Rocky Mountain Straight Talk

Twist & Shout Christmas Concert 2011 Commercial

2011-12-05T09:06:00.002-07:00

Please share at will. If you're within driving distance you will want be there! Fillmore to Davis County is driving distance, trust me! Merry Christmas to one and all, and see you at the Twist & Shout Christmas Concert. It will be a night to remember.

Twist & Shout Christmas Concert 2011 - You're Invited!

2011-11-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

What a special night my daughters have planned for Utah in celebration of our Savior's birth and Christmas.

You, your family, your friends and co-workers are all invited to join them for Twist & Shout's Christmas Concert 2011. It will be an evening filled with song, dance, and laughter, and even a little emotion as they celebrate the return of Utah soldiers from Iraq. The concert is on December 20th at 7:00 p.m.

American Leadership Academy

898 West 1100 South

Spanish Fork, UT

Did I mention it's FREE for everyone in attendance. So join them as they celebrate Christmas, joined by special guest, Jessie Funk. Jessie has "gone country" with the release of her new CD "Dance in the Rain." You may have heard her songs on the radio as you drive around Utah.

Jessie has released five solo albums, published five books, has toured 36 states with the Broadway musical “Footloose,” performed as an opening act for Donny Osmond, Josh Grayson and Billy Dean and she has toured with Broadway sensation Maureen McGovern. She has also been hired for hundreds of recording sessions as a studio vocalist including songs heard on TV’s “America’s Got Talent” and “The Biggest Loser,” as well as Donny & Marie Osmond's Las Vegas show.

And, for a little special something extra, Santa Claus will be in attendance after the concert for the kids to sit on his lap, get pictures with him, etc. And you have never seen a Santa like THIS Santa! Pictures will be $10/ea. please bring cash, if you want to take advantage of this opportunity.

And in case that's not enough, the hosts of the new television show Simply Stated will be there shooting footage, interviewing people and highlighting director, Heather Hunt (my daughter) in a special show they are doing on her. In addition, Candace Salima (my daughter) of Turning the Tide with Candace Salima will not only be performing, but shooting footage as well for her show.

So please help them fill every single seat, all 650 of them, because this will be a night to remember and a perfect celebration of Christmas.

You can pop on over to the Twist & Shout Christmas Concert 2011 and keep updated on all the goings on as the days count down.

Is Freedom An Endangered State?

2011-04-20T19:27:00.000-06:00

We Americans have been free too long. Many of our citizens no longer value the freedom for which our ancestors fought and died, at least not enough to keep it.

Many of us see nothing wrong with trading that freedom for money, inspiring a particularly unprincipled class of politicians to compete to buy the most votes with the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. That’s the money those politicians have sworn to use wisely. Apparently, "wisely" is in the eye of the beholder, or maybe just in the eye of the guy holding the key to the taxpayers’ bank account.

Both that class of politicians and those citizens subscribe to the "Robin Hood" model of government, "Take from the rich and give to the poor." Inexplicably, they consider such "taking and giving" a badge of honor.

Have we truly devolved to this extent? How do we decide for whom we will vote? Let’s analyze some basic human tendencies: Most citizens who vote for the man they think will be the best manager, the best CEO, become Republicans. Democrats like the candidate who grabs their emotions, who dramatically assures them of their victim status, tells them the owner of the corner store is ripping them off, and promises them the goodies they "deserve". If he makes good on that promise, he is guaranteed a lifetime in office, the perks of which he can and will manipulate to set himself up for life.

Basic human nature never changes, but there always have been and always will be aberrations, for which we can be extremely grateful. There are some truly honorable elected officials and some equally honorable voters.

Such are the last, best hope of mankind’s freedom. And we need more of them!

What is happening to our Men?

2011-01-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

Gentle Reader,

Our fighting men are being sent on repeated tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have too small a military to do anything else, so our men come home, then go back into combat again and again, guaranteeing horrific consequences most American cannot even imagine.

When I was a young military bride, an old 2nd World War hand-to-hand combat vet told me he refused to sleep in the same room with his beloved wife for a long time after returning to the States. Naively, I asked him why. His answer has stayed with me for these many years: "I knew if she turned over in bed or mumbled in her sleep, she would be dead before I could even wake up."

He was telling me he could, and absolutely would, kill the woman for whom he gladly would give his own life, by sheer instinct. He had been in combat so long, and had been so conditioned that, even while asleep, he reacted with lightening and deadly speed in response to any movement or sound.

According to what I have been told, this very horror is occurring in some of today’s military families. The serial deployments, causing our men to go into combat repeatedly, while fighting on two fronts, is directly responsible for this.

What is happening to our men, who kill their own wives while asleep? Are they charged with murder? And even if they are not, can anyone imagine what it does to both them and their children? Neither will ever recover from such a horror.

The answer? I haven’t a clue. Unfortunately, neither has our Commander-in-Chief, who has never seen, nor will ever see, a minute of deadly combat.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

A depraved people cannot be trusted with liberty

2010-08-19T17:02:00.000-06:00

Dear Editor:

Why do we teach our children good values, especially since such things are so mocked in today's world? Why don't we let them grow up to behave as they please? It surely would be easier.

Simple. A depraved people cannot be trusted with liberty. The strong invariably use that liberty to enslave the weak, and the weak are ever with us. All people age and become dependent on the virtue of others. Invariably, some are born handicapped in one way or another. They, too, are dependent on the care of others. Otherwise they would be preyed upon by the strong and merciless.

There is no way to be both depraved and free. The two are mutually exclusive. A people will invariably be either free and decent, moral and law-abiding, refusing to accept all forms of tyranny, or they will be divided into masters and slaves. There is no middle ground.

Why have Americans remained a free people for these centuries? Because they have struggled both to be decent and good and to rear law-abiding, honorable offspring. They have recognized that depravity and freedom have never successfully coexisted. There is always, and has always been, either depravity or liberty, but never the two at the same time.

Why? Because the very degeneracy in which such people wallow forms the fetters that enslave them. Any and every people who have ever tried to make the two coexist have failed, and always will fail.

This is why we try so hard to rear an honest, basically good, posterity, even in a culture that glorifies everything we abhor. Now is not the time to throw in the towel, though a hefty percentage of Americans demand that we do so.

Let's choose leaders who understand this.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Can't They Count? Apparently Not?

2010-02-07T16:12:00.002-07:00

Can’t the knuckleheads we send to Congress and the White House count? It appears they cannot. They are determined to spend billions on health care and other things in which government should never be involved, even though they know the voters are furious about it. Why do we think they are ignoring us? Probably because they are.

If they would clean up their financial act and stop wasting taxpayers’ money, while taxing us into the poor house, they would have all the money they need to run legitimate governmental affairs.

Let’s look at some of their grossly irresponsible spending: The government has spent about $100 billion in verifiably improper payments, and they knew those payments weren’t legit. The agencies include Medicare, Medicaid, Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Energy, State Dept., HUD, etc. Their books show it. So which lazy, irresponsible incompetents were minding the store when that happened? Both Government employees and elected officials were guilty. Why? It wasn’t their money.

How about those earmarks? In March of ‘09 the $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Bill (good for only part of 6 months worth of spending) had 8,500 earmarks, costing $7.7 billion. Almost all were a worthless waste of money. We taxpayers were furious and didn’t keep our rage a secret, but were ignored.

In a recent year, the feds couldn’t account for $24.5 billion. Treasury says it’s "unreconciled." Translation? They can’t find it! It could have been swiped or just lost, but they don’t know for sure.

If these knuckleheads intend to continue to spend trillions (and they do) lets can the lot of them. Scott Brown’s election was a shot across the bow for all Reps and Senators. Come November, let’s rub their noses in it.

CO2

2010-01-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

Many of the world’s con men (think Al Gore) and absolute fruitcakes have met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to cook up a method of shaking down all the productive countries of the globe. They figure they will never see a better vehicle for their nefarious plans than the much-touted global warming, and they are probably right.

Well, dear con men and fruitcakes of the world, I have a plan. Let’s get truly serious and simply outlaw CO2. If we do that we will be able to meet and defeat your verifiably fake global warming (the world has been cooling for a decade) with a sufficiently self-righteous law designed to solve all our CO2 problems. (Of course, it won’t change anything, but we will feel so noble!)

Unfortunately, there will be a few unavoidable consequences, for instance: since all growing plants (think food) require CO2 , we will have to figure out another way to get food. Maybe we will have to become meat-eaters only.

No. That won’t work. Meat comes from animals, and those bloomin’ animals eat plants, and we won’t have any plants. Okay. Let’s go to plan B; we’ll become vegans.

Oops! That won’t work either. Vegans eat vegetables and other plants, and we won’t have either of the two (they need CO2 to grow and once we’ve outlawed it, we won’t have any of that nasty, wicked stuff).

We could adopt the storied diet of famous prisoners. You know how that worked, they had nothing but bread and water.

Oh, oh. Bread comes from wheat and wheat cannot grow without CO2. Maybe we could do just water, but I think we would have the opposite of an overweight problem in short order.

There are people who, when they are starving, eat tree leaves and tree bark. They even make a tasty tea out of them. The only problem with that is trees need CO2 to grow, so without growing trees, there will be no bark either to eat or to make into tea.

It is beginning to look as though we will simply have to go sit under a beautiful green tree and try to think of a solution to our CO2 problem. Oh, dear, that won’t work! There won’t be any green trees, because all the trees in the world are dependent on CO2 to survive, so without CO2 there won’t be any green trees under which we could sit. They all would be brown, brittle and dead!
Oh, woe is us! How ever are we going to feel righteous if we are forced to depend on CO2 for the survival of the human race! It just isn’t fair!

Well, I guess there is only one solution. Let’s do what the con men and fruitcakes do. Let’s say we have saved the planet (yeah, right!) by banning, and thereby reducing to 0, the CO2 we produce. It doesn’t have to mean anything. The super brains (giggle), who are computing how much CO2 the productive countries emit, are busily deleting any data that exposes their confidence game, so let’s take a page from their book and simply announce to the world that we have saved all mankind.

Next, let’s round up the nuts, send them all to the funny farm, then go sit under a tree and drink lemonade. Since lemon trees require CO2 to survive, we’ll sue those environmentally irresponsible lemon trees and send an announcement to the whole world, "AS SOON AS THE LEMON TREES PAY UP, WE’LL LET YOU KNOW. UNTIL THEN, DON’T BOTHER US."

Environmentally yours,
Muriel Sluyter

An Evening with the U.S. Constitution

2009-12-26T16:42:00.001-07:00

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Every single day I receive phone calls, emails and Facebook messages from people begging me to give them the answers ... they want to know how we are going to rescue the U.S. Constitution and the Republic. I have been very public about the solutions: become educated about the Constitution and the Republic, American history and our founding fathers. Learn why they chose a representational form of government over a pure democracy. But the thing I've said once if I've said it a thousand times, "find a candidate you can get behind and thrown your support behind that person, 150%."

While Mike Lee has not formerly announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate and the seat Bob Bennett currently holds, he has made his intentions clear enough that everyone knows he will be throwing his hat into the ring in a matter of weeks. He is the one I'm throwing my support behind, 150%.

But this night is about the U.S. Constitution, why it was created, what it is all about. The Constitution is our rule of law, and as Mike Lee has said, every law and piece of legislation should be measured against the Constitution and then dealt with accordingly. Come and learn, be motivated and be inspired. Bring your friends, family and neighbors...leave no one untold about this incredible opportunity to learn from one of the most brilliant constitutional minds in our nation. I do not grant that title lightly, for I am related to another of the greatest constitutional minds in our nation.

This is an amazing opportunity for every Utahan. I love, support, stand for and defend the U.S. Constitution as our rule of law. This is your chance to strengthen your educational foundation as an American citizen. An educated and literate society cannot be overthrown...think about that for a moment, and then come meet Mike Lee.

I've created a flyer announcing "An Evening with the U.S. Constitution and Mike Lee" for willing Americans to hand out to their friends, family and neighbors. If you are interested in receiving one, please feel free to email me at ces@candacesalima.com and I'll send it right back to you.

Here's a little bit about Mike Lee himself:

Mike has a great love of the Constitution, which he holds dear and wants desperately to preserve. The Constitution - including everything from the Due Process Clause to the Presentment Clause - was discussed around the Lee family's dinner table, almost in the same way many families talk about the weather, school, or the day's events. As a result, at a very young age Mike acquired a great love and admiration for the Constitution and for the principles found therein.

After graduating from Law School in 1997, he served as a law clerk to Judge Dee Benson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. He then clerked for then-Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., who was serving at that time on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Court. From there he went into private practice, joining the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley & Austin, where he specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation. Several years later, Mike returned to Utah after being invited to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Salt Lake City, preparing briefs and arguing cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He served as Governor Huntsman's General Counsel from January 2005 until June 2006, when he returned to Washington to serve a one-year clerkship at the U.S. Supreme Court with Justice Alito.

Mike returned to Utah (and to private practice) in the summer of 2007, joining the Salt Lake office of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Howrey LLP. Mike has earned a reputation as a truly outstanding lawyer based on his sound judgment, unsurpassed writing and courtroom advocacy skills, and thorough understanding of the Constitution (and of federal law generally).

Mike has a strong desire to bring about fundamental change in the way the federal government operates. In particular, he supports efforts to:

1. Secure passage and ratification of a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to operate on a balanced budget

2. Secure passage and ratification of a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on U.S. Senators and Representatives

3. Rein in entitlement spending

4. Reform campaign finance laws, many of which restrict core political speech in violation of the First Amendment and - while cleverly presented to the public as ethics-reform laws - are principally designed to give incumbent Senators and Representatives an unfair advantage over challengers

Mike, his wife Sharon, and their three children live in Alpine.

Mike is an administrator for The Article I Society, check it out: (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=143699482286&v=info#/group.php?v=wall&gid=143699482286)

And please become a member of "Draft Mike Lee to run for the U.S. Senate: (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=221765717795&ref=ts)

Keep an eye on this man. Michael Lee will be our next U.S. Senator. I am putting my "money" where my mouth is. This is how we will turn this nation around. Electing men and women with courage, strength, a deep and abiding love of the U.S. Constitution, America and an understanding of the American purpose in the world. Last night I heard everything I needed to hear to support this man.

Date: Thursday, January 14, 2010
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Noah Webster Academy
Street: 205 East 400 South
City/Town: Orem, UT

Candace Salima
OR28 Precinct Chair
Republican Party

...but more importantly, first and foremost,

an American citizen.

Copyright 2009. All rights reserved by Candace E. Salima.

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Pelosi's New America: Sending the Poor to Prison

2009-11-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Walter Williams, George Mason University economist, reports that, when a reporter asked Nancy Pelosi where, specifically, the Constitution granted Congress authority to mandate American citizens buy insurance, her response was: "Are you serious? Are you serious?"
When the reporter said: "Yes, yes, I am." Pelosi just shook her head and took a different reporter’s question.

Pelosi’s press spokesman later explained: "You can put this on the record. That is not a serious question. That is not a serious question."

After that response does anyone wonder why we are going to end up with government mandated, controlled and disastrously run health insurance (and I use that word "insurance" loosely)? It also explains why and how our country will go bankrupt, literally.

These people not only consider the Constitution irrelevant, they have utter contempt for it.
This demands a complete flushing of Washington. Why? Because, though John Shadegg introduced the Enumerated Powers Act in 1995, to "require Congress to specify authority under the United States Constitution for the enactment of laws and for other purposes," it has never gained more than 54 co-sponsors in the House and none in the Senate, until this year. Now it has 22 senators.

Why so few sponsors? And why almost none until this year? Because only a few representatives or senators have any use for our Constitution, except when it serves their political purposes.
Many of our tragically uneducated citizens have no use for the Constitution, either, though it is the only thing that has stood between us and the utter devastation forced on vast portions of the world’s occupants throughout history. Look it up!

It is time to flush Washington’s political toilet. When it stops up, I vote we use ballot box lye on it. Nothing else will work.

Muriel Sluyter

Rabid Dogs in Washington DC

2009-11-21T22:23:00.002-07:00

In the West dog packs are always a problem. They hunt down a cow, deer or elk and run it until they exhaust it sufficiently to take it down. Then they tear chunks of its flesh and eat them, while the animal is still alive. They do this to any animal that cannot protect itself.

That is what our elected representatives are doing to us. They write bills that will take more money from us than we make. I don’t mean these bills will take whatever money we have left after we support our families. No! They will take the money we need for food, shelter and clothing.

They pretend to be "looking out for us." No! They are taking power from us and concentrating it in Washington. This is a power grab by conscienceless, power-hungry people.

Do our Senators and Representatives in Washington represent us? Sadly, Republican or Democrat, they have come to represent only their leader, not us. The President says we must have government-run healthcare or our country will collapse, so they sign bills that will bankrupt us, no matter how vehemently we tell them not to do so. The President says we must cap greenhouse gases (volcanos produce almost all the carbon dioxide on the planet), so they pass a bill they know will bankrupt our businesses and private citizens. The President has openly stated as much.

They sign bills they haven’t read. We tell them "Read the bill!" and they mock us by hiring a speed reader.

They are ravening dogs, and we have become their prey. We must flush ALL of them at every election, until they remember for whom they work.

Muriel Sluyter

PS: This was the coldest summer of my life. Ain’t global warming grand!

Hey Israel! Let's Make an Exchange!

2009-09-29T17:09:00.002-06:00

Dear Israeli Citizens:

We have a deal to offer that we trust you will find attractive. We propose a straight-across swap, your Prime Minister for our President.

We would venture a guess that our President is in better physical condition than your Prime Minister. Not only is he younger, he is almost unused, while your Prime Minister has been through hell on earth. Nonetheless, though your man is considerably older and has had very rough use, we are willing to accept him in what we are sure you will consider a very fair swap.

We are sure our man would please your citizens. He is charming, and, if he has a Teleprompter, is absolutely unexcelled in public communication.

Now, if you have reservations considering the comparative value of these two leaders, we are prepared to sweeten the deal by offering you 34 Czars. We cannot guarantee their honesty and/or integrity, but we are confident you will find some use for them (we have none).

If you are not ready to jump at this fantastic offer (and we are confident you are champing at the bit at the very thought), we could throw about 100 or so Senators into the deal. Actually, we have a goodly number of House members we could spare (possibly as many as 435) if you are still hesitant.

All in all, Gentlemen and Ladies of Israel, we are prepared to begin negotiations at your earliest convenience.

We anxiously await your response.

Most cordially, responsible citizens of the United States

Muriel Sluyter

National Healthcare: Another Pipe Dream That Will Break the Bank

2009-09-01T20:40:00.003-06:00

Gentle Reader,

As I unwound my buck for the umpteenth time, I told him he should be required to get a license to be this stupid! That’s when it dawned on me that our Representatives and Senators need to be given precisely the same message. They should have to buy a license permitting them to be this stupid! That way we voters could rescind their license when they act like arrogant idiots–as they will–automatically kicking them out of Congress!

Udall says they will be able to pass national healthcare without votes from the other side of the aisle. Even though they are being vociferously upbraided by those very voters who put them into office, he and many other Reps are determined to defy constituents’ wishes.

At present 57% of Americans think all Reps and Senators should be voted out of office, but politicians aren’t worried. Why? Because they think we won’t act on our convictions. So, I have a plan: Let’s send everyone of them a letter informing them that, due to their regularly exhibited lack of the most minimal intelligence and integrity, they will, as of this date, be required to purchase a license permitting them to behave like both village idiots and members of a criminal enterprise.

Then in November, 2010, we kick them out on their crooked rears! Two years later, we do it again! Then we do it one more time!

They will hate it, but we will love it! Why? Because by mid-November, 2014, we will have one humble bunch of Reps and Senators. We will have kicked out everyone who has treated us with contempt, everyone who has voted for bills they knew we voters neither wanted nor could afford.

Do I owe my buck a consulting fee? Nah. I’ll just call Senator. He’s almost as dumb as they are. Not quite, but almost!

Muriel Sluyter

Tea Party Movement in the News

2009-07-03T08:50:00.000-06:00

We've had some great coverage from both the national and local newspapers ... remember, tomorrow is the day:

Lakeridge Junior High Football Field
951 South 400 West
Orem, UT

Details at Patriot's Day Tea Party blog.

Washington Times
Time for a Tea Party
A Drive to Restore Fiscal Sanity and true division of powers

by Candace E. Salima
Friday - July 3, 2009

Americans citizens have had enough already. The course the nation's government has taken over the past few decades has slowly slid away from the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.

The executive, legislative and judicial branches are running roughshod over the American people. It was only a matter of time before the American spirit rose up to fight against the rogue federal government; the T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) movement grew out of that vital American spirit. -- Read More

- and -

Washington Times
Editorial: July 4 Tea Parties
Protesting Big Government on July 4th

by James S. Rollins
Friday - July 3, 2009

The tea party movement has become more than a one-time tax protest. The grass-roots political crusade is growing and expanding. As "tea party" organizer Candace E. Salima notes on our facing page, more than 1,300 parties are scheduled nationwide to mark the Fourth of July. This popular uprising against oppressive big government is in the best tradition of the American independence movement that we are celebrating this weekend.

The tea parties are a genuine expression of the American democratic spirit. The April round of tea parties - held to protest tax day - was studiously ignored by President Obama and ridiculed by liberal critics, no doubt in hopes the movement would go away. But the party keeps on rolling. -- Read More

- and -

Daily Herald
Conservatives throwing July 4 Tea Party in Orem

by Michael Rigert
Thursday - July 2, 2009

OREM -- They might not have much of a use for tea cups and saucers, but conservatives from Utah County and around the state are gathering Saturday to celebrate the nation's birthday and to hold a rally aimed at taking back America from what they say is a federal government gone amok.

Orem resident and politico Candace Salima said she organized the Patriot's Day Fourth of July Tea Party in response to President Barack Obama's federal spending spree and his and a Democratic-controlled Congress's attack on citizens' rights. -- Read More

It's Time for a Tea Party

2009-06-30T09:20:00.003-06:00

From my daughter:

This Saturday is July 4th, America's Birthday. The Patriot's Day Tea Party is a gathering of Americans from all walks of life, from all parties, all organizations, all with one goal...the restoration of the Republic and the Constitution reinstated as the rule of law. We are speaking up for America. Americans uniting in a single voice in defense of our nation.

Yes, we have great speakers, great music, great food and fun planned for this tea party. But at its heart is the desire of each person attending to restore America to her full glory. May I issue each of you a solemn promise: America will not fall. We can and will save her. But it will take each of us talking to family, friends, neighbors and peers, encouraging them to stand up for truth, stand up for America.

This Saturday, those attending the Orem tea party will be joining over 1,331 other tea parties and millions of Americans across the nation as we unite in this great cause. As I have stated over and over, there is no greater way to celebrate the birth of America by fighting for our liberty and our Constitution on our Independence Day.

Have a wonderful week everyone. See you on Saturday, 10:00 a.m. sharp!

Lakeridge Junior High Football Field
951 South 400 West
Orem, UT
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Park in the UVU (Utah Valley University) parking lots H & J right across the street (behind the trees).

The parking lot to the north of Lakeridge Junior High is reserved for the disabled and elderly who are limited in their physical capabilities.

Remember that Rubios, Wallabys, Hot Dog King, Flour Girls & Dough Boys as well as SubZero Ice Cream will all be there selling food.

Also, Veterans of Foreign Wars will be selling drinks, the proceeds of which will go to the Veterans Administration in order to purchase a van to transport soldiers and veterans to and from their appointments.

I look forward to seeing you all there. Join us in the morning and early afternoon and then you're off for family celebrations and Freedom Festival festivities.

Speakers: Candace E. Salima, AG Mark Shurtleff, Rep. Brad Daw, Jean-Claude Wicks, Scott Bishop, Jennifer Kindrick, Doug Osmond, Denise (Letters to Soldiers), Sgt. Kraig A. Thorne

Musicians: Shaun Barrowes, Doug Osmond, Jill Camp Swensen, Drew Reese, Heather Andrews, Angela Winston and the One Voice Children's Choir

May God bless each of you and America,
Candace E. Salima

More details at: Tea Party Utah Blog
Facebook Event: Patriot Day July 4th Tea Party - Orem

Universal Healthcare, Huh?

2009-04-12T10:51:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Every Christmas we watch "White Christmas" at least once. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye do a number called, "Oh! I wish I were back in the Army." One line goes this way: "The best of doctors watched us carefully." Every time I hear that line I crack up laughing. I know the guys were cared for, and I think it may be even better today, but universal medical care, as they have in the service, doesn’t include "watching carefully."

Let’s examine this thing called "universal healthcare." We are hearing much about it from the new administration. It sounds great! Affordable medical care for everyone! Wow! Who could argue with that? The answer? Anyone who has experienced it. Why? Because it works very badly. Want an explanation? I thought you’d never ask!

Okay. All joking aside, it really doesn’t work well at all, as anyone who has been involved in it can explain. Since my children and I were military defendants for several years, they and I had plenty of time to see it from the inside out.

Those years were during my youth, back when I was still having my children. The rules said you had to make an appointment by a certain time of your pregnancy, because they had to get you on the schedule for the baby’s delivery, so they would not be too backed up by other mothers due to deliver all at the same time.

It is important to know that the bulk of the military dependent women were young wives, almost all of whom were having their families during that time of their lives. That, all by itself, created the same conditions that exist in today’s clinics, designed to provide universal medical care. Both Canadian and English residents can attest to the results of those conditions.

