Who are the Haters?

Mr. Bost, thank you for your response of July 13 to my guest box, “Lest We Forget”.  Your argument sounds rational but your history is scrambled, to say the least.  This may play with the under 40 crowd that has been educated by our failed educational system, but this old fart knows better.  Take the Civil War, I ask you, who were the haters, Abraham Lincoln, those Americans who died at Gettysburg?  My American history says that there are times in the life of men, when it becomes crystal clear that freedom for all is worth my dying.   Abe stood up among his fellow Americans, calling them and us to protect the freedom of all Americans, including those trapped in slavery and racial hatred.  It is a sorry truth that we won’t see this truth in our modern progressive history textbooks.  Can you handle the truth?

True freedom for all the people is worth the reality and finality of death for the few who are called.  Jesus is probably the best example.  Regardless of whatever else men may say about him, at least, he died to protest the inhumanity of men who rule over us, top down, for any reason, religious or political or sometimes both.

 

G.Goslaw

Landers, Ca   

We can learn from the coyotes...

News flash!  There are coyotes residing in Landers.  The longtime residents of our community are not surprised by this news or the squealing in the night darkness, out there among the creosote bushes.  As the sun comes up the coyotes run for their hiding places and the security they crave.  Most coyotes dart away at the sight of we humans, they run scared, moving as fast as the jackrabbits.  Coyotes do not bother anyone for they are coyotes who fed off the scraps left by others.  Generally, this resident has very little respect for coyotes.  Then there is Donald.

This coyote is worthy of a name.  Donald is a coyote who is different.  Donald struts down the middle of the cart paths we call roads, he does so in broad daylight.  His strut is slow and deliberate, it could even be called a confident swagger telling us all that he is in charge.  Constantly looking this way and that, Donald runs off from no one, not even we humans, he only struts about his business.  Donald is to be respected and he earns it every day as the leader of the pack.

   

This resident of Landers is not a Donald for I am prone to hide among the bushes but that dog has my respect.  Would that the voters of America would learn to live out the Donald that resides in all of us.

G.Goslaw

Landers, Ca   

Lest We Forget

Since rejecting and being rejected by the church world, this believer has missed only the great hymns of the faith.  Hymns like, “Lead me to Calvary”, remain in my bones.  Published a hundred years ago, the chorus cries out, “Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget Thine agony, Lest I forget thy love for me. Lead me to Calvary.”  We humans are best at forgetting for our selective memories fade so quickly.  The hill upon which Jesus was crucified was a dark unjust place and we, as humans, are prone to try and put such experiences behind us.  The author, Jennie Evelyn Hussey (1874-1958), was an invalid from rheumatism who was forced by her pain to focus inward finding a greater vulnerability, forgetting.  Out of her suffering came the words that will live forever even if they are ignored by today's “pop” religion.

Oh yes, I forgot, this is written for a political opinion page but are not politics and faith close kissing cousins?  Do both not involve trusting into the future?  The question is who do you trust, something greater than ourselves or do we trust government (politics)?  Or, quite possibly, is there a workable partnership?  Most of the framers of the American Constitution believed in such a partnership and their unique experiment in governance sought to give the people control of their own destiny.  It proved to be a success for 250 years despite constant pressure from the top down advocates.  In the last 25 years, we the people have progressively lost any hope of remaining that unique system and the bottom up governance that our forefathers envisioned, how soon we forget our heritage.

The killers of this heritage are the top down progressives who seek to divide and conquer America.  The progressive label has been adopted by such folk because it is less threatening than the labels of the past and present, labels like aristocracies, dictatorships, communism and socialism.  All these forms of governance consider the destiny of the people theirs to control top down.  Even the term democracy can be misleading, most governments like to use the term but the reality is the same old.  Holding an election does not make a democracy, the people who vote must be given a real choice.  The presidential election of 2016 was the first time we the people were given a real choice in decades and the people spoke loudly.  In electing Donald J. Trump, the people remembered who we are.

The praise and gratitude given to Mr. Trump will never be enough but our democracy is not saved with one election, the Trump Presidency faces dangers within and without.  The push back from the without forces, the progressive left, is obvious, they are fighting Mr. Trump viciously with every political trick in the book.  Some of us are bored with their antics but the threat from within the Trump camp is subtler, it is the perceived threat of our moneyed aristocracy.  The rich folk of American have been the only people to benefit from the stock market explosion under Obama and Trump as zero interest rates have propped up the market.  Will this sliver of Americans control Washington to enhance their portfolios?  Lest we forget the economic debacle of 2008, only eight years ago, the people must be vigilant.

