WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND HONESTY AND CAN IT BE RESTORED?

For this week's blog I decided to step away from my posts on political correctness - although I am sure I will return to it in the weeks to come.  Today I wanted to talk about honesty.

I once heard a quote from George MacDonald that stated: "To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved."  It took me a while to wrap my head around that one because my first impulse was to strike back with the fact that no feeling is greater than to be loved.  However, after mulling it over I began to think about the people in my own life whom I loved and who I trusted and I came to a startling conclusion.  I didn't necessarily trust everyone I loved and I didn't love everyone I trusted.  So why was that?

The answer was not hard to figure out.  The people I trusted were those who were honest in all of their dealings - you had absolutely no doubt about their actions or words.  On the other hand, those that I did not trust were those who were not honest or, at the very least, not honest on a consistent basis.  They stretched truth and they were not above "getting even" with the other guy who they believed had been unfair to them.  As an example, I have had friends who were given too much change back on a purchase they had made and did not return or report the oversight.  In stead, they made comments such as, "They've overcharged me in the past - this just makes things even," or "If they're too stupid to count then they deserve to lose money."  These comments are simply given to try and justify an action that they knowingly know is deceptive and dishonest.  My thought on this is that if we can so easily be dishonest on small things (and I say that facetiously because what may seem small to one can be a big thing to another) then it is not that big of a leap to become dishonest in every facet of our lives, including being dishonest to ourselves.

I have come in contact with many dishonest people throughout my life but for this article I am going to focus on one specific industry - mostly because my son just had an incident this week that made me think back on my own experiences - and that is with the industry of auto repair and, more specifically, auto mechanics.  Dishonest dealings among this group runs rampant.  Do they really have no integrity? I know that's a blanket statement but the percentage of dishonest mechanics is mind boggling and it's sickening to think that they can actually sleep at night.  They rob their fellow men blind.

I could list literally dozens and dozens of incidents where I or a family member or friend have been ripped off by mechanics but for the sake of space, I'll relay only three experiences I have had.  The first happened way back when I first started to drive.  I was excited to finally have my own car and I was determined to take good care of it.  My first item to address was to put four new tires on - I wanted to be safe.  New tires on I drove away feeling good.  When I got out of the car I noticed a green liquid dripping from underneath the car.  My first thought was that the mechanic had to have punctured something when he put the tires on because I absolutely had no leak when I brought my car to him.  I immediately turned around and headed back to the mechanic's.

The mechanic patiently listened to my concern, took my car in and an hour later told me that no puncture had occurred during the tire installation; however, I had a bad radiator and it was leaking antifreeze.  Okay, so how much was that going to cost me?  The mechanic threw a whole lot of terminology at me that, as a newbie to driving, were well beyond my understanding - something on the line that since the radiator would have to be replaced then this thing would need to be replaced as well and, naturally, we would also have to replace that thing and so on.  They could do the repair that afternoon for an estimated cost of $650.00.  $650.00 I blanched.  I was a poor college student.  $650.00 might as well have been $6,500.00.  There was no way that I could afford that.  I told the mechanic I would think about it and get back to him later.  He told me the car was not safe and I would be taking a risk trying to drive it.  I had no choice but to drive away.  -  I'll finish this story later.

My second experience occurred a few years later.  Again, I had a new used car and one day the directional rod snapped off.  I took my car to a mechanic (and this one had been recommended to me) who told me it would take several days to fix it.  Yup - you read that right - several days to fix a directional rod.  Even though flags popped up - since the mechanic had been recommended, I figured it was what was needed so I left my car with him.  Three days later I got a call that the part had been replaced and I could now come and get it.

Happy to be getting my car back I arrived at the shop, seeing my car sitting at the back of the lot, and walked into the office.  I was handed a bill for $64.00 which was broken down to $20.00 for parts and $44.00 for labor (translated to 1 and 1/2 hours of labor).  Really?  Happy to have my car back I paid the bill and practically skipped to my car.  Got in, pulled out and then hit the directional rod to pull out of the lot.  Boy was I surprised when the rod fell off onto the floor.

I pulled right back up to the shop's office and told the mechanic what had happened (I was holding the broken directional rod).  The mechanic walked out to the car and looked at the broken half of the rod attached to my wheel and then had the audacity to say, "Guess the glue didn't stick."  GLUE?  Was he kidding?  I paid $20.00 for GLUE?  That was my replaced part?

