Some Thinkin' Beside the Pamlico: 02/03/14 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    We had a little snowstorm It gave me some time to reflect---about God / this country /

    My life's journey to current age 67---oh my---68 come March 23!!! Whoa!!

    I am the first of the baby boom generation. Our moms and dads, aunts and uncles went to make the world free of tyranny. From all over they put their blood on the ground in battle. Staying home meant food / gas / etc. rationing. Women took up tools. They worked alongside men --- We proved that, when America puts its mind and heart in gear, the impossible can be accomplished,

    My daddy came off a tenant farm near Athens, Ga. He said they were so poor even the poor folks looked down on them. We Scarboroughs had no slaves---heck, we were the slaves!!! Momma was the daughter of a farmer in upstate SC---Pickens County where Easley is the County Seat and Clemson football + Greenville foothills give fresh air at night---even on the hottest summer days. They all were the field hands. That 280 acres kept them from much mischief. There was no energy after dealing with cotton all day. Their rule was -- each child must fill his shoe with cotton seed before you can go to bed at night.

    My daddy was a Baptist preacher. Momma started back teaching school when the 3rd baby came. She had another little girl when I was 12. That made 4 of us children testing the limits of a Preacher's salary and a stay-at-home mom. She sewed our clothes and we canned vegetables all summer. Granddaddy Williams gave each child a beef and a pig slaughtered in the back yard. We took the year's meat home in the trunk at Thanksgiving---grateful for family which cared and helped one another.

    I was told that if you worked hard / got the best education you could / treated people with fairness and honesty---you could even become President one day! Here I am at the first of retirement and ---- all hell has broken lose. What happened???? I have some thoughts for several little articles. You may have had these yourself.

    Like Steve McQueen in the final scene of "The Sand Pebbles," I have been shot in the back and have crawled against a generator crate. Before the last shot to his heart kills him he cries out: "I was almost there!!! What the hell happened?

    It seems to me, any number of shots have wounded us in America. We have had about enough pain and suffering. We have 2 choices: (1) figure out what the bullets are or, (2) beg for the head shot to put us out of our misery.

    My first little article concerns a failed Government.

    The guys I visit for coffee around 9 at the Bath Store are helping me figure it out, if possible. We don't like much of what is happening these days: constant bickering / stuck in overseas war we can't win / spending out the wazoo on people who got on the government tit 5 generations ago --- and refuse to get off. They scheme and lie to the point their fellow citizens--many of whom are just as poor---refuse to lie on the forms and hate the bad apples spoiling their basket of good fruit doing their part every day.

    It is my view that our Representatives no longer represent us---rather the fat cats filling the pockets in dark back corners. To stay in office costs great sums of money. Year after year they have built a treasure chest---filled by pirates---whose every dollar was robed from the good citizens trusting fair representation.

    Let me quickly say, "I have known many politicians over the years. The majority of whom wanted to do the best they could."

    Some could not get past the "Old Hands" already entrenched. They have passed "rules of Order" so that they can pull tricks. Roberts Rules of Order is a fair and balanced approach --- their "additional rules of House and Senate" make good legislation hard to do. Like the moneychangers on the Temple steps, they sell temple money for profit / eat the tithe of the best --- by themselves after dark. Going to hidden corners and caucuses, they make new rules to ease the few things left out of already empty pockets.

    You wish some rules could help---but nothing seems to. The pain in our taxpayer backside is like a big corncob was slipped in --- with ample axle grease---but now even that grease is gone. It got sold to oil companies --- for use as bio-diesel starter ingredients.

    They tried "new disclosure rules" so we could see who the fat cat contributors were. Quickly their disguises as PAC groups / "committees to re-elect" / etc. still kept us from figuring out who the rascals are. My daddy had a solution for such boy antics with his 2 sons = he got us both with the same number of licks.

    The Congress watched FDR during WWII. One of our greatest Presidents was allowed to ignore the words of our First President: "Do not give a President more than 2 terms." FDR was elected for 4 and it became time to evaluate an "Imperial Presidency." Our Democracy worked best with a Constitutional Amendment stating: TWO TERMS.

    It seems to me the Congress has become more arrogant than any President. It gets worse with every passing year. After a while we wake up with them not participating in Social Security---they voted themselves one better. They have salaries now---often several times that of their constituents. "Their perks are beyond imagination---and hidden so deep we don't know the half. Danger is clearly in the air.

    The biggest piece of cob irritating my back side these days is Pharisees calling themselves Mr. or Ms. Representative / The honorable Congress-man/woman. Let's insist they return after a reasonable time of SERVICE to see how all citizens are faring with laws and taxes they pass.

    What say ye?????