My Back Pages

My Back Pages: The Circus Is In Town : Donald Trump is a bully and a coward. Of course, all bullies are cowards at heart. Donald Trump likes to ridicule and disparage people wh...

Donald Trump is a bully and a coward. Of course, all bullies are cowards at heart. Donald Trump likes to ridicule and disparage people who stand up to him. He doesn't engage them in a debate.... no, he chooses to call them names and minimize anything that they have done. Case in point: John McCain. This bully said that he was no hero, despite the fact that Captain McCain, while a prisoner of war, declined being repatriated to the US because others had been POW's longer than he, and s uch early release was prohibited by the POW's interpretation of the military  Code of Conduct : To prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in which they were captured. McCain served with honor, while Trump used various deferments to keep from serving. As I said earlier, a coward. Case in point: Megyn Kelly of FOX News. She was the moderator of the first Republican debate and had the audacity to  challenge Mr. Trump about his...

My Back Pages: Why We Celebrate....... : Independence Day... the 4th of July... it has always meant so much to me.. it has always meant so much to everyone that I knew in my circle,...

I am very conflicted! We have a symbol of rebellion and hate flying over a state capital, yet

Independence Day... the 4th of July... it has always meant so much to me.. it has always meant so much to everyone that I knew in my circle, in my world. We celebrated our freedom from oppression, we celebrated our freedom from the being subjected to the whim of a king, or a government so far removed from our reality. We reveled in our ability to protest against laws that we did not agree with, we reserve the right to protest against anything that the government  did, without being subjected to persecution because of our beliefs. We won those rights, along with the right to worship. or not worship, as we wished. We won the right to free speech, no matter if it was against the government, as long as it did not injure anyone else. We can protest as we wish, even if it is abhorrent to the rest of the citizens. As long as we did not hurt anyone, we could state whatever we wished.   We are at a crossroads in this country. We have a faction t...

My Back Pages: My Back Pages: The Political Circus Begins : My Back Pages: The Political Circus Begins :  So here we go, into another Presidential race. Actually, it's been going on since the resu...

 We all have had heroes growing up, whether it was a sports star, or some Rock and Roll idol, or idols... someone that we wanted to be like. I had my heroes, some silly teen-aged idols, some political; but let's think about this. We had real heroes who were in our lives all along. They did what they had to do every day... without complaint, without looking for adoration. These real-life heroes were the fathers.  They went out to work each and every day to earn a living to support their family. They worked hard, without complaint, not looking for and special recognition, to make the lives of their families better. They put food on the table. They worked with their wives to make a beautiful home for their children. They were there to try to guide us all to be good people. If you needed them, they were there. They gave counsel when you needed it; they stayed out of it when they knew that they should. Most of all, they were always there. They may have been strict disciplinarian...