I think I need to say that first, because it is important. It defines who I am, and it defines that I live in the greatest country in the world. There is no better, and I shudder to think what would happen if this country did not exist, which is why I decided to start this blog: RED WHITE AND BLUE USA.
Purpose of the Blog
I am a conservative American.
You can define it any way you’d like. I am not a progressive, and I believe in conservative principles. A Conservative can be Democrat or Republican, but in today’s politics most conservatives are Republican, there are few, if any, Democrat Conservatives... There are a few progressive Republicans though. That is what I define as left and right. Conservative thought vs. liberal or progressive thought.
That being said, I think there are many others like me who believe the same things. I am totally appalled at the partisan bickering; and the lack of integrity in our government. I see the left coming to take away my liberties, even though they say they respect my rights, I don’t see it. I am not in agreement at all with the progressive movement. It makes no sense to me. I see elitists creating rules for everyone else but themselves. I am a decent person, and I believe that everyone should be able to live their life without government interfering. I believe in taxation for the support of basic needs (roads, military, law enforcement, fire, etc.) I do not believe in the redistribution of wealth. I believe that we are endowed by our creator with basic unalienable rights…. I believe in God. I also believe that here are good people in this country, who want to do the right thing. I also believe, and this is from direct observation, that there are others looking to scam the system, and get what they can for themselves. Not in an honest, but a dishonest way. Many of them have found their way into politics.
I also believe there are many that want to take our rights away – If we are willing to give them up. In a recent American Revolution poll that I saw presented this week on Glenn Beck here are some astounding numbers:
• 15% believe it is NOT an essential Right to Receive Speedy Trial
• 18% believe it is NOT an essential Right to practice the Religion of your choice
• 24% believe it is NOT an essential Right to privacy
• 30% DO NOT believe it is a RIGHT to speak Freely
• 36% DO NOT believe it a RIGHT to not practice ANY religion
• 35% DO NOT BELIEVE it is a RIGHT to Question/ Petition against your government
• 41% DO NOT BELIEVE it is a right to not have your property seized
• 55% DO NOT BELIEVE it is a RIGHT to own firearms
See for yourself: www.americanrevolutioncenter.org/node/89
These numbers are astounding…. I thought our country fought for these rights over 200 years ago
James Madison Said in 1888:
“Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
This is happening TODAY! And I am fearful of it. Congress and our President are assaulting our rights on a daily basis.
Ronald Reagan said in a speech in 1961 about the perils of socialized medicine and about being an everyday conservative:
What can we do about this? Well, you and I can do a great deal. We can say right now that we want no further encroachment on these individual liberties and freedoms and that you demand the continuation of our traditional free enterprise system. You and I can do this. The only way we can do it is by writing to our congressmen, even if we believe that he's on our side to begin with, write to strengthen his hand. Write those letters now. Call your friends and tell them to write. If you don't, this program, I promise you, will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country... until one day as Norman Thomas said, we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this and if I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free."
That is exactly what this Blog is about! Congress isn’t listening 36% (That means 64% against) of Americans favor the current legislation on healthcare (Socialized medicine), yet congress will take this legislation and shove it down our throats – Even if it will provide us with less than what we have now. Letters to our Congressmen and Senators do nothing. They avoid us - the people who elected them. Because they will do what they want! ... Not what we elected them to do.
I believe in charity, but I do not believe that the government has right to take someone’s earnings and give them to someone else. We are a charitable country, and when things go bad in the world, we have provided more than any other people to those who do not have. But enough is enough… People need to be able to hold on to what they have earned, and not have someone else tell them how to or where to spend their money. I DO NOT believe in the redistribution of wealth. It is wrong, and it is a legalized form of stealing.
