, and such evil that he can kill men, women, and children in cold blood.  How does a person reach such a point in his life that he does not value the lives of other humans, or even his own?  It seems that personal problems, a hate-filled life, the desire to harm others, can lead a person to act in ways that rival the worst acts of the deadliest terrorist.  Motives?  I doubt if the police will ever determine a motive in the Sutherland Springs killings, and even if they do, does that make the tragedy any easier to understand?  Does it make this shooting more tolerable?  Oh, he was crazy...does that help a church member deal with the loss if his entire immediate family?  Motives help give "closure" but only to the paper file.  People may never understand why these things happen until they are finally able to ask the Creator Himself.

Speaking of the Creator, He did a great thing when he created man. He gave mankind a great ability.  Human beings have a wonderful ability to rise up and carry on even after the worst of disasters or criminal acts.  The people where these latest mass shootings have occurred will rebound and carry on in spite of the almost insurmountable losses.  As for me, I am sure I will be able to reawaken my creativity in a little while, but tonight my thoughts, indeed my heart and my prayers, are with all of those who have suffered loss at the hands of such hateful and heartless animals. 

Just some of my thoughts and feelings on a Wednesday evening...

May God be with us all, and may God remove the hate from man's heart...

End of Watch: Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper, Texas Department of Public Safety (Temple area) - November 4, 2017

On Saturday, November 4, 2017 Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper of the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS) lost his life when his patrol car was struck by a pickup while the trooper was conducting a traffic stop around 3 PM on Interstate 35 near Temple.  Another vehicle was also damaged in the same accident.

Senior Trooper Nipper had been with the TDPS since 1983, and had over three decades of service with that agency.  Prior to joining the TDPS Highway Patrol, Trooper Nipper served in several municipal and county agencies, including the Coryell County Sheriff's Office.  His total service as a peace officer spans over four decades.

The circumstances surrounding Trooper Nipper's death are both tragic and too-often repeated.  An officer stops a vehicle for a traffic violation, both vehicles park on the shoulder of the road, and an approaching vehicle strikes the trooper, his car, or both.  Too many officers have lost their lives this way - when the oncoming traffic should not have been on the shoulder in the first place.  Why did the pickup swerve to the shoulder and strike Trooper Nipper on that Saturday afternoon?  At the writing of this post I cannot be sure, as I have not seen any further information regarding the driver of the pickup, who was in the hospital in Temple as of Sunday.

The Texas Legislature finally recognized the danger that "routine traffic stops" posed to officers who, of necessity, stopped traffic violators and issued citations along the shoulder of the roadway.  Many times there is no other place to conduct the traffic stop than on the side of the ride.  A safe exit or side street may not be available for miles from the point of the violation.  To try to maximize officer safety, a law went into effect in 2015, I believe, if not the year before, that requires drivers to move to the next lane of travel when approaching an emergency vehicle stopped along side the highway or street.  More importantly, the law requires drivers who cannot change lanes due to heavy traffic to slow down to twenty miles slower than the posted speed limit, unless the speed limit is under 25 mph, at which time the driver must slow to five miles per hour.  If every driver obeyed this particular law, both officers and those pulled over by the officers would be much safer.

At the police academy, officers are trained in the techniques of making safe traffic stops.  One of the first things officers are taught is that they can choose the location at which they want to make the traffic stop.  Such things to be considered include the immediate environment, volume of traffic, whether the location is isolated or in a more traveled area, and whether are not there is sufficient area along side the street or road to allow for a safe traffic stop.  In theory an officer is free to choose the timing and location of the traffic stop.  In real life it is not quite that simple.  I know from personal experience that persons stopped for traffic violations are extremely upset when an officer tells them that they were stopped for violations that occurred several blocks or a couple of miles back.  The driver invariably yells, "Oh yeah! Well, why didn't you stop me a couple of miles back?!"  If the officer attempts to explain that it was because the officer wanted to make the stop in a safer location, that explanation never seems to satisfy the irate driver.

