Small Town America and Why We Still Matter

Abigail and Dolley readers, I went to a reunion yesterday.  Not a family reunion, but an Small Town American reunion.  A gathering of folks who grew up and around a small mill town on the outskirts of Charlotte.  These days there is little difference between Pineville and Charlotte, but for those of us who grew up there, we know the difference.  We remember the landmarks that are no longer there, we "Awwed" audibly when pictures of loved ones flashed on the screen during the memorial CD, we smiled at the pictures of the wild Southern boys and their jacked up muscle cars, but most of all we were happy to see each other and took pride in our heritage.

Now, the ruling classes and the liberal elite would have looked upon this group with contempt.  You see we were in cut off shorts and T-shirts, we sang all the words to Sweet Home Alabama, and we raised our cups to lost friends and good times.  We laughed at old stories, complained that we were still smoking and knew we should quit, and talked about our kids, grandkids, and small businesses.  What the ruling class forgets is that these are the people that fix your cars, build your houses, and work in your factories.  They are the back bone of this Country and will show up with a casserole when someone passes away, a tow to pull your car out of a ditch, and money to bail you out of whatever trouble you've gotten yourself into.

Their pride in their country is held in contempt by the liberal elitists who scorn their patriotism and hate this country.  Their accents render them unintelligent in the eyes of the country club Republicans.  Their faith is scorned by the academics that are too smart for God.  They are Southern, so they must be racist, say the mainstream media.  I say, they are wrong again.  These are the people that built this country, their blood ran on the battlefields of history, their sweat plowed the fields, and their hands built the products that changed the world.

These are now the people who are muzzled and stifled by an over bearing government that makes it too difficult for the common man to start a business.  These are the folks whose factories have shut down because regulators required too many expensive "safety" upgrades (for their own good, of course.) and taxed "the rich" at such a rate they could no longer afford to do business in this country.  These are the folks that used to build your house, clean your gutters, and mow your lawn but now can't find work because there are illegal aliens that will do that job "under the table".  These are the people who teeter on the edge now because the work is gone and the horizon is bleak.  These are the people who recognize that when you talk about "the rich" you are really talking about their employers and they know their jobs won't be coming back until the government stops taking their bosses money at an alarming rate.

These are the people that loved Ronald Reagan and "hoped" Obama would live up to his promises of a "change".  In the immortal words of George W Bush, "You fool me once.... wait hang on.  Well, if you fool me once then, you aren't gonna fool me again."

Long live small town America!  Enjoy the video.

You Become A Product of Your Environment

Why in this world do we view everything as complicated?  Where did common sense and simple solutions go?  Why does everything need an analysis, a study, and committee?  Culturally, it is very easy to fall into that type of thing.   I spent about 9 years in a very corporate environment where everything was very formal, studied, outlined, and Six Sigma'd to death.  When I changed jobs, I had to completely re-acclimate myself back to the land of "Keep It Simple".  You see, I had become a product of my environment and even though my former company wasn't making a ton of money, getting tons of customers, or doing a very good job - that is how I thought business was done.  You see, I was in the bubble too long and needed to be retrained.

That is my argument for Term Limits.  Simply that we become products of our environment, no matter how much common sense we have when we go into a situation, we acclimate to our surroundings.  No one wants to look like a rube.  No one want to be made to look or feel foolish.  So you get along and go along and before you know it you have forgotten what was so simple about simplicity.

We must stop reelecting career politicians.  I say this and then think - gosh, my Congressman is great and I like my Senator that is up for reelection.  The conundrum would not be put to us if there were mandated term limits, the field would be open to new and exciting candidates and we would not be forced to look at the political realities of the current situation and once again make the Sophie's choice between the lesser of two evils.