IN MEMORY OF...

Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? That haunting question has been asked over the years. That is the subject for my Memorial Day column.

Every day we grow older. Our friends and loved ones grow older too. I look in the paper every day to see the birthdays. The heroes from my youth are listed. They are celebrating birthdays of eighty and ninety years. Tarzan at eighty? Are you kidding me? Once the love of my life, Debbie Reynolds, a senior citizen. But, why shouldn’t they get older, I am. The good news is that so many of them are still around. It is sad to consider that many never see their senior years.

Of course, I am also now a senior citizen. But I remember one day as a small child,  I saw my grandmother all dressed up and it wasn’t even Sunday. I asked her where she was going. She said today is “Decoration Day” and we are going to the cemetery to decorate graves of our loved ones and our military heroes. That day is now known as Memorial Day. The day set aside to remember our friends and loved ones who have passed on.

Today I think about the many friends and loved ones who have gone on. I still miss them. I still think about them. I also think today about the friends I have who are suffering illnesses. Some very serious. Mike is going through his fourth cancer. Jack just had triple bypass surgery. Jerry is suffering from macular degeneration. My brother has had one bout with cancer as well as both knees replaced. My sister just had a hip replacement. Others too numerous to name are, or soon will be, in the same boat. “Time and tide wait for no man.” Time marches on. The machine that is our body begins to break down from use and abuse. In times past when we talked on the phone, it was usually about sports, or other friends, or other mundane events. Now it is all about the latest doctor visit or the latest prescription. I never thought I would see the day.

When a friend or loved one dies, it hurts. It hurts deeply. Sometimes you might ask, wouldn’t I have been better off if I never knew that person rather than suffer the pain of their loss. Then the flood of memories comes back. The fun times. The fishing trips. Just the times when we were together. I think how my life would have been less having never known them. I have long believed that one of the penalties of living a long life is suffering the loss of old friends and loved ones. None of us are going to get out of this life alive.

And so, we remember. We have Memorial Day set aside for remembering. I suspect most of us don’t need a special day to remember. We do so automatically. I know I do. In remembering the old friends and loved ones, I smile. I smile at the memories I have. I remember the antics of my grandfather. It used to drive my mother crazy. He was the devil in the flesh according to her. But he was the greatest kind of grandpa a kid like me could have. He took us fishing and taught us how to catch the big ones. They got mad at him because he would occasionally have a beer in front of the kids. When they griped, he would just put another chew of tobacco in his mouth and grin. I still miss him.

Today is a day of memories. I hope yours are as sweet as mine. I also hope when I am gone, someone will have good memories of me.

Ron Scarbro

THE KING AND HIS COURT

Over the past few Presidential elections it has become clear to me that Presidents are chosen by a few big densely populated states and major cities. That’s the way the system seems to work. Those states have huge populations and they are predominantly Democrats.

Our House of Representatives, on the other hand, is based on the population of all the states. There are 435 voting members of Congress each representing a Congressional District. The Senate is made up of two Senators from each state thereby totaling 100 Senators.

Our Constitution allows for three branches of government. The Executive which would be the President, the Legislative which is the Congress, and the Judicial, those being the Judges and the courts. Each branch has a specific job and specific responsibilities. It is not now nor has it ever been the job of the Executive Branch to make laws. That job is left to the Congress. It is not now nor has it ever been the job of the Judiciary to make laws either.

The election of Obama started the country in a different direction. A direction the majority disapproved of. While he was elected President, he decided to be King. He has chosen to ignore law and the Constitution. The people then decided to slow down this egomaniacal would-be King by electing a Republican Congress. That appears not to have worked out so well.  This newly elected Congress of Republicans has decided to be the “King’s Court” instead of doing their real job of holding the reins on Obama. Is it any wonder that outsiders are dominating the election conversation today?

I can’t speak for the majority of Americans but I think a lot of people would agree with me that we are headed in the wrong direction. Of all the problems facing us today, Obama chooses to get involved in an issue that affects approximately .003% of our population, those being transgendered people. His issuance of edicts, which he sees as completely legal, are wrong headed and unenforceable. The people are not going to give up their privacy in the public bathrooms nor are they going to allow that privacy to be compromised in schools. The people are and will continue just to say no.

Obama has signed an illegal treaty with Iran which is completely unenforceable. Now it turns out that the press was lied to and coerced into supporting this illegal treaty. As an aside, it doesn’t seem too difficult to coerce the press into believing the Obama White House. Incidentally all of this has happened while the “King’s Court” stood by and allowed it to happen.

Obama is denuding the military by firing our best Generals. He has always refused to listen or take advice from them so now he seems to believe it is easier just to fire them.