Not even looking at me he went back into the shop and quickly returned with a package.  He opened the package that contained a brand new directional rod.  He unscrewed the broken rod on the steering wheel and then screwed in the new rod.  As he was doing that I glanced at the package the rod was in.  There was a price tag of $5.99.  He finally looked back up at me and said, "That should do it.  They'll be no charge for the new part.  Have a good day."  He then walked back into his office, leaving me dumbfounded.  It had taken him less than five minutes to replace the part once I showed him the broken rod.  Less than five minutes!  He had kept my car for three days, told me he had replaced the part and then charged me $64.00.  Let's see, I was charged $20.00 for my own broken rod that he GLUED on.  That glue cost me $20.00 and he then charged me $44.00 for less than five minutes of labor.  At that price, that would translate into $528.00 per hour for labor. And then he had the gall to tell me that there would be no charge for the new part.  Are you freaking kidding me.  How does he look at himself in the mirror?

My third experience happened while I was living outside of Atlanta, Georgia.  My Dodge Grand Caravan began to have transmission problems.  By this time I was experienced enough to know that transmission problems meant lots of $$$.  I took my car to Aamco Transmission.  After four hours, I was given a quote of nearly $900 to fix it.  I was told that many parts needed to be replaced.  Like my earlier days, I decided to get a second opinion so I went to Mr. Transmission.  Two hours later I was given a quote of $580.00.  Still high but a lot better than the $900.  I thought I'd go with that but then my husband decided to check on one more mechanic.  Looking through the yellow pages he found a small family owned mechanic - it was Abercrombie Transmission located in Douglasville, Georgia.

We headed off to Abercrombie and an hour later we were given a quote - the total cost for parts and labor would be $97.00.  Yup - $97.00.  The mechanic explained what needed to be done.  I didn't need a whole lot of parts replaced.  We went with Abercrombie and my car ran beautifully for the next several years until we gave it away to one of our kids.  The mechanics at Aamco and at Mr. Transmission were grossly dishonest in what needed to be done to my car - grossly dishonest to me and they did so without a single care.  However, in this case, I did find someone who was honest - honest to a fault - the mechanic at Abercrombie Transmission.  He wasn't interested in ripping me off - he was interested in doing what was right.  Even at $97.00 he made a profit - a reasonable profit - not a highway robbery profit.  He was a godsend.  Later I learned from several other people in the area that if you wanted good work and an honest mechanic - head over to Abercrombie.

Back to my first story.  I drove away in what was supposed to be a dangerous vehicle.  I drove it to Sears.  In those days, Sears was providing full auto repair services.  As you recall, my car was leaking green fluid and the mechanic who had replaced my tires, now quoted me $650 to replace my radiator, among other things.  So now here I was at Sears.  I relayed what had happened to the head mechanic there.  He looked to be in his forties and so I asked him if he had a daughter.  He blinked a few times and then said that he did have one.  I then said, "Please treat me like you would want someone to treat your daughter."  He studied me for a few seconds and then asked me to lead him to my car.

Outside in the parking lot he got down on his hands and knees and looked under my car.  He inspected it from several angles and then asked me to pop the trunk.  I thought that was a strange request but obligingly, I popped the trunk.  He looked inside and then pulled out a container of antifreeze that I kept in there.  He then turned to me and said, "I found your leak.  The antifreeze tipped over and the cap is loose.  Antifreeze is leaking out and seeping through the trunk.  There are no punctures, nothing wrong with your radiator, you just have a leaking trunk."  Tightening the cap, he handed the antifreeze container to me and smiled, "That should fix it."

You can imagine that I felt quite dumb and very embarrassed.  I asked him how much he wanted for his time and he said, "Nothing - I've got a good story to tell my wife tonight."  Despite my embarrassment, the one thing I knew was that he had treated me honestly.  The mechanic at Abercrombie had treated me honestly.  There is honesty out there but why is it so hard to find?

There once was a time in our society when honesty was the norm - no matter what profession you were in - no matter what age you were - people prided themselves in being honest.  Today - we live in a world of entitlement and that mindset has made us think that our actions, whatever they may be, are justified because we are entitled to whatever we want by whatever means it takes to get it and we could care less about the other guy.  With a growing generation of entitlees - can the pride in being honest to our fellow man ever be restored or do we continue on this downward slide of total disregard for one another.  I believe if we can all start focusing on being truthful, first to ourselves and then to our fellow man, then a lot of the problems we face in the world today would melt away.  We need to care for one another (see my posts on how political correctness wants us to fear one another) and, more importantly, we need to care about ourselves and hope that one day we can receive the greatest compliment - the compliment of being someone who can be trusted.