Many of the military doctors were interns, who had recently graduated from medical school. Back then, all men were required to serve in the military during their youth. If they didn’t enlist, they would be drafted into the Army, so many chose to enlist in the Marine Corps, Navy or Air Force, rather than the Army. This meant many doctors were still young and relatively inexperienced compared to civilian doctors, who often had decades of experience under their belts. It was not unusual to have complications that increased the chance of danger to either the mother or baby. If there was an older, more experienced doctor on duty, you were in luck. If not, you simply took your and your baby’s chances with the young doctor. You had no choice. If he made no mistakes, all was well. Sometimes he did make mistakes.

When your new baby was six weeks old, you were required to take it to a "well baby clinic." It was universally assumed that your baby would come down with a cold the next day. Why? Because you had to sit for hours in a crowded room with what seemed to be thousands of other babies, some of whom had colds. There really were not thousands, but it was usual to have several dozens of mothers and babies, many of whom were accompanied by older siblings. It truly seemed like thousands.

During the winter, getting a cold increased your baby’s chance of getting pneumonia. If the young mother realized what was happening and caught it in time, and if the baby responded to the antibiotics, the baby recovered. If she did not, or if the baby didn’t respond to the medicine, the consequences could be fatal. Why? Because with universal healthcare, you have to follow the schedule of the clinic, which told you what, when and how.

It became the norm for a mother to wait until the baby/child was definitely sick , before going to the clinic, because if he was not really sick when he was taken to the clinic, the attention he got would be scant and hurried. Unfortunately, waiting for a child to get really sick is a recipe for a potential disaster. A sickness caught early is much easier to treat than one that has had time to get past the child’s defenses and become entrenched in his little body.

The quality of prenatal care in the military was such that I learned to wait until I was a few months along, rather than going in when I was supposed to do. That way, I was told the delivery date schedule was full, and I must arrange to be treated by a civilian doctor. I learned the hard way that an experienced older doctor would not give me a prenatal exam until I was far enough along that it would not cause a miscarriage, which had happened several times. The military clinic followed a schedule designed for the mass of women, ignoring the special needs of problem pregnancies.

This is just the tip of the universal healthcare iceberg. It goes straight downhill from there. My first daughter came within a hair of dying because of a careless and grossly incorrect diagnosis by doctors who were required to treat indigent citizens. Unfortunately, many doctors are less diligent with those who are not paying patients. It is a fact of life, and it accomplishes nothing to deny it. They often must care for people who are destroying their own health with disgustingly destructive types of behavior, and some of them react in a fashion that is all too human.

In both of these circumstances, whether with military or civilian universal healthcare, the quality of care is too often questionable. The doctors and nurses are overworked, because people who do not have to pay for care tend to come in more often than they would if they had to turn over hard cash every time they saw a doctor. The result is a doctor having to spend time on someone who doesn’t feel well, instead of spending it on a patient who is genuinely sick. The genuinely sick patient needs more time than the doctor has to spend, while the "doesn’t feel well" patient uses up time without legitimate cause. Why? Because the care is free or close to it.

Universal healthcare sounds great, but it isn’t. Don’t be tricked. If you can afford to pay the doctor, you will be given much better care when you truly need it. And if it’s any comfort, before the government got involved in medicare for the elderly, a doctor’s visit cost five dollars. From the time medicare began, healthcare began a rapid climb, until now, it’s through the roof, as everyone knows.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

To the Editor:

2009-03-08T09:02:00.002-06:00

To the Editor
Cortez Journal Newspaper

The charge that Republicans want to see Obama and our country fail is a red herring designed to distract the citizenry from his administration’s unconscionably irresponsible handling of the economy.

Obama decried the proliferation of earmarks and the deficit spending of the Bush administration. Now that he is doing precisely the same thing, only on a vastly greater scale, he wants to keep Americans distracted, hence this flap over Rush Limbaugh.

Anyone who heard Limbaugh’s statement (and it has been played repeatedly all over the country) knows he said, specifically, that he wanted Obama to fail to establish socialism in this country.

Since approximately half our citizens agree that European-style socialism would be detrimental to our national welfare, it is the height of foolishness to pretend they are traitors. This is especially so since Obama’s margin of support among the citizenry is not only narrow, but tenuous.

Voters who can count and have any understanding of compound interest know not even our grandchildren will be able to repay this vote-buying, supporter-rewarding, citizen-controlling spending gusher. Additionally, he is compounding the approaching disaster by raising taxes on America’s hardest-workers, in order to "spread the wealth around."

He is avoiding any mention of the national bankruptcy waiting in the wings if China, Japan and Arab countries stop buying our paper, and the danger of that is real.

Those of us who were furious about Bush’s bailouts and deficit spending are aghast at Obama’s doing precisely the same thing, only worse. Additionally, most Americans are too smart to fall for his attempt to draw attention from his actions by generating this preposterous Limbaugh fabrication.

Do Republicans want Obama to fail? If his intention is to turn us into a European-style socialist nanny state, for my part, the answer is a resounding "Yes!"

Muriel Sluyter

Stimulus?

2009-02-13T11:33:00.001-07:00

Greetings Gentle Reader,

This stimulus package–and I use the word stimulus loosely–is loaded with garbage, because it’s authors needed decoys. When we citizens scream loudly enough, the politicians "reluctantly" take out something they put in as a decoy. That way we don’t realize they are going to end up with everything they really wanted, all along.

They have put so many decoys in front of their real programs that we could scream for weeks and never get rid of the "toxic" spending they intend to keep. The stuff they will have left is so destructive our economy, indeed our culture, never will recover. We cannot repay the trillions to which they are obligating us, and the programs those trillions finance will change our culture forever, and not for the good.

If I overdraft my budget by $1,000, spending an additional $2,000 is not going to solve my bankruptcy problems.

If I borrow money from Daddy to buy a new car (with interest added), then I borrow from my violent Auntie to repay Daddy (with interest added), then I borrow from my axe-murderer Uncle to repay Auntie (with interest added), I am now indebted to deadly-dangerous people. Soon, they will call in those debts, and I won’t be able to pay. Then what? I will have to pay the price of bankruptcy, and if I am lucky, they won’t slice and dice me in the bargain. What part of borrowing from people who want to harm us does our government not understand?

The only thing that works for an individual (or a government) is responsible money management. We’re getting none of that in this package. It’s nothing but a spoiled child’s wish list and an open manifestation of that child’s malignant desire to control his siblings. (For "child" read Congress and the President.)

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Speaking Softly Requires Carrying a Big Stick

2009-01-06T13:10:00.001-07:00

Gentle Reader,

As I opened the steel gates and entered the area where the dairy goats reside, the buck decided to challenge me. He did that odd thing bucks do; he reared up high, standing almost straight upright, then came down on his front feet in a feint, as though he was going to butt me.

Now, I could have dropped to my knees and begged him not to hurt me, but, if I had done that, he would have immediately proceeded to wipe the floor with me. Instead of being conciliatory, I yelled at him, jumped toward him, and told him in no uncertain terms what I would do to him if he so much as tried to attack me. Though he is faster than I, stronger than I, and outweighs me by a lot of pounds of hefty muscle, he promptly turned and ran away.

This little exercise in barnyard psychology applies to people as well as animals. If a group of terrorists threaten us, or attempt to attack us, or successfully attack us, we could drop to our collective knees and beg them not to hurt us, but it would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. That would guarantee not only an attack, but a probable attempt to annihilate us as a country and as a people.

The only thing that works, whether with animals or animalistic people is to make sure they pay a staggering price for their actions, and in addition, make sure they know that the price they will pay for any future aggression is annihilation.

Talking is fine. It makes some people feel exceptionally important to let them talk, but, when dealing with vicious animals or people, it is invariably counterproductive. Why? Because it gives an aggressor a power-rush. They know they have won a round, and they are eager to try for another win.

Let us hope that will not be the philosophy of our new President, because if it is, we are in for a rough four years.

Is He or Isn't He?

2008-12-01T22:02:00.003-07:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

In all my years I have never heard of a candidate for President of the United States failing to produce a legitimate birth certificate. Why would anyone do such as astonishing thing?

Supreme Court Justice Souter has given Barack Obama until December 1st to produce an authentic birth certificate, so he legally can be sworn in as President. It is impossible for me to say whether the birth certificate he has shown online has, indeed, been visibly altered, as it has been reported. I’ve never seen it, and I am surely no expert, but if he has no problem producing a legitimate birth certificate, why has it not yet happened?

It makes no sense to me that his paternal grandmother would have produced a tape in which she stated that, not only was he born in Kenya, but that she was in the delivery room when it happened, unless it is true.

When Obama went to school in Indonesia, where only Indonesian citizens could attend, he was registered as Barry Soetoro, Indonesian citizen.

Many decent Americans have become so neurotic about being called racist, that they would rather have a President, whom they know is foreign-born, and therefore ineligible to be President, than to pursue this issue, because of the risk of being tagged a racist, but it is imperative that this be thoroughly explored. Can you imagine what a stink there would be if he were sworn in as President, only to be proven ineligible, when all the leads have been followed and examined? It is such a horrifying thought that I am overwhelmed by the possibility.

If Joe Biden is correct in saying that Obama will be tested by some power, what would happen if it was discovered that he had no authority to deal with either that power or the attack, whatever it is? One cannot help thinking it might be a terrorist attack, such as the one on the World Trade Center. That was so terrible that we desperately needed a strong, stable President to take charge and deal with the aftermath. Fortunately, we had President Bush and he did precisely that. But he was the legitimate President of the United States. What would we have done if we had been in a situation where we actually had no legal President?

Either this guy is legit or he isn’t, and we citizens have a right to find out without any further delay, because the Electoral College is due to convene on the 15th of this month to confirm him as the new President of the United States of America.

Time’s a wastin’ guys. Let’s get on with it!

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Thanksgiving is For Giving Thanks

2008-11-26T21:22:00.001-07:00

Greeting, Gentle Readers,

Thanksgiving Day is often referred to as "turkey day", now. I had never heard it called that until somewhere in the 1980s. Now I hear it all the time.

When my husband heard it called that, he told me how much it hurt him. He was one of those who spent World War II in Europe. He was only a small child when the war started, but he lived in Amsterdam, Holland, and the Germans roared into that city on May 5, 1940. He says he was awakened in the wee hours of that day by the roar of German tanks, as they took over Holland.

That war was a horrifying experience for a young child. He was completely dependent on his mother, since the Dutch men began to be taken captive right away. Any man who fought back was shot, immediately. If anyone took part in any resistance, all the men left in that block of houses were brought downstairs at gun point, lined up against the wall of the building, and machine-gunned down. That tactic worked most successfully to keep the populace docile.
By the time the war was over, those who had not starved to death were, nonetheless, so badly starved it took the Red Cross about six weeks to get individuals to be able eat food, without dying from the simple act of eating.

During the war, especially toward the end, the starvation was so ubiquitous that every morning a flat-bed, horse-drawn wagon came through the streets of Amsterdam, and the people would carry their dead down the stairs of the apartment buildings to be carried away for burial.
When my husband was 21 he came to America. He was so overwhelmed by the degree of freedom we, and now he, enjoyed in this country that Thanksgiving Day was a truly sacred day to him.

The first time he heard it referred to as "turkey day", he was horrified. He couldn’t believe so many of our people had come to recognize and revere their freedom so little, that they would call this day, which was so important to him, anything but Thanksgiving Day.

When he died, I suspect one of his first acts was to visit the founding fathers of this nation and express his deeply-held gratitude for the gift of freedom he had found in this country. He probably spent time with my several ancestors who fought to make this country what it came to be, letting them know how he valued their struggles and sacrifices.

Now, if only those of us left here could come to recognize what an aberration our freedom is in this nasty old world. Perhaps, the only ones of us who can truly do so are those who have served in our armed forces, and especially those who have seen combat.

There is one thing I would love to see, and that is for our people to express their gratitude for their freedom to those who have fought for that freedom. Those who have done so have seen how life really is in the nastier places on this tired old planet. They have seen the viciousness to which a great deal of the inhabitants of this globe are subjected every day of their lives.

Please. This Thanksgiving Day, if you see anyone who has served, thank them. They deserve that and more, but anyone of us can do that much. Next, please thank the God we worship for this gift. That is what the term "thanksgiving" really meant. It was not meant as thanksgiving to anyone else, even the Indians who helped the pilgrims. Only our God can preserve our freedom. No other force on this earth can do so, so lets remember just what this day is really all about.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

What is our President's Job

2008-11-19T13:53:00.001-07:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Perhaps all Americans saw and heard the woman who ecstatically exulted that she would no longer have to worry about putting gas in her car or paying her mortgage. Why? Because Obama had been elected President of this country. She said if they took care of him–meaning if they elected him–he would take care of them.

Is it our President’s job to put gas in the cars and pay the mortgages of his constituents? I don’t remember being taught that in school. In fact, it says nothing about that in my copy of our Constitution. It talks about his providing for the common defense and general welfare of the citizenry, but I can’t find anything about gas in cars and paying mortgages.

So, how did this weird reading of the President’s job come to pass? It may have been a result of his telling people who don’t pay any taxes that they were going to get a tax cut, which, subsequently, has been correctly defined as a welfare check. Then, again, it may have been something they were explicitly told by those trying to get him elected.

It is impossible for someone, who was not where that lady was at the time she learned that he would give them money–provided they elected him–to really know how this reading of his intentions was communicated. Were they actually told he would give them money, if they elected him? We will never know, because no one is going to spill the beans.

Is it correct and proper for Americans to elect a President, in order to get money on which to live from day to day? No. It is not. It is the President’s job to keep the country safe and keep all government departments functioning as well as possible, but to allow people to think they will get money if they elect him is tantamount to bribery, and bribery is very illegal.

It is past time for Americans to return to the level of honor most of us were taught as children. Honor and/or dishonor is a step higher than legal and/or illegal. Legal refers to how people behave when others are watching. Honor refers to how people behave when no one is watching but God and their own conscience. It means giving back the extra change accidentally given you by a young, inexperienced clerk, even though no one but you knew a mistake had been made.

Many years ago my children and I were left alone and destitute. I applied for welfare and got it. Soon, I was able to get a job that supported us, but I did not cancel the welfare we were receiving. Instead, I just put the checks in my purse and left them there, that way we continued to have health care. At the end of that year, I was called into the welfare office and told I would have to pay back a goodly portion of the money we had received, since I was now making enough to support us. I pulled those checks out of my purse and gave them to the lady, telling her I had not cashed them because we did not need them. She looked at them in astonishment. Then she realized some of them were more than six months old, and she absentmindedly said they were not good anymore. Then she told me not to worry about it; she would take care of it, and she did. I never heard another word about having to pay back money.

She had not been used to people living by a standard of honor that said the American people should not have to support those who could support themselves. She knew we were still dirt-poor, but were getting by. That was close enough for us; we were perfectly happy to scrape by, just barely, and she had no intention of allowing a technicality to harm us.

It is still true that Americans should get by without government handouts, if it is possible for them to keep food on the table, and I am not referring to take-out food bought at a fast-food place.

No, our Presidents are not our financial keepers. It is not their job. It is up to us to work hard enough to support ourselves. Nor is it proper for union members making staggeringly high hourly wages to refuse to live on the level of wages the common everyday American receives, if their company goes broke. Incidentally, many companies go broke precisely because their unionized workers demand salaries and benefits that the company cannot truly afford to pay.
No. The new President is not going to take money from working Americans to put gas in that woman’s car, nor to pay her mortgage, nor should she think such a thing is proper, because it isn’t.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Be Source Critical

2008-11-14T21:46:00.001-07:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

As a man discussed the problem of teens being more inclined to take advice from their friends than from their parents, he said they must be taught to be "source critical."

As I thought of this, I realized that a member of our family had done precisely that. He had trusted his friends advice more than that of his parents, and the cost was incalculable. His friends had told him his parents didn’t know what they were talking about, when they warned him of the dangers of using drugs. But his parents had been right, and acting on his friends advice cost him decades of extreme drug addiction, a stretch of time in a penitentiary, his family and his health.

To use the words of the speaker, he had definitely not been source critical, when he had chosen to accept advice from his friends, rather than his parents.

The speaker also addressed the ripple effect of accepting advice, whether bad or good. As I think of our children who followed our advice, they have made happy, fulfilling lives for themselves. They have become a positive force in this world, and a tremendous blessing to themselves and the families they have created. The ripple effect has been a reward to all involved.

As I look at famous people, some in Hollywood, some in real life, I realize the ripple effect caused by their behavior goes on and on. If they behave in a destructive manner, the damage continues down through the generations. Their children are more self-destructive than they are, and it gets worse with each generation.

If they are solid citizens, living in a responsible manner, their families tend to be the same. Not all of them, but many.

One cannot help thinking their children developed positively by being "source critical" as they sought advice. As they grew and developed, they made sure their freedom to choose the behavior that suited them did not lead them into self-destructive paths, by being careful when choosing their advisors.

For many young people in this modern day, the power of self-determination is a burden their lack of mature wisdom cannot handle. They lunge from one self-destructive behavior to another, and the ripple effect almost guarantees the next generation will do the same.

We parents and grandparents hurt when our offspring hurt themselves and others, but the only power we truly have is the power of persuasion. If it were not for that and the power of our love, we would have no way to stand between our loved ones and potential self-destruction. Fortunately for us, with most of our offspring, we are the source to which they turn for wisdom, especially if we have been successful in teaching them to be source critical when seeking that wisdom.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Activist Judges

2008-11-09T07:28:00.001-07:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

When activists want to change laws, but haven’t a chance, they turn to activist judges, who do their dirty work for them. That is what has happened in three states, Massachusetts, California, and now, Connecticut. In each of these states, courts have struck down laws confining marriage to a man and a woman, and have made marriage legal between two women or two men.

The citizens of California have overturned that court ruling and have, if we understand correctly, returned to the original law, permanently. They put it in their constitution, which should keep the courts from having the power to override.

Too bad I don’t have much faith in their success. Somehow, I think the activists will find a way to get around the will of the people.

So, what is our job? Let’s not wimp out! The citizens of California have shown us the way. They have paid the price, and they won. We must do the same from one day to the next, in one circumstance or the next. While it won’t always be easy, that is our task. When we are convinced something is right, we must be willing to fight for it. If we are short on money, as many of us are, we can write letters to the editor, we can get online and talk to all who will listen.

Most of us have friends, who have friends, who have friends, etc. Personal contact is the most successful way of fighting a cause.

We have entered into a particularly tricky time in our country’s existence. We have some politicians who do dumb things and cause terrible problems. Then we have others who deliberately work to overthrow the will of the citizens, as happened in California.

We live in the one country on this earth that allows its citizens to overrule their government, by passing laws to protect their own interests. So, what is our weak point? Those citizens who should be working to pass laws to protect our interests. Huh?

It’s this way: Too many of our people allow themselves to be manipulated by organizations and individuals who definitely do not have their best interests at heart. It is easy for such types to misrepresent their goals. All they really have to do is convince us they are our good buddies and want only the best for us. They tell a good story, but if we are alert and watchful, we can see through them and circumvent their devious machinations by working with other like-minded people, especially those who are real experts at seeing through these types and their tricky games.

Let’s gird up our loins and diligently watch our elected officials and others who just might not care about our wishes, especially if our wishes are contrary to their wishes. Somebody has to be the grownup in this old world of ours, and I vote that we take on the job!

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Them as Works Eats

2008-11-03T09:15:00.002-07:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

When Brigham Young used this saying, he was simply repeating it. He had most likely heard it from birth. It was a common attitude in the earlier years of our country’s existence.

The difference between America and the countries of the old world was that, in America, if a person worked, he could earn enough to eat. That was not the case in the countries our ancestors left, when they came to this land. Only in America could you truly benefit from your own labor.
While this was not universally true, particularly where slaves were concerned in the early years, it was a more correct principle in America than in any other country. When most men married, they made sure they had a way to feed, clothe and house a wife and the children they assumed, indeed hoped, would be born to them. And they knew that "them as works eats."

My ancestors, most of whom were weavers, farmers or ranchers, depending on the family background, usually grew their own food, which is called engaging in "labor of first intent," meaning they grew or raised what they ate, rather than simply working for money with which to buy their food from someone else. When you work for money with which you then purchase your necessities, that is called "labor of second intent."

Somehow, that business of growing your own food by your own hard labor and by the sweat of your own brow makes you understand the outrage experienced by all farmers and hard laborers in whatever field, who are told they must give the fruit of their labors to others, who do not work as hard or as long as they do. I get up and go to the barn at about 6:00 in the morning, to start my morning chores. When the weather is great and the sun is peeking over the eastern mountains, I go to the barn at 6:00 AM. When the weather is horrendous and that chicken-hearted sun is still shivering under the covers, I go to the barn at 6:00 AM. Why? Because my sense of integrity tells me that "them as works eats." More to the point, "them as works have every right to eat."

I have a heated milking room and my chickens have a warm, lighted sleeping room, but my ancestors, including my own father, went to the unheated milking shed at about 5:00 AM, no matter how awful the weather. Why? His wife and little ones needed milk, whether for butter, cheese, or just for drinking. Then he went to work at his job to earn money for the rest of our needs. When he got home in the evening, the cow was waiting, and not at all patiently.
He raised a calf from that cow, regularly. Then he raised sheep and pigs. Why? Because he knew that we needed meat.

Never once did I hear him say that the government owed him a living. In fact, he regularly expressed his disdain for those who did think the government owed them a living.
When the older members of the family could no longer raise most of their own food, their offspring provided for them. That is the way America used to operate, and in the Amish communities, that still is how it is done.

Too bad the biggest portion of our people don’t think that way, anymore. Many of our people are waiting, in this election cycle, to decide for whom they should vote, according to the number of goodies the candidates promise. The guy who promises the most will get their vote.
There is a serious lack of a sense of fair play in that attitude. Why? Because they are not waiting to see which candidate will work hard to make available the largest number of jobs, by his monetary and regulatory policies. Many of them aren’t looking for jobs; they are looking for freebies, because they have been trained to think that is perfectly acceptable. And those freebies have to come by someone else working to provide them, someone who actually has a right to keep the money used to provide those freebies, for his own family, rather than for strangers, many of whom could provide many of their needs for themselves, if they chose.

All Americans should have a code of honor that says no one should forcibly take the fruits of one man’s hard labor and give it to another. Those who work hard to provide for their own and their family’s needs learn the meaning of, and the satisfying feeling that goes with, developing personal honor. It just feels good.

Best of all, we simply would be a much more fair people, a people of greater personal integrity, if we remembered that "Them as works eats."

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

What is Important?

2008-10-31T12:17:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

With the great uncertainty families face in today's economy, it can be well understood why many have allowed themselves to be caught up in despair and sorrow. We have one of the most divisive presidential elections in our nation's history, the economy is failing and people are losing their homes, businesses and jobs. This could easily be a time where Americans could be mired down in the negatives and forget what we really should be concentrating on.

Our prophets have counseled us for ages to prepare for the future. They've urged us to prepare for all types of economic downturn, whether they be the byproduct of natural disasters or man-made? Many have listened and many have not. If you have been unable to get food storage and a preparedness plan in place, it is my recommendation you begin by purchasing Preparedness Principles by Barbara Salsbury, one of the foremost experts on preparedness, both disaster and provident, in the nation.

With all that being said, let's take a moment and focus on what is really important today. God and family.

Do you take time to sit down to the dinner table with your family and night? Do you visit, laugh, talk and catch up as you eat, or is the evening meal endured in sullen or distracted silence?

When was the last time you got up on Saturday morning, rousted the kids out of bed and took them outside and worked with them side by side?

When was the last time you gathered your family together and read to them in the evenings from the scriptures? When was the last time you read a book together as a family? Just a chapter a night before you start your scripture reading.

When was the last time you made sure that your family did not begin their day without prayer and end it, gathered together, the same way?

This is what is important. Gordon B. Hinckley, many years ago, spoke of four things which woud effect a change in society within a generation or two. I have just listed them for you:

Pray with your families.
Teach goodness to your children.
Read good books together.
Teach your children a good, solid work ethic.

These four simple things implemented into family life will turn society around within a generation or two. That is no small thing?

And so I ask you to not focus on all the chaos going on around us right now and stop, assess your families as they function right now and ask yourselves, are you doing these four things?

May I suggest, with all the humility and love for my fellowman in my heart, that you begin to follow this wise counsel. You will find happiness in the smallest acts. Joy in the laughter of your family. Peace in the quiet stillness of the house as family prayer finishes and you hear "Goodnight, Mom and Goodnight, Dad" as your children disappear into their rooms at the close of day. And at that moment, when the house settles down and you are sitting there quietly on the couch, that is when you bow your head in gratitude and love to your Father in Heaven for trusting you with your precious children and spouse.

That, my friends, is what is most important.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Why Are We Different?

2008-10-24T20:48:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

What does America have that makes it different from other countries? We have good weather. So do most of the other countries around the world. We have beautiful views. So do other countries. We have some really good people and some really bad people. So do other countries. So what’s the big deal?

More and more Americans are being taught to think that America is not an exceptional country. We even have large numbers of college students who are being taught that we are a bad country. They are being taught that Marxism and Communism, for instance, are superior system of government to the one we are guaranteed in our Constitution.

They are being taught that America is a racist country, where minorities are oppressed and abused. They are being taught that their country is selfish, though no other country on earth gives to others, especially in catastrophes, as ours does. They are being taught that we abuse the people of other countries. They are, in fact, being taught to hate the land of their nativity. Why?

I cannot explain evil. I can’t comprehend it, and I can’t explain it. My generation was taught to honor our country, to revere those who died to create it, as we did those who died in subsequent wars defending it and us. We celebrated all the special days that had to do with being American. That changed in the 60s, and this is how it happened:

About 20 or so years ago, a man who had been a revolutionary, a devout Communist, one who belonged to a radical group that tried to take our government down, wrote a book explaining the thinking of those with whom he had been associated.