Unfortunately for Trooper Nipper, the option of following the violator then making the traffic stop in a safer location simply was not available.  Interstate 35 is under major renovation construction for literally MILES both north and south of Temple.  Many exits have been closed, and in many locations, the shoulder of the roadway has been narrowed due to construction.  BUT...and I emphasize...the officer had done everything he could to assure both the safety of the person he stopped, and his own safety.  Both vehicles were on the shoulder and out of the right lane of traffic.  AND...all approaching traffic was REQUIRED BY LAW to change lanes.  That may not have been an option for the driver of the pickup.  If that was the case, the driver was nevertheless REQUIRED to slow down to a minimum of twenty miles per hour UNDER the posted speed limit.  I have not driven that stretch of interstate in several months, but I believe the construction speed limit was set at either 60 MPH or 65 MPH.  This means that oncoming traffic should have been traveling at no more than 45 MPH when approaching and passing the trooper's patrol car.  And certainly there should have been no traffic at all on the shoulder anywhere near the trooper's location.

Was the driver of the pickup drunk or on illegal drugs?  Maybe he was innocently texting while he was driving?  Or perhaps he just did not have time to slow to the required maximum of 20 MPH under the speed limit.  Whatever the reason, the driver chose not to slow down.  Even then, however, he probably would not have struck the trooper's car.  Something, either a distraction or the influence of some substance, caused the driver not only to fail to either change lanes or to slow down, but also to run off the road onto the shoulder, where he struck the trooper's car.

As pictures of the accident scene have made their way onto the media and the Internet, it is extremely clear that the pickup was traveling at a high rate of speed, not the 40 - 45 miles per hour as required by the "move over or slow down" law.  Trooper Nipper's patrol car was damaged almost beyond recognition as a state police car, and was barely recognizable as a vehicle at all!  The pickup was severely damaged as well.  Although I have seen nothing official yet as far as estimations of vehicle speed and driver distraction or intoxication, I am sure that the accident investigation will reveal both excessive speed for the conditions at the time, and that the driver was either intoxicated or was distracted.  One man's dereliction of his legal duties and inattention to the road (for whatever reasons) cost the life of this good man and endangered the person the trooper had stopped as well.

No, Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper was not shot or murdered in some other way by a dangerous criminal; instead, he was killed in the line of duty while performing the most dangerous task an officer, particularly a highway patrolman, can do...a "routine" traffic stop.  His death was not only tragic, but senseless.  The law that should have saved this trooper's life had been "on the books" for at least two years.  It is up to motorists to follow this law.  Even more so, it is up to the individual who has been drinking alcoholic beverages or taking illegal drugs to make the conscious choice NOT to drive until he or she is once again sober.  And, it is very important as well to obey the law that prohibits a driver from texting while driving.  So many fatalities have resulted as well from this innocuous activity.

The vast majority of Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers, Narcotics Officers, Investigators, and Texas Rangers who have been killed in the line of duty over the years have lost their lives in traffic-related incidents.  Far too many of these traffic incidents are in fact troopers being struck by drivers who drove off the road and into the traffic stop. If there is a positive in Trooper Nipper's death, it may be that more Texans, because of this tragedy, will choose to obey the "move over" law, will not text while driving, and will choose not to drive when they are impaired for any reason.

Senior Trooper Thomas Nipper (TDPS) leaves behind his wife and three children.  My prayers and thoughts are with this family and their loved-ones, and with the troopers who lost their comrade.  Senior Trooper Nipper, I, and thousands of other Texans, thank you for your many, many years of dedicated service to the people of Texas, and honor you as you made the ultimate sacrifice.  And the Thin Blue Line (sprinkled with the khaki of the TDPS fallen) is a little thicker in Heaven now.  May you rest in peace, and may the Good Lord continue to surround and hold your sweet wife and children in the days to come.

And may God Bless America...

National Deviled Egg Day - November 2

I have to day I feel rather betrayed today...Betrayed by the national media and local news sources as well.  You see...today is National Deviled Egg Day!  That's right...the day the United States set aside to honor (and enjoy!) one of the best recipes EVER CREATED, the Deviled  Egg.  Not only was there no fanfare whatever on any of the major networks, but deviled eggs were not featured at the cafeteria inside my place of employment.  In fact, deviled eggs were available AT ALL!!

