69 and Holding !!! | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I remember, along with older folks, the days of youth when time dragged by. You looked at your grandparents as so old and wise. You wanted to do the things they did and, with my Granddaddy Williams, drive the pickup and tractor. His farm in Pickens County, SC, was the land of my dreams and wonder. He looked like General Robert E. Lee to boot!

    Yesterday I entered my last year of the 10th set of years with a 6 in front. I remember my Granddaddy being 60 and he seemed so old and wise. He was as healthy as me and loved to drive his side row cultivator pulled by his mules. The pedals allowed him to get close to his cotton plants or corn and his mules dared not to walk in a straight row!

    He would take us to Cousin Leonard's white clapboard store at the fork in the road. There we would listen while he and his farming friends cussed the government, the price of their crop, and the boll weevil. Finally, one man would say, "I can't check my field from here and those weeds are already growing . . . See you this afternoon."

    Those men knew much and WERE wise. I am finding out how they got smart. It is the School of Hard Knocks. I am now graduated as I have had my career spent in 3 professions, watched my house get foreclosed. America has tried to suck away my tree company founded to replace an insurance business failing in the same economy --- which I entered because the Southern Baptists I knew had become crazy with fundamentalist conservatism. I loved a life of helping people deepen their faith instead of fighting over the nature of the Bible as a fake cause.

    FAKE CAUSES ARE DANGEROUS! We have too many today:

     •  War with every 3rd World Country which has natural resources

     •  Fear of a terrorist around every corner

     •  Hate for anyone who had immigrated with a different language or culture

     •  New hate between the black and white segments of America

     •  A Recession which will not go away

     •  A Federal Tax Code helping the rich get richer and the working people support most things taxes produce

     •  1% now owning 80% of the wealth in America.

    Politics is not much different from my Granddaddy's day

    except he loved the down-to-earth Democrats who helped him survive the Great Depression and was convinced Strom Thurmond could walk on water and help everybody. Strom is a classic example of how politicians strive to be all things to all people. Thank God my beloved Granddaddy died before he switched to Republican and then it was divulged he had a child "of color." It would have been too much!

    Thurmond represented SC from the 50's until his death at age 90. I got to meet him when I pastored in SC churches. I have several hand-written notes of thanks as I did things at some political event he attended. His office helped me get a passport on short notice, get my custodian's age corrected for Social Security purposes, other important things touched by Federal rules. If you called, you got quick help! That was the beauty of serving your constituents for which he was famous. He even attended my Cousin's church and enjoyed his Minister of Music skills. The dalliance passed over racial mixing in personal life. He married Miss SC and had children in Aiken, SC, where he is buried. He had been Governor once as well.

    I was born on March 23, 1946. That makes me the first generation of Baby-Boomers. We are all looking back on the Glory of Victory in WWII and the PROMISE life would be good after getting rid of Hitler and Japan. It has not happened as promised:

    · Democracy vs. Communism started immediately

    · The atomic threat was real and present

    · Korea was the first "Police Action" between us and "them"

    · Vietnam was next to suck my generation into PTSD and premature death

    · The same hippies and radicals who protested the war have become the Conservatives of today

    · We have been in war of some sort every year from South America to the Middle East

     •  The Reagan Tax Code got adopted with great promise of "freedom to compete"

     •  The Recession followed the removal of government oversight of banks and investment

     •  9/11 scared the wits out of people and opened the door to Homeland Security / torture / spying on citizens / fear for no good reason

     •  Racial hatred has re-ignited over senseless killings by police

    I am wondering why we can't seem to learn to get along and forgive. Most of the turmoil I have experienced has revolved from a central issue: "Love your neighbor as yourself" forgotten!

    The beauty of an open society and open press with a free economy is that things can change by vote instead of internal conflict and killing --- WE HOPE. The last great American internal conflict was the Civil War. Many of those issues are in the corners of today

     •  Race and social standing

     •  Rich industrialists vs. sweating farmers and miners producing the raw goods

     •  Politics fanning the flames of hate rather than seeking solutions for the good of all

    I am almost 70. I remain helpful and optimistic. 2014 was a poor turnout election. Commercials tried to convince us only good could come from a Conservative. I have problems when people who claim to be Conservative --- CONSERVE NOTHING OF REAL VALUE.

    Your turn to comment and convince me otherwise . . .
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( March 27th, 2015 @ 7:24 am )
 
I note that no one has challenged my observations about war and conservatism. Am I to take it that I am absolutely RIGHT???



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