He said that when their leader realized they would not be able to destroy the government, he instructed them to go into the colleges, high schools and junior highs and begin to teach the rising generation to think as they did. They tended to be well educated, often in Ivy League colleges (these people were neither poor nor mistreated), so it was easy for them to follow his instructions.

Today, we see the results of their efforts, and those results are not good. We have judges who make decisions that would have made our forefathers grab their muskets and go to war. Our kids have been hauled off to jail for praying. Workers can and have been fired for wearing a flag pin or a cross. The Ten Commandments plaques are being removed from our parks. The attempt to take Christ out of Christmas is ongoing. Our college kids can tell you what a great guy the ruthless, truly monstrous murderer Che Guavara was, but they don’t know all that much about the founding fathers, except maybe some scandalous behavior in which they were supposed to have indulged.

In a Boulder, CO, high school, kids were taught in a mandatory assembly that sex of any type was perfectly alright for them to experiment with, as was drug use. When some of the kids reported the outrage to their parents, both the kids and their parents were excoriated. Why? Because all educated people knew these behaviors were perfectly acceptable, and surely no one could disagree with that, unless they were knuckle-dragging neanderthals, and, oh yes, Christians, which is worst of all.

The result of this indoctrination is a wave of crime of every conceivable type, children being exploited or even killed, families being deserted by both fathers and mothers. We have a level of drug use that threatens our country’s sovereignty. We even have openly unpatriotic leaders of all types.

All of this, sadly, is part of the reason why Sarah Palin is being attacked so venomously. She is unabashedly good, and yes, Christian. In today’s world her goodness is viewed as both suspect and repulsive. The fact that she and her husband refused to kill their baby is considered unforgivable. The only thing more unforgivable is her Christianity.

Parents, we must inoculate our children against this type of indoctrination, by teaching them to be proud of their country, to revere the good in our people, and to work to overcome the bad. College kids tend to idealistic, so let’s teach them about all the good their country and its people have done over the centuries, and how they can take part in such activities, themselves. Let’s not be shy or humble about it.

We have so much to be grateful for in this country, but our children will not know it unless we make a point of looking for it and sharing it with them and their friends. Let’s go out of our way to keep them from harmful teachers. They are out there, but we don’t have to let them indoctrinate our children.

We can remind our young of the sacrifices made by both the noble and the common people of this land. We have so much to tell them, and time’s a wastin!" Let’s do it!

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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How Did This Mess Get Started?

2008-10-21T10:13:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Our financial situation in this country has become downright dangerous for some of our people. Though we almost (but not quite) understand where we are now, how did we get there? It seems to have happened this way: Politicians in very high places got involved in some things they did not understand and started a destructive ball rolling down a pretty steep hill. As it rolled, it pick up a little bit of financial this and a little bit of financial that. By the time it hit the bottom, it had become wrapped up in a staggering percentage of most of the world’s economy.

Let’s begin at the beginning, a very good place to start, to quote a delightful song: During the Clinton presidency, there arose a tremendous political outcry against mortgage lenders who seemingly discriminated against minorities. Minorities were denied loans more often that whites. Instead of analyzing the data to find the reason for the denials, newspapers trumpeted their own interpretations of the problem: racial discrimination. When I say trumpeted, I really mean trumpeted. They raised a stink that rose to the skies. They continually abused lenders, never letting up.

In 1992 the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston did some statistical analysis, which turned out to be based on data that was ridiculously inaccurate. It’s not that they could not have done a better job of getting the data; it’s just that for some weird reason they did not. (It almost seems as though they didn’t want to get the real facts.) The result was a declaration of verifiable racial discrimination. When challenged, the bank refused to accept the factual data, which showed it’s declaration was in error.

Then the same Boston bank produced new standards for lenders. They said special care should be taken to insure that standards were such that "urban, lower-income, and non-traditional consumers" could buy houses. That started the ball rolling that turned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into buyers of loans made to people who either could not or would not pay their mortgage. That was just the first step. It goes down hill from here.

The Clinton White House wanted everyone to own their own homes, then Bush followed suit. The ownership society became all the rage, even though too many of those buyers should never have been given mortgages.

Then just to sweeten the pot, "prime borrowers" began buying and selling houses as a business. It became known as "flipping." They were buying them with as little down as possible and with the lowest adjustable rate mortgages they could get.

House values were being inflated so rapidly by the tremendous increase in demand caused by the easier-to-get mortgages, that builders were putting up new houses at an incredible pace and in huge volumes, creating a monstrous housing bubble. The more houses were sold, the higher the prices climbed. Then the housing bubble popped, and values began to come down. Now those who had bought and sold houses as a business couldn’t sell at those inflated prices. They had to pay mortgages on houses that were hugely overpriced, and then to make it worse, the interest rates began to reset.

Let’s say a person had bought ten monster houses with low down payments and with mortgages that reset to an interest rate that made the monthly payments out of sight. Then with the crash in home sales, these buyers were stuck with them. Those were actually prime mortgages, not subprime, but they began going into default in large numbers. Actually their numbers were 69% for prime mortgages, as opposed to 39% for subprime mortgages going into default.

This all came about because banks were pressured into making loans to buyers who could not pay them. It started with subprime and moved to prime. I guess it was a case of "what’s good for the goose is good for the gander." Unfortunately, it also seems to have been a case of "what goes up must come down." That’s a natural law, and should never be ignored.

Much of this came about because politicians stuck their noses into something they didn’t understand, and at least some of them did it for political gain. That is a common and incurable disease afflicting politicians, but the public should always be on guard against such political stupidity, refusing to be roped into the destructive messes politicians create.

Now we are being told this all came about because of subprime mortgages, sold by greedy lenders to make a quick buck. Wrong. The subprime mortgages came about because of idiot politicians pretending, not believing, just pretending, the denials of mortgages were all caused by racial discrimination.

Now the whole world is taking a financial hit as a result. This is going to get nasty.

Do you suppose it is too much to ask that we get a president and some senators and congressmen who are not phonies? How about just a garden-variety person with no hidden agendas? Do they make those anymore?

In the meantime, we had better do all we can to get the most honest, straightforward politicians out there. And, yes, some are more honest than others. We just have to look at their past actions and companions, so we can make a good guess about their future actions and companions.

Now the buck has stopped at our door. Let’s try our best to pick it up and behave with honor and integrity. That is not only our privilege, it is our responsibility as Americans.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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Are We Willing To Make Wise Decisions?

2008-10-18T21:31:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

As I watched a man discussing this upcoming election, he bowed his head and asked Heavenly Father to give us wise leaders. So what responsibility do we have in this "wise leaders" business? Do we just ask for them and automatically get them? I don’t think so. Why? Because we have to do the actual voting that brings those wise leaders into office. Too bad there are so many "slips twixt cup and lip". Let’s examine a few.

Let’s say a very wise man runs for office. He should be an automatic winner, right? Not really. Why? Because he must run the gauntlet of political assassination, before he could get into office. Think I have overstated it? I haven’t. Let’s use the newest celebrity as an example. Let’s discuss "Joe the plumber."

Joe Wurzelbacher, an aspiring small business owner, asked Obama about getting his taxes increased if Obama was elected. Obama responded that such an increase would be necessary to "spread the wealth around." Wurzelbacher objected, saying that was socialism and he didn’t think it was right.

The media firestorm that followed this particular minor event was, and is yet, beyond any normal human being’s expectation. His personal records were examined, giving those who chose to attack him because of his views enough information to begin an immediate smear campaign, which reached preposterous proportions. Their attacks were grossly dishonest, but who cared? They were made anyway.

Let’s say a quiet, shy, but unusually competent potential candidate watched this venomous circus, before making up his/her mind whether or not to run for office. An ornery, tough old buzzard would ignore the attacks, but how about the quiet shy type? If the tough old buzzard is less competent than the young shy candidate, which of the two will end up winning that office, the tough but less competent one, or the quiet but more competent one? Is there anyone who does not know the answer to that one?

My question is simple. If we have a choice to vote for a superior, as opposed to an inferior, candidate, will we make a wise choice? You see, it doesn’t matter how wise our potential leaders are, if we refuse to vote them into office. The bottom line of all this? It is of no consequence how wise our potential leaders are, if we are too dumb to vote for them.

The simple fact is, the buck stops here, with the voter. Unfortunately, our voters are becoming more and more swayed by unions and organizations to vote for candidates and/or proposals that are either less than good or downright destructive.

Our top government officials have put several "bail out" actions into effect. None of these things would have been needed, if we had put wise leaders into office, but we didn’t do that. Several elected officials forced lending agencies to grant loans to people who either could not or would not repay them. It was known ahead of time that these particular borrowers had a very high probability of defaulting on their loans.

Next, the lending organizations put huge numbers of these loans out to be bought by banks around the world. Normally no banks would have bought these types of loans, so they bundled them and labeled them "triple A." That tricked the potential buying banks into thinking they really were good loans, made to people who typically almost never default on their obligations.

Our President and several of our elected officials have been saying for years that these things were happening and were going to "hit the fan," given enough time. They have tried repeatedly to make necessary changes, but those in Congress who were being given millions of dollars by these lending agencies insisted there was no problem. When it became obvious the President and the various worried senators and congressmen were right, they were venomously attacked by these lending agencies’ congressional supporters. They were accused of having caused the horrific problem, even though they were the ones trying to stop the inevitable "financial train wreck."

How important is it that we elect wise leaders? We are learning the hard way that it is very important to do so, but will that change our behavior when we are in that voting booth? It could, but it rarely does.

So whose fault is it that we are in big trouble? It is our fault. We consistently choose the guy with the most appealing line, even when he is a consummate con-man.

We have made our own bed, and now we are being made to lie in it.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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The Silly Season Just Became Serious

2008-10-13T13:27:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

We have always referred to the election season as "The Silly Season." We had good reason for this bit of levity. Seemingly sane people can be persuaded by the smoothest talker in town to vote for the worst, dumbest, most crooked guy in town. They will vote themselves a tax increase without a second thought. All it takes is smooooth packaging, by a smooooth talker.

Somehow, this year the silly season has ceased to be silly. It has become fraught with a level of danger to which we are unaccustomed. Voting for someone who says he is going to cut our taxes, when his history says he will raise them, is silly, but not dangerous. Voting for the guy who says he will give us the moon all wrapped up in shiny paper is silly, but not dangerous.

Now we are being persuaded to vote for a guy, some of whose cohorts think and say is Jesus Christ. That scares me. Neither of today’s candidates is Jesus Christ, but we are being encouraged to think one of them is precisely that. I may be overreacting, but I think this is dangerous. It wouldn’t be dangerous, if everyone knew he was just a plain, garden-variety politician, but many seem not to know that.

I may have little clout in this situation, but I want to tell all my readers that we have two choices. One the one hand, we have a crusty old coot, who is a dyed-in-the-wool American. He would go to war, personally, to defend us if he had to do so. He isn’t all we could wish, but he is what we have, and he will not give away the "store", so to speak, in order to persuade our enemies (and we have a lot of them) not to attack us.

On the other hand we have a smooth talker with no experience, one who has voted "present" a great deal of the time, no matter how important the question at hand. When/if Vladimir Putin tries to do to us what he did to Georgia, he will come up a few body parts short, if we have the war horse in power. If we have the other guy, we and he will discover you cannot vote "present" if the bombs are raining down. Nor can you vote "present" when a tank has you in it’s sights. That being the case, we Americans just might be the ones who will come up a few body parts (and a few cities) short, if we are attacked by a powerful enemy.

This all sounds very much like high drama, but it is an ever-present danger in today’s world.

Just to name a few of the leaders who wish us ill, we can start with Putin, Ahmadinejad, Castro, Chavez, Morales, Assad, Qaddafi, Kim Jong Il, and China’s top guy, whatever his name is.

During this last two weeks, in the last 30 minutes of each trading day, there came what was called a "flurry of activity." It was said to be done late enough that no one could respond. Was it economical warfare? Maybe. Has it had a gruesome effect? Absolutely. Who did it? We don’t know. We haven’t been told.

These are the types of things we are facing today. Some are very dangerous to us as individuals and as a nation, so let’s be wise. In fact, let’s not be so naive as to fall for a charmer, who is equally naive. We need a ornery old war horse, not a popularity contest winner.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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For whom do we vote, and why?

2008-10-10T06:00:00.000-06:00

Greetings Gentle Reader,

As I was spending some time this morning in prayer and contemplation, it occurred to me that the candidate for whom we should vote in this election is dependent on whom Vladimir Putin, Ahmadinejad, China’s leader, Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Columbia, etc., want to see elected. For whom would they vote if they could vote in our election?

Would it be the old war horse, who would bomb them into people-paste if they attacked us (and they know it), or would it be the dimpled darling of the anti-America university professor set, the hero of the pathological Bush-hating set, the world citizen?

It will be one or the other, and we need to consider carefully the ramifications of getting the wrong one. We may get the wrong one anyway, no matter for whom we vote, but we must not help to elect him.

We should remember that James Madison, president during the war of 1812, genius of the Virginia Plan that became our Constitution, was the worst one we could have had in the White House during that time. He had brains to burn, but what we needed was a tough, obnoxious old war horse, someone who knew how, when and where to fight, not a genius who didn’t know anything about war and its dangers and consequences.

That is where we are now in our country’s history. We have a tough, obnoxious (Oh, yeah!) old war horse, who understands war in all its horrors, dangers and consequences, and we have a brilliant novice, who thinks he can use his considerable communication skills to charm those who hate us and everything we stand for.

We have never been in a more precarious situation. We have enemies on all sides, and more than one of them is nuclear armed, and we must keep this firmly in mind as we vote.

The confusion of the election season, bad enough as it is, is compounded by the news media. They have chosen the young charmer as their candidate, and they have the power and opportunity to help him in his campaign. Though this is reprehensible, it is a fact. Okay. So be it. It is not our responsibility to cater to their wishes and goals. We have wishes and goals of our own, and they are more important than all the foolishness put out by the various media.

Since we don’t owe the media anything, let’s make up our own minds. We have perfectly good ones. They work just great, so since we have them, we might just as well use them.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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Honestly, Wherefore Art Thou?

2008-10-06T09:10:00.002-06:00

Greetings Gentle Reader,

Honesty has become an endangered species in our country, assuming one can label honesty a species. How did this happen? It’s not just the usual level of dishonesty; it has reached a level I haven’t seen before.

Part of it is surely because of the election, but it seems to have become acceptable to make a statement that is diametrically opposed to a politician’s position taken a week ago. That’s bad enough, but I hear those in the news media doing the same thing.

This has always been true in countries where the government is definitely not "of the people, by the people, and for the people." That is to be expected, but in Americans, it is inexcusable.
Now, if it only were true in our politicians and in Hollywood, we could live with it, because those two sets of people have always been that way. What is worrying me is the everyday people who seem to be learning from the denizens of Hollywood and the inhabitants of the seats of political power.

More than any other group in the world, we LDS should never stoop this low. We are, and should be, held to a higher standard. We hold it as an article of our faith that we are honest in our dealings with our fellow man. So why do I hear LDS politicians and their fellow travelers, of both parties, telling out and out lies?

Our responsibility as citizens of the greatest country on the earth is to strive for honesty, for decency, for fairness, for virtue. We are to teach it to our children and grandchildren, but unless we practice it ourselves, we will discover our children repeating what we do, not what we say. Worse, they have every reason to do so.

The only way we will make the change toward honesty is by watching ourselves, watching what we say at home and abroad in the community. We must begin to examine everything we say, until we find ourselves returning to verbal honesty. It may seem useless, since "everybody is doing it." But just think how you will feel if you stand before your Maker, and you will, and have to explain to Him that you became a lowlife liar because, "everybody was doing it." The only thing worse than that will be to stand before Him and explain that your children are liars, because that is what you taught them to be.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Preparation Beats Reparation

2008-09-30T20:27:00.002-06:00

Greetings Gentle Reader,

Considering the financial news of the day, this might be a good times to discuss finances: We have been reminded on a regular basis that there always have been, and there always will be, tricky times in the financial world. The ticket for us is to be prepared. Unfortunately, that can be more easily said than done.

A good man of my acquaintance said that he had put himself through college by being a janitor, and now, he was putting his children through college by, once again, being a janitor. That dear man always had at least as many expenses as he had money. He will probably never become rich, but he has always had enough for his and his family’s needs. Such people learn to be frugal, and that frugality stands them in good stead, when the financial world gets the hiccups.

So, how about the rest of us? Have we learned to keep ourselves out of financial deep water, or do we tell ourselves (regularly and often) that it will be okay. After all, we know how to swim.
The one thing we may have forgotten to tell ourselves is the unpleasant fact that financial deep water tends to be full of sharks, and sharks really like naive swimmers. They make a tasty tidbit, and few of them have the financial expertise to recognize a shark, especially if he has a sufficiently charming smile, and a genteel manner.

Many sharks have promoted types of mortgages that are close to impossible to repay. Others are true professionals at convincing couples, especially young couples, that they really need new furniture. It’s not simply that they want it, but they truly need it.

Once upon a time, a friend told me their neighborhood had become so dangerous, with regular home invasions and the like, that they had sold their house and moved to a safe neighborhood. Unfortunately, the deteriorating circumstances in their original neighborhood had caused property values to drop, so they didn’t have enough money to buy their new house outright. That was unfortunate, but they compounded the problem by convincing themselves that their nice, new house needed nice, new furniture.

As a result they ended up with such an increase in expense that they continually struggled to avoid financial ruin. All other expenses were cut to a bare minimum, and still, they barely made it from month to month.

The temptation to declare bankruptcy is ever present, but it should only be indulged in the most extreme circumstances. A loss of employment can create conditions of dire poverty, as can catastrophic illness, but it is imperative that we avoid declaring bankruptcy, unless all else fails. The most important element in avoiding bankruptcy is a determination not to spend more money than we have. If we have ten dollars, never spend more than eight.

In today’s America, luxuries have become necessities, so we are going to have to retreat to the values of our parents and grandparents. They were pretty simple: If we can’t pay cash, we can’t afford it.

That may seem too simplistic, but it actually works, and nothing else does.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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The Most Destructive Force of All

2008-09-26T20:57:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

What do you think is the most destructive force or event, so far as the health of your family is concerned? There are a lot of candidates. Bad friends, drug and/or alcohol addiction, inattentive parents, an irresponsible parent, abusive parents, an unfaithful parent, predatory friends or relatives, etc.

Actually, it is probably none of the above. The most destructive thing I have seen in my years and in my experience is divorce of the parents. Now, I have to qualify that at least a little bit. The actions of the custodial parent are tremendously important. If that parent is stable, supportive, constructive and in charge, the children may not do too badly, but if they end up with the least responsible of the two parents, they are in for a very rough ride. Even worse, they are probably in for a rough life, as are their own future children and marriage partner.

Unfortunately, if the non-custodial parent is disruptive, irresponsible and demanding of visitation by the children, and if an uninterested and/or irresponsible judge forces the children to visit that parent, then those children are going to suffer extreme and usually permanent damage. It is not uncommon for such children to rebel against both the custodial parent and society in general during their teen years, and this is especially the case if the non-custodial parent is a deliberate instigator.

If the family has been a stable, nourishing family during the early years of their various offsprings’ childhood, the older children may not do too badly, but the younger ones often become self-destructive and/or predatory.

When these children grow up, it will be very hard for some of them, perhaps most of them, to be a responsible partner in a marriage. Perhaps the worst thing they have learned is that divorce is the proper solution to difficulties in marriage. Instead of determinedly sticking it out when the going gets tough, and it will, too many of them will head for the divorce court. Then one more generation of innocent children, their own, will become the victims of that parent’s destructive attitude toward the vicissitudes of life, especially married life.

We parents must realize how real and destructive the effects of divorce are on children, then we must make sure our behavior toward our mate is not such that it will cause the tragedy of divorce. Our words are the most destructive in the early stages of a marriage, so we must learn to speak kindly and respectfully to our mate at all times, and we must learn the words, "I’m sorry."

Then we must concentrate on being unselfish, because selfishness tends to be the root of so much marital unhappiness. Next, we must work on being responsible. That is something that will grow as we go through the years. It just seems to be a part of becoming mature, but the sooner we start it, the sooner we will get there.

If we want the best for our children, and almost all of us do, then we must make sure to be the best marriage partner. That way our children stand a very good chance of growing up secure, contented, steady and responsible in their own right. Most parents can’t ask for more than that.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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Harvest Time Has Come Again

2008-09-22T20:01:00.006-06:00

Greetings Gentle Reader,

'Tis the season of harvest, a time that almost has been lost in our urban culture. The paved streets and parking lots of big cities have little interest in harvest time. The only problem is falling leaves, then slick streets and snowy parking lots as the season advances, but nothing else really matters. Yet it would be unwise for us to lose our understanding of the Law of the Harvest. And that is? Simple, if you don't sow, you won't reap.

Sounds sufficiently boring to be ignored by almost everyone. Right? It shouldn't, it is extremely important. Let's run through a little of it: If you don't lovingly train your son, he will go out into the world unloved and probably a menace to both himself and the rest of humanity, untrained and both incapable and unwilling to live with the guidelines of civilized society. That's the Law of the Harvest in action. A little more complicated than it seemed, isn't it?

If I plant carrots, I will not harvest lettuce. If I do not educate my child, I will have an uneducated child, who cannot feed himself or the family he will probably start. If I do not teach him to treat holy things with reverence, he will grow up mocking sacred things and concepts. If I teach him to be gentle with those he loves, he will rear children who know they are valuable human beings.

How do I know these things? My father loved me and was gentle with me. He treated me as though I were the most important little girl in this world. The result? I knew my Heavenly Father loved me. I knew my Savior loved me. I knew I was a valuable human being.

He didn't treat me as though I were a little princess who had greater value than others, but like his much loved and valued little daughter. As a result, I knew I had value as a person. I knew I was lovable and worth loving.

How many of today's children know they are lovable and worthy of love and respect? Too many do not. Girl's who do not know these valuable facts are vulnerable to abuse of every type, and somehow the abusers can see them coming. It is a rare unloved girl who escapes them.

At least as sad is the man who grew up unloved. He will often become the one who abuses the unloved girls. He may join a gang, because of his intense need for acceptance.

Parents, we know how to solve this problem. Let's put our backs into it and get it done every day of our lives. We can do so. We simply need to recognize its importance and move forward. Your little girls and boys trust you to do so. Don't let them down.

There's more to the Law of the Harvest than we thought, isn't there?

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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Our Money Well is Going Dry

2008-09-20T20:39:00.001-06:00

Gentle Reader,

As a result of unusually foolish monetary policies on the part of our federal government, we are seeing financial dominoes fall one after another, and the pace is picking up at an alarming rate.

Many of our citizens have lived their financial lives just as our government has done, and their financial chickens are coming home to roost, one after another. Those chickens are looking a little ragged, as though they have flown through a whirlwind, and some of them have been picked clean. If they were put in a pot for Sunday dinner, the family that owns them would have mighty lean pickings.

Now that we have exhausted the chicken dinner metaphor, lets use some real language: We Americans have been spending like 19 year old sailors on shore leave, and we have the bills to prove it. Not only is this not good, it is very bad. Families fall apart over this sort of thing, because the stress can get pretty intense.

The old American saying, "I’m going to talk to you like a Dutch uncle," is now in play, because I really am going to talk to you like a penny-pinching old Gramma, which is how I think Dutch Uncles must talk.

Our families are spending more money than they have. That’s the bottom line. They are going out to dinner, and going to fast food drive-ins, and when they do cook, half of it ends up in the garbage disposal. Why? Because it didn’t come from the family’s favorite fast food place, and, besides, almost none of the last two or three generations of Americans have been told, "NO!"

It’s a perfectly good word. Try it out. It may never roll off the tongue with the grace and dignity of a Frenchman ordering wine, but it’s a good word, and, most of all, it works!

American kids have too many clothes, and they don’t value them. Why? Because they don’t have to pay for them; all they have to do is ask. Worse, the money that goes to buy those clothes doesn’t have to come out of the fast-food-restaurant bill, because many of them are bought on a credit card. Worse yet, Mom or Dad will pay the credit card, so their offspring can and will buy more clothes than they can ever wear, and they will still be totally irresponsible where money is concerned. It grows on trees, right?

We parents have caused this problem. Why? Because most of us have never gone hungry. The Americans who settled this country and those who lived through the depression and went without a great deal, including adequate food, are either long dead or mostly in their last decade or two of life, so kids can’t imagine how those still around can know anything about life in the 21st century. So why should they listen to them?

Parents, it’s time for us to clean up our act. We have let our kids down by not teaching them to go without, by giving them too much and asking too little from them.

Now to our government: it has almost run out of credit cards, which is a very good thing, but there is a very bad side to this: Countries that consider us their enemy are the ones who own those credit cards, and they may demand payment anytime. That is unusually risky. For right now, it pays them to let us get into financial trouble, because it means they own part of us, but they may demand payment whenever they want, and we don’t and won’t have the money to pay them back. We have squandered it on social programs that turn our citizens into irresponsible, dependent children, standing around with their hands held out for more goodies.

America was not created for governmental goodies. It was created so our ancestors could have freedom and self-determination. All that was required of them was hard work, responsible behavior and sacrifice. Modern Americans fall short on all three. It’s time for us to grow up. Our ancestors had to do so, now it’s our turn.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

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Oh, Come on Mom, Just a Few Dollars

2008-09-15T21:42:00.004-06:00

How often have parents heard that plea? Perhaps I should be a little more specific and ask, "How often have 20th or 21st century American parents heard that plea?" I’m not sure how common it is in other countries where there is and has been less affluence, so I will confine the question to Americans and, perhaps, Canadians.

