Butler on Business, June 18, 2014

My weekly radio segment with Alan Butler on Liberty Express Radio, June 18, 2014. Topic: Illegal Immigration and diseases. I come on at the hour and 42 minute mark.
http://host1.cyberears.com//26743.mp3

On Being a Parent

I was one of those parents who worked two jobs her entire career to indulge my children. I wanted to make sure they never had to suffer like I did in my childhood under the oppressive communism with its equally miserable and impoverished masses. I now know that I made mistakes from time to time. I should have said no more often in my effort to make my children’s lives easier and better.

I did not parent from afar by sending in a monthly, court-ordered child support check. Nor did I disappear without a trace only to resurface when the kids became adults. I took full responsibility for my babies from the time they took their first breath into this complicated world. And it was painful to see them go into the world to seek their place in life. They were my pride and joy, the very essence of a life worth living. I felt rich beyond imagination because they were and are to this day my greatest accomplishment.

I was not the modern mom who makes children “her friends.”  Children have their own friends, they need a parent. I did not allow them to spend nights in strange homes whose occupants I did not know nor vetted.

Some parents today are so inadequate and libertine, allowing drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and sex into their homes on the premise that kids are going to do it anyway, they might as well provide a clean and safe environment to engage in risky behaviors. A son who posted a message recently on Facebook, that “he had the worst life ever,” got a bizarre response from his mother, “what wrong, bro? Go listen to that song by grandmaster flash.” What can I say about such crass and irresponsible parenting skills?

I was not a helicopter parent, hovering every moment over my children’s daily activities. Neither did I physically over protect them by making them wear helmets while playing for fear of injuries. Helmets were intended for bike riding not for turning them into sissies afraid of their shadows. They skinned their knees, bruised their shins and their egos, got up, dusted themselves off after a good cry, a kiss from mom, bandages if necessary, and went outside to play again.

I never believed nor demanded that students receive awards that they did not deserve nor earned. I was not the liberal parent who wanted a plaque or a certificate of participation for their mediocre kids.

I did not force my children into activities that they were not interested in just because it was the rage and all the other parents were exhausting their untalented kids to do. My children had time to be kids and play outside, exploring nature.

I loved my children, protected them, cared for them, took them to school, and did homework every night with them patiently although I was exhausted from my two jobs. I cried myself to sleep many nights, overwhelmed by the huge responsibility of being a single parent. Stoic during the day, I never let anybody know the turmoil inside my heart and my mind.

I taught my children to be compassionate and giving with those who were less fortunate than they were. One of my daughters took that to heart so much, she always gave away all her food and personal possessions and started all over many times.

I was the parent who took children to school every morning until they were old enough to drive. Sometimes I ran late picking them up from school but the gifted teachers kept them busy. I took them to softball practice, soccer, band practice, and picked them up at 2 a.m. when returning from band trips. Nobody asked me if that was something alien to my culture. I spent days and nights in the emergency room with feverish and very sick kids, worrying and praying that they’d be healthy again.

I logged thousands of miles driving to college to attend their concerts, recitals, Christmas Madrigals, awards ceremonies, white coat ceremony, to take them to the hospital when they got pneumonia, life-threatening infections, when they wrecked cars and were suffering from whip-lash, seldom missing my day job duties.

I bought them cars when they were old enough to drive, 15 years old in Mississippi. They were good and responsible drivers. They went on vacations to the beach, on Europe trips, to the zoo, and to museums. I wanted them to have a home, food, medicine, decent and comfortable shoes on their feet, and clean and warm clothes.

I was so proud of providing a home for them even though they always complained that it was too dated. My parents lost their home when I was very young. It was confiscated by the communist regime.  I never had a home after that or a room to call my own so, when I bought our house that was built in 1960, sturdy and durable, I was elated!  And, as a bonus, it had a tornado shelter, something we needed every week in the tornado alley where we lived. The “dated” quality of our home gave me comfort and reassurance that older things were built to last. The happiness of home ownership was almost as respectable as paying the house off 18 years later through very hard work.

I should have never felt guilty when I could not afford the very expensive Cabbage Patch Dolls or the latest electronic gizmos, but I did. I should not have felt inadequate because my kids were left out of activities and parties in a community in which a foreign parent and grandparent who did not speak English was a source of exclusion. But my kids felt slighted and left out; they were embarrassed and I understood their resentment which I could not fix.

I should not have felt bad because my kids did not want to have birthday parties with their friends at our house because Grandma did not speak English and it made their friends uncomfortable.

I should have never tried to fix all their problems for them. At times, that was a disservice to their understanding that the world is not rolling over backwards to please them. I should have taught them more how important family is, knowing where your roots are, where you came from, and where you are going.

I should have bought them less stuff. I should have emphasized more the need for compassion and the need to share their precious time in life with those who are truly worthy of their love and care.

The Salvation Army's Red Bucket

I love being a mom – it is my life’s biggest accomplishment. As it gets closer to Christmas, I miss the excitement, the togetherness, the giving, the bright eyes, and the sheer happiness my giggly girls exuded in expectation of Santa Claus. But I also miss the Christmas Angels, sharing with others the blessings from God.

Every year my daughters and I picked angel cards off the Salvation Army Christmas tree and went shopping for three mystery children who wrote to Santa Claus. It was fun hunting the wish-list items, wrapping them, dropping them off, and imagining the joy when the children opened their packages from the North Pole.

