I am reflecting on my life experiences here in Cleveland, Ohio, as my wife and I go through 50 years of our life’s possessions (otherwise known as stuff), deciding what we will leave behind for an estate sale, and what personal belongings will go to our Florida location. I am one of the few lucky ones to have a potential buyer with a legally binding contract on my Ohio home.
This process is one that your kids usually go through when you die, so we have saved them the trouble. Having your adult life reviewed before your eyes in a few days is a bittersweet experience. Looking at old photos and reading old letters and documents reminds one of how great things were in simpler times in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and also how crude communications were compared to the technology we have today. However, I feel sorry for today’s generation who have little time for deep analysis and pensive thought in their lives and only have sound bites to get their news, and little quality time with their spouse and children; where multi-tasking is the desired skill and there is little patience for focus, concentration, and meditation.
Based on what I see coming our way and coupled with the rapidly changing geopolitical environment, I am glad that at my current age, I won’t have to deal with most of it in the future. However, I am optimistic about America. Although we are going to go through a difficult time, we will eventually purge ourselves of this growing socialist tendency and the political correctness that has completely subverted our value system. After all, we are the last bastion of freedom on this planet; after us there is no hope, no resort.
So, I will say goodbye to Northeast Ohio after 22+ years of wonderful memories, great people, beautiful rolling hills and majestic greenery. I will miss the seasonal changes, the great sports tradition of the Browns and the Indians, and what might have been with LeBron. Cleveland, once a great manufacturing metropolis at the turn of the century, home to John D. Rockefeller and many Presidents, now finds itself struggling for survival in this new service-oriented economy. It may never be what it once was, but with its great people, ethnic diversity, family values and tradition, it will take its place as one of the great cities in the glorious history of this great country we call America!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Obama Finally Adopts the Freedom (Bush) Doctrine
After two years of playing the nice guy to all the evil players and enemies of the U.S. in the name of political correctness, President Obama has finally adopted the Bush freedom doctrine in the Mid-East, albeit in a rather slow and indecisive manner. Trying to give the impression that he was on top of the situation in Egypt and in close contact with Mubarak, it was quite clear that he and our CIA Director, Leon Panetta, really didn’t know what was going on nor could influence it in anyway. Making rather nebulous statements and getting his face on television every day, it appeared that Obama was starting his 2012 presidential campaign.
Tell me, where was he when the youth of Iran were doing the same thing a year ago trying to rid themselves of that oppressive theocracy that has sponsored terrorism all over the world. While a young girl was lying in the street bleeding to death, he was silent, saying that this was Iran’s internal affair, blowing an excellent chance to overthrow that tyrannical regime.
Finally, Mubarak got a knock on his door yesterday morning and was told by the military that they would no longer support his government and he was going on vacation to Sharm el-Sheikh, we finally had a peaceful military coup and thankfully there was no significant violence. What will come in the long term is still in doubt. However, the media will never concede that the Bush freedom doctrine, starting in Afghanistan and Iraq, sparked this movement towards democracy in that part of the world. And if we play this right it will forever change the future of the entire Middle East in a positive way.
After watching the many tributes to Ronald Reagan on his 100th birthday, I became somewhat nostalgic about the 1980’s when we had a President that really influenced world events, faced our enemies from strength, and motivated our nation with his optimism and vision for the future. In his farewell address to the nation he said, “Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts”.
I hope that Mr. Obama is beginning to realize that decisiveness and strength is the only tact that Jihadists respect and that cow-towing to Islamist extremists by apologizing for our past “indiscretions” only fuels their confidence. Reagan stared down the Soviet Union and won the cold war without firing a shot. Let’s hope that simply a view of our western values and liberties via the Internet and social media will have the same result in the Middle East.
Tell me, where was he when the youth of Iran were doing the same thing a year ago trying to rid themselves of that oppressive theocracy that has sponsored terrorism all over the world. While a young girl was lying in the street bleeding to death, he was silent, saying that this was Iran’s internal affair, blowing an excellent chance to overthrow that tyrannical regime.
Finally, Mubarak got a knock on his door yesterday morning and was told by the military that they would no longer support his government and he was going on vacation to Sharm el-Sheikh, we finally had a peaceful military coup and thankfully there was no significant violence. What will come in the long term is still in doubt. However, the media will never concede that the Bush freedom doctrine, starting in Afghanistan and Iraq, sparked this movement towards democracy in that part of the world. And if we play this right it will forever change the future of the entire Middle East in a positive way.
After watching the many tributes to Ronald Reagan on his 100th birthday, I became somewhat nostalgic about the 1980’s when we had a President that really influenced world events, faced our enemies from strength, and motivated our nation with his optimism and vision for the future. In his farewell address to the nation he said, “Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts”.
I hope that Mr. Obama is beginning to realize that decisiveness and strength is the only tact that Jihadists respect and that cow-towing to Islamist extremists by apologizing for our past “indiscretions” only fuels their confidence. Reagan stared down the Soviet Union and won the cold war without firing a shot. Let’s hope that simply a view of our western values and liberties via the Internet and social media will have the same result in the Middle East.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Why I Really Enjoyed Super Bowl Sunday
As I write this on Super Bowl Sunday 2011, I don’t know who won the game, in fact, it hasn’t started yet. At this point it really doesn’t matter because I’ve just witnessed an inspiring and moving tribute to President Ronald Reagan on his 100th birthday. This televised tribute came from his museum in Simi Valley, California where he was laid to rest some seven years ago.