Back to the subject at hand: Why do I ask this question? Because, I think this circumstance is indicative of modern families, who may have more money than wisdom. It is not uncommon for Mom to get a job, after the kids are mostly grown, so that often means there is an increase in household money. It happens about the time Junior learns to mount an effective petition. In fact, the latter follows the former as dependably as pimples follow double chocolate fudge sundaes!

Junior has a lot of expenses, and some of them are actually legitimate! And Oh, my, wouldn’t it be just great if Mom and/or Dad would underwrite them! As I have previously, and perhaps infamously, declared, teenage boys are 95 parts testosterone and foolishness and 5 parts good sense. Now, they don’t agree with me, but I stick to my position, and I defy anyone under the age of twenty to prove me wrong. The poor beleaguered parents of this world are nodding their heads so vigorously they are in danger of losing what few marbles they have succeeded in squirreling away during these trying years of parenting modern teens.

But I digress. Back to the discussion at hand: We modern parents have become patsies. The kids see us coming! Even worse, they have lived with us so long, they have our number! They know just how to get around our defenses. But are we being wise to let them get away with it? I’m not sure we are being wise, or even being kind. Sooner or later they will have to start living in a real world, and it is better for them if it happens sooner, rather than later.

Why do I say that? Because they have to learn how to handle money, and they have to learn that saving it is wiser than spending it. They have to learn how to differentiate their wants from their needs. Perhaps the hardest part for them to learn is that food, four or five articles of clothing and a roof to keep off the rain or four walls and a roof to keep out the cold are their only true essentials. Shoes are nice, but a large percentage of the world’s people have none. Soap is great and showers are better, but they won’t lose their lives if they have neither. Just ask GIs who have seen combat.

Unfortunately, American kids think McDonald’s is a necessity, or is it Burger King? And then there is that thing of movies every night. Neither is more than a modern luxury, and they must learn to finance their own luxuries, otherwise they will continue to think of them as necessities.
We parents can do this, and, for our kids sake, we must. By the time they leave home, they must be able to stand on their own two feet, but they never will, unless they learn the difference between necessities and luxuries. Teaching them is our job, and we must not abdicate that responsibility.

Muriel Sluyter

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The Perfect Child/Perfect Parent

2008-09-11T10:42:00.003-06:00

When that first little bundle of joy comes into your home, you know he/she is going to be perfect, because you are going to be the perfect parent. Oh, how would it be!

Somewhere along about that first year, you discover that this little creature, for whom you would give your very life, is a totally separate human being. No matter how perfect you are as a parent, he doesn’t always respond as you expected him to do. When you are kind and loving, even adoring, he is supposed to respond in kind. But he doesn’t. You walk him; you feed him; you rock him; you sing to him; you snuggle him, and what does he do? He shrieks bloody murder!

Later on, you tell him not to pull the cat’s tail, so he pulls it. You tell him not to hit the dog, so he hits it. You tell him not to climb up on the table and break the china, so he climbs and he breaks. You tell him not to throw his food on the floor, so he throws it. You get the picture. Somewhere, somehow, someone chucked a monkey wrench betwixt your dreams and your reality, and it landed with a tremendous splash, all over you, yet!

What happened? This was your most adored little angel, and now there are times when all you want to do is put him in his crib, go out, close the door and pretend you are still a perfectly normal person, which of course, you are not. How could you be when your much adored, sweet smelling nemesis is screaming his head off behind that door, you know, that door that is supposed to be your magic carpet to sanity?

By now, you have discovered that you can be the perfect mother until the cows come home, but this little stinker is never going to be the perfect child. He is going to torment you within an inch of your sanity.

Right about then, when you are beginning to wonder how you got to be such a failure as a mother, he carries his crying little sister in from outside, sits down on the couch and cuddles and comforts her. You watch in astonishment as the little rascal who tormented her mercilessly a few minutes ago, kisses and hugs her, crooning comforting sounds that you recognize. Why? Because you have been crooning those very sounds to him since his birth, whenever he was in need of comfort.

The next day he drives you crazy while you try your best to get him to kindergarten on time. Soon, his teacher calls and tells you that your son has just stood strong and defended a smaller child, who was being picked on. She says you must be proud of having such a kind, brave boy. What is happening? Is this the boy who drives his little sister almost crazy?

Yes, this is, indeed, that boy. What is happening? That’s not too hard to figure out. The day, weeks, months and years of being the perfect mother (Oh, how would that be?) are beginning to pay off. You have been kind to him. You have been loving and protective of him, now he is mirroring what you have taught him. He is giving to others what you have given to him.

Bottom line? Keep your head up, Mom and Dad. You will get there. He will be a pain in the neck when he is a teenager, but he will outgrow it. Just train him in his duty to his Heavenly Father, while you are training him in his duty to his earthly parents and siblings. Teach him the importance of honor, of decency and virtue. Start the day he is born and never stop.

Last of all, model what you teach. Actions really do speak more loudly that words. The words are needed, but they don’t carry the weight your actions will carry.

Love him and send him out in the world. He will come back battered and scarred, but that is OK too. You are carrying a few scars of your own.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

What Price Freedom?

2008-09-05T19:41:00.003-06:00

When our ancestors came to this continent from the old world, whether from one country or another, most of them came seeking freedom. There were those who came for riches, but most of the hard-working, laboring class came for freedom of one sort or another.

In all the countries of the old world, the class system was firmly entrenched. You didn’t move from class to class. Even if you were a lazy slug, your countrymen treated you according to your class, meaning men of honor and good character bowed down to the most worthless of the upperclass.

When our ancestors came here, they brought that system with them. But in this land there was a difference: the continent was huge, and a courageous, hard-worker could go elsewhere if he wanted. He didn’t have to submit to servitude. Even if he had come as a bond servant, meaning he would serve the man who paid his passage to this country, that was for a finite period of time. When he had paid for his passage with a period of servitude, he became a free man.

Now he could worship or refuse to worship, as he chose, because the religious tyrants were elsewhere. The Pilgrims came here for religious freedom and to bring Christianity to the Indians. They had been persecuted, including imprisoned, tortured and executed for their beliefs in the old countries of Europe, now they were free.

What have we done with that freedom? Do we still value it? Or have we allowed those who are, or want to be, our leaders to convince us that healthcare, childcare, school loans, big houses, expensive cars and money are what our citizenship is all about?

In a few short words, have we abandoned the goals our ancestors valued? Do we still teach our children that this is a country like no other on earth? Do we remember to tell them that some of their ancestors died to bring them citizenship in this free country? Do we make them understand that they must not only fight to preserve their freedom when necessary, but they must live according to the precepts required to retain that freedom?

There are certain behaviors, the indulgence in which precludes the maintenance of freedom: intemperance, laziness, failure to value that freedom and downright wickedness. In short, freedom is our reward for struggling to be a virtuous people, a diligent people, and a grateful people. When we cease to be these things, when we cease even to struggle to be these things, our very wickedness will forge our fetters.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

Let's Live As We Say We Believe

2008-09-04T13:25:00.003-06:00

We are admonished by both our present-day leaders and our modern scriptures to seek out righteous people to represent us, both locally and nationally. Sometimes we become discouraged, as we try to find the least flawed of two or more flawed humans. So, how do we make these types of decision? With prayer, of course, but we can’t stop there.

Let’s go back to the very basics; how do the two or more measure up on the most elementary levels? Let’s start with respect for the life of our little ones. We know that to play fast and loose with human life is to take our own eternal salvation in our hands. So, how do we decide when a baby is a human being? Do we have the capacity, the knowledge, to make such a decision? What would our Heavenly Father tell us, if we could ask Him; would He tell us to figure it out according to the values and convictions of those around us, or would He expect more of us How about truthfulness? Do they say one thing one day, depending on their audience, then say something else before a different audience? It is to be expected that an individual’s convictions will change, as years go by, but not from one week to the next, nor from one audience to the next.

Has the candidate we are considering ever been involved, without question, in corruption? Is this person for sale, if the price is right? What are his or her friends like? Have they been involved in corruption? It is a very correct concept that a person becomes more and more like his closest associates every day. So, who is he or she becoming like? We must know the answer to this one.

Finally, and this is very important, has this person always been faithful to his mate? And if he has not, has he defended his unfaithfulness, or has he expressed regret and shame at his moral failure? These things are of great importance, if we are to prepare ourselves to make wise decisions.

This is a perilous time in our nation’s history, indeed, a perilous time in human history. We must be as diligent as we can be in our selection of representatives, so we must not neglect the responsibility to investigate those who would become our leaders and to make wise decisions, decisions we could defend before our Heavenly Father, if we had to do so.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

How Many Rats Does It Take?

2008-08-30T18:20:00.003-06:00

Americans must accept some irrefutable facts, like it or not. First, moral decline inevitably precedes societal decline. Next, societal decline inevitably precedes a decline in the government’s ability to make and act wisely upon tough decisions, which inevitably precedes a decline in national power, meaning a nation’s power of self-preservation. Finally, having lost the power of self-preservation, a nation is at the mercy of every other nation with the weaponry, the cunning, and the will to destroy it.

Few in this world would deny America’s power to defend itself. Few would deny its capacity to annihilate an attacker. But our nation’s foundation is being undermined by the rats of this world, both internal and external. And no foundation is impervious to the quiet, under the radar, so to speak, gnawing away of its structural strength. That is where America is today.

Let’s look at rat number one: An astonishing percentage of our young, strong men and women, our country’s foundation in reality, are drug-addicted. They are useless, self-destructive, and destructive of others. The production and/or importation of those drugs is always done by criminals. As that criminal class grows in numbers, it also grows in both the power and the will to destroy all who oppose it.

Rat number two: 44,000 non-Mexican illegal aliens were arrested last year. And many – including those from Arab countries – have been released into our population, because our immigration control people have so many with which to deal, they take the path of least resistance and simply turn them loose.

According to Congressman Norwood of Georgia, an estimated 85,000 illegal aliens, whose names and fingerprints we have, are violent criminals. That doesn’t include those already in prisons. Some illegal aliens have been discovered working for oil refineries, nuclear power plants, on Navy surveillance aircraft, in many positions for commercial airlines, and even as security
guards.

Rat number three: Even in a small town in the Rockies we have big city crime. A woman is mugged as she leaves work. A credit union is robbed at gunpoint. Drugs are "cooked" in every rural area, both here and in the Midwest, often in residences occupied by small children.

Rat number four: Our homes have fallen – and are falling – apart. Children shuffled from parent to parent by foolish judges grow up unattached and filled with rage, and as they grow, they develop the power and desire to destroy. Many are put in foster homes, and some are sexually molested by predators, who know where to find unprotected children.

Rat number five: Pornography. It destroys homes and especially the women and children who live in, and are dependent upon, those homes. It creates a sexual appetite that cannot be filled within a marriage. It is the poster child for the law of diminishing returns. Whatever level of sexual activity and perversion satisfies its consumers today, will not satisfy them tomorrow. That level must be progressively elevated to appease the sexual need created by pornography. Many of its users advance to "snuff" pornography, in which the victim must be killed for maximum sexual gratification.

Rat number six: The deliberate perversion of the first and second amendments to our constitution by our judges. They have been twisted so profoundly, they are successfully used to deprive citizens of the very freedoms they were designed to protect, especially those of religion and speech and the right to bear arms.

Rat number seven: Our universities employ thousands of rabid anti-American professors. And, predictably, their students become the same.

Can rats be killed? Yes, but only if their victims have the will to do so, and the strength of Americans’ will is still in question.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

Of Flat Tires and Super Young People

2008-08-26T08:59:00.004-06:00

I'd like to take you back to a moment in time where character defined itself rather clearly in my life:

The character that takes command in moments of crucial choices has already been determined by a thousand other choices made earlier in seemingly unimportant moments ... by all those times when the voice of conscience was at war with the voice of temptation ... the decisions that, piece by piece, bit by bit, developed habits of discipline or of laziness; habits of self-sacrifice or self-indulgence; habits of duty and honor and integrity — or dishonor and shame." (Ronald Reagan)

A couple weeks ago, I was on my way to an appointment and to take perishables from our place to a friend, when a huge nail flattened my rear tire. I stopped; a young man, Walt, stopped behind me and asked if he could help, confessing that he had never changed a tire. My husband had changed the only flat we had experienced in my car, and I didn’t know how to get at the equipment. We looked at each other and grinned, knowing this was going to be a learning experience.

He had found the jack and the "doughnut," when I mentioned I had a physical therapy appointment and was almost late. He immediately offered to take me into town and come back to change the tire. He said he would come get me in an hour. I was embarrassed, but gratefully accepted his offer.

He had a college friend who would put my perishables into her refrigerator and let us pick them up after my appointment. Accordingly, he dropped me off and left. An hour later, he and his friend gave me the bad news that the wheel wouldn’t come off. She had changed tires and had tried to help, but without success. It was time to call my husband.

Walt hung up the phone and said, "He told me to kick it really hard. He even told me how to kick it. (‘Don’t kick it with your toe. Turn around and kick it with your heel.’)" We laughed as we envisioned applying this high-tech advice. Arriving at the scene, he walked over, turned backward and gave the tire a tremendous kick with his heel. It immediately fell off. When we stopped laughing, he and his young friend set about finishing the job. She really had done it before, and her experience came in handy.

Putting the doughnut on my car, Walt instructed me to drive slowly; he would stay behind me with his hazard lights on. They waited outside my friends’ house while I completed my errand, then continued to follow me. As I pulled into the driveway of the tire shop, I honked and waved at them; they waved back and went on their way.

This young man and woman were top of the line. They don’t get any better. They drove all over town, willingly running me here and there, though I was a complete stranger. They changed my tire, then stayed behind me to insure that I would reach the shop in safety. If they had been my own grandkids, they couldn’t have been more thoughtful and kind, yet great fun (their good humor neither flagged nor failed).

By now they are in Fort Collins for practice, he for football and she for volleyball. I hope they have fun while they learn.

To the two sets of parents of these young people: You can be proud of them. America is safe in their hands. They have made those little choices that have led, bit by bit, to habits of discipline, self-sacrifice, duty and honor.

Congratulations. You have done well.

Return to the Neighborhood.

Sabotaging the Coach

2008-08-23T13:08:00.005-06:00

This is for all who remember when courts didn't turn violent criminals out on the streets to kill our little girls. It's also for those who insist that American life always has been this brutal. They're wrong. Though I can't speak for other parts of the country, that's not how it was out here. We have shed our tears, and we desperately need a break, so let's look backward for relief:

Several years ago, my husband came from the barn, announced that he had wet socks and guessed it was time to get his 5-buckle boots out of storage. He put them on the hearth to warm - last year's dried manure firmly attached - spreading that familiar barny odor throughout the house.

As we laughed over the vicissitudes of life with livestock - including the recycled hay on his boots - I remembered a story from past years.

Years ago, a family of kids, all girls, did the milking (by hand) each morning before school. They were often late, which earned them a tongue-lashing from the coach, their first-hour teacher. He railed on them mercilessly. They patiently explained that they had to milk the cows, then make their way to the school, which was some distance. It didn't help. By now, the pattern seemed set in stone.

One day, as the coach repeated his seemingly ritualistic chastisement, he added that, as a youth, he had milked cows before school, yet had made it on time. Then he made the mistake of adding a challenge. He would come to their house and help them do their milking the following day, thereby proving that there was no excuse for their chronic tardiness.

Now, is there any farm kid out there who does not know what this guy had done to himself? He should have been smarter than this!

Some animals are hard to milk, some are easy. Some are obnoxious, some are docile. Additionally, there seems to be a natural law that the worst cows give the most milk. I didn't make the law, but I can testify to its veracity.

Milking started early because they had many cows, and the route truck, which picked up the milk cans, came very early. When the truck got there, the milk had to be ready. No excuses.

The girls knew which cows were a royal pain, and they were "lying in wait," as it were, for their coach (Revenge can be sweet!). They split the cows evenly, giving the coach his fair share. He didn't know they had given him the worst, hardest to milk cows. He had no easy ones, the kids had taken 'em all!

The girls went at their task with considerable gusto, milking those easy cows in record time. The coach did the same. At least he tried to do the same. The kids finished, cleaned up and left for school. They were on time. The coach was not. He was still in their barn, milking the worst cows in the county.

After some time - considerably after the tardy bell had rung - the coach showed up. He said nothing. He made no explanations, but never again did he rail on those kids for being tardy.

It is likely he never discovered how they had sabotaged him. If he did, he kept it to himself. It would have been too humiliating to admit that they had gotten him good! To this day, those dignified ladies who were "the kids" tell the story of how they set up their coach. We always laugh, because it never stops being funny, no matter how many times we have heard it.

Ah, yes! Revenge can be sweet.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

Family

2008-08-18T18:49:00.005-06:00

One day, as I flipped the TV on, I saw a psychologist addressing a large studio audience and a TV audience of unknown proportions. She was telling them that their children wanted them to be happy, and that if they were not happy with their spouses they should get a divorce... that their children would want them to get a divorce.

As the fun story goes, I am sure this woman told lies about other things too, but none of them, repeat, none of them, could have done as much damage as that one massive lie.

Divorce is one of the things which is most responsible for the monumental destruction of American society as we have always known it. Worse yet, it is very often a precursor to the other destructive factors. A divorced, therefore single, mother or father of a family is very like a football player with a well-made artificial leg; he looks great, but he is so handicapped that he will never play great. It takes two legs to play good football, and it takes two parents to play good family. Does this mean that single parents can never succeed? No, it just means that the job will be difficult beyond comprehension and that our modern societal structure will make it even harder.

Widows and widowers have, in past centuries, usually had an intact family structure as a support system. Many a family has opened home and hearth to a widowed daughter and orphaned grandchildren. Two sets of grandparents and numerous aunts and uncles and cousins have provided love, care, companionship and, especially, identity to orphaned children.

Divorce puts a new and destructive ingredient in this healthy mix. Each parent tends to become the target of great animosity from the family of the other parent. The children are dragged into this venomous mixture and are, too often, deprived of the family of the non-custodial parent.

This brings to mind a couple who have not, throughout the years of their marriage, particularly liked each other. You couldn't say that they hated each other, but there was very little liking there. Now that their children are all grown, the virtue of their staying together has manifested itself in no uncertain terms. The children, raised by two devoted and effective parents, are healthy, happy people. The grandchildren are healthy, happy young people having so obviously benefited from the solid structure of two sets of grandparents and cousins beyond number.

No, children do n0t want their parents to destroy their family. Yes, divorce does harm both children and parents.

No, divorce cannot always be avoided, especially with some TV psychologists promoting it, but should never be implemented until all else has failed, not a pretended failure, a real one.

Healthy, intact families are good and are worth fighting for. In fact, since playing good family is so important, let's work just as hard at it as a football player works at playing good ball.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

Why do children join gangs?

2008-08-15T15:46:00.005-06:00

Since I have had the fun of being stuck at our daughter and son-in-law's house, I have taken advantage of the opportunity to question him concerning kids and gangs. Here are some of the things I learned:

If a child is to resist joining a gang, he must have a nurturing mother IN THE HOME, who is emotionally available to him. He must know that she loves and respects him and is concerned for his needs. He must have a strong father IN THE HOME, who is more intimidating than the gang members. He must know that his father is strong enough, not only to keep him in line, but to protect him, and he must have a fear of incurring his father's displeasure. Not a very fashionable reality, to be sure, but then, truth and fashion rarely have more than a nodding acquaintance.

The fashionable father, who is supposed to be more feminine than masculine, is not strong enough to give boys a solid sense of security and the social and moral direction they require. They desperately need a strong male role model, but, too often, what they get is a sensitive, squishy-soft, Mr. Mom sort of guy.

Last evening, I listened to a young woman whose older sister horribly destroyed her life and, then, committed suicide. She explained that her sister's diaries describe how she always tried to push their father into a position where he would be forced to show strength, rather than, as she described it, always be the "good guy." He never did. We have known him for many years, and he is an unusually sweet man and an unusually unwise father, and his entire family has paid the price of his lack of willingness to be as tough as they needed him to be.

Even when a child has had the influence and training of two good parents, he needs something else - a sense of right and wrong, of good and bad. There must have been a sense of moral responsibility instilled in this child, to give him the strength to resist the tendency to go along with the crowd. It must, also, give him a capacity to feel guilt, which our son-in-law says is essential; without it, he will still be at risk.

Strong spiritual faith, contrary to the protestations of many in the social fields, is of great importance, for a child must have a sense that his parent's teachings of right and wrong are tied to something... something both real and eternal. Without that, instead of struggling to avoid destructive behavior, he only struggles to avoid detection.

One young man has told me that, because of his trying financial problems, he wouldn't hesitate to sell drugs, to get money, if he didn't know how wrong, how deeply immoral it is. He says he knows many law enforcement officers who sell drugs, and he sees no reason why it should be anymore illegal for him to do so, than it is for them. Nevertheless, his childhood teachings, of right and wrong, are such a powerful deterrent, that he resists the temptation to solve his money problems, by preying on other people.

he home training that keeps this young man from selling drugs, for a living, is the same training that keeps teens out of gangs, but, in the 90's, effective home training is something of an endangered species. Parents are abused on one side, for neglecting to train their children; on the other, they are threatened if their training doesn't fit the criteria of the modern social pattern, and that modern social pattern is, too often, an unmitigated disaster. It has given us gangs, perpetual welfare, unwed mother and fatherhood beyond our worst nightmares and a level of violence and criminality that is destroying the very society that spawned it.

I remember during my many years as a school girl, a number of my teachers taught me that my parents were old fashioned. I was taught that if the things my teacher said disagreed with my parent's teachings, my parents were wrong, because my teacher was better educated and knew more than my parents. Actually, none of the above was true, but, as a child, I had no way of knowing that. Neither did my parents know that their rightful position of mentor to their own offspring was being undermined by a few arrogant, unprincipled teachers, and, unfortunately, neither did I; I was just a child and didn't understand what was happening.

Often teachers quote Socrates' lament on the social conditions of his day (2400 years ago); in addition to bemoaning the lack of respect children showed their elders, he described most of the social conditions with which we are currently struggling. His lamentation is used as proof that, socially speaking, things have always been and always will be the same as they are now. Wrong! If history were well served, those who quote Socrates would mention that a few decades after his statement, Greece fell and has never amounted to a hill of beans, from that day to this. Their society simply rotted from within, and they lacked the strength to resist the predation of their neighbors. History is not kind to America's modern thinkers. Gangs are not a new phenomenon; they have been around for millennia, and they have always been caused by the same social conditions. Children need to be nurtured by loving mothers; strong fathers are a necessity, not a luxury. Children must learn the difference between right and wrong and be capable of feeling guilt. If we cannot provide those few things for our children, it really doesn't matter what we do provide, because an extinct society has no needs.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

NEW A Puzzling Phenomenon

2008-08-12T20:50:00.005-06:00

Have you noticed that humans marry someone very like their opposite sex parent? That is not a problem, unless that parent is a destructive person. One would assume a person would avoid marrying such a mate, since they have years of experience with that type, but it doesn’t work that way.

A family friend is an example of this phenomenon: He has (in essence) married his mother three times. It has turned out the same each time. She is verbally abusive and overly self-absorbed. His mother is exactly the same.

So, why has he married this type of woman each time, when surely he should have learned wisdom? There is a peculiar link that explains this type of behavior: Throughout childhood, the children of this type of mother suffer the consequences of her never-ending belittling verbiage, except when they are in the company of other people. Then, when she has an audience, she is kindness itself. Her manner becomes the diametric opposite of her normal behavior. She treats her husband, children and others with an overwhelming sweetness. It can only be described as "sticky-sweet."

Children who live in this environment begin to crave that sweetness with which she treats them in front of others. They develop an extreme hunger for it, almost an addiction response, because her usual manner is so abusive.

Then they grow up, determined not to marry a woman like their mother. Unfortunately, the craving they developed in their childhood works like a saboteur.

When they get that phony treatment from another woman, who is turning her charm on them, that old childhood craving kicks in and they react to her behavior like an addict does to a drug. There is a naive yearning inside them that tells them this woman will be loving, kind, supportive, etc., all the things they crave, and which their mother never was. Unfortunately, the reason this woman is behaving this way is because she is like their mother. She is putting on the same show their mother did, because they are now the "audience." They are, in fact, the object of the performance.

In today’s world a marriage between a woman, who is a masterful performer in public and an abusive tyrant in private, and a man, who is the well-trained victim of an equally abusive mother, probably won’t last. Then the children of such a union will be doubly damaged, first by their mother’s abuse and their father’s submission, then by the breakup of the marriage. The children of such families tend to go out into the world and recreate the disastrous messes from which they sprang.

Is there a cure for such heartbreak? Yes, but it is spelled "r-e-p-e-n-t-e-n-c-e" on the part of the mother and b-a-c-k-b-o-n-e on the part of the father. Fathers/husbands should never submit to this type of viciousness. They must be willing to call their wife on her nastiness, just as a wife should be willing to call her husband on the same. The lifetime welfare of the children, both girls and boys, is dependent on the victimized parent standing up to the abuser.

Is this going to be a piece of cake? No! It will most likely be the hardest thing the victim will ever do, but it is the only thing that can work. If the abused parent permits this to continue, not only will that marriage be a disaster, the children who come out of that home will repeat the travesty in which they have lived.

How does this awful behavior start? Simple. The mean-mouthed mate uses it as a control mechanism. Then it turns into control/contempt. Let’s face it. Anyone who lets himself be treated this way is going to earn a hefty helping of contempt, and the nasty lady he married is just the one to give it to him!

What a tragedy! This young man married the sticky-sweet girl of his dreams. His eyes were full of stars, and his heart full of devotion, and all he got for those virtues was a life full of nastiness. Any wise grandpa would tell his grandson, "Don’t do it! Stand up for yourself. Don’t let her treat you with disrespect." If he was especially wise, he would tell the young man, if he did not stand up for himself, he would condemn himself to a life of misery, and he would destroy the lives of all the children born into such a home.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

Why Do Some People Hate Themselves?