Granted, the nation (or parts of it, anyway) were still all excited that the Houston Astros won the World Series last night, but still...I mean we need to keep the proper perspective of a mere baseball game...after all, it was only a game.  But...not featuring deviled eggs today!  Really!!  What a faux pas!! By the way, shouldn't the "deviled" in deviled eggs actually be spelled DEVILLED?  The rule in proper English would be to double the last consonant then add "ed."  Shouldn't the word "deviled" rhyme with the word "reviled"?   But I digress...

I would like to take just a few minutes to honor the Deviled (or Devilled) Egg, and to lick my chops while wishing I had at least a dozen deviled eggs waiting for me in my refrigerator.  It seems that spiced-up, boiled eggs were served at least as far back as the early Roman Empire.  Richer dining patrons were served spiced egg yolk replaced into the boiled egg, although a more expensive version included small birds called fig-peckers in the egg yolk mixture.  I...er...would have to pass on that particular variation.  (ummm...BARFFF!!)

The spiced-egg spread from the Roman Empire across western Europe, finding its way to England and France by the 1300's.  To the spiced-egg yolk people began to add paprika and mustard, and many different kinds of herbs.  By the end of the Dark Ages, the deviled egg was beginning to take its modern form, the delicacy with which many of us are familiar in this very day.  But where did the term "deviled egg" first appear?

It is believed that the first use of the term "deviled eggs" was in British cook books published around the year of 1786.  "Deviling" became a verb that meant to add spices and other herbs and flavors to foods to make these dishes more exciting.  Hence the term "deviled eggs," which referred to mixing boiled egg yolk with various spices, herbs, and mustard, and replacing this mixture into boiled eggs. Thus one of the most popular food items and picnic essentials of all time was created for our culinary pleasure.  By the way, prior to the turn of the 19th Century, some faithful Christians refused to use the term "deviled" eggs, much preferring more innocuous titles such as "stuffed eggs," "dressed eggs," or even "salad eggs," especially if the eggs were served at religious functions!

So I missed National Deviled Egg Day this year.  No matter.  I have worked up such an appetite for deviled eggs while writing this brief post that I will definitely purchase a dozen eggs tomorrow and try my hand at making some of those tasty little morsels this weekend.

Remember, it is ONLY 364 days until National Deviled Egg Day!

Until then...stay deviled, my friends!

End of Watch: William (Bill) Tilghman - City Marshal, Cromwell, Oklahoma - November 1, 1924

One of my favorite of the Lawmen of the "Old West" was a man named William Tilghman.  Known to his contemporaries as either Bill Tilghman, or "Uncle Billy," William Tilghman was considered to be one of the most honest and most effective lawmen of the Old West-era.  The truth is that Bill Tilghman could have gone either way as a young man.  Bill left his home state of Iowa when he was only sixteen, and "went west."  Actually, he didn't go very far west.  In the area of Dodge City, Kansas, Bill joined up with some other young men who made their living by stealing horses from local Indians.  The "Law" did not get too upset with people who stole horses from the Indians, but the Indians themselves were wild with anger.  Young Tilghman was nearly killed on several occasions, and eventually gave up the life of the outlaw - it was too risky.

In a more respectable turn, Bill opened a saloon in Dodge City (I wonder where the money came from?) and also served as a deputy city marshal.  He was accused on a couple of occasions of rustling, once of robbing a train, but there was not enough evidence of these evils, and no charges were ever formally filed.  As the years went by, Tilghman's reputation as an honest lawman grew.  He served as a deputy sheriff in Ford County, Kansas for several years, and eventually joined the US Marshal Service.  Some of Tilghman's contemporaries were the Earp Brothers and William Henry (Billy the Kid) McCarty.

Tilghman was one of the first White men to arrive in Oklahoma when that territory was opened for Anglo settlement in 1889.  In 1891 Tilghman became a deputy US Marshal for the Oklahoma territory. As the 19th Century faded into the past, Tilghman continued his legendary career as a peace officer into the new century.  His resume included several years as a sheriff's deputy, and later, Sheriff of Lincoln County, Oklahoma.  Perhaps his most famous capture was the arrest of Bill Doolin, the leader of a criminal gang that had terrorized parts of several states for years.  Doolin escaped from jail a year later, but was killed by a posse led by one of Tilghman's colleagues, Heck Thomas. 