Would love to hear of your experiences with honesty.  Let's together focus on restoring a lost art.

Until next time,
your friend,
Chris

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT GONE AMUCK (Post 2)

You might be thinking that political correctness and sexual harassment are two separate topics but the fact is - the political correctness craze has spilled over into nearly every facet of our lives, including sexual harassment.  How?  As I mentioned in my first political correctness post, political correctness’ sole purpose is to drive a wedge into humanity in order to make each of us afraid to interact with each other.  Nothing controls man more succinctly than the fear of being accused of sexual deviance, especially when in today’s world, sexual deviance can be just about anything anyone wants it to be.  Holy cow – better keep my mouth shut.

Just a few decades ago sexual harassment wasn’t even a topic of discussion.  That doesn’t mean that it didn’t exist or that it doesn’t exit today but what has now been defined as sexual harassment goes way beyond any normal common sense reasoning and is, frankly, astronomically absurd.  I would find myself laughing at the ridiculous stupidity of it were it not for the fact that so many innocent people are being permanently and callously damaged by its irrational condemnation and disregard to any actual truth or fact.

Going on my own experience with the sexual harassment agenda, most companies today require all of their employees to take a sexual harassment class every couple of years.  I’d like to point out that in my life I have never personally known of a single person who has ever been sexually harassed, although the media would like us to believe it is very common place – in fact, running rampant in our society.  (Remember – political correctness drills fear into us.)  So, being naïve, I attended my first mandatory sexual harassment class and found myself completely dumbfounded at what was being taught and defined as sexual harassment.

Our instructor was very professional, taking the time to explain that sexual harassment is not accepted in our company and that everyone should feel safe in reporting sexual harassment incidents to their superiors without fear of any retaliation.  Okay – sounds good.  Then she went on to present her slide show which listed what she explained to be examples of sexual harassment that we could encounter.  I will not list all her bullet points but I’d like to list some that I found to be disturbing.  They are as follows:

(a)          Telling someone that they look “nice”.

(b)         Telling someone they had pretty eyes or a beautiful smile.

(c)          Making any comment whatsoever with regard to someone’s dress, such as stating that their suit was “attractive” or their shoes are very “stylish”, I love your tie, that’s a great color on you, etc.  NO comment should ever be given as to one’s physical appearance.  Physical appearance is a “stay away from” topic.

(d)         Making any comment such as “you look a lot like my cousin,” or “you remind me of an old girlfriend/boyfriend.”

I, along with just about everyone else in the room, had to lift up our jaws from off the floor.  This instructor just had to be kidding us – right?  Nope – she was dead serious – and then she went on to tell us of an actual story.  The story went like this.

Boss A’s assistant walks into his office to deliver the morning mail and Boss A tells the assistant that she reminds him of his girlfriend he had when he was in college.  A co-worker was walking past the office and overheard the comment and, later, reported the incident to the personnel director who passed it on to the company’s superior.  A few days later, Boss A was “let go” (fired) for sexual harassment in a company who had a “no tolerance” policy in place.

The instructor pointed out that Boss A had violated bullet point (d).

I raised my hand and asked whether the assistant herself had felt that she had been sexually harassed by Boss A’s comment and the instructor said that whether or not she did was irrelevant as the comment itself should have never been made.  So I followed up with another question.  “What if she DID resemble his past love?  Did anyone see a picture of this old girlfriend?”

Again the instructor stated that whether she did or didn’t look like this old girlfriend was not the point – the point was that the comment itself should have never been made.

Not being put off, I asked, “Then how can someone who is simply making an observation be accused of sexual harassment?  Maybe she was a spitting image of his past girlfriend and he was simply reminiscing, thinking back to a happy time.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  In fact, if I were the assistant, I would find that to be very flattering.”

Frustrated, the instructor reiterated that the comment was inappropriate and was not asked for by the assistant.  She went on to say that, “Any comment that makes a person feel uncomfortable is classified as being sexual harassment.”

