Preserving Our Freedom

You know... it's not about who we voted for, or didn't vote for... it's not about if we are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Independent... It's not even about being "right" or who lost and who won.

All that matters is doing what's best for our country and her people. Country above party, Country above self. Anyone who wants anything else doesn't have this country's best interests at heart. We all love this country, otherwise we wouldn't be here.

The Founding Fathers and those that served in government shortly after them did it risked a lot personally to hold that position. Earlier on, they risked their lives to build this country up from the bottom. Later Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen served as a public servant. They didn't do it for fame, money, or for a career. It was a temporary position, dedicated only to serving the country and took valuable time away from their families. They risked and gave up everything so we could have what we have today.

Crowd sizes and approval ratings are trivial things. Only meant as a guide post, never meant to be watched constantly or to be brought into the main focus of everything. The best Presidents I've ever seen took them into consideration, yet never used them to point them in the right direction. The Presidency shouldn't be a popularity contest. Sometimes the greatest leaders need to do unpopular things. The best leaders will follow their own heart and listen to the advice of their advisors, not the polls. Clinton and Obama always watched the polls like a hawk and did things in order to increase their numbers, not necessarily what was best for the country.

Where we get into problems is when the President starts blocking information in the country. Our country was built on freedom, and that's evident in the 1st Amendment: Freedom of Speech. Truth... Lies... It doesn't matter. That is up to us to decide what's true, what's false, and what we want to believe. NOT the Government's job. When the President restricts releasing crowd size numbers, we should all raise an eyebrow and pay attention, because that isn't right regardless if he's Obama, Bush, Clinton, or Washington. This is not okay, even if you voted for Obama, Bush, Clinton, or Washington.

When in a speech, the President calls the people who disagree with him or his agenda, or even people just doing their job "...bad people. These are very, very bad and evil people. They know who they are", then we should be alarmed. Such words and actions lead down a very dark direction that we don't want our country to go in. No one should - regardless of who they voted for or what party they belong to. We are better than that. We aren't "us vs. them", we are united as one - The United States of America. Uniting people from different backgrounds from all over the world, uniting people from different regions across this great country, and uniting people from different faiths. These are the values we were founded on, and we need to be vigilant enough to protect them, ourselves, and our country.

As John Adams penned in a letter to his wife, Abigail:

"Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it."

Let's all thrive and work together to preserve our freedom for all of us, above everything else that divides us. Especially, lest people like John Adams regret risking everything in order that we should have it. Let's not let anyone take that away from us.

Ch-Ch-Changes!

For years, I've considered myself to be a libertarian, with a conservative leaning. Why? Because frankly, I found liberals to be much less tolerant and accepting than the conservatives. The conservatives welcomed me (for the most part. There was always a wacko or two) and either turned a blind eye to or were accepting of my socially liberal viewpoints.

A lot has changed in 8 years....

If you had told me 8 years ago that I'd find myself on the more liberal side, I would have told you that you were lying. If you had told me that the liberals were the more tolerant and accepting group, I would have thought you were crazy.

Yet here we are...

I didn't vote for Trump and I don't especially like him. No, that doesn't mean I voted for Hillary or would have preferred her. I think we got absolutely screwed in our Presidential choices and the two remaining ones were abysmal. And no, I didn't let the "fake news" lie to me about Trump. My decision came from watching his embarrassing and classless performance in the debates. In short, a President should be a leader who conducts himself in a professional manner while respecting his fellow candidates. Trump, in my opinion, didn't fit that definition. His demeanor towards others and his ego cost him a vote from me. Plain and simple.

Well, my conservative buddies weren't happy about that. I "wasted my vote" or I "wanted Hillary to win" --- blah, blah scare tactics and insults. If he was that great, you could win me over talking about his merits. But since he has none, his supporters need to bully people into voting for him (I'm getting Deja Vu. Romney Derangement Syndrome, anyone?). After he won, the tone darkened. Poor winners were screaming about the poor losers. Drunk on power, some even went so far to say that this was "Trump Country" now and the non-supporters needed to get out. A conservative friend said this to me. Yeah, really.

And that was the day I dropped the "conservative" label. These people no longer represented me. I'm disheartened by their actions and crushed by their "it's our turn now, get over it" attitudes. They hated it when Obama's supporters did that, so I have no idea why they would want to do it back to other people.

The America I know and love has a long standing tradition of free speech and the right to vote however you choose. If we start ousting people just because they didn't vote the "right" way, then we've lost everything this country was founded on. That isn't the United States I know or ever want to know.

Since then, I've found myself finding more comfort with my more liberal friends. Will I take on that label next? No, I think I'm done with labels.  Our country needs less labels. We fight over the ones were already have, and they cause too many problems as is. I'm still me.

It's getting harder and harder to wade through all of the muck in the media and the drivel from Trump's mouth. I had an idea that we need a media station that is staffed by people from all different parties and present the news from differing sources/viewpoints, so you get a more well-rounded view of what's going on. So why not here and on the fb page? We need more hard facts about what's going on, and less alternative ones.

If lying and passing executive orders is wrong for Obama, then it's wrong for Trump, too. I'll do my very best to be as impartial as I can be. Trump isn't the son of Satan he's portrayed as in the media, however, he doesn't do himself any favors either.

I'll still rant and I'm sure I'll still call the jokers up in Washington cute little nicknames. However, for the most part, I'm changing the format over to scrubbing the internet clean of the lies as much as I can. As always, many different sources will be referenced, and I'll display them side by side. I'll give my own opinion, of course, and will just provide you with the tools to come up with your own.

Cheers!