Money is not a party issue, the power it brings separated the interests of the people from their elected political leaders of both parties.  It is why nothing gets done for us, only harm.  The Wall Street tycoons and politicians inflicted great pain on the average American in 2008.  No one has gone to jail; the Democrats did not pay a price for their push to recklessly extend credit.  Wall Street was fined pocket change and now it appears that they could be running the country.  The key word is “appears”.

We the people who elected Mr. Trump believe that he and his administration are for the little guy but a healthy skepticism is warranted.  The people have not forgotten.

G.Goslaw

Landers, Ca       

Beware of the Dark Side

The best time of day in Landers is the early morning hours in the cool of the day when the summertime flies are still asleep.  It has become my retirement ritual to smoke a morning cigar and follow our national happenings on Fox and Friends.  This ritual has inspired me to write opinions about the national political debate on the opinion page of our local newspaper.  None of my opinions are really welcomed by the paper but to their credit, most are printed.  You see, I was before the election and am to this very day an avid Trump supporter who is, in my opinion, the greatest American hero of my lifetime.  His election by the people has given me great joy and a renewed hope that my country will return to being the land of the truly free.

Former President Obama has taken up residence in the Dark House of Washington to direct radical left politics.  I am sure our paper will call this term racist but it is really about morality, about honesty, about truth and fairness.  The term, Dark House, reflects the divide between good and evil, between the oppression of government and the interests of the people, it is the divide between Darth Vader and Han Solo in the Star Wars saga.  The dark side navigates the national interest by protecting those who are complicit with the dark agenda and punishing those who stand with the people of America.  This dark side small ball reduces the political discourse to hate mongering when the function of our government should be to protect and facilitate people opportunities.

The dark side ignores our laws, deceives and condones violence against Americans as necessary to further the dark agenda.  Our political system, our justice system, even the medical community are only tools to punish all who may dissent.  Our court system is about making political statements not the law of our land.  The Internal Revenue Service is about making political statements not administering the collection of taxes in a just manner.  Our intelligence services are about making political statements not protecting the security of the people.  Our foreign services before Trump have been about making political statements here at home and not making our world safer.

The dark side has only one creditable issue that must be addressed by our current Republican politicians.  Politicians of the left rightly disparage the wealth gap in America but wrongly champion the redistribution of wealth as the solution.  The so-called Affordable Care Act is not really about the health of the people but about further depleting the wealth of the middle class.  Redistribution from on high is a perversion of our world as it exists. Our world is a competitive place.  In biological terms, our world moves according to the survival of the fittest.  In economic terms, our world moves according to the effort personally expended to build a future for you and yours.  Effort does not always bring the results we crave but effort always results in a more fulfilled life.  America has always been about hard work and the pride it brings to the individual.

Instead of the middle class carrying the burden of healthcare for the poor and those with pre-existing conditions, let's be fair, our hard-working politicians should tax stock market transactions.  A $1.00 healthcare tax per transaction would bring $30 billion a month to the crisis.  This seems only fair but the swamp will resist.  Politicians of both parties, including Barack Obama, are in debt to the special interests of the few.

   

G.Goslaw

Landers, CA

Our Human Dilemma

We humans are either a byproduct of nothingness or our lives are about something else.  This is the human dilemma that is beyond empirical proof.  Those of us who have accepted the nothingness of this present life form are either very courageous or very stupid.  The nothingness life is simple, get all you can while you can and at the same time console your moral sensibilities with a few good deeds.  The nothingness life may be enough for some of us but what if life is ultimately about the something else?  Are we not looking over our shoulders, wondering and hoping that there just may be something more to it all?  Though we hope, most times the something or someone else seems to be a foggy vapor, our future vision clouded by a multitude of conflicting interests.

When our earthly aspirations come up short, when our expectations are crushed, when we prove to be our own worst enemy, even when we stubble onto a sweet spot in life, changing circumstances will return us to the dilemma of meaninglessness. Despite the progress of modern man to pull back the celestial curtain, we humans stuff our dilemma into a comfort coping cubbyhole, a cubbyhole with a prescribed group think, be it money, success, relationships, religion, politics, good works, the many varieties of excess or an approved ancient text.  Through history we have devised almost as many cubbyholes as there are those of us willing to think on these things.  Philosophers, theologians, writers, scholars and the scientific communities have debated and written a plethora of volumes, each claiming to have a semblance of understanding. 

