America Dumbed Down

When I was young I always tried to stay up late on Friday and Saturday nights so I could watch the television stations sign off. I would watch the jets flying across the sky as the Star Spangled Banner was played. It always gave me chills and I would have tears in my eyes by the time it was over. Even today I still tear up when I hear that song whether it’s on tv or at a sports event.

I have always loved planes and anything to do with flying and I also loved my country. I enjoyed saying the Pledge Of Allegiance each morning in school. I was proud to be an American citizen. My dreams were to finish high school and join the Air Force. I desperately wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to fly. I wanted to wear the uniform with the American flag. However, when I was sixteen I allowed a blonde haired blue eyed girl to changed all of that for me. The rest is history as they say.

My point in saying all of this is that times have certainly changed and I fear they have changed for the worse. America used to be a place to aquire a good education and be a place to dream of having a future. Today the education system has been dumbed down so badly that I personally know high school students who cannot read and write on a high school level. They have a piece of paper saying they attended 12 years of school. Why not a diploma saying they graduated? Why could they not have been given the help they needed to graduate properly?

I used to teach seventh and eighth grades and was very shocked at what I learned. It’s all politcal. The program I was teaching was geared towards keeping potential dropouts in school. I taught 108 students each day. Ninety teachers across the state were hired to teach this program and it was a huge success. It was also politcally motivated, but when the sponsor did not get re-elected the program was dropped. I suppose because it was not his successor’s idea.

I was a new teacher at the school I began teaching in as well as was the principal. The principal had years of experience along with her retired husband. Teaching was in their blood. It was their passion. But when we tried to make changes in the system which had failed so many children, we were forced out.

After a lot of thought I decided teaching was not for me and went to work for a government contracting company. But the principal was eventually forced completely out of the education field and lost her entire career. The last I saw of her she was selling real estate. She and her husband were both good people and cared tremendously about children and their education. If I remember correctly even their daughters became teachers. It was a sad situation.

During World War II American women took over the roles of men in the factories. They had to because the men were off fighting the war. Women did just as good a job as the men did and so began the new era of women’s rights. As traditionally women took care of the children at home while men worked, the issue of public education became more of how to care for the children while the women were working. This is where I feel the dumbing down began.

When the war was over public education became more of a public daycare while both parents were now out working. A good example of this is the fact that home schooled children only require about three hours of classwork to complete their assignments each day. On the other hand public schools normally let out around three o’clock, about an hour before parents are due home from work. Home schooling has most always proved to be a better education experience with children having higher scores and functioning better in college and society in general.

College graduates today will have a lot of difficulty finding jobs mostly because of the fact that big corporations are aware of this dumbing down. They know that most graduates do not have the ability to succeed in todays business world. Their ambitions were not on an education, but instead on the next popular video game or new line of jeans. They were not taught in high school what they they needed to succeed in college. Also by the time they are out of college they are already thousands of dollars in debt thanks to the target marketing efforts of the banking industry. This is all politically motivated as was the recent collapse of our economy.

Think for just a minute about who gave us what we have today and how it changed the world. Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, Eli Whitney, George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Do you think children of today can match or surpass what these people did? Now think about the mess the world is in because of our generation. Do children of today have what it takes to correct what’s been done or address future problems? I hope so, but the dumbing down was so the future generations will not notice what is really going on within our govenment nor will they have the knowledge or concern to correct it.

In the past people pulled together to make a change in the direction our country was heading. During the seventies when the gas shortages had people lined up for blocks to get a couple gallons of gasoline, people car pooled like crazy. After that we began doing other things to make changes like recycling glass, plastic, paper, aluminum and many other materials. The county became conservation crazy and it made a difference. We fought the tobacco industries and it made a difference.

Today I’m affraid we have lost our momentum by giving our children too much. Todays technology has put a dent in the minds of our young people. Too few care about conserving anything other than their image to their peers and the newest cell phone.