Bill Tilghman retired from active duty after serving for several years as the police chief of Oklahoma City.  He had taken that job in 1910.  During the year 1908, and for several years following, Tilghman directed four films, the most famous being "The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws."  Retirement was not to Bill's liking; however, and by August, 1924, Tilghman was once again a peace officer, this time the marshal of Cromwell, Oklahoma, an oil boom town. 

Cromwell was a boisterous little town, and when the roughnecks were not out on their rigs, they spent their hard-earned pay at several "speakeasies" scattered throughout the city.  Prohibition was going strong at this time, but so was the thirst of the hardworking oilmen, and the money lust of moonshiners and alcohol smugglers.  Marshal Tilghman, the honest lawman, refused to turn a blind eye to the illegal alcohol, as his predecessors had done. 

As he arrested smugglers and bar owners, Tilghman aroused the ire of a crooked "revenuer" named Wiley Lynn, a federal prohibition agent.  Lynn had met with Tilghman several times and "encouraged" the lawman to look the other way as alcohol was brought into Cromwell and distributed among the various illegal bars.  Tilghman not only refused to cooperate with Lynn, but continued to vigorously pursue and arrest those involved in bootlegging in and around Cromwell.

Finally Wiley Lynn had all he could stand.  He was losing money because he could no longer "protect" the alcohol crowd.  On the night of November 1, 1924 - three months to the day since Tilghman had taken over as City Marshal - Wiley Lynn confronted Tilghman.  The prohibition agent had been drinking and was intoxicated.  He railed at Tilghman, then produced a hidden pistol.  Wiley shot Bill Tilghman twice, killing him where he stood.  Lynn Wiley had murdered one of the last of the great lawmen from the Old West.  Wiley was later acquitted, presumably due to his intoxication, but was himself gunned down in 1932.

I am proud to honor Marshal Bill Tilghman, one of the greatest Lawmen of the Old West.  Thank you for your service, Marshal, and may you rest in peace.

End of Watch: Officer Floyd East, Jr. - Texas Tech Police - Oct 9, 2017

Texas Tech Police Officer Floyd East Jr., was shot and killed by a suspect he was questioning inside the Texas Tech Police Department.  Officer East had been a Texas University system security officer for several years, serving at the University of Texas - El Paso for the past several years.  Only this year, in May, Mr. East was commissioned and sworn in as a police officer for Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

On Monday night, Officer East and other police officers went to the killer's apartment to check on his welfare after receiving a call about him from his family.  Officers entered the killer's apartment.  He was not at home, but officers found drug paraphernalia in plain view.  At some point the killer arrived and was taken into custody.  He was transported back to the Texas Tech Police Department.  Officer East was shot a short time later, just after 9:00 PM.  The killer then fled the scene of the shooting but was caught by police a few minutes later near Tech's football stadium.  Officer East died where he was shot inside the police building.

Officer East was 48 years old when he was killed, but had worked as a security officer for several years.  And he had just graduated the required Texas police academy in May.  His police career was cut tragically short by a young man who was clearly dangerous and who clearly had a high stake in escaping custody.  I have no idea what happened and cannot second guess Officer East.  I can only wonder how a search of the arrested person did not reveal the large caliber pistol concealed on  his person.  Was the killer searched at all?  A common "rookie" mistake is either not searching a prisoner, or not searching the prisoner ADEQUATELY.  

Another common mistake for new officers is, out of compassion, to release a dangerous person (i.e. a person possibly under the influence of drugs and who KNEW he was probably going to go to prison) from handcuffs because the person says the cuffs are hurting him.  An act of kindness is often repaid (in the criminal world) by an assault, or by taking the compassionate officer's life.  This tragedy is compounded by the fact that more experienced officers who observed the unhandcuffed prisoner did not intervene and explain to this new officer the dangers of leaving a felon suspect unsecured.
These mistakes were tragic, but did not justify the killer in taking this officer's life.  While the situation could have and should have been handled differently, ultimately only ONE person was responsible for this officer's murder, and that person is the one person who should pay the most severe penalty available for murderers.