Twenty-six states have sued the Federal Government over an Obama edict allowing for the citizenship of illegal aliens. In court hearings, government lawyers lied to a Federal Judge concerning this edict. They told the judge that no one had yet applied or been processed for this new citizenship. That turns out to be a lie. In fact over 100,000 individuals have already been processed. The judge is rightly upset. A number of lawyers could face serious legal problems.

One of Obama’s henchmen, John Koskinen, the head of the IRS is facing impeachment for his illegal actions. The smart money says he will be found guilty and could face prison time.

Another of Obama’s toadies, Hillary Clinton, is barely staying ahead but losing in her fight to stay out of prison. What’s going to get her is the Mickey Mouse foundation she and Bill are using to amass wealth for themselves. She is a short timer in the world of politics.

The people are fed up. The King and his court are in serious trouble. If any Congressperson wants to keep their job, they better get busy and do it.

Ron Scarbro

HAVE WE GONE STARK RAVING MAD?

The Obama Administration has handed down a new edict. Henceforth and forever after, public schools must allow individuals the use of the bathrooms and locker facilities based not on their gender but on their perception of their gender. This edict covers all public schools from elementary through college.

Hmmm. What could possibly go wrong with this latest bit of ridiculous nonsense coming from the infertile minds of brainless leftist morons? Let us consider the first evil thought that comes to mind. What if a teacher, male or female, decided to go over to the other side, in other words, mentally change sexes, and visit the bathroom of the opposite sex? How about the locker room and shower? Would you be okay with that? Under this proclamation from Obama, no evidence or proof is necessary for one’s declaration of sexual identity. Our history is replete with incidences of sexual perversion of adults on children.

Evil thought number two is much simpler. Let’s say a group of thirteen and fourteen year old boys decide to shower with the girls. All they have to do is say they are now transsexual and identify more with girls than with boys. According to the liberals, there is nothing wrong with that. How would you like your young teenage girls to be exposed to that scenario? Again I ask, what could possibly go wrong?

Taken to its logical conclusion, this edict has to include sports teams. Boys would be welcome on the girl’s team and vice versa. Since they are now sharing locker rooms and showers, this has to be the culmination of the liberal’s dream.

Have we gone stark raving mad? Boys and girls are different. They are different for a specific purpose. We, as humans, are a part of the animal kingdom. It used to be said that we were at the top of that kingdom, but now I’m not so sure. The difference between the sexes is for the sole purpose of reproduction. A male, regardless of his preference or choice cannot get pregnant. A female, regardless of her preference or choice cannot produce sperm and impregnate another female.

Now I understand there are homosexual males and females. That’s a mental condition, not a physical one. I raised livestock for many years and of the thousands of animals I have seen, and remember humans are also animals, I never saw a homosexual cow, pig, or horse. So then I conclude homosexuality must just be a human condition, or choice.

But wait Ron, transgendered people are not necessarily homosexual. Okay, whatever. Boys decide to be girls because they like their clothes? And girls decide to be boys because they get to ride motorcycles and drive pickup trucks? Maybe it’s just envy. One gender thinks the other has a better situation. Woody Allen, weirdo movie producer, once said that he would be a bisexual if for no other reason than to double his chances of getting a date. Again, whatever. These are questions better left to psychiatrists.

I am pleased to report to you that so far three states, Texas, Mississippi, and North Carolina have told the Feds that they will refuse to obey the new edict. Texas said they will not be blackmailed by the Obama Administration. The government’s response is that Federal money will be withheld for education. Where do you suppose the Federal Government gets their money? Why from the states, of course. What if Texas and the other states decide that future federal income tax will be sent directly to the states and not the Feds? Don’t forget, we have a tenth amendment to the Constitution. Oh, and Texas isn’t even a state. It’s a Republic.

This latest overreach by the Federal Government will fail and fail big. Sane and sensible people will take charge and the weenies who came up with this latest nonsense will fade into the dust heap of ridiculousness.

Ron Scarbro

YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT

You can’t always get what you want. So the song goes. As I look at the current situation in this election I am reminded of the youngsters who, when playing marbles, decide since things aren’t going their way, they take their marbles and go home. In a game of marbles such a decision isn’t going to hurt the country. In the game of political elections the country could be hurt very badly. In fact the election of Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders would be a disaster for the whole country.

I said early on that my choice for President was Mike Huckaby. Sadly he wasn’t the choice of the majority of primary voters. So my choice now is simple. I can either vote for the nominee of the Republican Party, probably Donald Trump, or I can sit it out thereby voting for Hillary Clinton. You see if I don’t cast my vote I automatically am voting for Hillary. For me that would be like fingernails scratching a chalkboard.

Some are saying Trump isn’t conservative enough. To you I would ask.  Is he more or less conservative than Hillary, or Bernie? Some have even said that Trump is not “presidential.” Is Hillary, a proven lying opportunist, presidential?  How about “Give away Bernie?” Is he presidential? There is no perfect candidate, there are for sure terrible candidates, but there are no perfect candidates.