I said, “I wouldn’t be in the least bit uncomfortable with such a comment and from your story, neither was the assistant.”

The instructor came back with, “The person who reported it WAS uncomfortable.”

I’m like – “WHAT?  Boss A never made the comment to that person.”

The instructor answered, “That didn’t matter – the comment made another feel uncomfortable and that is CLASSIFIED as being sexual harassment.”

You have got to be freaking kidding me.  I said, “Look, that story has absolutely nothing to do with sexual harassment and if anyone thinks it does – then they should concentrate on taking their own heads out of the gutter and cleaning up their own thoughts.  I’ll tell you what constitutes sexual harassment.  Boss A tells new employee, “Meet me at the hotel down the street and, if you’re really good to me, I might let you work on this new project.  Room 525 – be there or don’t bother coming back to work tomorrow.”

The instructor was none too happy and I did think that I was now on the chopping block at work but, luckily, after she left, even my superiors came up to me and thanked me for speaking up.  The company leaders and employees, for several days after that class, made several comments to each other such as, “Red is a good color for you – oh, I’m sorry, that was sexual harassment – right?”  “Love your shoes – oh, I’m sorry, that was sexual harassment.”  We all knew how absurd the whole thing was and the truth is, I’d say that at least 95% of the world’s population, if not more, know it is outrageous as well – so why are we letting the 5% control us?

That was at work and, fortunately, I worked with adults who had common sense but it wasn’t too long after that that a news story broke out about a 6 year old boy being suspended from school for kissing a little girl on the playground.  He was suspended for sexual harassment.  WHAT?

Although that incident occurred a few years back, the trend has continued to escalate.  People have lost their jobs solely on what was on the mind of someone else, having absolutely nothing to do with truth and reality, and young children have been suspended on a topic they knew little to nothing about.  What kind of a generation is going to grow up when, at the tender age of 6 you have already been labeled in society as a sexual deviant?  Political correctness has gone amuck but, unfortunately, as for its champions and the lack of the right speaking up, it has succeeded in instilling an entire generation with fear of expressing basic complimentary and uplifting comments.  Comments that I personally would love to hear.  Comments that make me and hundreds of millions of people feel better.  I want to get those compliments – its compliments that often get you through a rough day.  And, with the amount of time women spend on trying to look nice – it’s extremely deflating to one’s “self-esteem” to not get noticed for your efforts.

I decided those years way back after that first sexual harassment class that I was not going to fall prey to the brainless ridiculousness of the craze.  Bring on all compliments – I’m a big girl and can handle them.  And if I see someone who looks “nice” – well, by golly, I’m going to tell them so – and, hopefully, that will brighten their day.  Let’s ban together and ignore the political correctness/sexual harassment bull-crap and start making life a little more enjoyable for each other and a lot less stressful!

Until next time,

Yours truly,

Chris

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS - HUMANITY'S WEDGE (Post 1)

I was really happy with the response to my first blog post and appreciated everyone’s comments, either made on the blog or through private e-mails to me.  As a clarification, before I venture into my second post, I want to reiterate that the point of this blog is to be able to sound off my views and understandings – I’ve kept silent for far too long – and to search for the truth – the REAL truth in a world that is awashed in deception.  Now some of you reading these posts may be of the mind that your truth is the truth, or that there is more than “one” truth, and I’m trying to ram my truth down your throat.  Let me make it clear that I am not ramming anything down anyone’s throat but I am expressing my views.  Too many people like myself are being silenced because what we have to say “offends” people.  (Good lead into this new posting.)  I am, however, looking for the real, honest truth that has not been propagandized either politically or morally to justify one’s personal beliefs and behaviors.  That being said, there are many beliefs and behaviors that have been built upon lies and falsehoods as opposed to truth and correctness - mostly because to believe the truth would find oneself condemned for one’s own actions and people do not want to be told or hear that they are doing or believing in something wrong so they, in reverse, condemn the people who are speaking real truth in order to try and justify their own wayward behaviors.  So, as I continue to post, know that I am not going to apologize for speaking the truth and stepping on toes because of its harshness.