2008-08-11T19:20:00.006-06:00

With self esteem being the most aggressively touted attribute in modern society, why do we still have so many people who hate themselves? Remember when Madonna published a book filled with pornographic pictures, in which she was the star? A well known psychologist (whom I respect) looked at that book and said that it showed an extreme depth of self-hatred. What makes a famous performer with great talent hate herself, and why would she expose her troubled personality so blatantly?

Where does it start? Are the parents at fault? If so, why do three children in one family like and respect themselves, and one hate and abuse himself? It happens all the time, and everyone knows it. There is usually one child in a family whose character and behavior patterns are more constructive than the rest, and one whose patterns are more destructive. Why? No one knows all the answers to this tough question, but it helps to realize that each of these four children has a distinct personality and behavior patterns. They have their parents and home in common, but everything else is separate. Every attribute they bring to their parents and home is different than that brought by their siblings. Some bring overwhelmingly positive attributes and others overwhelmingly negative attributes, and the parents have to try to make sense out of this crazy quilt of personalities, character patterns, talents and weaknesses.

And guess what? The parents bring their own personalities, character patterns, talents and weaknesses to this wondrous collection. Depending on your own personality, it's enough to give you either a headache or a sense of wonder and awe. To quote the kids, it's awesome!

How did good American families of a century or two ago keep most of their kids flying right? And contrary to the vehement denials of modern thinkers, they did. For one thing, each family member knew what his job was and usually had to work very hard, in order for the family to have enough to eat. A youngster who rises before dawn and works hard all day, after which he spends a considerable amount of time cleaning and sharpening his tools for tomorrow, has little time or energy left for either making or getting into trouble. Daughters worked just as hard as sons, but primarily under Mother's tutelage. Dad was in charge, and he kept the kids in line. More to the point, it was his job to keep the kids in line, and if he didn't, he was a poor parent, and everyone knew it. The training an 1796 father received was exactly the opposite of the training a 1996 father receives.

Today's fathers and mothers aren't supposed to be too firmly in charge, because such parents are labeled controllers; that's supposed to be bad for the kid's emotional health. So, too many modern parents, confused about how much controlling is too much, don't control enough; they let their kids rule the roost. That's bad for both their kids' and society's health.

Another fact: Until the last few decades, families tended to remain intact; single parent families were almost always the result of death, rather than divorce. The children in such a family didn't have to contend with battles between divorced parents, as do so many of today's kids. Kids can't be expected to handle such conflict very well, especially if one or both parents tell them that the other parent is unfit, or even coach them to accuse the other parent of abuse.

Another extremely disturbing problem is modern parental abandonment of children to the school or the "village." Schools don't do a good job of rearing kids. They do some educating, depending on the skill, commitment and philosophy of the teachers and administration, and they do some indoctrinating, again, depending on the philosophy of the teachers and administration, but they don't make good parents of someone else's children. More to the point, they shouldn't have to be parents to other's children. As Abraham Lincoln said (slightly paraphrased), "It's a teacher's job to learn 'em," and while it is a teacher's job to "learn 'em," it is not a teacher's job to parent them.

Another peculiar thing in modern American culture is the deliberate baiting of kids to defy authority, especially parental authority. This is being done by our culture, in general, and segments of our entertainment industry, in particular. For about three decades, the words to teen's songs have encouraged rebellion and defiance, and the themes of teen's movies deify rebels and encourage violence. Partying, with drugs, booze and sex, is represented as the ultimate in enjoyable activities.

There is an over-riding theme to all of these self-destructive activities, which is that having fun should be at the top of everyone's list, because life is short, and when it's over, it's over. Work all week, if necessary, in order to collect the means to have fun all weekend; in a nutshell, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die, and if we die of an overdose, it doesn't matter, because everyone has to die of something. There are no consequences, and the only reason people don't indulge in these activities is because they are too old or too fearful, and, therefore, deserving of nothing but contempt.

To those parents who doubt: This is the message your youth receive, on a daily basis. Is it any wonder they foul up their lives with drugs and disease? We harp constantly on self esteem, while neglecting to tell our kids that self-esteem has a price. Though its secondary price is, indeed, accomplishment, its primary price is adherence to one's own code of honor, which is really nothing more than a bone-deep knowledge of right and wrong. Even if we hate that code and do everything we can to prove that we have rejected it, it can and will extract its pound of flesh in selfhatred, as it has with any number of celebrities across the globe.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

You'll Be as Happy As You're Willing to Make Others

2008-08-08T20:40:00.005-06:00

I know a man who has indulged in just about every self-destructive act he could think of. He used to be the most miserably unhappy man around. After many years of this dumb-headed lifestyle, he married a good, patient woman who had high standards and lived up to those standards.

As a result of his marriage, he dramatically improved his behavior; unfortunately, though he was less unhappy, he still had a long way to go. After several years, she became pregnant, but he was still an unhappy man, as both a person and a husband. The baby was born, and the man seemed to improve a little more, but he still had a long upward climb, so far as his behavior was concerned. He seemed unable to escape his old friends and his and their old lifestyles, and he seemed, equally, unable to attain any significant degree of happiness.

He got a job with a good company, and, in a few months, they transferred him to another part of the country. An astonishing thing happened; in a new environment, with new friends, he began to clean up his behavior and become more the man his wife had always known he could be. As he made significant changes, he began to experience some degree of happiness. That small taste of joy not only gave him a vision of how things could be, but it gave him the hope and determination to strive for greater joy. The result has been nothing short of astonishing. He has begun to discover that fulfillment comes from within, whereas, in the past, he had always been convinced that if others would treat him more fairly, he would be happy. Now he has found that if he is to enjoy life, he must continue to develop his internal capacity for contentment. He must learn to appreciate the good people and things he has right under his nose, and he must cease to even consider the use of stimulating activities and substances as an option in his quest for happiness.

Many people depend on others for their internal sunshine, because they have a very limited capacity for happiness. Let's face it; a capacity for happiness is an internal strength and the lack of that capacity is a critical, internal weakness, and while a person who has lacked it, in the past, can develop an internal strength, it can never become external. By that, I mean that no other person can ever take over a job that is intrinsically yours. You are, and must always remain, responsible for your own happiness.

I have known people who have married many, many times. Such people can and do experience a feeling of exhilaration when a new "mate" comes on the scene, but the emotional excitement rarely lasts very long. Therefore, they are forever searching for someone else who will provide them with that which they must, in truth, provide for themselves.

The reason no one can push the responsibility for his/her own happiness onto someone else is because it doesn't work, no matter how much we want to convince ourselves that it will, if only we look long enough and try hard enough. In short, others do not have the power to make us happy. Unfortunately, many people are so determined to find someone else who will give them happiness that they refuse to do anything for themselves.

While it is true that infatuation can be pleasant, each of its components, whether excitement, entertainment, companionship or hormone-induced euphoria, is external and can cease just as easily and quickly as they begin. This is why we have these newfangled marriage ceremonies in which the partners vow to remain married for "as long as we both shall love." When infatuation wanes, the marriage is history, because infatuation has everything to do with emotional excitement, which is temporary, and nothing to do with real happiness, and happiness is what the participants were really seeking.

The euphoria created by infatuation is no more substantial than cotton candy, but real happiness is made of sterner stuff. It is made up of responsible behavior, such as treating others with kindness and consideration and living up to one's own standards of decency and goodness. Being just as concerned for another's welfare as for our own is an integral part of happiness, because selfishness and happiness cannot successfully co-exist. Very selfish people are not happy and happy people are not selfish. Such a simple formula is pretty easy to work out.

Abraham Lincoln once said that people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be. To his great advice, I should like to add that they are about as happy as they are willing to make other people. Making others happy is an easy skill to develop, but it is still totally dependent on others willingness to be happy, because, in the final analysis, no matter how many people are trying to make you happy, you will only be happy if you truly want to be. To those who are on the receiving end of someone else's efforts to bring them contentment, I would like to recommend a formula Jane Austen used in " Pride and Prejudice. She has her character not only willing but eager to be pleased; in fact, more than willing and eager, he is determined to be pleased. People who have a great capacity for happiness are, invariably, willing and eager to be pleased. They are, in fact, determined to be pleased.

Come to think of it, what do you get when you cross someone who is willing and eager, in fact, determined to be pleased, with another someone who is willing and eager, even determined to please? Yup! You guessed it, two people who have discovered the elusive secret to happiness.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

If There Were a God

2008-08-04T10:13:00.005-06:00

A puzzling dilemma has been placed before me, and I am struggling to analyze it logically: On what do humans base their belief about God, whether that belief is that God exists or does not exist? Many individuals are happy to deny the existence of a God, because their lifestyles are such that they fervently hope there is, indeed, no God who can and will hold them accountable, eventually. This is simple self interest and I see no reason to address it... so long as I am not forced to suffer from the activities of those who make this choice. Ah! But therein lies the rub, as we shall see:

Many make the decision that there is no God based on the pain humans suffer from sickness, natural disasters, wars, etc. I heard one man say,

"I believed in God until I went to fight in Vietnam, but I could never worship a God who would permit such suffering as I both observed and experienced in that country."

I was left wondering whether he meant he had decided God didn't exist, or whether he was so enraged by the pain of his observations and personal experiences, that he refused to worship, as his God, any Supreme Being who would allow such suffering.

It is logical to some that if a compassionate God actually does exist, it is to be expected that He would automatically step in to alleviate the suffering of a starving child who has been deserted by one or both of his parents; and since He doesn't, at least not in the manner they expect, He must not exist. We experience outrage when we see orphanages in war-torn countries bulging with children, many of whom are outcasts, because they are national halfbreeds, fathered by soldiers from another nation.

Some reason that a compassionate God would never tolerate such "man's inhumanity to man," and if He doesn't care enough about the people on this earth to stop such outrages, they see no reason why they should worship Him. I am not sure such people deny the existence of God, as much as they are so angry with Him that they reject Him, personally.

Being forced to watch the suffering of innocent people causes distress to all decent humans, and well it should. Seeing a starving child causes observers terrible pain, and again, well it should. We hate the discomfort we experience when we see such things; and that is right and good. That discomfort makes us take action, whenever and wherever possible, which is what it is supposed to do.

But what about our own actions that harm others but don't make us at all uncomfortable, because they are fun? Do we want Him to stop those too? Where do we want Him to draw the line? Should He step in and stop people from having sex, if He knows that a child will be born, and then deserted, as a result of it? And how should He go about stopping such activities? Or do we want Him to stop others from having sex under those circumstances, but not us? After all, most of us really don't want Him to interfere with our own fun.

Is that really what we demand of a God? To keep us comfortable? Are we so naive as to suppose that we can create the parameters within which God must act? And when He refuses to fall in with our infantile plans, making us angry with Him, do we actually suppose that we have the power to make Him cease to exist, just by declaring that we don't believe in Him?

It seems to me that we want a God who will allow us to have as much irresponsible fun as we want, who will allow us to indulge in behavior that creates situations destined to cause others pain, but we want to be able to insist that He stop that pain before it makes us feel bad. That doesn't make a lick of sense.

In the South they have some hilarious, though pungent expressions, one of which is, "You don't have the sense God gave lettuce!" I think that is probably most apropos under these circumstances, because when this curious thinking is extrapolated to apply to the whole of humanity, it makes for a fascinating, though absolutely ridiculous, concept. It would permit despots to behave as viciously, as abominably as they might choose, but, magically, their subjects would be relieved of the suffering that would otherwise be a natural result of such behavior. It would mean that Idi Amin still would have been permitted to slaughter as many people as he chose (And he did choose!), but his victims would have suffered no harm.

That's a whole new concept!

Let's apply it to Bloody Mary, King Henry the Eighth's eldest daughter. She hanged anyone she considered a heretic. Actually, she hanged just about anyone she could get her hands on, and she got her hands on an astonishing number of people. She not only had them hanged; they were hanged in chains, and their bodies left to rot, as a warning to others who might have it in their minds to cross her.

I don't think we can classify her actions as irresponsible fun, because by all accounts, Mary wasn't much on having fun. But if we apply the concept of God's not interfering with the activities of No.1 (Mary), then dutifully stepping in to nullify the effects of those activities on No. 2 (her suffering subjects), we create a dilemma. How could Mary be permitted to hang her not too loyal subjects all over the place, which gave her some sort of perverse satisfaction, if God were to step in and save those subjects from being hanged. How could He arrange to permit Mary to experience the satisfaction she wanted to experience and still keep her subjects from suffering pain?

Those of us who think this is how it should be, don't want a God; we want a fairy with a magic wand. If we really do have the sense God gave lettuce, we must realize that He is not ours to command. We have no control over whether He does or does not exist, as we will one day discover, whether to our joy or our chagrin. Each of us may decide what he does or does not believe, but surely we must see that our personal beliefs have no power to affect reality.

Until next time,

Return to the Neighborhood.

In Olden Days

2008-08-04T06:00:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

In olden days, a respected man was loved by his friends and feared by his enemies. If he were insufficiently love or feared, he was less than he should be. He had failed in his quest to become a truly honorable man. Modern people are much inclined to take issue with the fear inspired by a man of honor in ancient days, but we must remember that the code required it.

An analysis of this code will bring us to an understanding that if a man were feared by his enemies, those enemies had good reason for their fear. It proved that he had the power to destroy, and power was the bottom line. A man of power was great; a man who lacked power was less than the dust of the earth.

Within societies where the code was different, the behavior was also different. If the code taught compassion and a love of peace, the people learned to be peace-loving and compassionate. Where the code taught gross immorality, the people were grossly immoral. Where the Ten Commandments was the code of the people, the standards of behavior were completely different than they were for their contemporaries. In Assyria, it was totally acceptable to attack the neighboring nations, including that nation we know as Israel, and dismember, skin and otherwise torture the citizens to death. The reading of their history gives the average American the creeps. We don't even like to hear about such things, much less contemplate the manner of death visited on their unfortunate victims.

It all came down to the code by which the people. Lacking a code that decried brutality, the people were brutal, as ancient history teaches us. Lacking a code that required honesty, rampant dishonesty became the norm, as English history teaches us. Lacking a code that teaches the people that it is wrong to indulge in destructive lifestyles, the people will destroy themselves, both individually and collectively, as modern America is doing.

When our modern social engineers changed the code, they forgot that the people would revert to savagery unless the new code they adopted to replace the old code, decried savagery. It didn't, and vast numbers of our people have, indeed, reverted to savagery. Their savagery is not a result of society's victimization. It is a result of their being told that the old code no longer applies to them, BECAUSE they are victims. It is a result of their being deprived of the fruits of the old code. Those fruits are homes with strong fathers, who have authority and who feed and clothe their own loved ones. Those fruits are mothers, who are available to their children. Mothers who teach and guide, rather than holding down three jobs in a struggle for survival.

The code, by which an honorable nation lives, sheds its light to all of the nation's citizens. When that code is changed, the light is blown out. When the light is blown out, the people cannot see. When the people cannot see, they lose their way. When the people lose their way, chaos rules. When chaos becomes the order of the day, it is only a matter of time before a dictator arises, promising and capable of delivering, order and safety. This safety is, inevitably, secured by sacrificing the liberty of the people.

We have reverted to a code in which power is everything, and he who has no power is less than the dust of the earth. Is that really what we had in mind?

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

How Heavy is too Heavy?

2008-08-02T08:27:00.003-06:00

Some people harbor, within themselves, a crippling sadness, because they are convinced that their mother or father did not love them. They may be correct, at least to some extent. There are many degrees of love, and the love of parent for child should to be of the highest caliber; sometimes it isn't. Some have even known, or at least thought, that their parent loved a sibling more than they.

These are realities, unpleasant, but, nonetheless, realities. Let us assume that you suffer from the conviction, or worse, the knowledge that you were loved less than you should have been. It accomplishes little to hide from it, so if it's real, let's face it and accept it for what it is, a reality.

Such an acceptance is almost always accompanied by pain and rage. So be it. Now what are you going to do? Where do you go from here? Are you going to wear that pain and rage around your neck for the rest of your life? If you choose to do so, you will find it a heavy necklace, indeed, and it will become heavier with each passing year.

There will, hopefully, come a time when you will outgrow your pain and rage, but you will never finish outgrowing it unless you begin to do so, because beginning always comes first, and finishing always comes last.

Elementary to be sure, but most human beings want to reach the end of a painful process without ever having had to begin it.

Don't beat yourself over the head with your unhappy feelings toward your parent. Back off and give yourself and everyone else a break. Let time work its healing miracle, while you grow in wisdom and compassion.

Sooner or later, you will arrive at a point of forgiving your parent, but that step will probably not come until after you have become a responsible adult and a parent in your own right. It is probable that, for now, you will simply go on with your life, flinching from time to time with the pain, and it will be that way until you begin the process of forgiveness.

Your relationship with your parent is probably made up of love and anger. This is normal, but you are responsible for the percentages of love and anger, because, like it or not, you own them. By this, I mean that if your feelings are half love and half anger, you are in charge of working with those percentages until, at some future date, the love becomes 75% and the anger 25%. If you really want it, the time will come when the love is 100% and the anger 0%. Do you think it will never happen? You are wrong; it will happen, and the sooner you begin to work on it, the sooner you will crawl out from under your incredibly heavy load.

It is painful for those of us who have completed the process to see others still enmeshed in and crippled by pain and anger, but those emotions will go away, as soon as you want them to badly enough to turn them loose. I promise you that, when you do so, you will come out free of pain. It is worth striving for.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Truth in Advertising

2008-07-29T06:00:00.000-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

During my years as a young mother, I dearly loved a trip to the library. There was a veritable treasure trove of books, many very old, that were downright delightful. Oh, sure, there were the few modern writers who couldn’t remember to keep their mouths (typewriters?) clean. They were vulgar and simply low-class, but they didn’t matter to readers such as I. We all knew who those writers were, so we simply refused to read their books.

Then things began to change: previously clean brands of books began to have sex scenes in them. It was quite a surprise for those of us who had no interest in reading such cheap, trashy scenes. We were told that publishers had changed their policies, and if a writer did not include at least some type of sex scene, the publisher would insert one written by a writer employed by the company. I’m not sure that was precisely how it worked, but it seemed to explain the unexplainable change in the tenor of the newer books. It also was the beginning of the end of my buying what previously had been light, quick reading. By now, in the decade of the 2000s, vulgarity is the norm and downright filthiness is often the rule.

Now, things have taken another step downhill. Some LDS writers, advertised as acceptable to LDS teens and older readers, have taken to writing works that can only be called the scrapings off the latrine floor. Think that’s too harsh? Think again!

Now, a simple sex scene is not good enough for such writers. Such scenes must involve the bishop and his wife. After all, if you want to sell sewage, why sell garden variety sewage? Crank it up a notch! Anyone can write a sex scene, but to take it to a higher level, such writers make it a scene between lesbians or male homosexuals, and if that isn’t sufficiently depraved to offend any and all decent people, especially LDS people, make it a scene between the bishop and his wife. Worse, include vampires, and have the vampires calling the shots. "The shots" include selling ones soul to save lives of the innocent.

These kinds of books are written to make money, and more money can be made if the author is selling more than just a book. The really big bucks come if the author is selling depravity. After all, depravity has been the all-time best seller for as long as there have been books. Why? Because we human beings become what we put into our minds and hearts. If we input virtue and righteousness, we become more virtuous, more righteous. If we input adventure, we become hungry for exciting adventures and more willing to stretch ourselves, in order to enjoy the adventures we have been putting into our minds.

The natural order of the human mind and nature is to want more of whatever is stimulating us, and there are few things as stimulating as sexual filth. How else could pornography addict its consumers to such a degree?

The process of this is astonishingly simple: If we eat some delicious pie, we want more. If we watch a delightful comedy, we want to see another one the next day. Those are innocent and enjoyable activities, but they are not as addictive as something that stimulates the body, such as alcohol or drugs. Neither, tragically, are they as addictive as sex, especially illicit sex. Somehow that "illicit" part makes a very big difference.

Since all of the above circumstances are well known, surely LDS publishing houses would avoid sexual filth at all costs. Except that some of them do not. Why not? Money. The almighty dollar is so seductive, they cannot resist doing whatever it takes to get more. And when they finally reach the point of selling their souls for money, nothing else matters. They have sold their all for a mess of potage, only to find that potage is bitter, indeed, to their grief, it is eternally bitter.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Depraved or Deprived?

2008-07-28T15:38:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Do humans become deprived because they are depraved, or do they succumb to depravity because they are deprived? This dichotomy has plagued mankind for thousands of years! This is no philosophical argument posed for the entertainment of debating teams. It is, rather, the basis for the opposing philosophies of the two primary political parties of this nation.

The one party, convinced that poverty is the basis for depravity, gears up to provide housing, food stamps, medical care and most other human needs in an attempt to stop crime, illegitimacy, drug use, alcoholism and every other form of depravity. It is unfortunate that, in the attempt to deal with social problems in this manner, the individual is absolved of all responsibility for his or her actions, and society and the predominant culture are instead declared to be the cause of all anti-social behavior. Many a court case is being won on that premise alone. Common sense and experience argue that the outcome of such thinking can be predicted with pinpoint accuracy.

The incidence of crime increases so rapidly that it can only be referred to as an explosion. Drug use, alcoholism, fatherless homes and their concomitant disease, illegitimacy and delinquency become a flood, indeed an incoming tide, which destroys everything in its path. Our NATION is in its path.

The opposing philosophy, which declares that depravity begets deprivation, requires that humans, all humans, young, middle-aged and elderly, take responsibility for their own actions... that no segment of society parasitize any other segment of society... that broken homes are too often the precursors of societal decay, characterized by the adoption of juvenile male values as the standard for acceptable behavior... that mothers are the primary trainers of the rising generation and that nothing less will produce a sufficiently healthy, productive human product...that prison populations are made up, to a great extent, of inadequately fathered and/or mothered offspring who are, as a result, insecure and have become firstly unproductive, then violent and, finally, devoid of conscience, capable of destroying even their own children on occasion.

These opposing philosophies are at the heart of our national value system. Each of our political parties has its value system imbedded in its platform. First, one set of values is implemented, then the other, as the political parties come to power by way of elections. We must individually choose which value system we will espouse and then take responsibility for its implementation on a local, state and national scale. It is not responsible for us to neglect to vote and then complain about the values imposed on the nation by the triumphant political party. We must expect no one else to do the work which is rightfully ours. We've tried that, and the resulting mess is rapidly destroying us.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Seasons of Life

2008-07-25T07:40:00.004-06:00

A trip down memory lane took me back to a time when my mother lived with us. I wrote this article when the importance of having a father or husband in the home was really spotlighted in our own home:

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

My mother, at 91 years young, is now residing with us, and what an education we are getting! I am learning many things, but one especially has caught my attention: Women and children think very differently from men. More to the point, women and children need that differing viewpoint to balance their world.

Now, I know this is not an earthshaking discovery, but in today’s world, it is most reassuring and, yes, refreshing. How did I arrive at this conclusion? It was this way: As I knelt to replenish the wood in the fireplace, with my back to the door, I heard my husband coming into the front porch. To my utter surprise, the words, "The man of the house is home. All is well.", came into my mind. In astonishment I asked myself, "Where did that come from?" As I pondered this amazing experience, I realized that I was verbalizing an eternal truth, not just where I was concerned, but for every member of the family. Children cannot verbalize their need to have a father who comes home each night; they just cry when he does not come home. Wives often do not know that they, too, have such a need, not simply as a matter of companionship, but for the protection inherent in the presence of the man of the house.

My husband and I recently watched a news show in which the newsman told of a house in which an invader killed all the occupants, husband, wife and children, with no apparent resistance. My husband exploded in frustration, "Why didn’t the man fight? I don’t understand why he didn’t fight." Obviously we knew nothing of the circumstances surrounding the incident, except that, for whatever reason, the husband didn’t fight.

In response to his frustrated questioning, I realized that a woman would almost always tell her children, "Hide! Run!

Hide!" whereas a man would rally any sons old enough to help defend the home. If there were none, he would fight it out alone.

How does that pertain to my mother’s presence? I have discovered that when she hears my husband’s voice, it calms her, even when she is frustrated by her diminished capacities.

Additionally, analyzing myself, I realize that when I am in a potentially threatening position, I sense myself drawing physically closer to whatever seemingly "in charge" man I see, and as I contemplate that, I realize why my husband’s voice calms my mother. This part of her life is difficult. She needs comfort, and she responds instinctively to a voice that promises protection, just as she has done since childhood.

Now, to the strange world in which we presently live, a world in which perhaps half of America’s children have no father who comes home each night. They have the same instinctive need of a father’s steadying presence as other children, but they don’t have that presence, and children who don’t have it show it.

Modern Americans have been taught, ad nauseam, that women and children don’t need men. That men are chauvinists, insensitive clods. How long has it been since we have been able to enjoy a TV program in which the father is anything but a useless incompetent? The answer, unfortunately for the mental health of Americans, is about 40-plus years. Even Bill Cosby was continually put down by his super-capable, super-smart, all-knowing wife.

There are a couple of words for this type of thing: It’s called propaganda. It’s also called brainwashing, and it has been deliberate, rather than inadvertent.

We have tolerated this toxic garbage for over 40 years. Isn’t it time we grew up and began to live in a real world again? Families need responsible fathers and husbands. Neighborhoods need responsible male residents.

An airline pilot reported that he has asked many passengers what they would do, post 9/11, if they were on a plane that was hijacked. He said that, to a man, they said they would not submit. At the first sign of a hijacking, they would fight. Never would any of them allow such a thing to happen again.

