Why must we reason and compromise?

Dear editor:

John Wayne once said, "I like cranky old codgers, I hope to live long enough to BE one."

A blog troll recently said something about my arguments being "old and tired." In a way, he was right because I MYSELF am gettin' old and definitely tired of the steady decay in this country (and people who endorse it).

But when I look at the glass as being "half FULL", apart from "half EMPTY," I find that I'm so blessed to be 67 next March. As a kid growing up in the 50s, our taught values were significantly higher than they are today. We were rewarded when we earned it, and spanked when we needed it.

We faced the flag each morning in school, and weren't sent home for displaying one. We built things in sand boxes with actual steel Tonka trucks, where you had to use your imagination, not some game pad. Every boy on the block had a cap pistol, yet we didn't grow up to be psychos. (Most of that was because we had parents who actually WERE parents, and that IS where it begins). "Bullying" was settled after school, not in the courts (an occasional black eye was often what it took to straighten your attitude). If you refused to eat because you didn't like what was for dinner, that was fine. You could have it in the morning for breakfast. (Today, parents would probably be turned in and sued for such "cruelty").

I love being nearly 67. I lived here when both TV and theaters were safe. Life was more like the Cleavers than the Simpsons. Detroit was still building real iron, Wolfman Jack was on the radio, Red Skelton kept America in stitches without the use of profanity, nobody pushed our country around, and "dictators" were always in some OTHER country. Not ours.

"Anything's for sale for the right price." I'm hearing that far too often today. Seems like nothing is sacred anymore, and if it IS, there's always some group of clowns out there trying to ban it. I've got a flat-blade screwdriver I bought in Newark, California back in 1970. I might have paid 39 cents for it. I wouldn't part with that screwdriver today for $100,000 because sentiment doesn't have a price with me.

Don't like guns? Don't buy one, but you aren't taking mine. At my age, I might not be in "boot camp shape" anymore, but I still hit what I aim at, and I'm out there at least once a week. As long as I'm still a living American, I will remain a free one. Lookin' to change that? Come right on up the driveway and roll the dice.

Being 67 means I don't HAVE to be "politically correct," nor explain or justify every decision. Or ANY decision, for that matter. As I said earlier, I truly AM blessed. I've been privileged to live in our country when it really was OUR country... and according to the aging stats, I most likely WON'T be here to see it all collapse.

So, I know I really DO need to look at that "half-FULL" glass. It's just aggravating to still be here among the traitors and sellouts while it's all starting to slide down the mountain, and not enough willing to try to stop it. Seems like everyone wants results, but few are willing to do what's required to GET those results.

Today we want to "reason", we want to "compromise," even with the devil himself if it makes us feel good for an hour or so, we want to be "com-PASS-ionate" and "under-STAND-ing."

Balony (not exactly the word I was thinking of).

I feel the worst, for our grandkids, who, thanks to this diseased society, will never have what WE had. Never. And unless there finally IS an all-out revolt, no amount of elections or re-elections will ever fix anything. Our founders understood that and so should we. It's right there in our Declaration of Independence.

Those who make "careers" out of referencing blogsites would be better served to read the "blogs" of our founding fathers, who dealt not in theory or rhetoric, but in the basic art of deporting tyrants, ending oppression, and making this a free country, which we obviously don't appreciate anymore.

But I'm still glad to be nearly 67. I would never want to be 20 again, certainly not in 2014, with what we're lookin' at now.

I wonder if Wally-World is having a sale anytime soon on new television sets? Every time I see Coombs or Rivera, I get ever-so-tempted to throw the coffee table through OURS. Lord I hate traitors.

-- Mike Bradbury