To the elitist GOP pundits who have been bashing Trump, what are you doing? Do you really want Hillary as President? Do you really want this money grubbing hack naming the next several Supreme Court Judges? Haven’t we seen enough of the Clintons? Don’t you realize that your constant degrading and bad mouthing of Trump is harmful to this country? Like it or not, he has amassed a majority of the votes in the primaries. The voters are clearly sending a message. They are not happy with the way things have been going and they are going to see to it that things change.

Obviously the Democrats have their problems too and they are numerous. Their choice is between an announced and admitted Socialist and an individual who could very soon be dressed in orange. Hillary’s legal woes are not just going to magically disappear. The FBI is not for sale. They will conduct a complete and thorough investigation and it is under way. I personally believe an indictment is imminent. That is when it all hits the fan for the Democrats. For the sake of the country I would hope that that indictment comes down before the election. Joe Biden has already started hitting the Sunday chat shows. He and the sensible Democrats know that they must have a back-up.

In the meantime we wait. We wait for the FBI to conclude their investigation and turn the whole mess over to a Grand Jury. We wait for Trump to get together with the so-called Republican elites and come to an agreement.

I wish Trump would name his VP selection and in fact his whole cabinet very soon. He will obviously select the absolute best available minds both from academia and politics to assist him in his task of governing. The world needs to understand that there will be a new sheriff in town and he will not be anything at all like the last. America will be great again but that is mostly because Barack Obama will be retired from office. Our friends will rejoice and our enemies will cower. A new day is coming.

Ron Scarbro

PEST CONTROL IN 2016

You discover that your house is infested with pests and vermin. You know that if you don’t act, the foundation will be destroyed and the structure will come tumbling down. You set about looking for a solution. A cursory investigation shows many options available to deal with your situation.

The first number you call turns out to be Bernie’s Best Socialistic System, or double B double S also known as BBSS, or just BS for short. The operator advises you that what you call vermin and pests are really just alternative species who have just as much right to life as you do. The fact that these species have decided to make your home their home is their right. To cause them any harm or discomfort would be wrong on so many levels. BBSS recommends that you just learn to live with them until they destroy your home and then move outside and live as nature intended, in the trees and mountains. That way everybody can just get along and live “socially.”

The next number on the list of solutions is Hillary’s Youth Patrol for the Environment or HYPE for short. Their operator starts with the company slogan, “Trust us, we never lie. What you call pests and vermin are just misguided individuals who can be reasoned with. Instead of deporting these lovable critters who just want the opportunity that you have had to make a living and feed their growing families, we should start a dialogue. We should negotiate with them and see to it that a non-violent solution can be reached. Then when your home comes tumbling down remember that it was probably your fault for building in an area they wanted. They had every right to bring their diseases and destruction into your home because as an American citizen you are just selfish. Believe it because we never lie, wink wink.”

So, in a quandary, you continue to look for a solution to your problem. The final listing on the Yellow Pages is Deport Or Nail Aliens and Lowlife Drug Smugglers, or “DONALD’S.” Their operator is emphatic. Vermin and pests are just that, vermin and pests. They don’t belong in your house. You didn’t invite them in and they refuse to leave. If you don’t act and act quickly, they will gnaw at the foundation of your house until it is destroyed. They will continue to reproduce thereby creating millions more of their kind to destroy not only your house but your neighbor’s as well. Here at DONALD’S we have a special treatment that denies these pests and vermin food or opportunity. It’s called “E-Verification of Citizenship.” We don’t even have to kill them. They leave on their own because they find the living conditions intolerable. They go scrambling back to where they came from. Then DONALD’S builds a wall to prevent them from ever returning. At that point you can rebuild your home strengthened in the knowledge that future visitors will be here only by invitation.”

So, these are your choices. Be socially responsible and leave them alone to continue on their destructive path, start a dialogue with them in the hope that they will leave your house alone in favor of finding another way to feed themselves and their families, or just send them packing. Being a fair minded individual I believe you will make the right decision. The home you save may be your own, as well as everyone else's. It is BS, HYPE, or DONALD’S. Seems simple enough to me.

Ron Scarbro

WE KNOW RIGHT FROM WRONG

It has been a wild few days. On Sunday the preacher observed that the world, and especially this country, is in turmoil. What used to be immoral is now amoral. What used to be wrong is now just sorta wrong and in some cases even sorta right. What used to be incorrect is now correct, as in politically correct. His observation, we know better. We know right from wrong. We know moral from immoral. We know correct from incorrect political or otherwise. We know and we should be ashamed.