Feminists are trying to turn our little boys into girls, insisting they must be drugged, if that’s what it takes to make them less aggressive. It’s time we fought back against them, too. We must stop allowing them to destroy the male half of our population. We need our men and boys to be men and boys, not pretend girls. My mother, at 91 years and counting, can explain that to us, if only we have enough sense to listen.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

NEW Science Fiction in the 21st Century

2008-07-24T06:00:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

In the 1950s science fiction stories were all the rage. Not only did the reading public love them, writers were crazy about them as well. There were no real boundaries; they could think up the most unlikely scenarios, because anything was not only possible (sort of), but acceptable, when they were not tied to reality.

In the 21st century we are dealing with what could be called "science fiction on steroids, with no holds barred," so let me retell a story that applies to today’s world.

It begins with the hero running and hiding from alien invaders. The entire story is taken up with his strenuous and successful efforts to stay ahead of his potential captors. He is alone, because everyone else on earth has been captured, and he must be constantly running and hiding so he can avoid the fate of the entire rest of the population.

The end of the story could have been thought up by no one but an O’ Henry fan: As the man is about to be captured, the story abruptly goes to an alien who is tending to the inanimate body of the hero. It is in a drawer in a vast warehouse filled with drawers holding the bodies of all the other earthlings. There is an electronic feed going into his brain, playing the movie of him constantly running and escaping. He is not really doing anything. He has been a captive for some time, as have all other earthlings, but he thinks he is running and successfully eluding his pursuers, because the movie attached to his brain allows him to think he is free, though being relentlessly pursued.

An assistant asks the attendant why they are playing this particular movie for this supine, totally immobile occupant of the drawer. The attendant explains that this earthling needs to think he is successfully eluding his captors, so that is what they allow him to believe.

Now back to the 21st century: We have thousands of interactive video games. They allow the player to be a part of the story. In some of them, he wins only if he blows the head off other characters. Rape has become common in some of these games. One particular game has the player assassinating President Bush.

These games tend to be addictive, causing the player to crave the interaction just as an addict does a substance.

How are these games different from the science fiction story? They pull the player into a fictional world and entice him to engage in abusive or violent activities that his brain begins to tell him is reality. Studies have shown that players of these types of games are vastly more prone to violent and/or abusive behavior than are non-players.

We haven’t exactly been invaded by aliens from another planet, but Americans have been invaded by aliens from another culture: The National Anthem is forbidden in some schools, a simple prayer can get a student expelled or a teacher fired. A Ten Commandments display can earn a city a very expensive law suit, one that most cities cannot afford. A cross sends some of our citizens into a state of near apoplexy.

We know we have been warned that the time would come when our Constitution would hang by a thread. It is there now. Brother Brigham warned us the time would come when the Constitution would be upheld by the Saints only. Are we up to that task? Our modern prophets are, but are we?

Our elected representatives make decisions for the rest of us. That is how our Republic functions. It is an inspired form of government, by which I mean mankind didn’t think it up. It came to our founding fathers from the real Father of us all, as did our form of Church government.

How are we carrying out the mandate given to us by our Heavenly Father? He expects us to govern ourselves according to His patterns. Are we doing that? Are we seeking out representatives who will do all in their power to support and maintain the Constitution?

Unfortunately, too many of us are easily persuaded by sweet words to vote for representatives who are only too eager to finish off our Constitution. We must learn to look at what a man or woman has done, rather than just to listen to what he says he will do in the future. People cannot hide their past actions, but the skillful can charm us into a state of mindless comfort, causing us to ignore their true goals.

We are not exactly in drawers in a warehouse, but we are becoming frighteningly close. Let us turn to the prophets of God for our wisdom. We need that wisdom more than we ever have in the past.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Return to the Neighborhood.

Review of Room for Two by Abel Keogh

2008-07-23T06:00:00.002-06:00

Abel Keogh's book, Room For Two, is the touching story of a young husband, whose mentally ill wife takes her own life and that of the unborn little girl she is carrying. This book chronicles the young husband's struggle to understand the horror of her suicide and to forgive her, whom he adored, for killing not only herself, but their little girl.

His writing is so exceptional that he allows the reader to be a part of his healing, as he tries desperately to move forward after this devastating interlude. His writing style is not lyrical, but somehow he is so skilled that he allows the reader to be a silent part of his life, without causing them any sense of discomfort, as though they were watching events that should be too private for others to see.

I came away from this book with a deepened sense of compassion for those whose mates have committed suicide, something with which I had no experience.

From the backliner we read:

"Sweetie, I'm home." I tried to put as much kindness into my voice as possible. I didn't want to have another argument - at least not right away.

Silence.

"Sweetheart?"

A gunshot echoed from our bedroom, followed by the sound of a bullet casing skipping along a wall.

Everything slowed down.

***

When a life is destroyed, when guilt says you played a role in its destruction, how do you face the days ahead?

Twenty-six-year-old Abel Keogh chooses to ignore the promptings he receives concerning his wife's mental illness, and now he feels he is to blame for her choices. If only he had listened . . .

At some point in our lives, each of us face devastating afflictions and must eventually cope with loss. Regardless of how it happens, the outcome is still the same - we are left isolated, alone, wondering what we could have done differently, and where we can turn for peace.

This is Abel's story in his own words. His search for peace and the miracle that follows is proof that love and hope can endure, despite the struggles and tragedies that shape each of our lives.

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Cedar Fort (August 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599550628
ISBN-13: 978-1599550626
Average Customer Review:

(6 customer reviews)
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #216,141 in Books

Purchase Room for Two here.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Review of Caught in the Headlights by Barry K. Phillips

2008-07-22T16:30:00.005-06:00

I was given the opportunity to review Caught in the Headlights by Barry K. Phillips', is a truly delightful read. Written in a lighthearted, self-deprecating manner, the author allows us to benefit from his wise advise, while enjoying the gentle fun with which he bombards himself. It's hard not to learn in such an enjoyable environment. With a foreword by radio and television personality, Glenn Beck, there was no way it was going to be poorly written. And it wasn't. This is definitely a book worth reading.

From the backliner:

Have you ever gotten what you wished for, only to discover that it's not really what you wanted after all? We've all had those deer in the headlights moments when we realize we've been chasing after the wrong things. Caught in the Headlights is a frank, insightful look at 10 key goals most of us think we want - only to discover our eyes are on the wrong prize. Barry Phillips not only entertains but also examines common values and enlightens us to the goals we should seek, and what to do differently now that we know better. From goals such as happiness, self-esteem, protecting our pride, or the perfect physique, Phillips takes a closer look at those aims prized by society and explores how we can pursue higher goals. A thoughtful, funny, and at times profound look into the real reasons we all have for the things we do, this book will entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

Paperback: 116 pages
Publisher: Cedar Fort (June 2, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599551675
ISBN-13: 978-1599551678
Average Customer Review:

(2 customer reviews)
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #713,810 in Books

Purchase Caught in the Headlights here.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Grandsons as Miracles

2008-07-21T15:53:00.005-06:00

Greetings Gentle Reader,

For some reason I am taken back to the birth of my daughter, Heather's, first son. Connor is now 10-years-old and a strapping young man. But I remember when he was born. This was what I wrote eleven years ago.

A tiny, exciting, sweet-smelling creature has come into our lives, a brand-new, precious little grandson; to say we are ecstatic is to understate the case. One of our daughters, Heather, has had her first child; a large, very healthy boy. This little one tried to be born the traditional way, but a childhood injury his mother had sustained during a tubing party left an unexpected barrier, and he was forced to be born by caesarean section.

As I held this tiny creature, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, I remembered the joy I had felt when I held my own little miracles. I examined this little boy's fingers and toes in great detail, just as I had done with his adorable, and much adored, mother. I couldn't resist kissing them and
brushing them across my face. They felt as though they were of softest velvet, but smelled the way only a little baby can smell. As I changed his diaper, ever alert to the threat of an unexpected geyser, a silly little game that we play at our house came into my mind.

Often, after my husband shaves, he comes to me and invites me to rub his chin, asking, "How's that?" Dutifully, I run my hand over his newly shaven face and reply, "Soft as a baby's bottom; just smells better." I couldn't help smiling as I thought of that ritual, especially since I was far from home and wishing he could be with me, to share the wonder of this new life.

This little baby's bottom probably doesn't smell a bit better than that of any other baby, but I didn't care. And when I let my guard down for no more than a matter of a few seconds, and he gave me a free shower, it didn't bother me anymore than it had when my own newborn sons volunteered the same service. To tell the truth; it had always been a source of great hilarity with me, when a new little boy, with unerring aim, provided me with a free shower. I have always tried with great diligence to keep them from hitting me right in the face with that little stream, though I have failed many times over the years.

As I held this little creature and attended to his needs, I was so overwhelmed with love for him, that I just sat there and cried. At the same time, I felt a great sadness for every woman and every man who has been deprived of this experience, whether that deprivation has been voluntary or involuntary.

We have loved our wonderful son-in-law from the very beginning; not only is he a decent, honorable man, but he is so good to our beloved daughter. Now a new dimension has been added, and I can say with great satisfaction, that he is also going to be a good father. He was a football player, and though I don't know what position he played, he is a huge man. To watch this human powerhouse hold such a tiny creature with so much confidence and tenderness makes me think that he must have been quite a ball handler. It is a comfort to me to know that this is the man who will stand between the harshness of the world and our sweet daughter and grandchildren.

He works at a job that he hates, because he still has two classes to take, in order to get a degree, and he knows that he needs to continue to tolerate these terrible working conditions, in order to get the wage he receives and to be free during the late afternoons and evenings, to take classes. That level of self-sacrifice and responsibility is a great virtue.

As I contemplate the world into which this little one has been born, I feel an even greater need to do everything in my power to stem the tide of viciousness, of depravity, and of irresponsibility that is poised to wash over his unsuspecting little head. When he goes to school, he will enter an environment in which he will be taught that newborn babies, such as he, are a threat to the survival of the world. He will be taught, even before he is taught to read, that babies are not to be thought of as future scientists, surgeons, great physicists, and noble humanitarians, such as Mother Teresa, but as liabilities to be destroyed at all costs. And by the time he is old enough to father a child of his own, he may have been so thoroughly persuaded by those teachings, that he, too, will readily kill his own newborn son, as many young parents are doing today.

He will have to deal with predators who want to destroy him by selling him drugs, that they may profit from his destruction. He may have to get his schooling in a facility that is an armed camp. When he goes into his school's library, he will be welcomed into a world in which appealing garbage is available on every side, because that is already the case. And he will be required to read much of that garbage, in order to get scholastic credit. Voting for courageous school board members who despise such trash is the only answer to this deplorable form of pollution.

If one looked only on the negative side of this young man's future, it would be easy to accept the urgings of those who are determined to keep such as he from ever seeing the light of day. But this young man can be a power for good in this degenerate old world, as was Mother Teresa. If his parents train him well, he will willingly pay whatever price is required to stand between this world and its determined destroyers.

My husband has now passed from this world. My grandchildren now number in the double digits. America is in dangerous waters and life is very precarious. But my grandchildren give me great hope as they grow into strong, noble sons and daughters of god. It is all that a grandmother could hope for.

Return to the Neighborhood.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Nadir of the Facilitator

2008-07-18T15:22:00.003-06:00

Greetings Gentle Reader,

Rabbi Boteach, who teaches at Oxford University in Cambridge, England, asked his students if any of them would like to be President of the U.S.A. They ALL wanted to be President. Then, he told them that he had no desire to become President, rather, he would like to be the man to whom the President turns when he needs advice. They were surprised, because today's students are taught that cream rises, and, if you don't rise to the top, you are not the cream. (I'm not sure what that makes you, skim milk, I guess.) The Rabbi's message is that facilitators, those who forward the fortunes of others, at the apparent expense of their own, are accorded little value in today's world, because they have no ambition to be top dog.

This "rising to the top" can have disturbing ramifications. For one thing, we have discarded our supposedly outmoded value system and become a society that measures human worth in fortune and/or fame. The most depraved of humans now enjoys extreme adulation, if he is a famous star. His followers require neither integrity nor human decency; their only demand is that they be allowed to worship him; worse, in the minds of many of his devotees, his status is sufficient to acquit him of the most reprehensible wrongdoing.

Within the family, there are tragic and far-reaching consequences to what Professor Boteach calls the "nadir of the facilitator:" When careers are actively pursued by both parents, there is, too often, a shipwreck on the horizon, because no ship can remain afloat when it has to answer to two captains. In real life, someone has to play the part of executive officer, but our modern teachings forbid such a role and demand the presence of two captains, with no executive officer. Too many of our teachers are convinced there is no other way that a wife can enjoy equal status with her husband, and they make very sure their students learn this lesson, false though it is. Though this pattern has been aggressively presented as a desirable family structure in almost every American institution of higher learning, our divorce statistics reflect its abysmal failure.

When we were kids, everyone wanted to be captain of the team, because, if our team won, we were sure the captain would be the one to get the glory, and kids like glory. Okay, but we were kids back then; we were supposed to be dumb!! Kids have an intrinsic right to be dumb; they have no experience, no maturity and precious little deductive reasoning, but, by the time those kids have become old enough to get married and produce a family, they should have outgrown such childish "me first!" behavior. Unfortunately, the higher the level of a mother's education, the more pressure she experiences to embrace, rather than discard, " me first!" behavior. She is, too often, the target of accusations that she is wasting her education on motherhood.

Many women are persuaded that they must pursue a career in case their marriage fails, and they are left to support their children. In today's society, the fear is logical, but this thinking pattern tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. By stressing their marriage to the breaking point, they are dramatically increasing the chance that they will subject both themselves and their children to the very circumstance for which they are apprehensively preparing.

In order to be fully successful, most careers absorb the time and effort of more than one person. Someone has to be on the front line, and another someone has to be available in a support capacity. But when there are two careers in one family, no one is left to play the part of support officer, because each of the parents is vying for the position of captain.

Another casualty of the two-career family is communication time for the husband and wife: Pop comes home from work, and Mom has already left to go to work. Mom comes home, and Pop is sound asleep. Pop wakes up next morning, but Mom is groggy and uncommunicative. Pop has the weekend free, but Mom's days off are Wednesday and Thursday. Neither parent receives their MDR (minimum daily requirement) of emotional nourishment under such stressful circumstances. By the time complete emotional exhaustion sets in, the marriage has often reached a state of terminal deterioration.

Common sense tells us that the family and marriage suffer terribly when both parents are working in " top dog " positions, and, yet, the forces that keep a mother in the workplace are very compelling. For instance, the pressure to retain a satisfactory insurance package can be a deciding factor in a women's decision. Just one member's serious accident can throw a family into a devastating state of bankruptcy, from which they may be unable to extricate themselves.

There are no simple answers; it would be much nicer if there were. Sometimes, we must make value decisions, and, in today's complex world, the temptation to undervalue our spouse's and children's welfare is overwhelming. After all, how do you enter damage sustained by a child, a spouse or a marriage on a balance sheet? It can't be done; and, when an indeterminable factor (damage to the family ) must hold its own against a readily determinable factor (simple dollars and cents ), the children, the spouse and the marriage often come second. So, Mom goes back to work, and the chips fall where they will.

There is overwhelming evidence that there has been very real, very critical damage done to our society by our willingness to devalue the worth of what Rabbi Boteach calls the facilitator, those who choose to defer to, rather than compete with, a spouse.

Our grandparents knew that a team of horses was worthless, unless they could be trained to pull the same way. Perhaps, we would be wiser, if we applied that very basic, very simple reality to our calculations, when faced with these difficult decisions.

Return to the Neighborhood.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Review of Preparedness Principles by Barbara Salsbury

2008-07-17T06:00:00.004-06:00

The other day I received a package with three books in it. I hadn't ordered any books and called my daughter, Candace, to see what was going on.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? I signed you up to review these books on your blog. You'll like 'em, I promise!"

Well, I'm never one to turn down a good book so I grabbed the first one which caught my attention, Barbara Salsbury's Preparedness Principles.

I love to garden. I love to tend my orchard and my greenhouse. A natural by-product of that is the harvest every fall and the subsequent canning of every single thing I've grown during the season. I am a farmer by trade and being prepared is something deeply ingrained in my DNA. So Barbara's book looked interesting. Fortunately for me, it was.

From the backliner we read:

How, What and Why to Prepare

News of Calamity, disaster, and war got your down? Afraid of how you'll survive if you lose your job? Wondering what to do when the "big one" hits?

Wonder No More.

Personal Preparedness Expert, Barbara Salsbury, brings together years of research and experience, giving you the know-how to set up an organized, practical, personal preparedness program that will provide for most wants and needs in any emergency situation.

Preparedness Principles, the most comprehensive preparedness guide ever published, offer exclusive details about:
Four new categories of preparedness
New bare-bones basics
The Pantry Principle
Storm shelters, safe rooms and safe havens
Indoor farming
And much more!
If you're serious about a personalized preparedness action plan, this quintessential reference book is for you!

She's not kidding. Barbara covers every aspect of preparedness that could ever arise.

The first section of the book covers what the authors calls "Essential Elements" such as the basic principles of preparedness, preparing within your budget, food storage is possible, even in a home or apartment with limited space, what to do with "food" storage once you get it and planning a food storage while making it delicious and nutritious.

Next we come across "Surviving Worst-Case Scenarios." Writing with the voice of experience, Barbara helps her readers to be prepared to survive with the bare-bones basics. This section is where she teaches you the principle of "indoor farming."

The next section discusses "Provident Living." In other words, these are scenarios we could face every day of our lives: job loss, extended illness, disease, etc. My children have often found themselves in these situations, i.e. Candace's husband has end-stage renal failure, and Barbara's book walks the reader through preparing for and surviving these types of crises.

Then comes the section on "Dealing with Disasters." Storm shelters, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods. pandemics, war . . . when all services are cut off and you left in your home to survive without heat, water or electricity. How will you survive? She walks you through it and helps you make an untenable situation bearable.

Lastly comes the scenario where you are evacuated from your home. She helps you compile "a home away from home" in the kits you will grab before you run. She says, and I agree, the ready made 72-hour kits are a nice place to start, but do they cover your families immediate needs. Dietary restrictions, medications and more are what 72-hour kits should be built around. Barbara walks you through this process. According to the nation's foremost leading expert on disaster preparedness: "Don't forget the chocolate!" should be your mantra.

All in all, I was very impressed with this book and pleased to add it to my library. I can safely recommend it to everyone I know.

Candace pulled this bio of Barbara Salsbury off Amazon.com for me:

Best-selling author Barbara Salsbury, a nationally recognized personal-preparedness expert, is one of America’s leading authorities on self-reliance. For more than twenty-five years, she has been teaching self-reliance and showing people how to get more for their money. In November 2002, Family Circle Magazine named her one of the “Top Five Penny-Pinchers in America.” She has produced two national newsletters and three videos. In addition, she is the author of seven books, including Just Add Water, Just in Case, and Plan, not Panic. Active in church and community, Barbara serves as a personal preparedness consultant for Sandy, Utah, and has served as assistant director for San Francisco Key Cities Area Public Affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and her husband, Larry, live in Sandy, Utah. They have two children, seven grandchildren, and one spoiled dog.

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Cedar Fort Inc. (August 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0882908065
ISBN-13: 978-0882908069
Average Customer Review:

(1 customer review)
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #562,671 in Books

Purchase Preparedness Principles here.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Human Value: A Variable or a Constant

2008-07-11T21:47:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

In all societies, there is an implication, even an acceptance, that some people are of greater value than others. My question is simple; is it true? Are some people, intrinsically, more valuable than others? Is a constructive, hard-working, sober, responsible citizen of greater intrinsic value than a destructive, lazy, drunken or stoned, irresponsible one? No. Let's see why:

The answer is no, because when dealing with intrinsic value, as opposed to extrinsic value, we can't count one's worth to the community; much as we might want to, we cannot even count one's tendency toward virtue or vice. In fact, we can neither add to nor subtract from intrinsic value, because, being a constant, it is unaffected by behavior.

To better understand, let's go to a hospital's newborn nursery and stand over the bassinets, without knowing where the babies' fathers work or even whether some of the fathers or mothers are criminals. As we look down on those tiny, squalling bundles, can we assign greater value to some and lesser value to others? I think that we cannot. Each is a 100% human being, bringing with him nothing but potential - potential for good and potential for bad.

Therefore, the intrinsic value of each baby is identical to that of his tiny neighbor, whether he is the offspring of the President of the United States or a prisoner on death row.

I am not saying that the babies' potential is the same, because it is not; I am only saying their actual value as human beings is the same, and when we ignore or deny that, we begin to think as the Hitlers of this world think. We begin to decide which child we would throw overboard first, if we were all floating on a lifeboat and rapidly running out of drinking water. Remember, when those who think like Hitler are in a lifeboat-type situation, the strong dispose of the weak; their only dilemma being which of the weak is the weakest and, therefore, the most readily disposable. It is an unnerving fact that the weakness we are talking about is physical and/or political. If Sister Teresa were in a boat with 10 huge drug dealers, she would be the weakest and would be thrown overboard first. Like it or not, with that type of thinking, the law of the jungle applies.

There is another factor: If one of the babies in the nursery is anencephalic, meaning that its brain is only partially there, is its value the same as it would be if its brain were perfect? What if one of the babies is irreversibly blind, does that lessen its value? What if the baby is blind, but is curable; does its curability affect its worth? Suppose it can be cured, but at an astronomical cost - then what? Difficult questions, indeed.

If our sample babies are of differing worth, who determines the worth? The parents? The government? The Doctor? Let's face it; once we decide that humans have differing degrees of value, SOMEONE must determine it.

My conviction is that each of the babies has the same intrinsic value; their futures may be markedly different, but their value is not. This thinking is outdated today. Now, school children are often led, by their teachers, through the lifeboat scenario and are required to decide who must die first.

The world assigns importance according to one's ability to make money, therefore, a rich man is greater than a poor man. But, if we accept that concept, it means that a filthy rich, murderous drug dealer is greater than a poor, honest, hardworking man with a wife and two kids. Do we agree with that? Is that really what we think, or has our value system become so complicated, so confusing, that, though we reject such an evaluation consciously, we have acquiesced to it subconsciously? Have we been enticed into thinking that a big-time drug dealer is to be admired,
provided he gives millions to charity? Likewise, have we come to the point of thinking that an innocent person is expendable, if his continued existence creates a level of inconvenience that cannot be tolerated with ease?

These kinds of questions cause confusion, if our value system is relative - in essence, floating free of any concrete convictions of the intrinsic worth of humans. Society's expanding level of corruption causes its citizens to abandon the concept of intrinsic value and, instead, define value by using increasingly selfish parameters. "What's in it for me?" " What's it going to cost me?" "How long am I going to have to put up with this?"

This confusion of values is visible elsewhere: Violence is often classified as entertainment. When the Romans used to throw people to the lions, they did it for entertainment. Now, if throwing people to the lions was entertaining, did that make it right? Does a particular activity change its properties, depending on whether the spectators and/or participants are paying customers? No. If it is good when we pay to be entertained by it, then it is still good when we become its victims. If it is evil and we hate it when we're its victims, it is still evil when we seek it out and call it entertainment.

Human life is sacred; it always has been and it always will be. Each of us is of inestimable value, and we ignore that irrevocable truth at great national peril.

Return to the Neighborhood.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Do I Really Want My Child To Become This

2008-07-07T20:42:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

A Doctor who specializes in helping infertile parents have a child has said that the various procedures involved can cost many tens of thousands of dollars. Parents who have the money needed and who spend that money to have their very own baby do not ever think of the chance that this much-wanted child could turn out to be a Jack The Ripper or, perhaps, a Ted Bundy or even a Charles Manson. No parent would ever have a child if he or she thought that the longed-for little one could turn out in such a way.

Since Americans are more concerned about crime, and especially violent crime, than anything else perhaps an analysis of the causes of crime would be in order. After all, people who only succeed in having one baby would give anything to keep that child from becoming a violent criminal.

We now have endless varieties of movies and shows in which fun, clever, charming actors and actresses say and do irresponsible, vulgar, violent, even vicious things. Of course, these things are justified by the story line which, supposedly, makes such behavior acceptable to the audience.

It is impossible for any people to suffer an endless assault upon their eyes and ears without their absorbing that with which they are assaulted. It is equally impossible for any people to absorb something without becoming that which they have absorbed. Sexual promiscuity, vulgarity, violence, viciousness, lawlessness, filth and addictions of every sort are what vast numbers of Americans are absorbing. The chances that these same Americans will avoid becoming sexually promiscuous, vulgar, violent, vicious, lawless, filthy and addicted are not good.

Mothers know that when Johnny plays with kids who fight, Johnny becomes more aggressive and wants to fight. When Jimmy plays for a long enough time with kids who shoplift, Jimmy will shoplift. If Bobby's friends tell crude jokes, Bobby will begin to tell them, too. If Mary's friends cheat on tests, Mary will cheat. If Stephanie's friends are using drugs, it is only a matter of time before she will use drugs. If Jody's friends are drinking and having sex, Jody will not hold out very long.

Rearing children is a long, hard job... a job which is done very badly by baby sitters and day-care centers. It is totally illogical for Americans to spend a large fortune to have a child, only to turn that child over to a less-than devoted parental substitute. There is now a heartening trend toward mothers caring for and rearing their own children once again. It is a trend which allows the parent, the child's strongest advocate, to keep an eye on their Johnnys and Marys. Johnny's most devoted ally is a tough, loving father who won't put up with any nonsense. Mary's best friend is a Mom who isn't afraid to make her daughter angry if she, Mom, is convinced that her little girl's welfare is at stake.