Officer Floyd East, Jr., fulfilled his dream of being a police officer and serving his fellow men at Texas Tech.  His career was tragically short, but nonetheless his sacrifice and courage are deserving of honor.  Rest in Peace, Officer East.

My prayers, and those of thousands of other Texans as well as people across the nation go out to Officer East's wife, his two daughters, his family, and his fellow officers.  As far as I could determine, Officer East was the first Texas Tech Officer to die in the line of duty.  I may be wrong on that count, and please correct me if you know different.

The Thin Blue Line in Heaven is one man stronger tonight.

May God keep and protect the officers who strive to protect this nation, and

May God Bless America!

A Call To ACTION For All Pro Football Owners and Advertiser - AND FANS

The disgraceful conduct of the ENTIRE Steelers Football Team (save ONE player) is over the line and is UNCONSCIONABLE.

(Before I write another line I would like to HONOR Alejandra Villanueva - the LONE STEELER FOOTBALL PLAYER WHO CHOSE TO HONOR THE AMERICAN FLAG AND THE NATIONAL ANTHEM.  May GOD bless you, sir.  MOST AMERICANS also thank you for your courage both today and for serving in the military as well.  You are a hero and a TRUE AMERICAN!!)

Now, about the remainder of the Stealers (oops!) and any other NFL players who choose to dishonor (or CONTINUE TO) dishonor the American Flag and the National Anthem, whether "taking the knee" or some other form of disrespect to the colors, I find it disgraceful and outrageous that they are using a national sports platform to dishonor this nation, ALL OF ITS CITIZENS, and ALL SOLDIERS AND OTHER WHO HAVE DIED FOR THIS NATION.  Yet these (GROSSLY) over-paid spoiled brats, I mean, athletes, have the gall to ACCEPT money from the very people, the very institutions, that are responsible for whatever "wrongs" these idiots are protesting.  Does this sound GROSSLY OVER-HYPOCRITICAL to anyone?!!  If YOU - MR. Wronged Professional Athlete - feel so badly "wronged," how can you accept this "filthy lucre" from the very people and institutions who are "WRONGING" you? 

Actually the bigger and much more important question goes to owners and advertisers: Why are YOU - OWNERS - continuing to allow these people to play in the NFL?  Even BIGGER - why are "SPONSORS" still sponsoring these teams?  Why are advertisers still buying "spots" for game-time commercials?  Owners, you have the power to demand that players NOT protest DURING football games.  Why are you silent on this issue, other than Jerry Jones?  Just as a bunch of office workers would be fired for stopping work to "protest" political issues that are not related to their jobs, football players should be fired for political activities during football games.  Owners, your SILENCE right now is SPEAKING VOLUMES!  Advertisers, any of you who were willing could stop all of this by merely threatening to pull the plug on all future commercials and sponsorships.  Like the Owners, your failure to act in this matter is ECHOING LOUDLY ACROSS AMERICA!

And MOST OF ALL, if you, AMERICAN NFL FOOTBALL FAN, are even remotely outraged as you claim to be, WHY ARE YOU STILL AT THE GAME??  Why was there not a mass exodus immediately after the National Anthem was played?  Why is the game still on your TV, if you are watching at home?  You say that you paid for your ticket days, weeks, or months ago and, since you are here, you don't want to waste your ticket even if you ARE outraged at these players' conduct?  I say the HONOR of this great nation is well worth the few dollars you would lose by leaving the football game.  You say you ALWAYS watch Sunday and Thursday NFL?  I say that NFL players have never forced their views on the national audience in this way before.  Do you want the NFL to be a political forum?  I thought you wanted to watch football.  If NFL sponsors and advertisers knew that people were no longer attending or viewing football games, this politicization of football (of ANY sport, for that matter) would stop immediately.  Loss of revenue would certainly trump the players' "right" to protest in such a disgraceful way on national television.

Will Owners and Advertisers step up and demand that football players cease to dishonor this great nation?  Will football fans be able to overcome their game day addiction and boycott the NFL?  We will have to wait for at least one more football game to see what happens.  As for me, the NFL is OFF my TV and radio for the foreseeable future.  If you are truly outraged, if your love for this nation overshadows your desire to watch football, I urge you to stop watching these games...AND I urge you to let the team owners and your favorite sponsors know exactly how you feel, that you are no longer watching football, and that you will no longer purchase ANY products you have seen advertised during previous football games.  I think it will not take long to get the message out.

