LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT

                       IF WE EVER LOSE FREEDOM HERE, THERE IS NO
                               PLACE TO ESCAPE TO.  THIS IS THE LAST
                                     STAND ON THE EARTH.
                                                                    Ronald Regan

     OK, I may be a little slow but what is wrong with this picture?  We are about to make legal over 11 million people who are here illegally but we are about to force a family to be sent back to Germany who are here as asylum seekers.  This family has been here and have a small self sufficient farm and home school their kids.  They are here because Germany has deemed homeschooling a threat to the government and are set to take the kids away soon as they set foot on German soil.
      The US Government is sending them back because they don't like home schooling either.  HOLD IT, home schooling is legal here.  In my state the top percentile of students taking the ACT test are home schooled.  So what gives?
      Another government scandal is pushing the Common Core Curriculum onto our schools.  Even though teachers and administrators in many places recognize that Common Core is, in reality, brain washing of kids to follow the government line.  No free thinking allowed.  And of course there is no free thinking if the information is faulty.
     Why have you not heard from you schools about common core?  They are prohibited from telling you.  Teachers are under threat of being fired in many places.  The core of the curriculum is that the state is better for you kid than you are.  In fact the huge data mining that is a part of it will reveal if you are a member of a political party, own a gun, belong to certain organizations and a hundred other things that are none of their business.
      There are some states who have recognised the inferior education that will result by the Common Core programs.  Indiana has thrown it out.  Texas is in the battle.  Many states are not even aware of the content of the program.  It remains to be seen how many teachers will speak up and risk their jobs to state that this is a horrible intrusion of  socialists in the raising of the children.
      Will this German family be deported?  More than likely.  Will we make instant citizens of people who are breaking the law?  Probably.  Will the silent preachers stay quiet worrying about their tax status?  More than likely.
     Will you do anything about it?  It is your move now.

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

WISDOM COMES WHEN YOU START LIVING

THE LIFE THE CREATOR INTENDED FOR YOU.

Native Wisdom

 

     My friends Barry and Victoria Ward sent me a You Tube story on my e-mail this week and it is a profound story of one man and one companies efforts to recognise those who win our freedom and maintain it.

     It is especially hard hitting when riots are breaking out all over using a case as an excuse to destroy and foster racism.  The perfect example of Democracy over the Republic.  The term Democracy is so loosely used and misused that people have no idea what it really is.  We can see what mob rule is and what it wants and this is what a democracy is.  The Republic and the system of government that we have is a representative republic.  It is based on check and balances that allows those in the minority to not be oppressed by a majority.

     The problem is that when every branch of government is rendered ineffective we will no longer have a country.  Racism is now fostered by those who have the most to lose by it.

     It takes someone like the owner and the employees of Illinois Cellular to do things that bring common sense back into things.  Since the country is busy with all the problems and our service people are bearing the brunt of our policies, it is this group that creates a memorial to those who have sacrificed their lives in the gulf regions wars.

      I never heard of Marcyles Illinois before this time.  On the banks of the Illinois River in front of company headquarters is a memorial similar to the Vietnam Memorial for our Gulf soldiers.  Not only a memorial but they have set aside room in the offices of the company for a museum of and about the fallen.  They make sure memorial gifts do not end up in the trash or river.  And, yes, some people come by and throw these things into the river.

     In light of all the harping going on in the news take time to look at the video YOU TUBE/ freedom isn't free.  Then redouble your resolve that these lives were not wasted by an ungrateful government.

POST INDEPENDENCE

          IF YOU HAVE 10 THOUSAND REGULATIONS YOU    DESTROY ALL RESPECT FOR REGULATION.

Winston Churchill

 

     The daily revelations of abuses in government agencies and the push for anything that can control or suppress the average citizen, makes you wonder why there is not a hue and cry across the land.  Even with the fraud allegations on the last election there is a 50% or more numbers of citizens that are totally against what Washington is doing.

     More and more there is the realization, even within the ranks of this presidents supporters that something is terribly wrong.  Justice seems to be shut out of our system and all is replaced with decrees, regulations, and ignoring the obligations of those who, supposedly, work for us.

