Monthly Archives: August 2015

Stand Up for Something or Someone Everyday

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Today I shared a photo from Cowboy Ethics FaceBook page that struck a cord with me and I wrote something that is true to what I believe.

“I may not have the opportunity to do this everyday, but when I do, I make it count! One thing in my life I regret is not actually going with my heart, instead I went with the money and spent the rest of my life working to get back to my heart!”

What I said had a couple meanings, one was that I often try to stand up and help out those less fortunate whenever I see someone in need. Last year I was in the checkout line at the Wal-Mart  store that I shop at and an elderly African American woman was in front of me and had a few items in her cart for Thanksgiving dinner. Now I could not tell if she was fixing dinner for herself or if she had someone visiting that she was going to cook for, but she was checking the prices for each item she put on the belt. She got down to three items that she said she could not afford and so I told the checker to ring it up and I would pay for it. She pleaded with me and said, “No, it is ok, I really don’t need those.” But I replied to her that if she had it in her cart, that she evidently had a use for them. Well, she was beside herself thanking me and I gave her a big hug and told her that I hoped she had a very happy Thanksgiving and we went on our way. I have not seen her since, but I can tell you, it made me feel very good to be able to help someone out who had lived a long life and didn’t need to walk away from a checkout without things she needed.

Now, let me be clear, I am not looking for people to say how good a person I am, or how it was so nice I did that because, in my mind, this is something all of us should do every time we see someone who might not have enough money to enjoy a holiday, or even eat something that they want to eat on a daily bases. We all should strive to help out someone in need without anyone asking us to help. It is how I was brought up and it is how I live my life.

stand-up

The other part of what I wrote, ”  One thing in my life I regret is not actually going with my heart, instead I went with the money and spent the rest of my life working to get back to my heart!,” was because I was one of the people who left my home to travel and work and look for the big deal in life that would make me rich.

Did I find it? Well, I am living, I have a roof over my head, food on my table, but am I happy where I am? No! While many have moved on from our childhood homes, I have pined for the day that I can return, with all I have learned and experienced, to help out the folks where I grew up. Now I am not saying that I want to “Bring sunlight to the wilderness” as some have stated. They are only in it because they want more money, prestige and power. What I would love to do, is be closer to family, lifelong friends and be able to help out a community that raised me. I don’t want to bring huge manufacturing back, I don’t want to bring back ideas from another part of the country. What I would love to do is bring back a simple life and possibly help some folks along the way.

I have thought of many ideas, talked to some folks and have even put some ideas out there that if they work, could help out. Right now, of course I am still planning, and trying to think of ways I can help, because without that little area in West Virginia, I would not be the man I am today and if I can help give back just a little bit of what I was given when I was growing up, it would only amount to a small fraction. Thank you Sistersville, for helping to make me who I am.

I guess what I am saying is, most of us leave with our eyes on making it big, on making money, owning land and that is fine, but I think that if we thought just for a minute as to where we grew up and some of the struggles people face, giving back is not such a bad idea. As a matter of fact, giving back every day to those less fortunate does more than any of us could imagine.

I always think of one person that I grew up with who did more for others than anyone I know. Kevin Ritchey, was that man. We grew up together, played sports together and when we graduated high school, Kevin decided that he wanted to help others. He joined the volunteer fire department and was also a member of the EMT. Once he had a few years in, he decided to move to another community where he worked as an EMT and one icy night while on a call, he gave the ultimate sacrifice when he died trying to help others. Kevin will always be a hero to me, always be someone I would strive to be like. He has been missed, but what he did for others will live on.

Remember your heart, where you came from and where you go. There are always people in your past that got you to where you are.

So, I guess in all of this, my one thing that I wanted to say is, “Stand Up for Something or Someone Everyday!”

Progress is not always good

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What would you do if the internet went down, Facebook, online games, cell phones or email is no more? Would you be able to function?

We are in a time where the world is living on technology. Every part of our lives is controlled by smart phones, computers, machines and the internet. While I myself am able to communicate worldwide in a matter of seconds, there is a downside to all of the progress we have made in the past 30 to 40 years.

There are several ways that progress and technology has changed our lives for the worse, we have gotten lazy. Machines make jobs easier, more efficient and profitable, by being able to control functions from a computer, or a key board or other remote way, we have forgotten how to work hard. It has caused us to instead getting up, walking down the hall to speak with someone face to face, we call them on the phone, send an email or text them.

This hurts us in many ways. First, we get used to this and sit at a desk all day (I am as guilty as anyone) and get no exercise. We wonder how we get out of shape. We miss out on the face-to-face interaction and being personable with others.

It also costs jobs. For example, if every time you sent an email you instead took the time to hand write a letter, put it in an envelope, buy a stamp, and go to the post office and mail it, the problems with the post office would not be as bad. As a matter of fact, I believe that if people would take the time and write a real letter and send it out once a week, the U.S. Postal Service would do much better.

We hear all this talk about child obesity rates, but a lot of kids these days sit in front of a computer screen, or on their smart phones and play games instead of  going out to ride bikes, play in the dirt and do things kids do. When I was a kid, during the daylight hours I was no where to be found, well, within shouting distance most times. But I was out running around with my friends, whether digging something up, finding critters, fishing or whatever. Now kids don’t leave the house.

