Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is running for the office of President of Mexico and from what I have read, I hope he is elected. He is pushing for doubling the minimum wage, create a tax free border commercial zone and demand for mutual respect from the USA. If he can do anything to keep the Mexican people south of the border working and having sufficient income to support their families there then we will not have any need for a wall. And with both countries having money to support their families the economies of both countries will rise. Mexico needs to start taking care of the lower class members of it people. That will cure most of the problems Mexico suffers. I know there is more to it than I have presented, but electing Mr. Obrador seems to me to be a good start.

Good luck, sir…..

If a person truly loves truth and light, can they be gay? Especially if they were raised to respect the Bible’s teachings? Just wondering…….

Laws: Can I pick and choose the laws I want to obey? I can….Is it helpful, honest and right for me to do so? No, of course not. But I do at times. I get in a hurry and that 35 MPH sign posted on the roadway is ignored by me if I see no police in the area. I keep my eyes peeled for them, just in case. In my case, I do try and follow the IMPORTANT LAWS. And that seems to be the case for a whole lot of folks. One of which is sneaking across the border into this country and then claiming as many of the benefits as can be had and squealing like a stuck pig if someone catches them and want to send them back from whence they came. I suppose to them they are no better or no worse than the example of me speeding, but both of us broke the law.  Now, if I get caught, I pay my fine and will probably have higher car insurance because it, but that is the cost of me breaking that law. Conversely, if the illegal fellow is caught, and he is sent home, it follows that he is also going to suffer the consequences of breaking the law. No one comes to my aid on my ticket and no help is expected.  Is one law more important than the other? The illegal has the ACLU and other groups raising all kind of hell because of the actions of law enforcement people for enforcing the law. That can’t be right, can it? Some say, “well that is completely different cases” and cannot be compared. I say, “a law is a law”.  If we are not going to enforce a law, get rid of it…….What do you say?

According to the latest figures I can find for the American work force shows there are about 145,000,000 people employed.

Many of us work in transportation, 4,440,000.

Seems like about 5,353,000 of us work construction.

And about 11,880,00 of us work manufacturing.

Another 7,783,000 work in the financial business.

And 17,845,000 of us work in the professional and business service industry.

Can you believe that 20,791,000 of us work in education and health services?

So, where do you think most of us work….Yeah, I bet you have already guessed it….21,732,000 work in government. Are you surprised?……Me neither..

No one knows who is going to win the NCAA tourney…..Not the best basketball analyst, not the TV announcers, not ESPN nor any of the experts….Not even BING…God knows, but He ain’t talking. So, my friends, make your pick, go with your gut and your chances are just as good as anyone else’s. Picking the favored ones are not a bad idea, but the underdog comes through a lot more than one would think. So, take a coin, flip’um and pick’um….And good luck….I picked Arizona cause my Granddaughter loves them….and I have watched them play some pretty good basketball….and I like Coach Miller….I am very bad to watch some of the conference games being played and take a shine to some team and think, wow, these boys could go all the way, only to have them get to the tournament and seemingly choke. One such team this year is Houston. I really liked what I saw in this team. Could they go all the way….Of course…Will they…probably not. Wichita State, same thing, and I have them in the final four….ok, so much for my bracket, now go take care of yours…

I left Alabama in late February, 1958 on my way back to Walker AFB, NM to reup for another 4 years of military service. Good jobs were very hard to find back then. We decided to spend a few days with my wife’s sister in Carlsbad, NM. While there, I learned of a job opening at the lab at National Potash Co.  It helped that the chemist at National was a friend of by brother-in-law, long story short, a few days later I was learning all about Potash, how it was mined and refined, it’s uses, but mainly I was learning the importance of quality control, ie, screen sizes of the product, grade of the product and many other things. March 5, 1958 all of that started……I spent the next ten years there, first in the lab and then later as the shipping clerk, handling the rail shipments, both domestic and exports and some truck shipments. That was the start of my interest in transportation, where I spent the next fifty years of my life. Except for a brief stay at General Dynamics, Fort Worth, my life revolved around products moving from shipper to customer….and a vast number of products, from agricultural products, road building materials, sands for fracking oil wells, acids, anhydrous ammonia, propane and butane, gasoline and diesel, jet fuels, and numerous other products. Looking back, that was a fast fifty years….and fun…I kind of wish I had another fifty…But if I did, I might choose another industry….which one?…Well,  I’m still thinking. But I would not trade he first fifty….

Letters

I like to read the letters that Confederate soldiers wrote home or would  have a friend write home for them. It gives you some understanding about their lives and the things that were important to them. Being from Alabama,  I mostly read about Alabama soldiers, but I have read books about letters from soldiers in Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana and Texas. Most of the letters are basically the same as they want to know about their wife and kids. Are they making out ok, do they have food, do they have feed for their stock, have the kids been well, and how are other family members?
Very little is said about the war, they may say where they are and how long they have been there. They will tell about soldiers in their Company that are sick or have been sick.
( For the ones that don’t know, each Regiments Companies were made up of soldiers from the same county, town or community. So the soldiers knew each other before going off to war. In some cases it was brothers, fathers and sons, uncles and cousins in the same Company, so the soldiers wife and family would know the other soldiers also.)
At times the soldiers would get to missing their family so much they would tell their family if they couldn’t get a furlough, they were coming home anyway. And in a lot of the letters back to these soldiers their wife would tell them to stay there not to bring shame and dishonor to the family name, that they were fine and for him to stay there and do his duty.
But I have read accounts of soldiers that couldn’t get furlough, and knowing their families didn’t have enough food to last, would slip off and go home in the spring to plant the crops that the family need for another year. They would then go back to their Regiments to face their punishment. In most cases these soldiers were listed as “stragglers”,  not as deserters. Deserters left with no intentions of coming back.

( Now, dear reader, as a veteran myself  I  know there’s nothing like a letter from home,  unless it’s a package from home.)

Thanks to Dan Hall for another thought provoking article about the trials of our CSA soldiers.

I feel as though I have lost a great friend. I never met him, but I attended about three of his crusades, but his preaching was just so personal. From the first time I heard him to the last time, I was always touched and moved by his sermons. I watched many of his crusades on television, never growing tired of his message. America’s pastor is the name some have given him and I certainly would agree with that. But I think he also had a very world wide appeal and acceptance as a man of God. The  article I read this morning said that he preached to about 215 million people in 185 countries. That is amazing. I am glad we got to enjoy him for so many years. Truly a man blessed by God.

I don’t know….Is a wall the answer? Seems like something needs to be done. Maybe just declare an open border and let h’r rip……130 million people heading north…Or what about this? I’m not all that good at math, but if we took 25 billion dollars, the amount to build the wall, and divided it equally amongst 130 million people, wouldn’t that add up to almost 2 million dollars to each resident of Mexico….and would they be willing to stay home then….well, no, cause every business in America would be wanting them to come up and spend some of that money….Mexican could come up here and have some “servants” and spend some quality time at spas and rental properties all over the states….Well, this is my attempt at humor, but, 25 billion dollars?….could we not invest in Mexico some way, get them to building roads and bridges and putting their own people to work? At good wages?….. Come on Congressmen…..Come on Senate….Come on Mr. President……Is a wall  really the answer?