Since we do absorb what we see and hear, and since we do become what we absorb, let's go back to a more stable system where parents watch what their own children absorb and, thereby, reduce their little rascal's shenanigans to a minimum, not only for the sake of said little rascal but
for the sake of our entire society. It is imperative that parents of the 90's not forget the hard-earned wisdom of their parents and grandparents which reminds us that when aberrant behavior becomes very visible, aberrant behavior also becomes very fashionable.

As we are absorbing what is on that screen, in that book, magazine or paper, as we are absorbing the message of that music, let's ask ourselves, "Is this REALLY what I want to become and to have my children become?"

If the answer is no, then our course of action is clear.

Return to the Neighborhood.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Americans Don't Understand Their Enemies

2008-07-05T09:42:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Do Americans remember these words? "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

How about these? "... America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine ... God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea."

Compare those with the German national anthem, "Deutschland, Deutschland, Über Alles!" Translated straight across, those words mean, "Germany, Germany, Over All." Americans think that means the same as "Girls rule!" or maybe "We’re The Greatest!" Not so. They refer to the royal, racial right of Germany to rule the entirety of humanity. When they say "rule," they actually mean "rule."

Compare "Give me your tired, your poor," with, "(T)he only person who matters is Allah – and the only question he will ask me is, ‘How many infidels did you kill?’ "

When Neville Chamberlain came back to England, he said he had secured "peace in our time" by giving Czechoslovakia, a country "...of which we know little" to Hitler. Then at war’s end, Roosevelt gave Eastern Europe to Stalin, because Roosevelt was sure, "...Uncle Joe will do the right thing." These two, the Brit and the American, had the worldly understanding of babes in the woods.

When American "human shields" went to Iraq before the war, they were astonished Saddam put them around his strategic systems, instead of in front of his vulnerable citizens. They naively supposed he cared about the welfare of Iraqi people, though a minute amount of research would’ve informed them he and his sons had killed – and were continuing to kill – Iraqis by the millions. Sometimes he killed for entertainment, sometimes for military research, sometimes as minefield sweepers (It was their job to be blown up by Iranian land mines.).

These idealistic Americans had no clue. They were acting on the propaganda they so eagerly had swallowed. They’re still doing so.

Why are those words, "Give me your tired, your poor,..." written at the statue of liberty? Why is, "..till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine...and crown thy good with brotherhood..." different from "Über Alles" or, "How many infidels did you kill?"

The French shouted, "Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!," then they cranked up the guillotine and shed French blood until it actually ran down the streets. Then they wondered why their gains were anything but divine.

Many Americans think we did the same to the Indians. That’s what they see on TV. Those who were taught American history by teachers who knew nothing of their own ancestors’ struggles – and few do – or by the Ward Churchill types, don’t know both sides of the story. And there were two sides.

When the Pilgrims arrived on these shores, they were peaceful Christians. They came not to harm, but to worship their God and to teach the Indians Christianity. They bought land from tribes eager to establish the naive newcomers as a buffer between them and the ferocious tribes that consistently preyed upon them. That afforded peaceful tribes a degree of safety, and allowed them to teach the inexperienced Pilgrims to survive both climate and predacious tribes. Still, each exacted a tragic toll.

One entire group of settlers, surrounded by both peaceful and warlike Indians, disappeared without a trace. Since kidnaping and selling captives into slavery was a lucrative business for some tribes (It happened in my ancestors’ family.), the disappearance wasn’t an unheard of occurrence.

It’s time we Americans, though inheritors of noble rather than base intent, shed our politically-correct naivete and discover the real world. There are bloodthirsty tyrants and idiotic young martyrs out there. If we want to survive, we’d better understand our enemies and learn to fight smart, as well as hard.

Return to the Neighborhood.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

That Star Spangled Banner Yet Waves

2008-07-02T15:30:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

When I hear that music, my heart swells, then my tear ducts begin to work overtime. That shouldn’t happen after all these years. Should it? I should be blase’ about that flag and that music. I’m a big girl, now. Ah well. I may be a big girl, but I’m still a bloomin’ crybaby when I hear that music and watch that flag whip in the breeze.

Though I was just a toddler when WW2 started, three of my cousins were young men. They all enlisted, as did millions of other brave young Americans. One became a medic, one a sailor, and one a paratrooper. They all saw combat, much of it, and though they all returned, it left its stamp on each of them. Subsequent wars have done the same to others, many of whom live to this day, including many who have lived with injured bodies from that day to this.

My ancestors have fought in every war this country has had. If they had not, my life would not be what it is today. Would we have a king, if they had not fought the British? Would we be forced to belong to the national church, whatever that might be? Would the class system be so firmly enforced that we would have no choice of occupation? All of those conditions exist in many countries around the world, even now.

So many LDS families have sent beloved sons off to war, and those sons have not all returned. Their sacrifice is the reason I can walk into the chapel door without fear. I can pray without endangering myself or my family.

We LDS have one more thing for which to be grateful to this country, and that is the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is very true, as we have been told, that the Church could not have been restored in any other country. Even here, the persecution was intense, as we know. If not so, the Prophet Joseph would have lived to a ripe old age. He would have had the joy of raising his children to adulthood. The Church would have remained in the Midwest. It would not have moved to the tops of the mountains.

Somehow, it seems to me we owe a debt of honor to those who fought and gave their lives to keep us free. Indeed, we have young people all around us in this day, who have prosthetic legs, arms, hands, etc. Do we owe them a debt of honor? I think so.

What do we owe them? We owe them more than respect, more than gratitude. If we sit around and waste the freedom which their sacrifice has guaranteed us, if we choose not to vote, are we showing them respect and gratitude? I don’t think so. So how do we express our thanks?
Are there people around you who need help? Will someone else help them if you do not? Are there those who need love and support? Will someone else take your place if you do nothing? Will someone else vote in your place, if you choose not to do so?

Let’s take it to the lowest common denominator. Have you smiled at someone today? Have you encouraged them? Have they seen that you are concerned for their welfare? Have you gently, respectfully helped them make a choice that will redound to their benefit? Some people need support in order to make the decisions that will lift them up, encourage them to reach higher, give them a sense of security.

Let’s begin to count the smiles we give others. Let’s count the times we encourage. Let’s count our good deeds. Did you mow the neighbor’s lawn? Count it. Did you tell the neighbor’s teenager he was destined for greatness? Count it. Did you tell a Sunday School teacher she was doing a super job? Count it. Did you let the Bishop know how much you appreciate his devotion and expenditure of time? Count it.

Let’s count the times we cheer others on, and let them know they have done something good. Now let’s do that at home, as well as in our neighborhoods. Our parents, our teens, our little ones need that too.

What do we owe our fighters, who have sacrificed for us? We owe them a better country, a kinder country, a country filled with responsible people of honor. Now let’s start with us, each of us, right at home. Just don’t forget to count it. We need encouragement, too.

Happy Fourth of July!

Return to the Neighborhood.

Until next time,

Muriel Sluyter

Our Choices: Positive or Negative

2008-07-01T09:00:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Americans spend their time, energy, and freedoms in many ways. The possibilities are endless. A young man can help an old lady cross a street, or knock her down and steal her purse. He can wear a t-shirt that says "Jesus Loves You," guaranteeing a trip to the principal’s office, courtesy of ACLU lawsuits. Or he can wear a shirt that says, "Bush Is A Terrorist," which the ACLU will vehemently defend as free speech.

He can go to the polls and vote his conscience, or plan to "shut this city down!" when other people gather to do the same. He can go to college and earn an honest degree, or binge drink, march in protests, and cheat his way through college.

He can marry, remain faithful to spouse and children, work hard, and put his children through college, or shack around, produce children he refuses to care for and become a useless drug addict and drag on society. He can join the Boy Scouts and do good, or sue the Scouts for discrimination and do harm.

He can follow the lead of two California boys: Each was born in Romania and would normally have been placed in an orphanage, become mindless, half-starved, and useless to themselves or anyone else.

That didn’t happen. They were adopted as infants, before they could be put in a orphanage, by a couple who preferred positive choices to negative ones. They grew up in America, healthy, well fed, loved, and nurtured. Now, as Scouts, they are working on their Eagle, and have chosen as a project to give what they can to other Romanian orphans, those who were not as blessed as they were.

They not only collected supplies for orphans, they persuaded their father to take them to Romania to deliver them in person. Since it was their Eagle project, not his, he required them to put it together. They contacted various media, spoke to service clubs and worked like proverbial
beavers to pull it off, not realizing that compassionate Americans–who couldn’t do this on their own–would jump on their bandwagon with gusto.

People brought goods to their home, then more goods, then even more. Soon their house overflowed to the point that the trip to Romania came not a moment too soon.

In addition to goods, they collected thousands of dollars. Orphans Around The World, a service organization, and FedEx agreed to do the shipping. But best of all, they delivered much in person, to both hospitals and orphanages. Can you imagine how these boys reacted to seeing pathetic children whose fate they did not share, but only because they had been adopted and brought to America? America the good!

Yes, indeed. Americans have choices, and an astonishing percentage, whom we can only call the "negatives," see greater virtue in negative than positive ones.

The abundance we enjoy is a direct result of the sacrifice of American soldiers’ lives over our 300 plus years of history. The deprivations Romanians suffer come from many times that 300 years spent in war, very little peace, and absolutely no freedom. But these "negatives" have little global memory and even less understanding. Reality for them extends only to the 1940s, when their grandfathers bled and died to spare them Romania’s fate.

May heaven send us fewer negatives and more Eagle Scouts!

NEW Life is Never Fair

2008-06-28T06:00:00.000-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

This earth life will never mete out much fairness, so things work out better if we just stop whining and go to work. Each of us will get a raw deal from time to time, as does every other person on this planet. Whiners not only make themselves miserable, but everyone who has to live around them.

Heavenly Father has put us on a fallen planet. He would not have done that to us, unless He knew it would be good for us. When we whimper and whine, complain and bellyache, we are telling Him that He just does not measure up to our idea of a loving father. We want smooth sailing, and He has given us storms and wild tempests.

So, who is right, Heavenly Father or us? If we are right in our desire to have a life of ease, then Heavenly Father has to be wrong. If He is right, and what He has put us into is best for us, then we are just being ungrateful brats. Neither of these scenarios is pleasant, but one of them has to be right.

Most of us know better than to rant and rail at Heavenly Father, but do we feel the same about endless whining? We should. It doesn’t help, and it always hurts.

Remember the young mother whose husband came in, unexpectedly, from the fields and was dead within hours? We read of it in the Church News. She was not prepared to support her two small sons. She hadn’t the schooling to do so. But she had no choice. She could have whined her life away, but she buckled down, got her degree and supported her two boys through childhood and into adulthood. Then she went on missions and, finally, did endless work for others in the temple. She worked her way through life, rather than whining her way through life. What a difference attitude makes!

Once upon a time, when one of my sons was playing basketball, I remember sitting on the sidelines, shouting, "Fight harder! Fight harder!"

His team was not winning, and it was obvious the boys were simply not fighting with all their hearts. They were going through the motions, but they were not paying the full price, and as a result, they were losing. Life is like that. We have to play it with all our heart, otherwise, the vicissitudes of life, some of them downright gruesome, will roll right over the top of us, grinding our face into the dirt in the process.

After a game like that, some teams sit around and assure each other that the loss was not their fault. The referee wasn’t fair, the court wasn’t properly maintained, the coach did a lousy job. No! The kids didn’t fight hard enough. They failed themselves.

That’s the story of many people’s lives. They have failed and are continuing to fail themselves. This is human nature at its most irresponsible. It doesn’t matter what my problem is, it isn’t my fault. If all else fails, I’ll blame it on my ancestors for giving me lousy genes.

In modern America, one of the worst instances of our failing ourselves, our mate and our children, and even our grandchildren, is the overwhelming divorce rate. It is too easy to throw in the towel, so to speak, and sue for divorce. The wife isn’t as pretty as she used to be. He is going bald, and besides, he’s a grouch, an overweight grouch. He has an overhanging gut he didn’t used to have.

Okay. So he no longer looks like a movie hero. She no longer looks like a movie queen. So what? Get used to it!

A dear friend’s oldest daughter began to have trouble with her marriage. Her husband of many years became verbally abusive, and openly let her know that he really didn’t like her anymore. My friend had reached the point of advising her daughter to end her temple marriage, but she approached me about the subject before she did so. She was surprised when I told her the statistics concerning unhappy marriages turning around within approximately a five year period, about 80% of the time, IF the couple determinedly sticks it out.

A short time ago, I asked her how her daughter’s marriage was coming along. She happily stated that her son-in-law had ceased to be abusive and once again had become a loving husband.

There is no way to know what had happened in that marriage, but the wife had refused to end it, though her husband seemed to be attempting to push her to do so. Her determination to honor and continue to value her temple marriage had paid off. More than anything else, she knew the Lord would not want her to walk away from her eternal vows and commitments, so she had simply chosen to be obedient. She didn’t whine and blame anyone else. She didn’t really know what was wrong, so she just buckled down and stuck it out. We LDS must try to follow her lead.

Sometimes a mate simply walks out and no one can stop him or her. Sometimes an offspring walks away from the church, from his or her vows and from all responsibilities. We can’t win them all, all of the time, but we can always determine within ourselves to fight to the very end. The Prophet Joseph did that. He was the best of the best, and we can and should follow his lead. We simply need to put our head down, like any good work horse, and pull our load. We can do it, and it will be eternally worth it.

Let's Kick Back and Have Some Fun

2008-06-23T11:02:00.003-06:00

Gentle Reader,

This fake world of ours is run by plastic people, who want our money... all of it. To accomplish this, they must convince us that products that have no real value are indispensable. They have to create discontent within us. They must convince us that we are too fat, too thin, smell bad, wear unfashionable clothes, aren't sexy enough, etc. Creating dissatisfaction opens our wallets. Let's watch them in action.

When I turn the TV on, chances are that I will see someone pumping iron or running. (He may be unable to tell right from wrong, but my, oh my, does he look good!) Perhaps, he is working at one of those weird machines that exercises every part of the body. They are capable of finding and torturing muscles that didn't even exist when I was a kid. And, that's because a sadist invented those muscles the day I turned forty.

Next, an expert cautions me to count the grams of fat and sodium in everything I eat. This is followed by an admission that the cholesterol obsession of the last several years may have overstated the problem, that eating foods high in fiber cause gas, and that the wonders of science
include a new chemical that will make my yucky, fake food taste delicious. Of course, I know that next year the wonders of science will include a discovery that this new chemical causes cancer. (Hey, Guys! I know this is asking a lot, but could you find which delicious foods are going to kill me and, then, stick with your story (about how they're going to kill me) longer than it takes to eat a Big Mac, please?)

The commercials start the moment I sit down, with a bowl of buttered popcorn. (Eating this is supposed to give me a guilty conscience, but, contrary to what is implied, eating butter is not worse than lying, cheating and stealing. )

My first bite coincides with the first commercial. It tells me that if I spend a fortune, I can lose all of the ugly fat that my popcorn will produce. I don't fall for the first commercial, so the second one is served up with my second bite of popcorn. In this one, a sexy girl and an unbelievably ugly
guy are preparing to eat dinner. The girl sprays something awful on their food and coos, " I can't believe it's not butter." Maybe, I should tell her that it isn't, but since I'm eating real butter on my popcorn, and she is eating runny, plastic goo on her dinner, I haven't the heart to set her straight.

Right after the runny, plastic goo succeeds in making my tummy feel funny, a gorgeous girl begins to sing the praises of a new phone system. (No! I don't want it!) The camera starts to swing and sway. I keep looking around for the Hawaiian dance band that's causing this undulating motion, but there isn't one, and it doesn't matter anyway, because if they don't come up with a dramamine commercial in just about ten seconds, I'm in big trouble, because the bathroom has been taken captive by a veritable hoard of little scrubbing bubbles, singing at the top of their tiny bristles, and I can't get in there, and I am going to toss my cookies (popcorn )!!

By now, I am so traumatized that I turn the TV off, go to bed and pull the covers over my head. I would consider taking two aspirins, but I'm sure that I saw a commercial warning me that aspirin causes obesity, or maybe it causes hair loss. No, I think it's bad breath, or, it could be constipation. I am becoming confused! Maybe if I take two aspirins, I will get my ZZZs. Help! I think I'm losing my grip.

I don't think I am up to the modern, glitzy world of con men who want to sell me everything from fake butter to fake hair, fake eggs to fake people. Each guarantees me that if I buy his product, I will become leaner, younger, more attractive and rich. Very rich. Right after I get the formula for becoming rich, very rich, the financial news tells me that everything is going to crash, and that I'm going to have to live in a grass hut on a tropical island, because I will be broke. Is that a promise?

Do you suppose that the experts could spend less time on the less important details of our diet and more time on the more important details of our society? For instance: A walk in a big city park is going to kill me a lot faster than a walk into McDonald's. Knives and bullets are faster than cholesterol. And, since most students think that there is nothing wrong with cheating, maybe we could concentrate a little less on their flabby muscles and a little more on their flabby sense of honor. In addition, If we don't want teens to have babies, maybe we should stop teaching them to have sex. That is what causes it. Remember?

Is it possible that we are spending too much time fiddling with things of lesser urgency, while Rome (America) is burning down around our ears?

Kids Will Be Kids

2008-06-20T17:33:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Recently, we had a fascinating experience at our house, or, to be more precise, in our barn. I had gone to the barn to do morning chores when, to my surprise, I discovered that someone had been there during the night.

The signs were everywhere. The fascinating part of this hilarious episode was the criminal's apparent goal, which seems to have been to feed a baby animal (an orphan?) some goat's milk. Now, it is true that goat's milk has saved many an orphan, but it is unusual for the young critter to be brought to the goat in the middle of the night, without the owner's knowledge.

Our desperate criminals (well, maybe not too desperate) seem to have been good farm kids. They carefully kept the goats (probably little ones), which they seem to have let out into the runway, from getting into any grain. (Grain could have killed them.) They even covered a bucket of grain which I had left sitting out. They tried to do no damage, and they succeeded. They took one package of gum and two baby animal nipples.

This episode has brought us a lot of fun and laughter, and because of that, I would like to address this column to the young rascals who committed this not-too- serious crime.

Dear Young Men,

You needn't have turned off the intercom; we would not have been able to hear you through it anyway, unless you had pushed the "talk" button. If you need more milk, I will teach you how to work the head locks on the stanchion, saving both of us a lot of aggravation. Thank you for blocking the way to the grain so that the goats could not get into it. Unfortunately, neither could I. You did too good a job. (The 100 lb sack of bran, two sacks of 4-way and two bales of straw were too much for my astonished, bemused body to handle.)

I think I know which goat you took out of the stall and put on the stanchion. The amount of "sign" all over the milking room gave me a clue. She is a pretty tough customer, and can teach a grown man what bandaids and chiropractors are for. If I had been able to get a grip on your bodies, I would have made you clean it up. She sprinkled it liberally and most abundantly, and I cleaned it up, but not without some grumbling.

I am not sure whether SHE climbed the wall and dumped supplies of every type onto the floor (yes, you did find and pick up almost all of them), or whether she just arranged to make YOU climb the wall and dump the supplies. As I said, she is a pretty tough customer.

Now kids, what you did was not harmful, but neither was it strictly right. If you had called, I would have crawled out of bed and helped you. (Oh, I know it wouldn't have been anywhere near as much fun if I had been there, but I would have seen to it that you had colostrum milk too, if you needed it.)

I don't have to question what kind of parents you have. Your behavior has given them away. They have taught you to be responsible and decent. (Unfortunately, there is no cure for adolescence, except time.) If I could find out who your parents are, I wouldn't tattle on you, because I know that they would kick your cans so hard that you would have to take your meals standing for at least a week. (Yes, you do deserve it, but you have given me so much fun that you have softened me up.) What I WOULD make you do is pay for one package of gum and two lamb nipples. That's what you owe us. Now, let me tell you what we owe you.

I.O.U. for:

1) A reminder that there are good, strong parents who teach their children, and good (albeit dingy) children who learn what they are taught.

2) A much needed reminder that kids will be kids, and that they still get involved in the same kinds of rattlebrained, but hilariously funny, antics that we did when we were kids.

3) A renewed faith in American youth. (Any young squirt who would go to the lengths you went to, in order to care for a small animal, is admirable and deserving of praise, and the praise should come right after you get your cans kicked.)

4) A reminder that some crimes are very real, and both serious and important, while other crimes (?) are none of the above.

5) A reminder that kids are only young once, and that they should not to be expected to behave as though they are adults, until they truly become adults.

You did well kids. If you need more milk, just call. The number's in the book.

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Return to the Neighborhood.

Our Forefathers' Messages to Us

2008-06-16T07:33:00.004-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

In the 1700's and early 1800's, liberty was on the minds of the world's truly great people. John Curran said, "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." Those are strong words, but they are true, and they will never cease to be true.

When Benjamin Franklin was asked, "What have you given us, Mister Franklin?" He replied, "A republic, Ma'am, if you can keep it." He also said, "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, said it perfectly: "The republican form of government is the highest form of government, but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature - a type nowhere at present existing."

Edmund Burke was of like mind when he said, "Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetites... Society cannot exist , unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."

In 1776 John Adams wrote, "The only foundation for a free Constitution is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people in a greater measure than they have it now, they may change their rulers and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty."

Does that make you feel a little discouraged? We already have considerably less freedom than our grandparents had, but by and large, we are a considerably less virtuous people than our grandparents were, and if those who gave us our freedom knew what they were talking about, and they did, the two are closely connected.

They were convinced that we would not, that we could not, keep our freedom, unless we gained a level of virtue that the people of their day did not have. Not only have we not attained that level, we have abandoned our ancestors level of virtue, preferring instead to rate our pleasures by their degree of stimulation, rather than their virtue. We have embraced the notion that each of us has the right to define virtue for ourselves, using whatever standard we choose.

That concept presupposes that there is no such thing as absolute right or wrong, an idea that, from their writings, was anathema to those who created this nation. Most unnerving are these words, uttered by a man named William Sprague, "In the same proportion that ignorance and vice prevail in a republic, will the government partake of despotism." Unfortunately, the truth of that utterance is being borne out in every corner of our country.

Judges are legislating from the bench, when their appointed task is to interpret laws written by others and to judge whether those laws have or have not been broken. Our Congress has become a maze that is almost impossible for our lawmakers to negotiate, but even so, too many serve their own interests, rather than their constituents and their country. A man named John Hall left us this bit of priceless wisdom, which applies to this problem: "Men do things which their fathers would have deprecated, and then draw about themselves a flimsy cordon of sophistry, and talk about the advance of humanity and liberal thought, when it is nothing after all but a preference for individual license."

One of my earliest memories is of a young man saying, "Laws were made to be broken." And yet, Will Durant, historian, says, "man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law." The Romans refined that concept by creating a system in which both the people and the rulers were subject to the law, and that was a novel thought! Our own John Adams invoked the philosophies of the Greeks, Romans and even the British when he defined a republic as "a government of laws and not of men." That is the type of government our forefathers created for us.

Benjamin Franklin stated his philosophy concerning the rights of man in this manner, "Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature." Since it is a right bestowed upon us, it is ours to use or abuse as we choose.

Unfortunately, the great men of our country have warned us that a depraved people cannot keep their freedom, and yet, moral and social depravity are the most visible driving forces in our country today. It seems that we have chosen to abuse our freedom.

How important is freedom to the people of this country? What price are we willing to pay to keep our freedom? We already know how important it was to our ancestors, because we know what price they paid to secure it and keep it. They knew the difference between freedom and a life of servitude, and they were determined to have freedom for themselves and their descendants. But is it important to us?

John Randolph said, "The principle of liberty and equality, if coupled with mere selfishness, will make men only devils, each trying to be independent that he may fight only for his own interest." Are we willing to bring more than selfishness to our desire to retain our liberty? If we have nothing more to offer than self interest, George Hillard's words apply to us: "If liberty with law is fire on the hearth, liberty without law is fire on the floor."

Though we have been playing with fire for more than half a century, where our liberty is concerned, it is not too late to accept that we will not enjoy our freedom much longer, unless we halt our slide into a moral sewer. In short, while fire on the hearth is great, few are so naive as to think that fire on the floor will be the same. But that is where it will be shortly, and unless we take action, it will burn our country down around our ears.

NEW Our World is Changing Dramatically

2008-06-14T17:03:00.004-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

We Americans are living in an increasingly wicked world. It wasn’t supposed to be this way in the Land of The Free and The Home of The Brave, but it is.

Our courts are mandating the acceptance of lifestyles that we LDS know are forbidden by our Heavenly Father. We know it is never good to go against His will, because He only tells us not to do things that are harmful to us. Therefore, by extrapolation, our courts deliberately are ordering us to accept things that will hurt us. That is diametrically opposed to the mandate the Constitution gives them, but many 21st century judges don’t see it that way. They see those Constitutional requirements as basic guidelines laid down by a bunch of old fashioned fuddy duddies, who were entirely too religious for modern America.

Now, if you tell your small child not to jump off the dining room chairs, and he continues to do it, you know it is only a matter of time before he will get hurt. You know you have given him a mandate that will keep him from hurting himself. He doesn’t see it that way. In his eyes, you are telling him you don’t want him to have fun.

That is how supporters of these destructive lifestyles look at Heavenly Father’s laws. He just doesn’t want them to have fun. In fact, that is an accusation leveled at parents by some of their teenage boy’s friends. "You just don’t know how to have fun, so you don’t want him to have fun." Teenage boys are especially susceptible to such blandishments. That abundant testosterone tells them to stand up to any tyranny, whether real or imagined, and what could be more tyrannical than an order to eschew all fun.

Could we say we have our work cut out for us? I think so! So, how do you defeat this dragon? You know which dragon, the one that is determined to steal not only your child’s virtue, but his very eternal life.