I grew up in New York City, and I must say, I saw a lot of scamming going on. I saw people who didn’t want to work living quite well, and I saw people who worked hard getting their money taken in taxes. I grew up in one of the most progressive states in the Union, and I realized that giving money away does not get people to work harder. It gets them to want more money. I also realized that where this money comes from is from you and I. If I have to work for it, I expect everyone else to do so…. Unless you are sick, or there is some physical reason. But you should put back as well. I saw my family living together under one roof, grandparents and parents, because they couldn’t afford to live apart, and helping each other in the process.
This conversation that exists today that we should fend for ourselves, wasn’t what we brought here. My family didn’t put people in nursing homes when they were sick, we took care of them. We made sure that we gave back to them what they gave to us. Today, people put you in a nursing home because it’s inconvenient, or they take away your belongings, and leave them alone for 8 hours. Do you know what is inconvenient…getting up at 2 am with a child that is sick and nursing them back to health. It’s getting up at the crack of dawn with your child because you have to get them to an event. It may be inconvenient, but you do it. You do it because there is love.
So, I am going to try to present a blog that has both sides. I have asked a friend to contribute his side of the story from the left. I am definitely coming from the right… As you will see from my history below, I am definitely right wing… I don’t know how I got here, but these are my beliefs.
Every day, you will hear my rants from the right about a lot of things. I am hoping my counterpart will contribute from the left. I am also hoping that I do one of 2 things. I really upset the left, as they will not comprehend my side… I will convert you left leaning people to the right, because as you read and understand what is at stake you will tend to change your views….
Either way, I believe it will be entertaining. My friend and I have been doing this for over a year through email… We are good friends despite our differences in politics. We are still Yankees fans.. so we definitely have a lot in common. I am looking forward to having all of you in the blogosphere comment on what we have said. Get into it with us… and react to what is said. But keep your language to a PG13 level…. Our wives and mothers may be reading too.
MY HISTORY FOR REFERENCE:
I am 49 Years old, as I start this Blog. I am an American of Italian descent
I think that my age is important because it also defines who I am. I was born after World War II and during the cold war. I was a baby when John F. Kennedy was shot, and I lived through the sixties as a toddler. I wasn’t effected much by the Vietnam War, and I was too young to be affected by Martin Luther King.
My teen years were spent during the most tumultuous time, and a time for great strides in our country. I think we were learning how to live together. I believe race was not as much an issue for my generation as it was for previous generations. The Civil Rights era was ending, the war in Vietnam was over and people started to enjoy the peace. We watched as our parents argued about things that honestly we thought were inconsequential – The color of people’s skin. As people were fighting over race, we were children playing with the children of those our parents were fighting with. When Willie Mays was playing baseball, I didn’t see a man of Color, I saw a graceful ballplayer. I admired Jackie Robinson, and I tried hard to understand what it took to be the first of color, in a country where color WAS a major issue. When music was played, it didn’t much matter what the color was of the person singing the song. If the song was beautiful we listened to it. It didn’t matter if it was Michael Jackson or Donnie Osmond, The Temptations or the Beach Boys. All that mattered was we liked the music. All in all, I felt growing up, based on my friendships and my experiences… what was the issue? Why all the fuss?
Vietnam, now that was supposed to be an issue for my generation, but by the time I was “of age”, the war was over. But I do remember the music, and the protests against the war. I remember hearing the reports of body counts. I only knew one person who was in Vietnam, he was my cousin. When I met him he had just returned, a young man. He was so cool, and I only met him once, but he was such a positive person. Unfortunately, he died very young. Shortly after I met him for the first time, after coming back from the war, he had an aneurism, and died at the Veteran’s hospital.
Both of these issues when I grew up polarized the country. There were riots, and living in New York, there were riots it seemed every day. I remember when Martin Luther King died, being afraid of rioters coming into my neighborhood, and causing problems. I didn’t see any of it, and I guess it was overblown. My parents did not have many friends of color. Well, I would say my mother didn’t. My dad worked with many people of different colors and nationalities. While I heard the stereotypes of all of them, I never really understood what the fuss was about.