      A friend of mine, who is in the financial world, just attended a convention of 8000 participating accountants.  Not one has any idea what is in Obama Care or has any idea how to advise their clients how to deal with it. Likewise business people who have to plan ahead have no idea on how the new program affects them down the line.  Many are simply not expanding and creating jobs.

     Most of this is that the regulations have not been written that interpret the provisions of the bill.  There is something so wrong that any bill is passed before being read and understood by those in Congress.  It is a miscarriage of their trust and oath.

     A major point of the man now without a country, reveals that we are now the enemy.  The list has been out for more than a year of who Homeland Security considers to be a threat.  Is it Islamic terrorists?  No it is people who support the 2nd Amendment, are part of the Tea Party movement, Veterans, those who support life, or 'conservative',  and anyone who is perceived as a political threat to the regime.  This in their own words.

     What did a voting public expect when a man gives speech after speech saying he will fundamentally change America.  I am still trying to figure out what was better than what we had.  The only change needed is the ruling class in Washington.

      There needs to be an old fashioned tar and feather party and ride everyone out of Washington on the rail.  With all the faults and scars on this nation, we are still the country that others want to come to.  And we betray them by letting those who break our laws, or who would harm us, free access.
      Hitler believed in the BIG LIE.  It is that the bigger the lie and the more often it is told it will soon be believed.  If we falter and lose what our forefathers fought and died for, who is left?
     We are told that Fearless Leader does not believe in American Exceptionalism.  Who will be the shining city on the hill if we falter?
      There was a song and the last verse goes "said the people on the mountains with our brothers we will share, all the secrets of our mountain all the riches buried there.  Now the people cried with anger, mount your horses draw your swords and they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward.  Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain dark and red.  Turned the stone and looked beneath it PEACE ON EARTH WAS ALL IT SAID."
     And the sad chorus goes:  "Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.  Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.  There won't be any trumpets blowing come the judgement day.  On the bloody morning after-one tin soldier rides away."
     The saddest part is that once you leave the TV and go about your business it seems that these things could not happen here.  The residents of Europe thought the same thing.  Will the people who defeated evil and saved the world stand by and be more interested in Honey Boo Boo than saving the Republic?

 

 

FREEDOM

                IF FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS TAKEN AWAY, THEN DUMB

                AND SILENT WE MAY BE LED, LIKE SHEEP TO THE

                            SLAUGHTER.

                                                                      George Washington

 

     The Fourth of July has lapsed like most of our holidays to be a big party weekend.  BBQ and fireworks, getting together with friends and family.  I hope yours was special.  And as a retired firefighter I hope you did not burn up the countryside.  But did you stop to ponder what the celebration is truly about?

     The founding fathers intended for the holiday to be a religious one.  Our Declaration of Independence put forth that there are certain unalienable rights that were put forth by God.  The government that is supposed to be the servant of the people.  This does not sound as though it was intended for God to be excluded from any public functions.

     The First Amendment ensures freedom of religion, not from it.  And those who do not believe, atheism and agnostics, are a religion as well.  So this protects them from zealots.  Yet they become zealots in their own right.

     We have never been as close to losing freedom as we ever have.  The vote of the people are turned over by the courts, and the executive branch governs by mandate.  Citizen legislators who were supposed to do their civic duty and return home to work have become career politicians.  Where are the statesmen of the past?

     There is more worry on the part of the government about law abiding citizens than those who break our laws.  This means to me that the criminals take care of their own.  Those who take an oath to uphold the Constitution should be deposed when they openly attack it.

     Speaking against the regime now puts you in the sights of the Justice Dept., IRS, and Homeland Security.  If you are in business you can count on anyone of a dozen agencies that will visit you and tell you how to conduct your business.  All this while the president leaves the country during the holiday and tells others to "beware of us, US" and warns "his Press" to behave themselves.

     As a student of history the meaning of Independence takes on a whole new meaning when comparing today to the 1930's. 