The money available to our young folks today is staggering compared to what we had and yet the money they are taught to save is alarming. It is all politically motivated and always has been since World War II.

As someone I know who is trying to make people understand what’s going on has said,“Society is full of games programmed to keep peoples’ minds occupied so they will not revolt. These games often cause sick fixations on peculiar protocols, power structures, taboos and domination – all subtle forms of human bondage – This distinct form of madness is not only tolerated by the masses but insisted upon. The programmed ones believe in rules so forcefully they become willing to destroy anyone who violates them.”(source: Garret LoPorto)

Cancer: The Cure Our Government Doesn’t Want You To Know About

Patient #6: “I came eighteen years ago from Communist Romania, and the tyrant dictator Ceauscescu, never stopped a doctor from treating anybody. How can we have something like this in the United States?” (Source: Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee Hearings transcripts 11/15/95 Burzynski)

Nearly everyone knows of someone who has been affected by the word CANCER. I certainly do. The grandmother I never knew because she died of skin cancer when my father was only three years old. My cousin who who died of colon cancer and was a prominent architect in Charleston, South Carolina. One of my closest friend’s wife who died of breast cancer which spread through her body before it was discovered.

The list goes on and on, but I know of no one who was ever fully cured of this dreaded disease. I do not know of any currently available cancer treatment which does not have terrible and even life threatening side effects. Why not? Because there is more money to be made in treatment than a cure. Money which lines the pockets of pharmaceutical company executives, lobbyists, United States Government officials such as the top officials at the (FDA) Food and Drug Administration and the (NCI) National Cancer Institute.

There is more profit for pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and the FDA in research for drugs which treat symptoms. Recently I discovered that it’s all too clear big pharmaceutical companies own the FDA and the NCI. Money decides who lives and who dies not doctors.

Think I am just blowing smoke? Then I urge you to watch the story of how the United States govenment spent millions of tax payer dollars and years trying to stop a proven discovery and cure for just about every type of incurable cancer known. It’s a story of Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski’s fight against our government’s tyranny towards it’s own citizens. A story of one doctor’s fight to help families victimized by cancer, big pharmaceutical companies, the medical society, and our government.

Find out for yourself how, by the influence of large pharmaceutical companies, some of our country’s government agencies and their top officers charged with overseeing medical research blatantly ignore our rights and Dr. Burzynski’s to steal his patents on his cancer curing discoveries.

I urge you to click on the link below and go to this site for more information. Read the transcripts, watch the trailer. This is real ife not Hollywood. You will never look at cancer or our govenment in the same manner again.

Burzynski

The Meaning Of Faith

There are stories which touch our hearts and there are people who touch our lives. I know of two people who have done both for me and for many others. One lived on Earth over two thousand years ago and the other lives on Earth now. These two special individuals have touched the hearts of many with their stories and the lives of everyone who knows them. Both I found when I needed someone most, both I know will never leave me, and both are my closest friends.

I am not comparing one to the other. I am merely pointing out the similarities of how my life has been influenced by each. God when I reached out to him while walking along a stretch of lonely highway back in 1992. Faye when once again my life was taking a drastic turn in 2009 and I was losing faith in myself and quite possibly my faith in God as well.

I believe God played a part in bringing Faye to me at another low point in many of my life. Why?
(1) The name Faye comes from a form of the Old French word faith meaning loyalty or belief.
(2) My faith was shaken considerably at that time in my life.
(3) Faye’s faith is unquestionably strong and has carried her through many hardships throughout her life from the very day she was born.
(4) Faye is absolutely the kindest person I have ever met; softspoken, gentle, and patient. Everything she says or does is to uplift someone else yet she has constantly been put down all of her life.

Am I reading too much into all of this? I don’t feel I am. In fact maybe I am not reading enough into it, only time will tell. I do know one thing; at times it scares me a little. I have never known anyone like Faye other than my mother. God must have had another purpose for my mother to have taken her at the age of twenty eight. I just don’t want the same thing to happen again, the pain is unbearable.

