DREAMS

 

 

             DREAMS HAVE ONLY ONE OWNER AT A TIME.

                             THAT'S WHY DREAMERS ARE SO LONELY

                                                   Erma Bombeck

 

     I guess I have always been a dreamer.  I prefer to think of it as visionary, but that word seems to have too much hubris in it.  I have to admit that I have too many interests and ideas seem to flow so fast that it irritates others.

     I am a died in the wool International Harvester truck fan.  Specifically the light trucks especially the Scouts.  I was ogling a great looking 1/2 cab scout 800 on the facebook page.  It is the time of the year that all IHC nuts are drawn to a gathering in Iowa.  I have never been and want to go sooooo bad.  Mom looked over to see what I was oohing and aahing about and said "quit dreaming."  NOPE NOT GONNA DO IT!

     Through all the ups and downs of my life if I did not have a dream I would not be here today.  If I quit dreaming I might as well be dead.  This is why the thought of a nursing home scares the bejemers out of me.  Of what do you dream there?  I dream that the AARP would quit persuing me after selling out their membership.  I have reached the age of 58 and realized that with the health issues and time left there are many interest I will simply be unable to do.  But that does not stop my dreaming.

     I am with my friends in the music world, dream and vision that things will change and Western music will once again be recognised in Nashville and the music industry.  (Although watching the CMA makes me wonder where the Country really is).  I dream of singing on stage with my friends and those I admire on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

     I have the dream of bringing the right people together and film a feature Western motion picture here in the Gyp Hills with many of the big names and cowboy actors that still exist.

     I dream of actually selling my writing and remove the FREE from Freelance.

     I dream of running a radio station that people really want to listen to.

     I dream of rural Kansas finding the ways to attract visitors, businesses, and young people to our wonderful state.  I still dream of Kansans being proud of where we are and what we have.

     I dream of owning old buildings and run businesses out of them and helping others do the same.  I want to restore a building to make a music venue out of.

     I dream of a small farm and ranch that is my own, and paid for.

     I want to start an artists guild in our area with the purpose of opening a gallery on Main Street in Medicine Lodge.

     I still want a 1/2 cab or Terra Scout.  I still love old barns and farm houses.  I like old tractors and trucks, canning food, doing things the old fashioned way.  And finding a woman that likes it too.

     I want history to be taught to everyone the way it was and not the way some think it should have been.  I want schools to worry about music, reading, writing, and math instead of what class of league will we end up in next year.

     I want to see those who would dominate our lives with their agenda put into the place that they deserve.  I want to see government officials actually stick to their pledge of defending the Constitution.  I want to see us stop sending our troops to fight wars that were never intended to win and only fight those who are attacking us.

     I dream that those who have no idea what it takes to feed the world to quit trying to tell those that do how to do it.  Somehow bugs and stem cell hamburger are not going to do it.

     I dream of energy that is developed of every form and it be cheap and reasonable and free from the politics that hinder it now.

     I dream of a day that God is asked back into the affairs of our country and not be banished by the minority that would take him from everyone.

     I would like to see the people of this country remember what a sense of humor is and stop getting enraged over something that does not mean a thing other than a good laugh.  And that being profane is not really funny.

     Yes I admit that I am a dreamer.  A visionary, I will leave that for others to judge when I am gone.  I hope that when I stop dreaming it means that I am gone from this life to where all dreams are fulfilled.

     If you dream, never apologize for it.

EDUCATION: TIME FOR A MAJOR RETHINK

                    A CHILD EDUCATED ONLY AT SCHOOL,
                           IS A CHILD UNEDUCATED.
                                             George Santayana