What Must They Be Thinking?! or The Howling Minority

I have to pause to consider what the rest of the world might be thinking about the United States today. I can't help but believe that many people, even MILLIONS of people, around the world must be thinking that we here in the United States must really have a STRANGE set of priorities of late.

Here is what is happening both in the United States and abroad, at the hands of either American military action, or American corporate action.  The American military has been fighting non-stop at least since 1990 with no end in sight.  Even now, President Trump is gearing up to send even more troops to Afghanistan.  Americans are fighting in Iraq, Libya, and Syria overtly.  Drones and clandestine operations are taking place in many other places around the world.  And this is only ONE issue.

American corporations are polluting and exploiting resources both here and abroad.  Further, American corporations are paying nearly slave wages in various countries around the world.  Big defense contractors are doing their part to keep the United States in a permanent state of war.  No matter how many innocent people are killed, no matter how much "collateral" damage is done, the defense suppliers lobby for contracts and keep the arms coming.  Their colleagues in government and the military also do their part to keep war supplies "in demand."

Relations between the United States, China, and the Koreas are at all time levels of high tension. North Korea has now or will soon develop the capacity to lob their new atomic weapons to the very front steps of the United States, but if the United States did the smart thing and pre-emptively struck the North Korean nuclear facilities, China would step in to protect the North Koreans.  The chances of less than nuclear devastation, should the United States and China go to war, are practically zero.

Yet, with all of these things going on at home and abroad, what is it that Americans are focusing on?  Apparently it is suddenly an extreme necessity to remove statues of Confederate heroes, force the renaming of schools, institutions, and businesses, and to disown any ties to the 'hateful and racist" America of the past.  By the past, I mean two or three years ago.  Coincidentally this strange need so many Americans feel to distance themselves from "the old America" seems to have arisen about the time that Black Lives Matter appeared on the national stage, but that is another blog.

The world looks on as Americans and the American mainstream media are hysterically screaming for statues to be pulled down, buildings to be renamed, and even books to be burned.  Ignoring any real relevant issues, this very small but very loud minority, with the media's most eager assistance, has succeeded in robbing so many responsible people of all sense of rationality.  Not only that, but this small group of people, with media support, has managed to cause otherwise sensible people to suddenly feel guilty about statues, heroes, even of their very national heritage.

Mayors of towns, so eager to please this small, vocal minority, and yet to avoid angering the majority of their constituents, have secretly spirited away monuments of Confederate heroes out of city parks and college campuses literally under the cover of darkness.  How ludicrous! "Leaders" including mayors, councilmen, county commissioners, and state and national politicians are going out of their way to pander to the "protesters" and the media.  I hope that their constituents will remember each and every one of these cowardly politicians at the next election.

While the United States Constitution protects us from government censor, the loud minority, their numbers and power being inflated by the news media, are limiting Americans' freedom of speech and assembly so much more effectively than any totalitarian government has ever been able to do. Literally, if anyone so much as DARES to publicly state that a statue in a park is not necessarily offensive to the majority of people, that person is immediately branded a neo-Nazi racist. And anyone who might support such a person is terrified to do so, fearing the same branding at the hands of loudmouths and the media.

What does the world think of this great nation right now, a nation where such a loud few has been able to overcome the calmness and rationality of the vast majority of Americans?  What does the world think of this once proud nation that now appears to be unable to look back at its own history without whimpering and without denying what took place, but what is now a hundred years behind us?  I think they are wondering "What in the HELL has happened to America?"  What are the Americans DOING to themselves?"

The hysteria displayed in the news from across this great nation has now filtered its way into my city, and true to form, many Midlanders are suddenly either ashamed of the past or afraid to stand up for the institutions of this city for fear of being branded racist.  I am sick of it!!  Many of the people screaming about racism have no idea what that really means!  Are they forced into "ghettos" because of their race, as happened in the Third Reich?  Are they made to enter stores and restaurants through the back door?  Are they denied entrance to any public facility because of their skin color?  Have they ever been attacked by the "Klan?"  Have they ever even been denied a job because of their race?  For most people the answer is no.  The truth is that many of the "protesters" that sparked all of this hysteria were PAID ACTORS who had no interest whatever in Black Lives Matter, some injustice at the hands of the police, or some other fill-in-the-blank "protest."  Their numbers and actions were multiplied and magnified by the media.

