Looking Like America

Transfer of the 13 fallen service members at Dover AFB

I noticed something highly unusual today in the solemn ceremony of the transfer of the thirteen fallen service members. In our current diversity-obsessed culture, I wonder how many other Americans also noticed.

Every single one of those flag-draped caskets looked exactly the same. They were identical in every way. There was no indication of the race, color, creed, or gender of the courageous warrior within. There were no quotas, no percentages, no demands for "equity." For each of the thirteen there was an identical box, an American flag, an honor guard, a broken family, and a fallen hero. No more, no less--no difference. 

With constant gratitude to each and every active duty member of our military, and with unending thanks to all our veterans, I must say that looked like America to me.

One Father's Dream

You may recall in the long-ago days of this past spring, Andrew Gutmann pulled his daughter out of an expensive New York private school because of Critical Race Theory being part of the curriculum. He has gone on to start website, "Speak Up For Education," and to organize the Dream Coalition, a growing alliance of teachers, parents, activists, journalists, and many other concerned citizens who honor the legacy and goals of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today is the anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. I'm grateful I grew up in a culture that strove to achieve those ideals outlined in his most famous speech. My children were raised and educated in the same values and principles. Today I'm a concerned grandmother worried about the poisonous atmosphere of identity politics infecting my grandchildren's innocence and corrupting their education.

Gutmann's letter to his Fellow Americans about the dream of a color-blind society is written with his usual eloquence and wisdom; it's as much worth reading as King's speech is. Andrew Gutmann is a father with the same dream today as Martin Luther King Jr. immortalized nearly sixty years ago.

In this fight for our nation's soul, reading the Dream Coalition letter and signing up with "Speak Up For Education" are valuable steps every American can take. I think Dr. King would agree.

Always Faithful

“There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy."

- Gen. W. Thornson

Methodical Madness

 Though this be madness, yet there is method in't’.

~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet II:2

With the horrifying collapse of Afghanistan, I think many Americans feel the need to reevaluate the conditions and intentions of our current executive branch of government. I often hear that Joe Biden is a front man who is not calling the shots, and maybe that's true. Many people contend that he's demented, confused, unaware of what's happening around him.

After the travesty that has unfolded over the past few days, I'm not so sure. This man is cold-blooded. Today he scornfully waved off the widespread panic and human carnage at the Kabul airport as having happened "four...five days ago." Don't go dredging up the past, man. This guy has moved on.

I find it strange that every international agreement President Trump had made needed to be broken except for the Afghanistan one. The halt to the remain in Mexico policy at our southern border, canceling the Keystone Pipeline and rejoining the Paris Climate agreement, reviving the Iran deal and stopping our withdrawal from the World Health Organization were all top priorities for Biden. He couldn't dismantle Trump's work of four years fast enough. But when it came to Afghanistan, he "inherited a deal"? I'm not buying it.

Every single action Biden has taken since his first day in office has caused damage to everyday, hard-working, law-abiding Americans. The increase in crime, lawlessness, inflation, taxes, gas and grocery prices, and the ongoing debacle on the border are all directly traceable to Biden's terrible policies. Illegal aliens infected with COVID are being flown and bused all over our country--without IDs, without masks. Yet  American citizens are lectured daily about vaccinations and now booster shots.

So much of what has been happening since Biden took office seems as though there is a plan in place to take the country down, to collapse what's left of our institutions into chaos. It makes me wonder if all the parents rising up against CRT at local school boards was slowing down the plan's progress. Were there too many independent Americans having the unmitigated gall to assert their Constitutional and parental rights? Well, that could be fixed. Let Afghanistan implode, and watch America's values and prestige in the world fall into the bloody dust. The wheels of society can fall off that much more quickly and easily now.

So you didn't like mean tweets? Neither did I. But at least Trump was on America's side.

Awakening Action Items

If you're not reading The Federalist, I think you should be--along with American Greatness and The Epoch Times. The August 11th article by Joy Pullman, "85 Things You Can Do To Help The United States Shake Wide Awake" at federalist.com is an invigorating read for anyone who likes to "do" rather than dream.

Out of the 85 recommendations, I counted; I'm already doing more than one quarter of them. That is gratifying, but improvement is always a personal goal. There are plenty of additional positive ideas, and I'm sure that among the 85 items presented there are appropriate action items for everyone.

Among my favorite suggestions was cutting your cable television subscription and donating the cost to charity instead. I also liked not shopping on Amazon; I usually don't, if I can order direct from the vendor's webiste. Refraining from purchasing goods made in China is another favorite. I read labels carefully now. If I can find comparable (or superior) items made elsewhere, China goes back on the shelf. Just this weekend while gift shopping I purchased items from Canada, France, and India. It's easy to do once you get into the habit of checking the merchandise labels.

Since last year I have used DuckDuckGo, Firefox, Bing or Brave as my search engines, not Google. When Covid supply chain disruptions began last year, I started building an emergency food supply stored on my garage shelves. (My mother would've called this my "larder." We kids used to laugh at her stock of backup groceries in the basement, but the past two years have shown that she was onto a valuable precaution.)

The last item reads:

85. Support a Wide Awake writer on Substack, Patreon, or some other subscription or membership option.

I recently discovered Substack and like what I read. Last year I became a supporting member of PragerU. I recommend PragerU most highly to anyone who would like to make sense out of what's happening in the country. The five-minute videos are free, and all are worth watching. I also follow Victor Davis Hanson, one of the smartest, most accomplished and common-sense Americans educators of our time. Listen to his podcasts and learn.

Don't waste precious time wringing hands over the sad state of America. All of us who want our country back should be taking action in our own individual ways, no matter how small, to help shake it wide awake.

Stepping Up the Destruction

The politicians are avoiding all mention of it, but the obscene spending bills lumbering their way through Congress include a massive tax on every middle-class property owner in the country. The elimination of stepped-up basis taxes the heirs of every hard-working family's inherited property.

Farmers and ranchers will be particularly harmed, a fact which is explained in the quote below from FBNews:

Stepped-up basis allows a farmer to pay capital gains taxes only on the property’s increase in value since the land was inherited, not on the full increase in value since it was purchased by that farmer’s parents or grandparents.

While generational family farms and ranches are the most dramatic example, people need to realize that this tax will apply to every long-time homeowner in the US. If you've owned your home for decades and have enjoyed an appreciation in its value, your children or grandchildren will pay the confiscatory price when you die if you leave the property to them. Your heirs will owe gargantuan capital gains taxes to the Federal government. In too many cases, the family home will need to be sold because of the tax debt.

The dismantling and destruction of our formerly free country continues at a rapid pace with no end in sight. The American dream has faded into history. 

Satisfying Smackdown

I don't know how many times I've watched this clip today, but I smile every time I do.

Note to Joe Biden: If you're going to tell Gov. Ron DeSantis how to do his job, he's going to have a suggestion for you, too. Changing American citizens into obedient subjects apparently is a very hard sell in the Free State of Florida. Oh, yes.

It's about time Biden got smacked down so publicly for the disaster unfolding on our wide-open southern border. I can only hope there's more to come.