What do these names have in common?
      Sean Connery, John D. Rockefeller, Richard Branson, Abraham Lincoln, Racheal Ray, Bill Gates, Will Smith, Henry Ford, Dave Thomas, Pete Cashmore, Michael Dell, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Sean 'P Diddy' Combs, Kirk Kerkoran, Gurbakesh Chahal, Mark Zuckerburg?
      Take a little time and think about it.  Meanwhile, I have had a lingering opinion that we have an education system that has gone so far off the track that the real purpose of it has eluded even those who are engaged in it.  Something is badly wrong and there is a lot of hand wringing about it but no real progress being made towards revising it.  There is a recent revision and if adopted will put way more students out into the land of functioning or dysfunctioning, hoards.
     Look how easy it has been to allow education to put so many into untenable situation especially in the major metro areas like Detroit, New York, East St. Louis, and many others  Drop out rates in major metro areas sometimes climb to 70%.
     The average college bound student is destined to come out with a degree and more than $50,000 debt.  Or even more than that.  Making them indentured servants bound to the debt for years.  Functioning illiterates is not so uncommon that you more than likely can name at least one that you know.
     There is something wrong.  Many teachers work in the trenches trying to affect the outcome of their students in a positive manor when the teacher in the next room does not.  The work that one does is undone when the student goes up the line and hits a teacher that cannot advance the student or does not care.  All the while the school boards are more interested in hiring superintendents with the letters PHD behind their name.
     I have had some great teachers that have made a difference in my life even today.  And I have had poor and incompetent teachers that have the same effect.  I am sure that everyone of you have the same experience.  We are so chained to the NEA and other unions that tenure is more important than performance and so the system is rift with those who cannot be fired for incompetence.
     School boards are also so tied to how much they can sue the state to increase funding that the concerns of actual education become secondary.  Buildings are more important than employees and income from the state revenues is above all more important.
     Is this outrageous coming from me?  Look to yourselves and your kids.  What group has the highest percentile in the ACT scores every year?  Home Schooled.  What schools rank highest in overall excellence?  Private schools.  Who are the groups that the government would like to do away with?  Home schooling and private schools.
     Education needs to be turned on its head and rebooted.  Do I have all the answers?  NO, but I do know that a student coming through the 4th grade should know how to read and write, and do simple math.  I do know that the content and challenge of students to learn about multiple subjects is more important than if we have Astro Turf on the football field.  Students should be able to write a check, cook a meal, sew on a button, read and comprehend the newspaper, and should know how to critically think about any subject at hand.  This is not being done today.  The ability to come up with the right mathematical answer is more important than the equation used to find it.
     One of the things that is hot on the Internet right now is the 1949 8th grade test to graduate from school.  Remember back then you only needed 8 grades and a certificate from a teachers college to be a teacher.  I have had my grandpa's graduation questions from 1924 and I would hate to take it myself.  So everyone gripes about teaching for the test?  Seems I always had to pass a test to get a grade.
     OK, about those names.  What do they have in common?  None of those successful people had a college education.  An instructor for children's violin once told me that "they are too young to know it is suppose to be hard".  I guess this group of names did not have the handicap of professors telling them what won't work.  Oh yea, and the founder of Federal Express put his business plan in as a college paper and got a C- on it.  The instructor said it could never work.

ROAD TRIP

                   DON'T JUDGE THE SCENERY FROM THE
                         INTERSTATE, GET OFF ON THE STATE
                             AND COUNTY HIWAYS AND SEE REAL
                                PEOPLE AND THE BEAUTY OF KANSAS

     I had the time to go on the scenic route through the Flint Hills on my way to the Lazy T Ranch, near Manhattan, for the Day of the Cowboy.  Though the reputation of US 50 highway has not been top notch for safety it is a good road and the repairs have been finished for a while where many of those grinding crashes occurred.  I enjoy the Cruise through Walton, Peabody, and Florence.  Every time I go this way I am always irritated at the Round a Bout and the engineer in Topeka who actually think these things are good.  By the way, I don't give two hoots for what they do in Europe which is where these waste of taxpayer dollars come from.
     Oh well, with the good comes the bad.  My goal this day was to see what has happened at the Clover Cliff Ranch after the auction and to eat in Cottonwood Falls at Emma Chase Cafe.  The meal was good, the conversation good, and they are still holding my secret of having cherry pie for desert, oops.
     My trip up US 177 past the Z Bar Ranch was made so much more pleasant by the fact that it had rained and the temperature was not normal for the last part of July.  This was also the Flint Hills Scenic Byway.  Wonder where that global warming went?  Oh well I digress.
     I had not been past Council Grove going on north to Manhattan before so this was all new scenery for me.  I rolled into the Lazy T with plenty of time for a nap in the K-State room at the B&B there before the Day of the Cowboy festivities.  I really enjoyed Ron Wilson and his family and friends, Ron is the owner and host of the Agri Tourism business there. 
     The show for the night was my friends Judy Coder and Jeff Davidson and they gave a great performance.  The crowd had a great time as well as a great meal and they learned something about the cowboy of history and today.
     My return trip home was one for speed so I jumped on the interstate and was disappointed that I was too late for fried chicken at the Brookville Hotel at Abilene.  The area was really soaked with rain from Salina south and I was not surprised that Lindsborg had flooding troubles when the rains cam again.  Of course I think all these soaked areas should share a little rain with us and those on west.  We have had a 1/2 inch out of all that storming.
      The point of all this rambling is that we have a wonderful state here that has a lot of great scenery and people in it and so many Kansans just don't get it.  For heavens sake get out and take a day trip in rural Kansas and see what you are missing.  Become a Kansas Explorer.  If you want to have a little help along the way and see Kansas with a whole new set of eyes join the Kansas Sampler Foundation and become an official Kansas Explorer.  We even have a secret greeting sign.  Just google Kansas Sampler Foundation and tell Marci or Wendee that Roger sent you by.

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!