We know and yet we allow it to continue. We allow politicians to run amok with our laws and our Constitution. Gov. Terry Mcauliffe of Virginia bypassed the duly elected State Legislature and issued an executive order allowing convicted felons to vote. In Virginia that has been illegal for one hundred fifty years but Mcauliffe, with the stroke of a pen, has overturned the law. He insists politics has nothing to do with his decision. Yeah, right. In his heart of hearts he believes these felons will register as Democrats and will further help his long time friend Hillary Clinton win Virginia. He has said that this was to correct a wrong that had been perpetrated on poor, black people to keep them out of the voting booth. He wanted to restore their rights to them because they had served their sentences. Okay, what about gun ownership? Do these convicted killers and rapists now get to go out and buy guns? Don’t they also have that right? Or is this just for the purpose of electing Hillary? I report, you decide.

In an effort to kiss up to a godless new liberal religion, John Kerry signed a “global warming” treaty without Congressional approval. As if the treaty was legal, which it isn’t. Any cursory reading of the Constitution clearly lays out what is required for any treaty to be valid and legal. It must have Senatorial approval or else it is as worthless as the paper it is written on. Remember the illegal nuclear treaty we signed with Iran? They have already broken that agreement and they don’t particularly care that it was illegal. They are laughing at us as they continue to build their nuclear arsenal. They will until we stop them and our “Mickey Mouse” treaty is just to salve the liberals into thinking they were doing something to slow them down.

I recently reported to you that men can no longer enter the women’s bathrooms because of a newly passed law in North Carolina. If you listened to the national media you would have to believe that the world was coming to an end. How dare the state try to dictate that a man cannot use a woman’s bathroom especially if he feels like he is a girl. Never mind that he might be a crossdressing pervert, to the leftist media he should be entitled to enter at will.

Like the preacher said. We know better and we should be ashamed. We know the difference between right and wrong. We know the difference between moral, immoral, and amoral.

Obama is sending another 250 troops to the Middle East to take on ISIS. Obama, with the military experience and judgement of a first year cub scout, is attempting to make military decisions that put real military people in harm’s way. Our troops will be restrained by the rules of civility. ISIS is governed by no rules. Eventually we are going to have to end the nonsense that is called ISIS and the sooner the better. It would take General George S. Patton or any true military mind like his about two weeks to bring it all to an end.

The preacher was right. We know what is right and we know what is wrong, and we should be ashamed.

Ron Scarbro

WHAT IS FREEDOM OF SPEACH?

Here’s a quiz. What does the term “freedom of speech” mean? Can it be referring to anything other than just verbal expression? For example, is art freedom of speech? Is giving money to a political candidate freedom of speech? How about public demonstrations? Are they freedom of speech and are there limits on speech? It has been said that one has the freedom to swing one’s fist through the air but that freedom stops just short of my nose. So there are definitely some limits, but what should they be?

An incident which happened at Emory University comes to mind. Apparently someone drew in chalk on the sidewalks of the school the phrase “Trump in 2016.” That phrase offended some of the students. In fact they were so offended they had to have counseling to soothe their shattered nerves. They then demanded a “safe space” so they wouldn’t have to be exposed to such harmful words. Apparently they are just too delicate to have to see such hateful speech. The school is actually considering their grievance.

Yale has had their problems also. It seems their journalism department is closed to any ideas other than the most liberal. In fact most of these high cost universities seem closed to any ideas which they deem non-progressive. That, it seems, would include the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Well I have some news for these schools and for their students. Outside of the hallowed walls of these closed minded schools is a real world. And in that real world real people exist. They work and play as free American citizens. They speak their minds and sometimes their speech might appear hateful to one group or another. Too bad. Freedom of speech gives us all the right to express ourselves even if our expression might be hurtful to someone else. No one is guaranteed the right to never be offended.

The Op-ed page of newspapers is a bastion of freedom of expression. What you are now reading is my expression of free speech and you have that same right. Rarely do I agree with most newspaper’s editorial opinion, but I defend their right to express themselves just as I have the right to express mine.

We have all seen that some universities have cancelled certain Commencement speakers because of their politics. That is called “mind control” or “brainwashing.” In other words if you do not keep in step with the university’s belief system of progressive liberal politics, you cannot express yours. If you are a parent of a student who is being brainwashed, and you are paying the high dollar tuition, how does that make you feel? How do you like the fact that your child is not allowed to hear any dissenting view? How do you think they will react when they surely hear such dissention after they leave school?

Were it not for our strong capitalist economy, a strong military, a government based on freedom guaranteed by our Bill of Rights and our US Constitution, there wouldn’t even be schools of higher learning. These liberal professors who have never had to actually work and make a profit but feel compelled to spew their nonsense would be better served by taking a sabbatical and getting a real job for a while. They need to see how it is in the real world. I once heard that the quickest way to become a Republican is to get a job and a mortgage. That usually cures liberalism.

We absolutely cannot take our freedoms for granted. To ask which of our freedoms is most important would be like choosing your favorite child. Picking one’s favorite freedom is difficult but freedom of speech would have to rank very high.

Ron Scarbro