Faye’s hardships are many, but she takes them all in stride always saying the Lord will watch over her. Always trusting that things will get better. It usually does. Faye has so many allergies to so many things and to so many medications that she has a weakened immune system. It does not take much for her to get very ill very fast. But all of her life Faye has sacrificed so others may have. She says the Lord may not have always provided what she wanted, but he has always provided what she needed. Knowing Faye as I do, How can I argue with that? If that isn’t the meaning of faith then what is?

Preying On The Elderly

I will be sixty soon and given that the life expectancy in my state is listed at 75.8 years, that would mean that my life is more than two thirds over. (source: Wikipedia) So…I should have about 15.8 years left to achieve whatever it is I am going to do.

Now don’t forget that I have to be sixty five to draw social security benefits, but more than likely that won’t be around then anyway considering that the work force is dwindling each year by leaps and bounds. Also our government sees it as their own little piggy bank to draw from when needed. It wasn’t intended to be a retirement plan or a source of funding for the government either. Unfortunately it has on both issues.

Like so many others I will work until I can afford to retire which means my health will be a big factor in whether or not I can keep my job. Companies today are doing their best to dispose of the older generation of workers because of health issues in order to keep medical insurance costs down. Also to cut payroll because younger employees work for less money. They haven’t earned their way up the corporate ladder yet.

On the flip side society is pushing older people to stay healthy by staying active and do volunteer work. In other words work for free. They can’t afford to have fun doing what they would like to anyway because of the economy so why not give back a little more to society. Wonder where that idea came from?

Is it no wonder that older folk’s health declines more rapidly toward retirement age. They stay stressed out and worried so much just trying to survive. Employers are trying their best to drop them from the payroll, insurance companies are trying to cut their insurance, friends and family are moving away or dying. Older folks are planning not only retirement, but for their death as well. In some cases even having to refinance their home after years of paying for it just be able to pay their medical bills. We are taught to save for retirement, but how about saving after retirement?

There are lots of organizations out there who prey on the elderly. Everything from banks to especially some like, well, let’s just say for older people, who push all of these trifling little policies and programs they can to their members. “Buy this it’s only $100 a month and it will pay your $25 co-payment when you see your doctor.”

Ok, let’s look closer. You are going be paying $1,200 a year for this one policy to pay you back $300 which is one doctor visit per month for twelve months (probably less). Not to mention the membership fee of $12.95 a month or $155.40 per year to have access to the policy of which this umbrella company, catering to old folks, is making a healthy affiliate commission off each policy sold to their members.

Would it not be better to just save the $1,355.40 and pay the $300 in co-payments out of it? You would be ahead by $1,055.40 which will actually pay your co-payments for the next three years as well and will leave the other $1,355.40 you save those three years free. Instead of putting money in this umbrella company’s pocket you have saved $5,121.60.

Just a thought

Answer To The Question: Who Is Faye?

As both August and summer draw to a close, so too does my year at the lake. I’ve had a wonderful time living here. Peaceful most of the time except for the occassional call of Canadian geese, a lonely crane, or the deep croaking songs of the bullfrogs in the pond out back.

My favorite time of all, however, is when Faye comes up to see me. You have heard me talk of Faye in other posts, but I chose not to give anymore information for a particular reason. So who is Faye?

Taking an early morning canoe trip on the lake.

Faye is my best friend, my pal, and I truly believe she is my soulmate. We met online through aquaintances from high school in October of 2009. Just before Christmas that year we met in person. We rang in the new year in 2010 together and have been seeing each other since. Faye lives a hundred miles away, but we talk by phone, chat online, or text each other every day.

Faye is a very unique individual. She has endured many hardships throughout her life right from the start. When Faye was born she remained in the hospital for 18 months before she ever went home. As a child Faye suffered through having illnesses due to her weak immune system, ill treatment by family members along with others, but most of all she dealt with the pain of loneliness and never feeling as though she fit in. Even today Faye tells me that she only feels at home when we are together.