Woe, woe – I can hear the ruffled feathers already.  “Speaking the truth?” you may be saying.  “Yeah, you’re truth and who appointed you the all knowing and seer of truth?”  Okay – hold onto something because I’m going to tell you – God and Common Sense!  All real truth is based on these two “facts” – God and Common Sense.  It doesn’t matter what you believe – that belief cannot change this FACT.  It’s not propagandized or demoralized.  It’s cold hard truth.  That will make many people feel very uncomfortable and quick to condemn but no matter how much you condemn this FACT – it will remain FACT.  I am in no way perfect and I myself have lived by false facts, still have some in my closet I’m sure and, through this blog journey, I am going to have to face my own harsh realities, but I will not bend, back down or turn away from finding the truth that has been buried and distorted.  All my truth comes from God and Common Sense!  Know all this from the beginning and you will understand where I stand and where I am heading in all of my future posts.  Again, I welcome your comments, all comments.  Together, despite our differences, we can find a way to become united in a cause to save our world because our world is being snuffed out.

So, let’s get to the topic of this post – political correctness.  Perhaps no other term has done more damage in driving a wedge between mankind than this one piece of unadulterated trash.  It has no redeeming qualities.  The sole purpose of political correctness is to make everyone fearful of each other.  If we fear each other, we will not talk to each other.  We will not associate with each other.  We will be divided into millions and millions of pieces.  That is exactly what the political correctness advocates are pushing for.  Weaken the masses and then come in for the kill – there’ll be no resistance.

Political correctness has literally weaved its way into every crack and crevice of our society and there it has festered and grown into a formidable beast.  Everywhere you turn someone is complaining, “That’s not politically correct.”  An example that happened to me a few years ago happened at work.  A group of employees went out to lunch.  As they left they were debating on getting Chinese food, Japanese food or Thai food.  I didn’t go but later was asked by a fellow worker where did the group go out to eat.  I replied, “They were going to get oriental food.”  I believed this covered the response as I did not know specifically what kind of food they wound up getting.  However, I was immediately rebuked and told that “oriental” was offensive.  “It is?” I thought.  “Since when?”  I was then told that my answer should have been that they were going to get “Asian” food.  Well excuse me…  So I said, “Then I guess there’s no such thing as ‘Oriental’ rugs anymore.  They’re now ‘Asian’ rugs.  And there’s no more ‘Orient Express’, it’s the ‘Asian’ Express.”  I was given an angry stare back and told to be careful because they were “offended” – and this person wasn’t even oriental – oh excuse me again – Asian.

Hey, I personally love “oriental” rugs.  I think they’re beautiful and when I hear someone else talk about having an “oriental” rug, I immediately imagine a work of art.  By my use of the word “oriental” I have no negative image in mind and I am NOT being offensive in any way, shape or form.  If you are offended then the offense is taking place in your own mind.  Perhaps you should re-evaluate your own thought processes and don’t judge or condemn me because of YOUR thoughts.  And that is what political correctness does – it makes people judge others by what is in their own thoughts – having little to nothing to do with reality or truth.  It has no care as to what was in the mind of the accused because what they intended or thought is irrelevant.  They are condemned just because what they said wasn’t liked.  So what do we wind up doing?  We keep our mouths shut because we know we will suffer punishment otherwise regardless of our intent.  We’ve become afraid to say anything.  Well, I am NOT politically correct and I am proud of it – thank you very much!

Before barking at me, understand that there is a difference between being politically correct and being crude and judgmental.  They are not the same thing.  I don’t believe it is okay to go about saying someone is stupid or are ugly or fat just because you want to demean them.  That is bullying and is unacceptable but even that is not a criminal offense and is not a “hate” crime.  It’s a crime of ignorance.  We all suffer from being ignorant at times in our lives so the common sense thing to do is learn from it and make the necessary changes – not be condemned and made to be fearful.  So, you see, I do believe that we need to be respectful of each other and some things are vehemently not okay – but those things are far and few in-between.  We need to stop being so easily offended.

I could go on and on with this topic but since it covers such a vast array of our lives I will have to break it up into many posts.  I’d love to hear your take on political correctness and even hear about some of your own experiences.  Later I’ll go even deeper into the political correctness crime spree and point out what we need to do to abolish it – abolish the hatred that comes with it – and find our way back to being able to enjoy each other and our differences.  To be able to laugh again at what makes us different and what makes us so much alike!

Until next time,

Yours truly,

Chris

SOUNDING OFF FOR TRUTH!

Today, March 3, 2012, begins my first post to this Blog.  I've never blogged before - not certain I ever wanted to.  Blogging, from what I've heard, is kind of like writing in a diary - only this diary isn't private - it's open for the whole world to see.  Now why would I want to do that?