There was that Watergate thing – but once again I was a little too young to be involved with that as well. What hit us was economic. We were seeing our parents working hard, and getting less. Inflation was hitting home, and when we were just learning how to drive, there was an oil embargo. We were told that we needed to wear sweaters more in the house, because well we just could not afford the heating bills.
We learned about the Middle East; not because it was an important place, but that’s where our oil and gas came from, and since they decided to slow the oil coming in, people were waiting for hours on gas lines, so that they could go to work. We teenagers could not understand why the price of gas doubled. Or why there were long lines… We just didn’t like it. How did we know as young kids.. that this was a response to an Arab / Israeli conflict, and the support of the US for Israel. We were just kids... All we knew was it didn't make sense.
When I was a teenager in High School I could remember my history teacher saying to all of us, that we were going to have to change, that the United States was changing, that we ‘students’ needed to learn that we could not live better than our parents did. Jimmy Carter was president, and as an adult, I can understand that mentality. However, I believe my generation refused to believe that. We just wanted more. In my first election I had a choice of Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan. I believed the press when they said that Reagan would send us into a war. I believed them when they said that he just was too conservative for this country. I admit, I voted for Jimmy Carter. It was the last time, that I would be influenced by the media. I decided at that moment I would inspect for myself what was going on.
I graduated in the class of 1978. I was a young man with big dreams. I could say I was like George Bailey
In the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I was going to see the world. Unfortunately, I was not independently wealthy, and I didn’t have a trust fund. So…. Well the best way was to work for people who would send me around the world to work for them. At the same time, I would get to go to places I’ve never been, and could never afford. I have to admit this strategy worked, and I travelled the world, most of the time in quite a luxurious style. I’ve been to Europe, South America, Mexico, and most places in the US; all with someone else paying for it.
My Family
I must admit, I am really very happy. At the age of almost 50, I have accomplished things I set out to do, and in some cases I splurged a bit too much. But after all of those years I have quite a family. My first marriage did not work, for some reason that were mine (selfishness, uncompromising), and some hers (selfishness, uncompromising). But I have 2 children (1 Girl and 1 Boy) that I honestly adore. And though most times, I am not sure why… they adore me.
10 Years ago I met the love of my life… My wife Irene, she has brought total joy to my life. Am I still selfish.. Yes a little...Am I still uncompromising… A little there too… The only difference: she truly loves me… She loves my imperfections, and she doesn’t demand I change. I change, because I love her. She is my hero.. I will talk about that in a later post.
Irene came with a package. 3 Boys… Who I love like my own... well let me change that. They are my own. Unlike many married couples we do not distinguish between who is yours or mine. We distinguish that they are all ours. Imperfect as they are, they are ours.
I now have 3 Grandchildren…. Who are the reason for existence. Great line I read on the internet… “Grandchildren are God’s reward for not killing our children…. “
My dad… I think I should say a few things about him, because he influenced me more than I realized. My dad was a strong man. He was skinny growing up, but I remember how strong he was. He delivered boxes when I was a kid, and he carried heavy things. He belonged to a union, and while we were not poor, I wouldn’t consider us rich either. We lived with my grandparents, and we always had food and nice clothes. We went to private catholic school. M dad worked hard. He worked 2 jobs. We didn’t see him very much growing up, because of that. But he was a good guy. Everyone thought he was an honest man, and I remember him being the family “consigliere”, the person who they came to see when there were disputes. He would advise them, and they would do it. Everyone went to Roland for advice.
When I was a teen, my dad took the risk of owning a business. We had a little more after that, things weren’t quite so tight. We went on a few vacations, and again while not rich, we didn’t know there were problems. My dad was a good man. He died of cancer, at 63, and I miss him, because it wasn’t until I was in my mid 20’s that I learned to understand him, and got who he was. I also understood, that he was one of the smartest people I knew without an education. If had an education, I guarantee he would have been rich. However, what I learned was, you don’t have to be rich to be wealthy, and he was wealthy in the love of his family. When he died, I could not believe how many people mourned him. He was a hero to me.
That’s my background… That’s who I am and where I come from.
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