While growing up Faye played by herself or with animals most of the time. She has a gift which all animals seem to sense. Faye loves all animals and has cared for many of all types over the years. They seemed drawn to her for some reason. She was always running across abandoned baby animals as if she was being guided to them. Our meeting was no less than that as well.

My children had been after me to sign up for an account with a popular social networking website. Faye’s children had done the same so we both acquired accounts and it was approximately the same time. The first person recommended as a friend from the same school was a guy from one of my classes named Jay. I friended him and in turn was sent another friend request from his list, someone name Faye.

Over the next few weeks I saw comments on some of my photos from this person named Faye. It turned out that she had the same last name as me (we are not blood related) so one day I sent her a message and asked how she managed to become a member of this family. She replied and we messaged each other once in a while about photos in my album. One day I looked at her photos and saw a picture I recognized as a guy I went to high school with. It was a photo of her brother Dennis. A photo of Faye about ten years earlier was also vaguely familiar to me.

I was in the process of getting a divorce at that time and Faye was at the same point in her life, though, she had longed for a divorce for many years. Faye was married to a very physically violent man and had been since she was 17 years old. I mentioned this blog to her as a way of helping her find her way in dealing with everything she was going through.

As Faye began to read my posts and other articles she began to realize that she was not alone. She realized that there were others with similar situations like hers. This seemed to give her the strength to carry on with the task which was ahead of her. Faye needed to get out of her relationship. She needed to get out of the violence and abusiveness she was so accustomed to.

The comments Faye was leaving on my posts intrigued me so I decided to do all I could to help her out. Little did I know we would both soon be falling in love with one another or of the coincidences which would unfold.

In the months to come Faye began to reveal to me secrets she had shared with no one until now. Secrets kept behind a wall of silence of her life and hardships she had endured. After 55 years the silence finally began to fade away as our relationship grew and Faye began to find freedom at last. Freedom to think and act as she chooses instead of what someone else chooses for her.

To be continued:

NetFlix…To Keep Or Not To Keep. That Is The Question.

As a single man living alone on a lake, I have a lot of time on my hands to actually do whatever I choose. Canoeing and walking are a couple of my favorites. I have a day job too, but as you can tell I write a lot. Well, maybe not as much as I used to thanks to something called Netflix. It is just too convenient to watch a streaming program on my computer as opposed to going down to Blockbuster or RedBox and then having to cart it back again within the allotted time frame. I don’t have to change clothes or leave my home. Just turn on my computer and watch.

I don’t watch regular television anymore due to all of the junk sitcoms and copycat programs. Cable is not available here and when I did have it where I used to live before my divorce I only watched documentaries and channels like Discovery, the Travel channel, History channel and the like.

Recently Netflix announced they are raising the rates for some of their services, mine included. Mine will change from $9.99 to $15.99 per month. The six bucks a month won’t kill me, but it is still a consideration. In the past two weeks I have been to the local Regal Cinema twice to see a new movie. Once with my youngest son (37) and once with my youngest daughter (15) and her boyfriend. I had forgotten how nice it is to see a movie on the big screen so this price increase might well be the motivation I’ve needed to make a change.

When I first subscribed to Netflix the $9.99 per month was for an unlimited number of dvds through the mail. However, I can only get one at a time. This is still a good deal because I can watch as many streaming programs as I choose instantly on my computer. I must admit it is a drag when there is a program you want to see right away and have to wait because it is not available for streaming. A plus for Netflix is that they have distribution centers all across the America in major cities. It rarely ever takes more than a couple of days and there is absolutely no postage fee to pay in either direction.

On the flip side I have noticed my writing time dropping substantially since I subscribed to Netflix. I love documentaries and Netflix has a lot of the best around. I tried Hulu.com for a while, but Hulu seems to have a lot of trashy stuff, foreign movies with subtitles, and just pure junk. Netflix has a lot of the priceless old classics along with a hodgepodge of everything else except the trash. At least I have not come across any.

