This past weekend my two grandchildren spent the weekend. Sunday morning I asked my 8-year-old Olivia to pick up the Sunday newspaper in my front yard. She opened it, saw the comic pages, took them out and relaxed on the couch reading Blondie.
It reminded me of my teenage years visiting my grandparents and reading the Sunday comics. My maternal grandparents lived in a very large house with a wrap around veranda. On Sunday mornings, we would lay a quilt down on the front part of the veranda, spread out the comic pages and have fun reading while my mom and grandmother spent the morning in the kitchen preparing the elaborate Sunday dinner. The smell of fried chicken and baking floated down the large hallway to the area of the front porch where I lay on the quilt reading comics.
My grandparents’ large house was situated on a hill with a lot of acreage, surrounded by many barns and out buildings. Most houses back then had large hallways down the middle that served as a breezeway for cooling because no one had air-conditioning back then. Interestingly, the small north Georgia mill town line of city limits ran through the middle of their house. Therefore, one side of the hallway was in city limits and the other was outside city limits in the country.
On the city side was a very large garden where I can recall picking wonderful strawberries and eating as I picked them. On the other side were fields of cotton as far as I could see. On the city side, there were several barns and a pasture area where all the cows grazed. On the country side, were several barns that housed the horses, mules and farm equipment. A very large yard separated the house from all the surrounding buildings. On one side of the house was a large tree with a circular table built around it. I have such vivid memories of making homemade ice cream, turning the crank under that tree.
The big meal of the day was noontime, always called dinner, and a large dining table was laden with delicious food as all the family and grandchildren gathered around to enjoy it.
After the noon meal, everyone gathered on the veranda. Neighbors and other families came to visit to talk about current events, their crops, the weather, and politics. Frequently, the grandchildren would sit on the edge of the veranda with our legs dangling off the edge listening to all the discussions. I was no exception as I sat and listened to all the talk about current events of that time.
As I reflect back on those times I’m reminded of the Greek Porch philosophers, referred to as the Stoics, where so much was taught from one generation to another. These times I speak of were during the 1930s and early 1940s. It was the late 30s when the book Gone with the Wind was published and one of my aunts brought a copy to the Sunday afternoon family gatherings. I was so intrigued by the discussion of the book and couldn’t wait to read it. I recall discussions about relatives who fought in the Civil War, which was the era written about in Gone with the Wind.
Years later, now living in the 21st century and observing my grandchild read the Sunday comics as I did at her age, when she finished, I decided to read the comic page. In the current issue, Dagwood was expressing his competitive spirit by preparing for a tennis match with his friend Herb. Talking to Blondie, he explained since he had not played in a long time, he needed to tape up his knees so he would not have to jump around much, and if he lost the match, he could blame the loss on bum knees. He laughed and said, “It’s absolutely fool proof.” Then the doorbell rang and his friend Herb appeared with both his knees taped up. Dagwood was so surprised his strategy had been duplicated by his opponent for their tennis match.
This brings to mind what is currently happening between the two presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, battling to be the winner in the upcoming match in November.
Obama has been campaigning on a mantra of “We can do it. Change.” While McCain has been hammering away at Obama’s lack of experience. The polls have indicated they were in a very close race with Obama slightly ahead in most polls. Therefore, McCain decided to duplicate Obama’s strategy and started talking about “change, change, change,” in the rhetoric of his speeches, then picked a running mate as VP, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, one with no experience in Washington.
It was so amusing to me how McCain used a tactic of the military genius of Cochise and spearheaded directly into the strategy of Obama, yelling change with an inexperienced running mate. He duplicated his opponent and now polls show him slightly ahead, similar to the Sunday funnies’ comic character in a tennis match.
In as much as both are serving as elected officials in the United States Congress, I’m wondering what they are going to change things from to what? The changes that have been taking place for a long time are worsening. More and more power is uploaded to centralized political government, eroding away individual freedom, eating away at personal property rights to the point one can’t build a fence or add a deck to their property the individual thinks he owns without governmental approval and intervention.
The change so desperately needed is political government off the backs of the American citizenry.
Another thing I did over the weekend was click on C-Span to listen to the speech by Ron Paul before thousands in Minneapolis. It was a great speech about the Constitution and talk about freedom we hear so little of now-a-day. We need to dialogue and talk about the loss of individual freedom, our degree of bondage, how it happened and how to regain it. The change we need is a return back to personal freedom. A change back to individual property rights that have been so usurped and destroyed by all three branches of political government.
Neither I nor anyone else seems to have a crystal ball, or a road map as to how this is to be accomplished. All I know is it must be done if we are to survive as a free nation.
I’m reminded of the question of how one removes alligators from the pond. Very carefully one at a time.
It’s all about how we think. What we talk about. And what we want. Let’s begin by discussing freedom and ownership of property rights, instead of our attention being on how much the government can steal from others to accommodate our wants. What we want and our whims about what we need is not a right, but a rather misguided value judgment. We do not have any right to want, need and expect the property that belongs to another.
Interestingly, as I write this article, I look out my window and see squirrels foraging food from my pecan tree, eating some, then diving to the ground with a pecan in their mouth, digging a hole and squirreling away food for the winter. I named one, “Nutmeg Nellie.” Even Nutmeg Nellie knows it’s her responsibility to take care of her survival and is not dependent upon someone else to pass legislation to take care of her through the winter.
Are we smarter than a flying squirrel?
Let Freedom Ring!
JUST ME,
AC