This is no easy task, but some parents have been much more successful than others. Why? It has to do with the degree of love and guidance, strong protective love and guidance, they show their children. Will it always succeed? No, but it is vastly better than allowing them too much room.

Remember that most teenage boys are made up of 95 parts of testosterone and foolishness and 5 parts of good sense. Am I saying they are bad? Of course not. I’m saying they don’t have enough wisdom and experience to recognize danger when they see it. Nor do they have enough natural fear to turn tail and run when they are in genuine danger.

Some of our bravest soldiers, throughout our nation’s history, have been teenage boys. In December, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, they left school in droves to enlist. They lied about their age and went off to war. Am I finding fault with such bravery? I’m sitting at this computer and crying as I think of it, which should settle that question. But their bravery often outweighs their wisdom, which is where wise fathers and mothers come in.

Make sure your children genuinely like you. Never, but never, belittle them. Make sure they respect your knowledge. Keep up with the dangers of this age, and never hesitate to teach them what to fear. Do your homework. They will know if you are uneducated concerning the drugs they are being offered, the sexual enticements they face. Teach them about sexually transmitted diseases. Tell them about the elevated chances of marriage failure for couples who live together before they marry.

More than anything else, once they are married, teach them to watch their tongue with their spouse. One of the nastiest marriage destroyers is that mind set that says, "Hey, I have a license!" when they are spoken to about their mean verbiage.

Teach them about living within their means, which so often means they must not use credit cards. Irresponsible behavior where money is concerned is a surefire marriage killer, and if it doesn’t kill the marriage, it will keep the couple in abject bondage, yet all the while, they will continue to be barraged by credit card offers.

Teach them it is not a compliment to be offered a credit card, though they will be told it is. In truth, it is a fishing expedition to see whether they are sufficiently gullible to fall for the line of a good con-man.

Finally, make them understand that we are living in the day of Satan’s last stand. There is nothing he won’t try. There is no war he will hesitate to facilitate. There is no tyrant he will fail to support. There is no vicious social system he will fail to engender, especially if it will abuse Heavenly Father’s beloved daughters and degrade his equally beloved sons.

We do, indeed, live in a spiritually dangerous age, and we parents are on the front lines. Let us take a page from our teenage sons’ book and fight to the last day of our mortal probation for those sons and daughters. Heavenly Father expects no less, and, indeed, He deserves no less.

Clans

2008-06-13T16:02:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Back in Scottish/English history, the never-ending raids over the Border, from first one side and then the other, finally culminated in the Battle of Culloden. The English won and, being in power, decided to put a stop once and for all to the fighting. Now, Scotland had a system of Clans which kept families firmly organized and fighting as a unit.

The English, understanding the strength and power which came from the tight, loyal families, took drastic measures to rip the Clans apart. The plaid, the Clan's tartan, could no longer be worn, and the wearing of kilts was outlawed because kilts were made of the individual Clan's tartan. The Scots didn't have to ask which Clan a person belonged to; the tartan was adequate identification. Use of the Clan names became illegal and the Scots resorted to other names, many names per Clan, code names of a sort. The Scots knew all of the substitute names, but the English did not. The playing of the bagpipes was even outlawed since the Scots, the "Ladies from Hell," used the pipes as a powerful rallying call to inspire the Scottish fighting men.

The English had been fighting the Scots for many centuries. They knew the power of the Clans. They knew that family solidarity gave the Scots strength that nothing else could. The English strategy worked. With the Clans dismembered, the Scots ceased to act as a cohesive unit and, having lost much of their fighting strength as a result, they were never able to regain their freedom.

With the leadership, authority, structure, responsibility and sense of duty and obedience gone, the Clan was crippled and very quickly lost the power and the drive to act decisively and effectively. This is precisely what has happened to the American family of today. The old history of the Clan and the new state of the American family have everything in common.

Some blame for the perilous condition of the family can be laid at the door of the parents themselves, but the bulk of the guilt must be on the heads of those social engineers who have chosen to change the identity, the purpose, the degree of authority, the structure, the responsibility of the modern family. The very word, family, has ceased to mean what it did in past years. It now has an official definition which is foolish and silly.

Americans do not have to tolerate this official dismemberment of the family. It is time for us to force government to butt out of our families' lives; they will never do it voluntarily.

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Return to the Neighborhood.

Gas Prices Out of Control

2008-06-12T08:00:00.003-06:00

I wrote this letter to the Editor of my local newspaper, the Cortez Journal. I doubt it will have much effect as they are so liberal, but a voice speaking out is a voice counted. I thought I would share my letter with you today:

To the Editor,

Oil is at $138.54, and it isn’t through climbing. Are speculators to blame? An investigation says not.

We produce half as much oil in this country as we did in the 70s. Why? The villains are on Capitol Hill. We could have been drilling in a number of places for decades, but our Senators and Congressmen are afraid of the other villains, the environmentalists, including the Global warming con-men, the ones who call drilling for oil "raping and pillaging." Never having lived in Darfur, Afghanistan or other places where raping and pillaging are the real thing, they describe extracting natural resources from the earth in those preposterously hyperbolic terms.

Our problem is supply and demand. We have more oil within our boundaries than they have in the Middle East, but we can’t use it. We should be drilling in ANWR and off our shores and continental shelf, but China is drilling there, instead, because our lawmakers know the nuts will accuse us of raping and pillaging if we drill there. So we make Ethanol, and have the elevated food prices to prove it.

"Coal to oil" technology is ready. It’s being used elsewhere. It’s said we are the "Middle East of coal" and could supply much of our need with that resource, so why are we not using it?

The shale oil deposits in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming would solve the lion’s share of our problems, but Congress won’t let us develop that, either.

We haven’t built a refinery in 30 years. Why? Raping and pillaging, remember? Our lawmakers are sniveling cowards, and we Americans are playing the "see, hear, speak-no-oil-drilling monkeys." Maybe $5.00 plus a gallon will force us to stop playing games and get serious.

Twas Ever Thus

2008-06-10T08:46:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

There are few Americans who wouldn't prefer to draw within our borders, cushioned by two oceans, and live our lives in peace. It is doubtful we could find enough gung ho warrior types to start an old timey blood feud, much less a real war. Too bad we so rarely get our druthers. Too bad there are truly evil people in this world, determined to subjugate their fellow humans, shedding as much blood as possible in the process. Twas ever thus. Too bad so few Americans know real history. Too bad so many have the need to tweak reality, doggedly fabricating their own version.

As I hear them shouting, "Give peace a chance," I wonder how they can live in this world without noticing that people who refuse to fight for freedom have none. How can they not see that countries who want freedom, and are willing to fight for it, lose it, if they haven't the military muscle to back up their hopes and dreams?

As a schoolchild I watched the Soviets annihilate the aspirations of the Hungarians. I watched tanks rumble through the streets of Budapest. I watched Russians slaughtering peace-hungry Hungarians, crushing the liberty movement in its cradle.

As we young teenagers witnessed the horrifying attacks, we saw no naive Hungarians carrying signs demanding their leaders "give peace a chance." These people lived in the real world. They lived under crushing tyranny. They knew, when fighting evil people, peace comes only through the barrel of a gun. They knew their dreams of freedom could come to fruition only if they were strong enough to fight the behemoth Soviet Union. They were not, and no marching, sign-carrying herd of nitwits could have changed that reality.

When General MacArthur took the job of turning Japan into a free country, he had absolute power. He knew what had to be done, and he had the power and authority to do it. He wrote Japan's constitution, modeling it after ours. He dragged a medieval, predatory society into the 20th century in roughly half a decade, but only because he had the power to do so. If he had been forced to accommodate the incomprehensibly irresponsible crazies of modern America, he could never have done it.

Our tragedy is that we have so many people eager to attack their own country, their own leaders, because they have no interest in, nor comprehension of, reality. They have been tutored by crafty doctrinarians, who know how to obtain their goals through persuasive arguments and slogans, however nonsensical and unrealistic.

This is not new. We have seen the hysterical devotion of Hitler's followers, as he harangued them. To this day we watch in unbelief as the crowds cry, wave and salute, shouting "Heil Hitler" to that depraved animal. The banners, the music, the cry of racial and national superiority were all it took to persuade a plurality of Germans to commit incomprehensible atrocities.

Some Americans steadfastly refuse to believe the horrors committed by the Nazis. To such, I say: Ask my husband what happened. He was there. He watched the blood flow in living color.

To today's mental midgets I say: All it takes for a replay of the bloodletting of Hitler, Togo, Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, etc., is for Americans to deny truth, deny history, defend evil, and attack righteousness and virtue.

Some Americans eagerly line up to do precisely that. We created them ourselves, by wallowing in irresponsible selfishness and self-righteousness, leaving them to grow up unattended or in daycare centers. We trained them in our schools and universities. We made them what they are.

May the God whom we have denied forgive us.

Feeding the Wrong Wolf

2008-06-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

A Cherokee Elder was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said, "A fight is going on inside me... it is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego."

"The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith."

"This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."

One of the children asked, "Which wolf will win?"

Grandfather replied, "The one you feed."

Are Americans feeding the wrong wolf? Let's see: Do you lock your doors at night? Why? Do you let your children walk home alone at night? Why not? What do you fear? What will happen to the rapists and murderers currently on trial? Chances are they will be out in twenty years. And they won't be Lone Rangers; there will be plenty of their ilk with them. Why? Because we are no longer a civilized people.

Instead of producing fewer criminals and controlling the ones we have, we buy bigger locks. We used to leave the keys in our cars, now we lock our cars, then put them in locked garages.

Why are we producing so many vicious criminals? We are determinedly, even defiantly, feeding the wrong wolf. We used to kill bears that threatened us. Last summer, a bear chased our stock. I called the Division of Wildlife and was told we could do nothing unless the bear attacked us. Hmm... How do I shoot a bear that's tearing me to pieces?

Some national agencies are run by half-civilized people with no sense of value. To such, humans are of lesser value than animals, plants and bugs. Nor is a little girl more valuable than the animal who rapes and murders her.

People in other countries think we are terrible. Why? Few know many Americans, but they see our movies, and in most, Americans are awful. They spend the entire movie attacking other people and hopping in and out of bed with anyone available. They prove to viewers, in living color, that Americans are both repulsive and repulsively uncivilized.

Citizens used to be safe on our streets, because criminals were locked up. Now citizens are locked in minifortresses, because criminals are safe on our streets. If a criminal attacks with a gun, he will be back on the street before his victim is out of the hospital. If a victim defends himself with a gun, he is likely to find himself punished more severely than his attacker.

We are a civilized nation. Or are we? That is the crux of the matter. We are not only uncivilized, we wear our incivility like a badge of virtue.

Writers of letters to editors make politically motivated charges they know are lies, but they also know most readers won't know they are lies. In their minds, if a falsehood is not exposed, it's as good as truth. Stalin said a lie repeated often enough is accepted as fact. Every dictator of the past century - most of them mass murderers- operated on the same principle.

Candidates tell outrageous lies to cheering followers, most of whom, knowing they are false, repeat them anyway.

Large numbers of schools produce functionally illiterate children; when officials are called to account and threatened with competition, they fly into uncivilized hysterics. It's everyone's fault but theirs. All they need is more money.

We have become a violent nation. Why? Because, we have devalued virtue, elevated expediency and wealth, and belligerently, even self-righteously, fed the wrong wolf.

Brothers Fight Back to Back

2008-06-06T07:36:00.004-06:00

Greetings Gentle Reader,

A mother of my acquaintance, in an attempt to keep her twin sons from fighting, told them that brothers only fight back to back. The boys tried mightily to follow her instructions. Soon, in a state of extreme frustration, they returned. Turning their backs to each other, they demonstrated the impossibility of landing a blow no matter how they tried, and, oh, how they tried!

Even though we all had a good chuckle, the principle remains intact. Brothers should never fight, except back to back. To whom does this apply? Obviously, it applies to siblings and, yes, their parents as well. All homes would benefit from parents who never fight with, but only for, each other even though that principle (a correct one) has little credibility these days.

There are things which the children of quarreling parents assume to be acceptable, one is that petty bickering is okay, another is that negotiation is not necessary, still another is to neither compromise nor take turns, but the saddest thing they learn is that family cohesiveness and loyalty always take a back seat to personal whims. How can any child feel secure when he knows that parental wants are more important than he is?

If brothers shouldn't fight and parents shouldn't fight, how about fellow Americans? Can perpetual nastiness between citizens be acceptable? We modern Americans need to relearn the meaning of fighting back to back. We are being taught from all sides, by both precept and example, that fighting is not only acceptable, but that it pays very well.

Benjamin Franklin said to a colleague, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." The basic meaning of this is "We must fight back to back or we will be so vulnerable that 'they' will pick us off one at a time."

We ask decent, honorable people to run for public office, and then we abuse them with very little provocation. We have some truly loyal Americans in some of our state capitals and in Washington, and yet the slander to which they are subjected is something of which all Americans
should be deeply ashamed.

The best, the finest are, too often, unwilling to tolerate the attacks they would attract if they were to accept a term as a public servant. Since we do want the best, and we do need the best, we are going to have to change the way we treat loyal, hard-working citizens who are in our service. We do have some good ones to practice on, and since we are not going to learn this skill any younger we had better get started, hadn't we?

Words of the Past

2008-06-02T14:33:00.003-06:00

Do we gain by listening to the teachings and warnings of our predecessors? Did they know things that we have yet to learn? Can their hard-won wisdom save us from committing critical errors that will cause us grief and misery? Yes, especially if we have enough sense to act on their warnings.

Let's examine the writings of some wise men of the past: John Adams our second President, and the man primarily responsible for shepherding our Declaration of Independence through Congress, said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

H.R. Haweis, an 1800's English clergyman, left this ominous warning, applicable to America's growing ranks of lawless and violent citizens: "It is useless to make good laws for bad people."

Edmund Burke saw the horrifying excesses of the French revolution and, rather than romanticize them, as was and is the norm, he recognized them for what they were. He warned, "Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without... It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free... Their passions forge their fetters. "

Grover Cleveland, our President in the early 1880's, said: "A government FOR the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves."

Considering the above, I would say we are in big trouble. So, is there a solution? Indeed, there is: For a starter, we had better become good enough people to be governed by our Constitution, because it, and it alone, stands between us a growing cadre of government officials who are anxious to: 1) relieve us of our freedoms and 2) destroy our sovereignty.

We must cease to be apathetic. Americans seem not to care about much of anything anymore, especially if it takes place outside their TV screens. An amazingly small number of people bother to register and vote, even though the very life of our nation depends, according to Grover Cleveland, on the interest the American people take in their government. When common, everyday citizens abdicate their sacred responsibility to their nation, political predators in the states and in Washington eagerly take advantage of their sloth.

Let's make those who want to govern us meet Haweis' and Adams' standard; they must be moral, honest and decent, free of greed, ambition, and a desire to see the world at the taxpayer's expense. They must be willing to forego the temptation to implement a social agenda contrary to the values of the majority of those whom they govern. Let's vote for individuals eager to be public servants, while avoiding giving power to those who can't wait to become public parasites, predators and/or social engineers.

James Garfield, elected President in 1881, said, "The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them..."

That's the answer; let's apply the Adams, Haweis, Burke, Cleveland and Garfield test; if we have a Representative, Senator or even a President who measures up, let's keep him; otherwise, let's put him out to pasture.

Strength and Gentleness are Not Incompatible

2008-06-01T22:10:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Several decades ago a very old woman in a large Eastern city was evicted from her apartment. She was put out on the sidewalk with all her meager belongings. She seemed confused. She simply sat there on a chair, doing nothing, saying nothing.

The people walking by began to take her belongings. By the time the TV cameraman got there she appeared to have little left but the chair on which she sat.

This awful scene, observed from coast to coast, horrified the rest of America, but the people who passed by the old lady, as she was being robbed, seemed not to have taken any interest in her plight.

If this were to happen today, what would be the reaction of the people in America’s heartland? I would want them to be horrified, as we were back then. I would want someone to stand up to the predators and defend her. In fact, what I would like to see is some tall man in a military uniform take her under his arm and warn off all those who were preying on one so helpless.

That’s the America I know. That’s the America I have always loved. That’s the America I will love until the day I die, after which I will no doubt tell everyone in the Spirit World that America is the sweetest country on the face of the earth. And, yes, that’s the America I yearn for us to be, even when we fall short.

Can you imagine anyone in the rural Rocky Mountain West walking by such a scene, without doing something to help a confused old lady? I cannot.

The fact that she had been thrown out on the street, in her condition, was truly evil, but to have others strip her of everything she owned is beyond comprehension. It might well happen in a big city, but not in rural America, especially western America.

So, now to the big question. If those of you who live in big cities were to observe such a horrifying scene, what would you do? Think it over. Think through all the details. What would you do?

The people stealing from the old woman were not aggressive. They were not attacking her. They were simply taking everything a totally helpless old woman owned.

Would you defend her? Would you be sufficiently aggressive in her defense that the human trash preying on her would back off?

Sometimes we have to take a stand in defense of the helpless, but if we have never contemplated having to do so, there is a chance we would take no action. There is a silly commercial that says, "Life comes at you fast." The grammar may be wanting, but the concept is intact. Life does come at you "fast", so it pays to contemplate potential circumstances and decide how we would react to them before they happen. That is why the military drills and drills and drills. Anything less is an open invitation to failure, and failure means dead soldiers and Marines. It especially means death to those who fly airplanes at the speed of sound. So think it over. What would you do?

Somehow, we need to be prepared to defend the defenseless anytime their plight is put before us, but we need to do it without letting it sour us on our fellow humans. Our soldiers in Iraq must fight and kill, yet be ready to be kind to innocent Iraqis, especially the children, who are as much victims as are our soldiers.

We must be the same. We must fight for the weak when it is time to do so, but we must extend love when that is right.

The Lord needs a cheerful people. He wants them to be brave and willing to do what is needed, but we must be cheerful as well.

When our people came west, life was hard and not without danger, but at the end of the day, Brother Brigham wanted them to sing and dance. Why? Because it helped them to be cheerful. It helped them to like each other. It helped them to see each other’s good side. It reminded them that they were all in this together, and when a team all pulls the same way, they get the job done.

We can be strong and faithful. We can be brave and kind. Perhaps the hardest part is to defend the defenseless without becoming estranged from our fellow beings. By extrapolation, that means we must live with neighbors of different political persuasions, different races and different religions without ill will. It means we must behave as the Lord told us He wanted us to behave. The Book of Mormon calls it railing, and the Lord wants us not to do it.

Let us be determined to do as He commanded us.

Return to the Neighborhood.

A Culture At War With Itself

2008-05-30T21:20:00.003-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

A young man and I approached the post office door at the same time. I smiled at him and stepped aside, expecting him to hold the door for me. Instead, he smiled back, opened the door and walked through. As I realized that I had fallen back into an old pattern that is no longer in effect, it struck my funny bone, and I started to giggle.

It reminded me of another incident of thirty-plus years ago. At that time I was also approaching a post office door. There were several older men standing around, passing the time of day. One of them stepped forward, smiled and opened the door for me. As he did, he touched his fingers to the brim of his hat in a courteous salute. I remember thinking that, though we were in California at the time, this man must have come from southwestern Colorado. It was such a typical Colorado salute for a man of his generation.

At that time in our nation's history, men treated women with respect and courtesy. In fact, contrary to what we are told by today's man haters, a man who abused his wife was not the norm - at least not in southwestern Colorado. And since we were stationed in many different parts of this country over the years, I can say that it was not the norm in any of the other places in which I have lived. Don't misunderstand; I am not saying it didn't happen; I am saying it was not the norm on the east coast, in the Midwest, in the Northwest, nor in Cal ifornia. I cannot say what went on in the Northeast or the Southeast, not did I ever live in the northern part of the Midwest, but for rest, a man who abused his wife was the exception, not the rule.

A paratrooper named Ross Carter wrote a book of his experiences during the hard fighting in Europe, as the allies took the continent back from Adolf Hitler - one bloody battle at a time. He said the men, overwhelming, were fighting for their wives, their fiances, their mothers and their sisters. Each man was fighting for a world in which his loved ones would remain safe and free.

During that period in our history, the term "battle of the sexes" was often used. If it was a battle at all, it was a tremendously fun battle. Good men valued good women, and they were willing to fight to protect them. Having been born very shortly before that war started, I know that is true. In fact, before the feminists began the battle of the sexes in earnest, maligning and abusing all men shamefully and unjustly - with special attention to white men - we women were treated with care and respect; and we were protected by men much more than we were ever abused.

Women were protected from contact sports, because women's bodies take a worse beating from that sort of sport than men's do, seriously compromising their chance of survival during childbirth. Feminists interpreted this as discrimination, while the rest of us interpreted it as protection. Men were kept from women's locker rooms, dorms and bathrooms. Normal women knew those rules were for their protection. Feminists saw it as discrimination (and they have successfully discarded those rules in many colleges.) But when they forced themselves into the locker rooms of professional football teams, they were outraged that the men walked around naked in front of them. They saw no reason why men should be protected from a woman reporter's outrageous intrusion in a locker room - where the men really do take showers with their clothes off - but they were furious when they were not protected from the sight of naked males. What did they think football players did in their locker rooms? Play Old Maid?

When I hear women say they are feminists because they want to be equal with men, I cringe. We were always treated as though we were superior to men. Men held doors, chairs and coats for us. They stood up and gave us their seats, and they let us get ahead of them in a line. If a woman's car broke, some man would invariably come along and fix it - right on the street and without charge. I was never afraid of being attacked when a man stopped to help me; I knew why he was stopping. If I were in trouble and had to go into a man's repair shop to buy something, I knew I would probably be able to buy what I needed for less than they would sell it to a man.

My husband treated women this way. He was an honorable, decent man, and he treated women as though they were God's gift to good men. If I was very tired and would rather go without food than get some for myself, he would get it for me. He tucked me in carefully at night and was happy to get me a glass of water if I was thirsty. He tried to make sure my car was safe and filled with fuel. He didn't like to have me wandering around our property alone at night, and that was especially if it was cold or rainy. He preferred to have me stay inside, while he tended to whatever problem had arisen. If it was something I had to do and he couldn't do it for me, then he accompanied me.

We are in a fight for the survival of our society and our country. That which we know to be good is derided and punished. That which we know to be bad is forced on us by the courts and government. Our government persecutes and prosecutes whistle blowers. Women in the military have to abandon their babies to serve in foreign lands. Men are forced to have women with them 24 hours a day in missile silos. Military people are told that adultery is totally acceptable in our modern society, but are drummed out of the military when they engage in it, and then lie about it. But then politicians seem to have a free pass on all offenses, even when they betray us to our enemies.

The people of our nation have split into two opposing camps. One side aggressively embraces and defends our present society, with its rampant sexual and social depravity, anti-nationalism and refusal to accept personal responsibility for the social violence it has spawned. The other side remembers what it was like to leave the keys in the car and the door unlocked. They remember when children were safe on the school grounds and the schools taught history, geography and the three "R's." They remember unabashed patriotism and devotion to a good, constructive country, filled with freedom and concern for one's fellow man.

If the intelligent women of this country could know what they have forfeited in their ridiculous fight for "equality," many of them would shed tears for its loss, as I do. We are a culture at war with itself, and we are losing.

Families: the Real Endangered Species

2008-05-28T06:00:00.001-06:00

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Our wisest leaders are sounding a warning about the fatherless state of America’s youth. Fatherless fathers tend to produce fatherless children, who become, in turn, fathers who see no reason to father. Though they have nothing against impregnating women.

A man of my acquaintance has fathered six children by six different women. He doesn’t support most of them. They are of no importance to him. At this juncture, there will be a hue and cry from feminists to force him to pay child support, as though that were the most important factor in this tragedy. It is not. Each of these children will grow up with either no father, a stepfather, or a series of men who live with their mother for a time and who, statistically, will abuse both mother and child.

Studies have proven that the safest circumstances for women and children are within an intact marriage. The least safe is a woman living with what is now called a boyfriend. About three decades ago, militant feminists declared that no woman would be free as long as she was married, because marriage was a particularly despicable form of slavery. They stated that their goal was to get women out of marriage.

Congratulations! They have succeeded. It is now common for a woman to have three or four children by as many different men. Those men have no interest in their children; if they had, they would have married the woman they impregnated. It is said that there are more out-of-wedlock children fathered by professional athletes than there are professional athletes. Since so many athletes have been the targets of multiple, DNA-established paternity suits, that statement is probably true.

Unmarried movie and TV stars proudly become pregnant and glamorize the birth of fatherless children. Teenage girls watch and emulate these stars, but it doesn’t turn out quite the way they expected. They end up in horrible circumstances; living in dumps; sometimes fighting for custody of a child; always worrying and working almost as many hours as there are in a day.

These mothers, alone, carry a load that is heavy for two parents. Often, her parents must step in and help, either financially or physically.

Is there a happy ending to this dreary picture? Well, it all depends, as we so commonly say. Depends on what? It depends on whether Cinderella is determined to go looking for and marry nothing short of a prince, or whether she is willing to allow herself to become impregnated by a knave.

The next questions is: Where do princes hang out? Not in a gutter, that’s for sure. A prince is not, nor will a prince marry, a druggie or a drunk. Will Cinderella recognize a prince when she sees one? If her father was married to her mother, if he loved both mother and daughter and cared for them, she will probably know what a real prince looks like. If she doesn’t know her father, or if he disappeared years ago, she may end up impregnated by a series of knaves and her children will most likely repeat the pattern. If so, her sons will produce children they don’t want and refuse to father, and her daughters will produce several children by several different
men.

The real endangered species is the family; only good sense, responsible behavior and genuine concern for women and children can change that. It is late in the game, but it’s never over until the last whistle blows. It won’t be easy, but we can turn it around, if we want to do so badly
enough.

Rocky Mountain Straight Talk

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