So, I started studying blogs.  Many are there to teach something - cooking, woodworking, blogging, etc, etc, etc, and some are just to sound off.  Me - I found myself falling into the category of wanting to sound off.  Sound off on what?  The current state of our world, our government, the medical field, the mental health industry, the public school system, the attack on religion, the attack on the family unit, political correctness (oh please - give me a break) and just about everything else.  I decided I wanted to enact my Constitutional right to free speech before that right totally disappears - and hold onto you hats folks because it's disappearing fast.

It was an awakening when I decided to create my very own blog.  Would anyone else even see it?  Did it matter if they did or didn't?  Honestly, I hope millions see it but even if I wind up being the only one - I want to record how I am personally seeing our world fall into oblivion.  If you are a religious person - what you are witnessing today is the days of the book of Revelation or - these are the last days.  Really - how much worse could it get?  Probably a whole lot worse but do we really want to sit around and watch it die and do nothing to stop it?  I know I don't but just what can I do?  That's the question I'm sure thousand, hundreds of thousands - if not millions of people are asking themselves on a regular basis.  "What can I do to stop the madness around me?"  If you're not religious - you probably don't care at all about what's happening cause it just doesn't matter.

Well I'm religious and I care!  What I don't know is what to do to stop it other than to sound off and hope that if enough of us sound off - it will lead to the actions to stop the madness.  So I'm sounding off in a blog.  Now - what to name the blog?  That was a challenge I hadn't expected.  It literally took me weeks.  However, I knew it had to do with truth - REAL truth - not propaganda truth.  It amazes me how much is thrown at us today by the media as being "truth" when in reality it has absolutely nothing to do with truth or is a twisted perversion of the truth.  But I'll address this issue in later posts.

Today, I want to give a little background on myself.  I grew up in Massachusetts, a staunch Democratic society. It didn't matter who you were, what station in life you found yourself in or what side of the track you were born on, we all believed we were part of the Kennedy dynasty.  A dynasty that fought for the rights of the "little" people against the "giant" corporations whose sole purpose was to stomp on the backs of the "little" people for their own warped financial gain.  Funny thing is, all those "little" people were dreaming of creating their own corporations so they could be rich.  Seems like a conflict of interest when I look back on it now.

As time went on and I began to learn, I found that many of the values of the Democratic system were quite opposite from my own values, were opposite from God's values.  So, I started really listening to the platforms of the Republican party.  I personally am very conservative - I have always been conservative and had believed the Democratic society echoed my own beliefs.  In many ways it did - in many ways it didn't.  Turning to listen to the Republican platform at first gave me a feeling of betrayal to all that I had known and grew up in.  Was I going to be turning into the greedy "corporation" mentality?  And that is the crux of the situation - Democrats believe society is the "little" people fighting against greedy "corporations".  That is probably the first real "false" truth that is engrained into the mindset of Democrats.

Breaking away from that mindset was a challenge but as I listened and learned of the Republican values, I found that they were by far more in align with my own - well, that was true - years ago.  Today, I believe that the Republican Party is also quickly falling away from its own conservative values by falling prey to the political correctness of our times.  Oh, there are some political entities out there still fighting for the conservative values but I believe far more politicians are bending to the popular ideals of the few while the popular ideals of the many are brushed aside.  In all, both Democrats and Republicans have fallen from truth and that makes it hard to understand where I fall in the political arena.  Perhaps as an Independent because I see good and bad in both parties - or more correctly in individuals in each party.  Both parties have their rhetoric.  Both parties hide behind falsehoods.  So who out there is willing to fight for truth?  Who out there is honest to a fault?  Who out there is ready and willing to represent the will of the majority of  the people?  Who is out there to honor, support and live by the Constitution of our land - the Constitution as our founding fathers wrote it and intended it to be?  Who out there understands that to be a politician, in which ever party, is to be a servant to the people and not a ruler over the people?

The answers to these questions, and many others yet to be addressed, go deep and yet are quite simple.  As my blog continues, I will address each one and welcome any comments you may have, either agreeing, disagreeing or providing your own insights.  This is a place to sound off and I believe you already know where I will stand.  Thank you for reading.  Thank you for taking a step towards solving our problems and finding truth in a deceptive world!

Your friend - Chris!