In Midland today it was announced that someone has started a petition on-line to garner support to force the local school district to change the name of one of its high schools.  Worse, according to the petition, NOT SUPPORTING this name-change means that one is a racist who supported slavery and all the other evils of the Confederacy.  I suspect that by tomorrow morning the local media, "affiliates" of the big three news channels, will be calling for the name of that particular school to be changed, possibly putting pressure on school board members to do something "now!"  If the sponsor of this petition, and anyone who supports him, is truly a believer in democracy, and not himself a racist or bigot, he or she would use democratic processes first, instead of resorting to"fear pressure" to accomplish his or her ends.  Instead of a rather anonymous "on-line petition" why not approach the school board at an open school board meeting, present an actual paper petition with verifiable names of supporters, and call for an open vote on the matter.  Do the people of Midland truly want to change the name of that particular high school?  If they do, then they will sign the petition, the school board will put it a vote, and if the vote for the name change carries, the people will have spoken and it will be indeed time for the name change.  This should hold true for all of these situations across our nation.

Today we are witnessing a different kind of censorship, a different kind of thought control, a different kind of "fear pressure."  In some ways this new kind of speech censorship and thought control is more fearful than any sort of control our government could clamp down onto us.  When free people are compelled to act or think a certain way by other people and the media, when anyone who disagrees with whatever the "trending" thoughts and feelings may be are labeled racists, bigots, Un-American, or any other derogatory label, and have that label flashed across the nation and the world as "news," as true fact, freedom is just as dead as if Hitler and his henchmen were in charge and the Third Reich had never been blasted off the face of the earth.

It doesn't, in effect, matter whom the Totalitarians are, when the masses are afraid to think differently and to speak freely, censorship is just as complete, just as strong.  The United States is headed in this direction.  Do not be afraid to have a point of view and to stick with that point of view, even if others do not agree with it.  It is so ironic and tragic that men and women fought and died for America over the years to ensure that no foreign power or rogue terrorist group could ever deprive us of our freedom, but today a loud and minuscule minority of Americans (more than likely bought and paid for by a behind the scenes megalomaniac) and a near-mindless and unthinking "news" media is working to shape our thoughts and beliefs, to force us to COMPLY with whatever the "new think" is. And, my friends, the NEW THINK is that we must either go along with the destruction of our history or be called racists and neo-Nazis.  I choose not to go along with this NEW THINK.  If someone is so stupid and ignorant as to consider me a racist and neo-Nazi, that is up to that ignorant person.  

I can't help but hear that thought over and over: Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it

We must remember the past - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and by remembering, we are then positioned NEVER to make those mistakes again.  Conversely, when we tear down the past, alter the truth in our text books, and deny all those things - the good AND the bad - we, as Santayana told us, are DOOMED to repeat the mistakes over and over.

The founders of this great nation made a tremendous and absolutely amazing (though obviously IMPERFECT) attempt to break the cycle of repressive authoritarianism and totalitarianism that had been REPEATED over and over throughout the history of civilization.  The Union was flawed, and a great war was fought to correct those flaws.  But now, a little over a hundred years after that war, we seem to have forgotten that freedom of thought, even if some of us disagreed with others, was the only way to keep the nation strong.  In the past two decades schools, universities, and even corporations have spent MILLIONS of dollars to promote, protect, and emphasize our nation's diversity.  Now, in just two short years Americans have become cowed into accepting ideas and ideals that the vast majority do not agree with, but to DISAGREE with this NEW THINK is be branded racists, Nazi, or even WHITE SUPREMACIST.

Forgive me, I thought disagreement, dialogue, diversity, compromise, and unity were the American way.  No, I BELIEVE this to be the case.  I challenge you to stand your ground on your beliefs, even if they are beliefs I might disagree with.  There are worse things than government control, and one of those is control of the vast majority by a howling, rabid minority mob.

May God Bless America