The tribute included the traditional laying of the wreath and a 21 –gun salute, wonderful patriotic music and entertainment, and great photos against the backdrop of this beautiful setting in the warm mid-day California sunshine. It included brief remarks of thanks from Nancy Reagan with introductions of members of Reagan’s cabinet, staff, diplomats from around the world, and Reagan Foundation members, which I’m proud to say I have supported for many years and will continue to until after my death.
Remarks by Gary Sinese, the actor and patriot, John Ryan, the Chairman of the Foundation were wonderful, but the highlight was an awesome and inspiring speech from Jim Baker, Reagan’s chief of staff and Secretary of Treasury, and Secretary of State under George Bush, the elder. It was probably the best speech I have heard in many years. It was delivered by Mr. Baker in a moving and poignant manner as someone who was very close to Reagan and Nancy. There was not a dry eye in the audience, including yours truly watching it from some 2,000 miles away. Those of you who saw this had to be moved, and wonder whatever happened to America since those days.
Baker’s speech recalled an era not much different from today coming out of the Carter presidency with double digit inflation, high interest and unemployment rates, threats from abroad, particularly the mid-East (Iran) were Carter bungled our response to the Iran hostage crisis, and our international reputation in ruin. Not to mention the ominous cloud of Communism and the Soviet Union hanging over our heads. I can remember Jimmy Carter telling us, like Obama tells us today, that we were at the end our reign as a great power and future generations would not be as blessed.
Suddenly from the West came this man who talked about our “rendezvous with destiny” and this “shining city on a hill called America” and told us our best days were ahead of us. He told us that we, the American people, would control our destiny, not our government. He said we will have “peace through strength” and built a defense force that is the greatest in modern history, with air power that is unprecedented. In fact, this military built under Reagan and used by Bush during the Gulf War, virtually eliminated the Iraqi army in less than 48 hours after Saddam Hussein’s attack on Kuwait, and less than 3 weeks during the Iraq war after 9/11. Last night, during a similar tribute, televised by C-Span of the Young America Foundation’s Reagan tribute, Dick Cheney said that he called Reagan after the Gulf War, as Secretary of Defense under Bush, and thanked him for building this marvelous defense machine to protect the American people.
How does this make you feel after seeing what we have today? Do you think Reagan would ever apologize to the world for America’s “arrogance”? If this doesn’t get you off your duff to make sure we get something better in 2012, nothing will……Thank you, Mr. Baker.
The tribute included the traditional laying of the wreath and a 21 –gun salute, wonderful patriotic music and entertainment, and great photos against the backdrop of this beautiful setting in the warm mid-day California sunshine. It included brief remarks of thanks from Nancy Reagan with introductions of members of Reagan’s cabinet, staff, diplomats from around the world, and Reagan Foundation members, which I’m proud to say I have supported for many years and will continue to until after my death.
Remarks by Gary Sinese, the actor and patriot, John Ryan, the Chairman of the Foundation were wonderful, but the highlight was an awesome and inspiring speech from Jim Baker, Reagan’s chief of staff and Secretary of Treasury, and Secretary of State under George Bush, the elder. It was probably the best speech I have heard in many years. It was delivered by Mr. Baker in a moving and poignant manner as someone who was very close to Reagan and Nancy. There was not a dry eye in the audience, including yours truly watching it from some 2,000 miles away. Those of you who saw this had to be moved, and wonder whatever happened to America since those days.
Baker’s speech recalled an era not much different from today coming out of the Carter presidency with double digit inflation, high interest and unemployment rates, threats from abroad, particularly the mid-East (Iran) were Carter bungled our response to the Iran hostage crisis, and our international reputation in ruin. Not to mention the ominous cloud of Communism and the Soviet Union hanging over our heads. I can remember Jimmy Carter telling us, like Obama tells us today, that we were at the end our reign as a great power and future generations would not be as blessed.
Suddenly from the West came this man who talked about our “rendezvous with destiny” and this “shining city on a hill called America” and told us our best days were ahead of us. He told us that we, the American people, would control our destiny, not our government. He said we will have “peace through strength” and built a defense force that is the greatest in modern history, with air power that is unprecedented. In fact, this military built under Reagan and used by Bush during the Gulf War, virtually eliminated the Iraqi army in less than 48 hours after Saddam Hussein’s attack on Kuwait, and less than 3 weeks during the Iraq war after 9/11. Last night, during a similar tribute, televised by C-Span of the Young America Foundation’s Reagan tribute, Dick Cheney said that he called Reagan after the Gulf War, as Secretary of Defense under Bush, and thanked him for building this marvelous defense machine to protect the American people.
How does this make you feel after seeing what we have today? Do you think Reagan would ever apologize to the world for America’s “arrogance”? If this doesn’t get you off your duff to make sure we get something better in 2012, nothing will……Thank you, Mr. Baker.
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