     Here in Medicine Lodge there was a community choir concert performed called LIBERTY.  A musical celebration of Freedom.  A group as diverse as a county commissioner, mayor, farmer, rancher, business owner, accountant, business owners, clerks, mothers, fathers, and computer tech came together.  Together they were not Democrats, Republicans, Independents, they were Americans.  As those in the audience that gave a standing ovation for the concert were Americans.

     LIBERTY was a celebration of one nation under God.  The members came together at the busy time of year for all and celebrated our Liberties as it was intended.

     GOD BLESS AMERICA!

AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN

 

ANY MAN WHO THINKS HE CAN BE HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS BY LETTING THE GOVERNMENT TAKE CARE OF HIM, BETTER TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE AMERICAN INDIAN

 

Henry Ford

 

 

     I heard today that the house started working on the Agriculture Bill today.  The thought stays in my mind that this is so appropriate since the combines have started to roll here in Barber County.  It is a time of collective madness.  Be forewarned that if you are taking a leisurely drive in the country that you need to watch out for teenage truck drivers, speeding semi's, slow 12 foot wide machines, that will scare you to death if you do not pay attention.  This is HARVEST.

     Farmers that normally talk slow and linger over coffee are now speed demons and impatient to get the crops in the elevator.  Especially this year after sweating drought, late freezes, plants diseases, and bugs bound to eat what is left.  Also the hot sun showing up on cue to shrivel the stressed crop.

     It has been years since I ran a combine or drove an old truck to the elevator.  I am sure that there are teenagers looking up above while dumping wondering what that contraption is up there.  The truck lift.  I have the distinction of being the last driver of the last pickup load of wheat dumped with the truck lift in the Anness Elevator (on the west side) you have to be local to know about that.

     Today the larger farm size has pretty much retired the antiques that used to be pulled out once a year, dusted off, pickup tag wired on, and kid sent to the elevator with a load.  I have driven up on these old rigs at night without a tail light at all working or even on them.  The big diesels and semi rigs now are common on the farms.

     When the pay day comes but once a year and there has been most hope lost of a crop (grandpa always said you had to kill wheat 3 times before putting it in the bin).  Well this year it is about 5 times and it is not a very hopeful crowd, but it is even more precious to get in now.

     A little bit of my gram pa's blood always boils up this time of year and I get the urge to buy a combine.  But all I have to do is look at the price tag and I get over it.  I still wish I had made the run once from Texas to Canada.  I still wave at those hardy souls making the trip down the highway and wish I was going along.  But time and health stops many adventures.

     As the parties fight over an AG Bill that is mostly a food stamp bill, (aged myself on that one, I still remember commodities) I wish that those people up there would come down and put some personal sweat and risk into AG.  At least the would learn something about getting things done and honesty.

     I will be heading out with the camera and get some shots of those Amber Waves of Grain.  I still thrill to a line of combines following each other through the fields.  I guess the new machines are really something and I hear that there are some models that the operator does nothing but watch.  It is guided by satellite and is hands off.  Well if it works as good as the GPS does that says our B&B is in an open intersection 2 miles away that operator better not sleep.

JUNE IS DAIRY MONTH

 

 

I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT I SAY, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND.

Unknown

 

     When I was young June Dairy Month was a special time for me.  Both sides of my family were dairymen.  Mom's folks milked Holsteins and Dad milked and showed Guernseys.  I am partial to the Guernsey breed and wonder now what happened to it?

      Mom has a photo packed away of me and my brother, dad, and gram pa with Mr. JC Penney.  Mr. Penney had one of the largest Guernsey farms in the country.  Dad used to show and judge in 4-H and showed afterwards.  I remember finding the white coveralls that used to be worn in the show ring and I wore them out as a kid.  Dairy cattle are always judged by the handler in white coveralls.  I think it is still the same today.

     When we ended home delivery of raw Guernsey milk and cream we joined the Cream O Gold dairy in Hutchinson Kansas, owning and operating the Wichita franchise.  At one time there were 5 of our routes running in town.  At the time there were still small dairy's some still delivering raw milk.  The Nelsons, Mies (pick up only), Maple street dairy, then there was De Coursey, Meadow Gold, Ramsey, and of course, Steffens.