For me I suppose the price increase is a good thing. Will I keep Netflix when the price goes up. I doubt it. I think the money would be better spent at the local theater with a friend or family. Yeah I know, you still miss part of the movie if you need to go to the bathroom or get something to drink. And there are all of those commercials and previews before the movie ever starts. But still, isn’t the quality time I am spending with family and friends worth more than a few more bucks in Netflix investors pockets? You bet it is! Will the investors recover? Sure they will. I’m sure they probably have the benefit of watching all of the Netflix they want for free. At over $300 dollars a share I sure would.

The Railroad We Call Life

Sometimes, more often than not, the railroad of life takes us to a destination not intended so we stay aboard and just continue to ride. We enjoy the ride for a while and the sites and sounds. After a period of time we get swept up in the scenery along with societies games and come to believe that this is all there is and we just have to accept it.

As time passes we become disgruntled and wine about our dreams of having the things in life we really wanted, but not where we ended up. What we don’t seem to realize is that each of us has the power to stop the train at any time and get off. All we have to do is hit the emergency braking system. Of course there may be penalties for doing this. Nonetheless, it is our choice.

So much time usually passes that for a lot of people getting off the train will put them in unfamiliar territory. They decide to stay with what is familiar and continue riding the train even if it means losing their identity.

The scenario I have just described is what happens to people caught up in unhealthy relationships. Healthy people can’t understand why they remain in that sort of disfunction for so long. It’s because somthing unfamiliar is more scary than what they already know, regardless of how painful. These folks come to believe that everyone is like this and that is just the way it is. But that is not the way it is and there is a way out. Put on the brakes and get off the train. You will adapt and learn, trust me. There are others out there like you. Others who have done exactly that; stopped the train and got off. Sure there were bumps along the way, but they made it. They just took another train going in a different direction.

Disbelief In Cancer Funding And Research

Today I found out that my uncle has prostate cancer and another tumor on his bladder which will be tested soon. This is a man who has spent most of his life serving our country in one form or another. Someone who was in the Korean War and Vietnam three tours.

In this day and age with all of the technology available to us it is hard for me to believe cancer research has come no further than it has. We can splice genes to make better crops and clone plants and animals. We can even splice genes between the two, but we can’t find an answer to one of the world’s deadliest series of diseases? Come on people, who is the bigger fool here?

I am no genius, but it stands to reason that if cures for such diseases were found it would put a lot of people and special pet projects out of business. It appears that remedies for symptoms out-weighs finding cures hands down. It’s a sad thing for humanity…especially for the folks who are diagnosed with cancer.

My daughter is head nurse at a hospice and tells me of the horror stories from her years at the hospitals. It also appears that coverups abound in the medical fields as well as the research fields.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S. National Cancer Program and conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other activities related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; the supportive care of cancer patients and their families; and cancer survivorship.(source: Wikipedia.org)

Congress established the NCI by the National Cancer Institute Act, August 6, 1937, as an independent research institute. Congress then made the NCI an operating division of the National Institutes of Health by the Public Health Service Act, July 1, 1944. Congress amended the Public Health Service Act with the National Cancer Act of 1971 to broaden the scope and responsibilities of the NCI “in order more effectively to carry out the national effort against cancer.(source: Wikipedia.org)

Like everything else the government gets involved with to extract funds from the tax payers for their secret BLACK OPs projects, can we expect anything different to come from cancer research? I doubt it. Here is a good example: NASA (the government) doesn’t mind paying Russia $19 million U.S. dollars for a toilet in 2007, but the National Cancer Institute (the government) says in it’s annual report to congress for 2012 that it only needs $5 million dollars for cancer research. So where do you suppose they came up with that number anyway? Go figure…I can’t. Why not ask for 10 or 20 million? Maybe they should ask for funding for a new toilet. Just a thought.