Day: March 5, 2019

I’m angry. I’m angry with a lot of the people in America, this “land of the free, and home of the brave”.

I’m angry with the direction American’s seem to want to follow. The direction of harshness. The direction of bias and bigotry. The direction of exclusion. The direction of hatred and condemnation. The embrace of leaders who fan the flames of the fires of discord. Leaders whose lies and deceptions are echoed on media outlets whose only purpose is to keep Americans divided.

I’m angry that so called Christian Americans act more like self righteous know it alls, than followers of the most empathetic human being who ever lived.

To let a person lead them who has the morals of a gangster, the sexual perversions of a lecher? A man who is a glutton, a cheater, a hedonist, a promise breaker, an animal hater, an ignorant uneducated oaf, who basks only in the undeserved  adoration and adolation of masses of mindless crowds of screaming, frothing and uncharacteristically mesn human beings?

People who believe a man with no morals and no conscience, was “sent by God” to be President of this country, when the only reason God would send him as leader would be to punish our country for the genocide of its original inhabitants, and the enslavement of people of color for hundreds of years.

People who do not care about existing orphans and hungry children, but only about denying women the choice concerning their own body, and what to do or not do with it.

People who would be enthralled with a leader who cannot open his mouth without lies and embellishments of the truth spilling out of it.

I’m angry that murderous leaders of dictatorial countries seem to control the direction of our government more than the elected representatives who actually live here and who care about the country and it’s people.

When Putin can threaten us directly with nuclear holocaust without our President reacting, I’m angry. What American President in our history would have put up with this?

What American President would let a Turkish dictator tell us how our Mideast foreign policy should be conducted. Would let a corrupt Israeli Prime Minister call the shots. Would let a Saudi Arabian despot murder a journalist who worked for one of our own newspapers, and get away with it.

All while at the same time bellow and bitch about putting a “big beautiful” huge wall on our Southern border to keep out workers. To keep out women and children seeking asylum from repression, violence, rape and murder? To separate patents from their children with no plans to one day reunite them?

I cannot help but see a bleak future for America.  I see an America that is closer to a Civil War than at any time since 1860.  I hope I’m wrong, but I’m a pretty mild man and  if I am angry, as angry as I am, then I can only imagine how others who are less temperate and thinking than I am are feeling.

Weapon and ammunition purchases are at all time highs.  You don’t have to wonder what people think they are going to be using them for if you are even slightly to the negative side in your thinking.

Me and Mike Brown and David Hayes went up on the banks of the Chattooga river back when we were young, about twelve or thirteen years old if I remember correctly. We were on the south bank, and had originally been going to do some fishing. Summers back then were lazy days, baseball games and swimming in the river, hunting golf balls up at the Trion golf course, and exploring.

All three of us were dedicated golfers and golf ball hunters. We would go up to the slough on #1 hole and find 8 or 10 golf balls, and then move on down to the creeks on #2 and #3 holes. We’d go into that squishy mud barefooted, and feel for the lost golf balls with our feet. Sometimes some of the leeches in the creek would attach themselves to our legs or in between our toes. We never thought anything about it, we’d just pull them off. Occasionally a water mocassin or some other type of water snake would hear or see us coming, tromping up the creek and would splash in the water. I remember one time when Mike and I were hunting up the middle of the creek and a HUGE snake came swimming right down the center. I went to one bank, and he hit the other one. Once it swam by us, we went right back into the muck.

We needed all of those golf balls, because at that point in our golfing career we lost about two balls per hole. We got better as the years passed and we played on J.W. Greenwood’s golf team. In 1967 we won a big trophy and in in 1968 we finished just out of the “money” at the State tournement. I won a couple of individual medals both years and thought I was pretty good. I shot even par at a youth tournament late in the Summer of ’68 and thought I was gonna win for sure. Old boy named Andy Bean shot three under par, and I ended up in second place. He went on to do pretty good as a pro, and me…well, I think I peaked out that summer.

Back to the banks of the Chattooga that day I was originally speaking of…

We three decided we would find the Trion Dam cave. We didn’t know exactly where the entrance was located so we went past it and ended up climbing the rocky hill that lies just above the dam. I was hopping over rocks like a mountain goat, as I had pretty good balance back then. I heard somebody yell and saw that ol’ David was sliding down the rocks. He had turned his leg and torn up his knee. We helped him back home, and it was a long recovery. No more ball playing or fishing or golfing for him that summer. It was a little bit of a wake up call for me. I’d been way up ahead of him on those rocks and if I had fallen down, it would have been a lot worse than a torn up knee. It mighta’ been goodbye…

I looked up on that rock bank from across the river just a few weeks back as I was taking some photos and wonder what prompted me to climb up that high. Was I crazy?

At 65 years of age I think about how lucky I have been to be able to survive this life up to this point, where some of my friends and comrades have not. Michael Brown has been gone for quite a few years. Old David is still around, and I have seen him a lot over the years. He still has a bit of a limp from tearing his knee up that year. I came out of it with just a few bites from some little leeches, and maybe a bee sting or two. One has to wonder at how fate, luck, time and place have so much to do with how we end up.