      I remember that the Guernsey cow was the most gentle cow on the farm.  For many years growing up whenever the TV shows had a cow on it was the same Guernsey cow.  I imagine she lived 30 years.  But the bulls were the meanest there ever was.  I remember when our bull Mr. D was being put down, he could not be loaded in anything.  He was put down with a lot of difficulty right in the catching pen and sent to become hamburger.  I don't remember but I bet it was the toughest hamburger we ever ate.

     When I started freelance writing I was submitting work to an Ag paper and doing an assigned piece for June dairy month I did the piece on a dairy in our area.  I thought I would save my Guernsey lament for another time.  Well some 20 years later I guess it is about time.

     You see the Guernsey breed was so special because the milk had a golden color to it.  It was only out done by the Jerseys for butterfat content.  Then butterfat went out of style and farmers had to increase volume to meet the tight costs of production to survive, and the public was pushed to cut down on milk as a 'health measure'.  HUH?

     I find no Guernsey Journal anymore.  It may still be there but the last one I saw was so small that it could not still be going.  Hoard's Cattleman is still the main publication for dairy.  I am so happy that the herd that Hoards owns is Guernsey.

     I see the push for organic and healthy nearby production of food and see all the little dairy's specializing in value added products and still wonder, where is the Guernsey?  There is a reason that the milk has a golden color, it is because it is the only breed that has natural occurring Beta Caratine.  The same thing that carrots are famous for.  It is good for your eyes and healthier.

     I wish there was a Guernsey dairy close by that I could buy raw milk again.  But in many states a farmer can and has gone to prison for selling raw milk.  I grew up on it and I know of no one that was ever made sick by it.

     So I hope I see an organic dairy someday rediscover the GOLDEN GUERNSEY and bring back something healthy from oblivion.

GENE THE BARBER

                     THERE IS NONE SO BLIND AS HE WHO WILL NOT SEE.
                                                                Holy Scripture

     We buried Gene.  In his fringed leather jacket and three cornered hat he looked as though he had just walked out of a history book.  And a history book is what he was.  When I first knew of him I only knew him as Gene the Barber.  He cut hair for forty nine and a half years in Medicine Lodge.
      The first time I saw him it was on Sunflower Journeys on channel 8 public TV.  A segment on the Gypsum Hills, he was setting on a piece of cap rock and explained the geology of the area.  As much as you can in a few moments on a TV segment.
      I met him after moving to the Medicine Lodge area and found an unending source of information and opinion.  Many would just ignore the stories that he told, but he was a story teller.  He spent years all over the hills finding artifacts, gems, minerals, fossils, and meteor fragments.  I never had the chance to do any of the roaming with him and it is my loss.
     On top of everything else he was an artist. he could draw and paint as well as any artist that makes a living from their creations.  He had an imagination and a vision as big as the hills.  Those driving west on US 160 through the hills will see a cross on a hill that he had put there.  Then there is the beginnings of a super structure of a sculpture on the side of the highway 50 feet high.  There has been so much speculations and opinion of it, it has a life of its own.  What it was intended to be was an Indian made of barb wire.  The design was active in his minds eye til the day he died.
     Several would like to see the project completed and an artist and sculptor is willing to undertake the project.  Will it ever happen?  Who knows?  I would like to dream the dream with his memory and see it completed.
     There is so much I don't know about him.  I wish I would have known him when both of us were younger and full of energy.  I am sure he will be missed in the next Peace Treaty, I don't know how many he wore his leather fringed coat and carried his black powder rifle in but it is like a fixture will be gone.
      As best as I can define Gene it is that he was a free thinker and lover of history.  There are so few of these among today's youth.  If there is a heaven of our own dreams I am sure that he is riding across an endless prairie with his rifle and tri cornered hat leading a mule.  In the evening he is knapping a flint knife to leave for those who come later to find.
     Adios Gene.