Rocky Mountain Straight Talk

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.

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

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

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.

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.