All of this technology makes us very impatient too. When we can send an email across the world and get a reply within seconds, it causes the expectation of how long it should take to get an answer. We then demand that everyone reply back to us immediately and if they don’t, something must be wrong!

Dating has taken a whole new turn as well. Not only does progress make it easy to speak with good looking people (so we think) we no longer take the time to get to know someone in person. But that is not really the worst part. With the websites like Ashley Madison and other sites making cheating on your husbands or wives, or boy friends and girl friends easy and anonymous, the morality of the country is going straight to hell! Yes I know, people cheated on their spouses a long time before the internet came along, but not as much as it is happening now.

Of course you never know who you are talking to, as illustrated in The Internet Conversation!

Because of progress, you and your family is less safe, hackers steal identities easier, newspapers post ridiculous maps to show who owns guns, protests online run rampant and people are constantly attacking others anonymously with no fear of repercussion!

Because of progress, we have less attention paid to infrastructure, roads, bridges, skilled labor. People think the next best way to become rich fast (remember the patience) is to become a computer guru. Building games, websites, morally imperfect sites are all ways that some have made billions, yet they all take away from real life. We push our kids to go to college and learn all about these new technologies and forget about the basics that are needed.

People are so addicted to technology that you would be hard pressed to find a teenager working in a grocery store who can manually count out change. Unless we start remembering the basics, the progress is going to tear us down.

Imagine this, if all the sudden the technology failed (computers and internet goes down) for a year, what would you do? Could you survive? Is your life saved on a chip?

 

The GOP and The 2016 Election

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Note: Please participate in the poll at the bottom of this page.

One debate down and several more to go.

I was excited for the presidential season to start. It is almost like the playoffs heading toward the November 2016 election (Superbowl) to me. But now that the first debate is in the bag, here is what I have to say.

I see a lot of people complaining about Fox News and in particular Megyn Kelly’s exchange with Donald Trump. This is completely mislabeled and in no way constructive for the GOP. Did Megyn asked Trump some tough questions? Yes! Were they more pointed than questions to other candidates? Maybe!  But here is the thing. If you expected the moderators to throw softballs out to the “front runner” or any of the candidates, then you came to the wrong debate. We need a president that is not going to complain about tough questions, and deflect. We have that in office now! If a candidate can’t shrug it off, they do not deserve to be in the office.

In my opinion, Fox News did Trump a favor by brining up those issues in the first debate and it was up to Trump to put them to bed right then and there, without being petty about it. If he had just answered the question and moved on, this would not be a story and when he went in front of the liberal moderators, they would not have any ammo to use against him. Now, after his complete meltdown and counter-attack, this issue will be in the forefront of every debate he participates in. He has brought it on himself. He could have learned from it and it would have helped him, and as you can see, it has not.

Do not misunderstand me, I do like his way of not being politically correct. I do like he says what he is feeling and he is paying his own way. But being tough and talking tough only works when you are actually tough and can take a shot and not let it bother you. Our current president and Trump are similar in the respect that they can’t take criticism and move on. It cancels out the non-political correctness that we all love.

Who benefits from this? The democrats do! You see many on the left cheering on Trump for attacking Megyn and Fox News because they know that if they can make it an issue, then they win. Mr. Trump needs to take note of this and if he truly cares about keeping democrats out of the office, he should step back, take a breath and learn how to debate like a statesman and not like a four year old.

Half way through the debate things settled down, I believe Trump had seen the other candidates and how they reacted to questions and challenges and he started doing better, that is until the next day when the democrats and other news networks began talking about it and he went into terminator mode!

As it stands, I do not and will not support Mr. Trump. I don’t think he has the right demeanor to be in the highest office in the world!

Now for the good news from the debates. Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, and John Kasich. I believe in all of the debate they did the best. They told their stories to us, they introduced us to who they were. They made some very powerful statements and was to the point. Runner up was Chris Christie, who when challenged, (I feared he was going to be a Trump Jr.) He raised his voice a little, but handled it in a way that I could see him as president.

Do not misunderstand me, it is early in the season and we all know what we are up against, a ultra-liberal Clinton (who I do not think is going to make it to the end due to her “personal shortcomings), a socialist Sanders and those other two people. We won’t even get to know them until October (maybe) when they do their first debate. Makes me wonder if Clinton will dodge that one too! We have to defeat them, but to do that, we have to make the right choice for us.

One way to learn more about where you stand and who agrees with you on the issues is to go to  I Side With website that allows you to answer questions and matches you up with the candidates that answers closest to you. You will learn who agrees with you on the 2nd Amendment, who agrees with you on the Health Care Law or on a strong defense.

No matter how this election turns out, my hope is that every American goes to that site and learns more about themselves and the candidates and makes an informed decision, not a decision on what you can get for free, or because you want the candidate to be the first. There is nothing worse than going to the polls ignorant.

I am interested in your thoughts and who out of the current candidates you feel should be president, so do the poll below.