Each of these thinkers may have something to say to us but none has a verifiable solution for our dilemma of meaning.  To the atheist we could ask, how does it feel to be a byproduct of nothingness?  To the agnostic, we could ask, where did your remote creative force go?  To those of us with a religious definition of the someone else, we could ask, where is your evidence except ultimate faith?  To those of us who champion an inherent human spiritual goodness, we could ask, why is this dynamic a vestigial appendage in so much of humankind?  There is no widely accepted fix for the dilemma of meaning and most of the world lives without the hope for a meaningful hereafter.  When it is our turn to die, what will each of us discover to be the eternal fix, if anything?

This is not an exclusively religious question but a universal human question we all confront, either directly or passively.  As young people, we take our chances but sooner or later the dilemma of meaning looms larger and larger.  The nothingness dilemma is ours to take to the grave while we search for answers in this life.  All we humans have this searching imperative, we want to know, all of us, regardless of age, sex, race, religion or national origin.  Will we experience illumination or black nothingness?  Will we experience a Utopian bliss or eternal hell fire?  Do we get to choose?  What are the qualifications for eternity?  Are there qualifications? 

The cubbyhole voices are out there advocating for their own understanding of what life is about but who shall we trust into the grave?  Where is the truth?  Who knows the truth?  Are we merely to be satisfied with making a small contribution to the flow of humanity?  These are just a few of the questions that bug some of us and to those of us who are profoundly sure of the future, cubbyholes and all, we envy you.

G.Goslaw 

A challenge to the High Desert Star

The new editorial page of the Hi-Desert Star is an improvement over the old mindless insult machine of the past.  The Word on the street section has a broader cross section of both local people and their sometimes-divergent opinions.  It would be helpful if the reader is informed as to the life work of those giving the opinion.  Are they plumbers or teachers, store clerks or truck drivers, government employees or small business persons, day traders or panhandlers?  Such a revelation would help the reader understand where opinion likely originates without further contributing to the political polarization that has infected America.   

The new “Our View” section has at last given the paper an opportunity to put meaningful local and national issues before the readers.  One would assume that in doing so, the paper hopes to stimulate intelligent feedback and an open discussion of possible fixes.  The January 26 “Our View” section is entitled, “It’s time to admit we have a problem”.  This opinion rightly calls the folk of our community to band together to positively address the scourge of drug abuse infecting both our families, the local community and the nation. 

OK, we have a monstrous problem, our children and young adults are dying and becoming virtual life vegetables.  My community is highly infected, rumors abound about our young dying amid mysterious circumstances.  The days of “just say no” and a war on drugs enforcement efforts seem totally inadequate solutions to our present problem.  If tragedy has found your family, this is not the time to hide in shame, it is time to stand up and demand change. 

Why are our law enforcement officers overwhelmed with this problem? Why is heroin as cheap on the streets as cigarettes?  Why are our public schools so ineffective educating our male students?  Why can we regulate smokes away from our young and at the same time open our borders to the drug peddlers of the world?  It makes no sense because our young are being destroyed by the open borders cartel of the political Democratic and socialist radical left.  They say to you and I, our politics is more important than the life of your son or daughter.    

Should you and I accept this bull, should the Hi-Desert Star?  Our paper must have an expanded view that is relevant to our everyday circumstance in real America and not some pie in the sky political theory.  Hi-Desert Star, are you afraid to be relevant and stand with your people?

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

The America Haters International Union is exposed!

There is a new union in town, it is called the Donald J. Trump Presidency.  Since he has entered the political area, the other union, known as, the America Haters International Union, has had to come out of their closet and demonstrate to all of us their ugliness.  They accuse everyone, other than themselves, of hating when they are the ugly bigots who lie, cheat and steal the greatness of the American ideal to promote America hate.   They are the radical political left and their surrogates who will say anything and do anything to gain control and enslave America, from Washington D.C, New York City, Sacramento, California or the street corners of Yucca Valley. 

America Haters International Union has accomplished phase one of their plan by gaining control of the political elites of the Democratic Party including the House Democratic members who skipped the Inauguration.  The actions of this minority are organized America Hate.  They warped the special interests promoting the killing of babies in the womb to the many invasions into America from everywhere.  They send the IRS after their political enemies.  They invite black lives matter folk to visit the White House.  Former President Obama told illegals to vote illegally in the presidential election of 2016.  They send and fund their anarchist bullies to burn and riot in the streets.  They give tacit approval to the killing of police officers, remaining silent or they give obligatory written statements about the violence.  This organized ugliness is right out of the socialist, communist, big government playbook that is about enslaving the American people.

One man stood up for the people, President Donald J. Trump.  This message is from the people, we now know who you are, please, go stifle yourself!    

G.Goslaw

Landers, Ca