The next President of the United States

Ok, guys. Enough is enough. This is one soapbox on which I cannot help but stand.

 

You may not think that President Obama has done a stellar job, and that's fine. You have the right to your opinion. 

 

However; I have noticed that several of my friends are fans of, and will probably vote for, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the upcoming general elections. Please tell me that you only like them because they're not Obama. Because, if you are one that actually AGREES with their politics, I will have to stop being friends with you. I will delete and block you on Facebook, block your phone number, and basically cut you out of my life entirely. Besides. After reading this, some of YOU might not want to be friends with me, anyway. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Democrat or an Anti-Republican. I'm an Independent. I don't vote for someone based on their party affiliation. I vote for what I believe in. I actually considered voting for John McCain four years ago. I even thought that it was pure GENIUS to choose a woman as his running mate. Mostly because it put a question to the American people:

 

"Are you racist who or sexist?" 

 

Well, we got our answer, didn't we folks?

Once I saw interviews of Sarah Palin, I changed my mind. She is dumber than a wet bag of hammers. I don't know how she became Governor of Alaska, either. The fact that she was running that state is a blight on the intelligence of the Alaskan people. Check out the movie Game Change. It will give you insight into this woman's psyche.

Should have gotten Glenn Close. He might have won, then.

 

Back to the rant at hand.

 

These two men will turn back the clock in our country by 50 years. They don't want gays to marry. They don't want women to have a say in whether or not they can have children. They don't want people without money to be able to have more. They want to take away Social Security. They want to tax you. They want POWER.

 

Of course, this is all conjecture.

 

This is not: Mitt Romney has flat out LIED to the American people, been called on it, and basically said, "So?. He sold his home and moved away from Massachusetts, of which he was Governor. A year later, he voted in elections in that state. What? Don't you have to be a resident of the state in order to vote for ANYTHING in that state? In order to be a resident, you have to have lived in that state for the past 6 months.

 

The thing is, people have been watching too much mainstream media. Do you remember when Fox News used to be called "Liberal Media"? The GOP really didn't like them. Now, it's flipped. Any time you turn on that news channel, nearly all of their newscasters are spouting some kind of Anti-Obama rhetoric. And it's not like they come up with different things to tell us. They keep spouting the same stuff. 

 

Over.

And Over.

And Over.

And Over. 

I don't know how many times they can mention "Obamacare" is a negative way without sounding like a broken record. Guess what, folks? Before he was elected, nearly everyone was all but screaming for health care reform. You know what? That's what he did. Exactly what he told you he was going to do. Reform health care. Now, you just don't want it. How about you read the law before you start attacking it. 

Here is a site with the full text of the law. Read it.

Again, I'm ranting.

Sadly, I know what's going to happen. Mitt Romney will become President. I was an Intelligence Analyst for the Army for 13 years. This may sound egotistical, but I was paid to be the smartest man in the room. I was taught tactics, capabilities, situations. I was taught to think outside of the norm, and ask questions. They kept me doing it because I had a knack of seeing the most plausible way that our enemy would do things.

I have just over 300 friends on Facebook. 8 of them like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. I see people all over the place. I'd say that less than 10% of them like Mitt and Paul. When I talk to random people, very few of them agree with these two men. Yet, I look around the net, watch interviews, read news publications. From what I have seen, Romney is behind President Obama by a very small percentage of the vote.. 

What? 

How the hell did this happen?

My main point is: Don't vote for these two men just because they are someone other than President Obama. This whole "lesser of two evils" thing has got to stop. They are NOT the lesser of two evils. They will take away your money. They will take away your rights. And you will thank them for it because they're not a black man who did what he said he was going to do.

One Year

I haven't written anything in over a month. I feel like a failure at this whole "writing" thing.

A couple of days ago was the 1 year anniversary of my father's death. Many people have tried to help me through this time, but it hasn't really helped.

I had a friend come over today, and we watched a movie. He encouraged me to talk about my dad, and I cried.

I miss him more that I can put into words. He was the greatest man I have ever known. People knew him. He had influence. He treated people with respect, and expected respect in return. And he got it. Not because he was demanding, but because he knew that to earn someone's respect, you have to give it.

I spent every day in awe of the amount of love people showed him for no reason other than he was genuinely a good man. He helped those in need. He ran the Yakima Bowling association for 15 years. He ran the Washington State Bowling Association for 5 years. He planted huge amounts of crops in his garden every year, and when they were ripe, he gave them away. He would go to apple orchards just after picking season, and get the leftovers from the trees. Then, he would give them away.

Nearly everything good that I have ever done in my life was to make him proud. I started playing trombone at age 11, because he wanted me to be into music. I found a natural flair for the instrument.

I graduated High School with a 3.3 GPA, Honor Society, School Senate, President of the Chess Club, Drum Major of the band, best shooter on the rifle team.

Joined the Army.

Every time I made something good happen, I would call him and tell him about it. I wanted him to be so proud of me.

On his birthday several years ago, we had a party for him at Hoops in Yakima. My brother George told him that he wasn't going to make it, but he was going to be there. He asked us all to keep it a secret. A little after the party started, George showed up. We all hung out for a few, and dad asked him, "Don't you have a show to do tonight? You said that you couldn't come because you had an acoustic show that you were doing?"

"I do. Hang on."

At which, George got up on stage, grabbed his guitar and starting playing music for my dad. It was wonderful. George asked me to get up on stage with him, and we sang a couple of songs. Later on, Dad confided in us that, at that moment, he was the most proud. His two sons on stage singing such beautiful songs just for him on his birthday.

His last birthday was just over a year ago. He threw a little shindig at the Eagle's Club in Yakima. Most of our family showed up to this one. The only ones that weren't there were my brother Allen and his family. They, however, had already been there a week or so prior, and celebrated with him then.

We partied the night away, and everyone had a great time. George played some more songs. My nephew Tom played some as well. We got drunk, and had cake, and generally just had a great time. Dad ended up driving home, even though I told him not to. I thought he was a little too drunk. However, he's the one that taught me how to drive drunk, so I let him.

Don't get ahead of me. Dad didn't get in an accident or anything. He made it home safely.

A month later, I get a call from my Aunt, telling me the news. She didn't have any of my brothers' numbers, so it was up to me to call them and let them know. Fantastic. I just lost the most important person in my life, and I now have the responsibility of calling other family members and telling them.

We had a wake for him that weekend. Not one person I talked to said, "I wish I would have told him how I felt about him." Everyone was at his birthday party the month before. Everyone loved him, and told him so. He always returned that love, in spades.

My Dad and I talked to each other nearly every week. I called him at least twice a month when I was in Iraq. He sent me care packages, and encouraged everyone he knew to pray for my safe return.

I miss him. Every time something good happens in my life now, I have nobody to tell. Nobody to really be proud of me. All I have left is a few distant brothers, a lot of "bar friends", and nobody to tell me that I did well, truly mean it, and to understand what it means to me to hear that.

I love you, Dad.  I wish you were here.