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Have We Lost Our Common Sense?

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Contents

AMERICA, HAVE WE LOST OUR COMMON SENSE? Introductory Comments...............................1CHAPTER 1 God Bless America, Land that I Love!..............................................11CHAPTER 2 We Must Keep America Strong!......................................................21CHAPTER 3 The Far Right and Far Left Hold Us Hostage........................................29CHAPTER 4 Bipartisan Teamwork Makes a Big Difference........................................41CHAPTER 5 When You Are On Top of the Mountain Don't Fall Off................................53CHAPTER 6 Why Shouldn't Women Be Treated Equal with Men?....................................59CHAPTER 7 Why Can't We Be Civil About Abortion?.............................................65CHAPTER 8 Does Jesus Love All the Children of the World?....................................75CHAPTER 9 Martin Luther King, Jr. Had a Dream...............................................97CHAPTER 10 How Did the Red States Get Red?..................................................101CHAPTER 11 Do Gays Have the Right to Pursue Happiness in America?...........................113CHAPTER 12 Are Religious Zealots the Cause of our Hate?.....................................121CHAPTER 13 Eat the Big Elephant One Bite at a Time..........................................137CHAPTER 14 Should We Never Be "Controversial"?..............................................145CHAPTER 15 "Common Sense Memories of My Hometown"...........................................151CHAPTER 16 Should We Have Bailed Out the Auto Industry?.....................................169CHAPTER 17 Use Common Sense to meet our Commitments!........................................183CHAPTER 18 The "Bear" and the "Kidd" of Common Sense, Football and Life.....................193CHAPTER 19 Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates.......................................203The "Dream of an Unclouded Day"..............................................................208World War II Memorial at Corbin Middle School................................................212

Chapter One

"God bless America, land that I love, stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam, God bless America, my home sweet home, God bless America, my home sweet home."

Chills run up and down my spine when I hear the music and words of "God Bless America." This long time favorite song of the American people was first written in 1918 and revised twenty years later in 1938 as the thunder and lightning of war were beginning the violent storm over the people of Europe and parts of Asia. Kate Smith, a well known name in music, was the vocalist. As we think about the memorable and inspiring moments of our history, it is interesting that many times these experiences included people who came to this melting pot of humanity from other places in the world. "America," one of our most beloved songs, was written by Irving Berlin, who came to America from Siberia in 1893 as a five year old boy. Kate Smith was born in Washington, DC in 1907.

From the days of 1775 in the Revolutionary War until now in Iraq and Afghanistan men and women have died and their bodies have been torn and maimed as they sacrificed everything for our nation. "God Bless America" rings the bells of liberty in our hearts today just as it has since it was revised by Berlin in the last century as the world faced war in 1938.

Since our miraculous Revolutionary War which started over 230 years ago we have built a remarkable nation. We are a nation that over the course of its history has often faced giant problems and painful times but has been able to recover and continue to enjoy the pursuit of happiness and achievement. It has been a land that has created opportunities for those willing to give their time and energies to pursue the dreams of life and reach out to succeed and raise their families. America since its beginning has attracted people from across the world to come to our land and become part of this magnificent experience. In recent years, however, we seem to have lost our "sense of direction."

We sent our precious troops to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and cut the taxes of our wealthiest citizens!

It was disheartening to see that as we sent our brave men and women to fight valiantly in a war on foreign soil our congress cut the taxes for the wealthiest people in our nation as they remained in the comfort of home and were blessed with more spending money. Never in our history have we cut taxes when we sent our troops to war. This was a time for all of us to be willing to scrimp and scrounge at home, but instead some of our wealthiest citizens continued to live life on the fast track. Our troops and their families have been paying a painful sacrifice, and yet for most of us life just goes on. Some corporations fattened their wallets from a war in which a segment of our population and their loved ones made daily sacrifices. That was a perfect example of "losing our common sense."

I don't accept any excuses given for the action to cut the taxes of our wealthy when our troops have been in harm's way. I heard it was done to stimulate the economy with some of that voodoo economic "trickle down" hogwash. When we make the serious decision to go to war, we should throw everything we have into winning it, and getting it over. This is one of the actions, in my opinion, that started us in the wrong direction. When a nation makes the tough decision to go to war, we must rally all the people together to sacrifice and work together just like we did in World War II.

Halliburton and other defense contractors, pharmaceutical companies, oil companies and Wall Street firms enjoy the privilege of the rich life while average hard working Americans pay higher prices for gasoline, medicine, and food. Many Americans including many children have not had health care insurance. Halliburton's no-bid contracts defied "common sense," and were blatantly deceptive. We provided our troops with equipment that could not protect them from Improvised Explosive Devices. (IED) Some of our troops in Iraq took it upon themselves to add materials to Humvees to provide limited protection. It took a couple of years for the military to formally start placing protective armor on the Humvees. IED's were deadly to our personnel. We should have been outraged at these fraudulent practices. Where were the Tea Parties when this was happening?

I thought we were making a mistake by going into Iraq but when the decision was made, I believed along with many military leaders and other Americans that we should have sent in more troops and have conducted more bombings to weaken our enemy's forces and will to fight. The leadership from high levels of the defense department was ineffective until Robert Gates became our Secretary of Defense. He has done an outstanding job, and we owe him our highest respect.

Neither political party is perfect

The recent health care legislation may not be perfect, but it is a step forward. Greed and corruption became blatant in the high levels of our nation. It did not surprise me when our nation ran off the road. Congressional members and their families carry their Government Platinum Health Care cards and cry out, "we have...