Today, on my way to the grocery store, I heard the bell and the Salvation Army bell ringer before he came into view. His presence on this balmy and sunny December morning reminded me of the day, long time ago, when April and I were the volunteer bell ringers at our local superstore. It was the coldest Saturday in a long, long time, 30 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. It was so frigid that stores ran out of gloves. That never happened in the clement South even in December. We were bundled to the eyeballs, jumping in place to keep warm. Once in a while the store manager brought us hot tea. We were so delighted when the bucket was full – we could go home and warm up, happy that we had reached our goal, helping someone else less fortunate than we were.

Americans have always been very generous with their time, money, expertise, and help. My southern neighbors were exceptionally giving, rising to any occasion. Even those who considered themselves poor donated a dollar bill or a five because they knew that the Salvation Army distributed most of the money to the cause of helping, feeding, and housing Americans who were in need. There were no millionaire executives with the Salvation Army Church and no jet-setters among their ranks.

A former student, a double-amputee veteran, who lived in pain most of the time, struggling to walk, drive, and live his life on crutches, always volunteered in the Salvation Army kitchen – he  helped cook and serve hundreds of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. His altruism and stoic demeanor were inspirational to me. I knew how much pain he endured after many botched operations, yet he never complained. We helped him sometimes – I wanted my children to be ground in humility and sharing.

I looked the bell ringer in the eye as I squeezed my donation through the slot into the red bucket – it was almost full. I saw kindness and sadness in the momentary glimpse into his soul. I don’t know if he had a hard and painful life filled with obstacles. His toothless smile lit up his creased face when he wished me a Merry Christmas. A sudden sadness overcame me, I choked up, and my eyes filled with tears – I felt humbled; my Mom’s oft-repeated words echoed in my mind as I walked away into the store, “God keeps the world for the poor and the downtrodden.”

Mom and Dad, We're Blaming You for Obama's Failures

Voters have short memories and are easily duped by a charming smile, lies, and empty promises. Many voters lack a basic understanding of history, government, and economics.

Only an uninformed or welfare dependent American would vote for a person endorsing the repulsively obscene ad that presents a young woman urging Democrats to carefully pick their candidate in the same way they picked the guy they lost their virginity to.

The Democrat factor of desperation and indoctrination is on full display in the latest ad which uses young children, in chilling lyrics, blaming their parents for the economic failures of the Obama’s administration. The ad takes me back to the communist indoctrination I suffered under the communist regime when the absolute ruler, Ceausescu, and his wife, Elena, forced us to sing in school praises to them as our real father and mother. Our biological parents, we were told, were stupid and needed re-education.

The pro-Obama ad does not stop there; in carefully chosen rhyme, brainwashed children describe an apocalyptic future in which “sick people just die,” “the oil fills the sea,” “strip mines are fun and free,” and “the Earth is cracked/Big Bird is sacked/And the atmosphere is frying.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwlW4lx6TTo)

I cannot imagine a more perverted image of America in the future, described by pro-Obama liberal supporters who shamelessly use children to propagate hate and advance their Marxist and environmentalist agenda.

The outrageous song ends in, “You did your best/ You failed the test/ Mom and Dad/ We’re blaming you!” I am speechless! We live in the Hollywood make-believe world inspired by the Matrix. No wonder our schools and curriculum are dumbed down.

The truth is, intelligent and informed American voters blame this President and his failed policies. It is not mom and dad who are endangering their children’s future unless they vote again for a President who has brought America to its knees and has no economic plan to save the best country in the world, the “shining city on the hill” that we love.

As a former professor, I know firsthand the level of economic ignorance among the American population at large, even those with college degrees. The curriculum taught at most colleges is based on the interpretation of meaningless graphs that most young people cannot correlate to reality. Students’ eyes glaze over when they see graphs – how can they understand them when they have rudimentary knowledge of mathematics?

When students pursue degrees in Social Studies, Anthropology, Women’s Studies, and other fluff degrees with slim possibility of finding a job much less a six-figure job promised by eager college advisors, they are never required to take science classes or Economics. Some students are incapable of balancing their own checkbooks and have no idea how our government runs.

If you add the lack of basic economics knowledge to the lack of historical facts and American government, you have the perfect Obama voter who is ill-informed, easily manipulated, but has very strong ignorant opinions, mostly based on feelings or the misinformation fed to them on a daily basis by the main stream media, the aggressive promotional army of the Obama campaign.

The main stream media spins the truth, hides the facts, and lies in order to provide cover for and to make their favorite candidate look innocent. How can you not adore the rich Messianic power of someone who represents the interests of the poor and the downtrodden with someone else’s money?

Sadder still, most young Americans get their information from CNN, MSNBC, and comedians like David Letterman and Jon Stuart.

Informed Americans with abundant economic, historic, and political knowledge get their information selectively from a variety of sources on the web. Nobody in this category believes the liberal media.

Comedians like Jay Leno go out into the streets to expose the glaring ignorance of the average voter with basic questions of history, government, and current politics. The ignorant Democrat voters are easily persuaded that Obama’s disastrous economic policies belong to Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate. These are people who cannot recognize political figures, the offices they hold, and the platforms of their darling politicians they vote for and financially support.

Democrat voters vandalize their opponents’ signs, deposit feces on porches with Romney signs in their yards, and deface the cars of those who display bumper stickers supporting Republicans. Democrats have become the party of intolerance and cowardly hooliganism.

Obama keeps blaming Republicans and the “mess he inherited.” Many former Presidents have inherited “messes” but they tried their best to rectify the situation. Our President exacerbated a fixable situation by making it worse, infinitely worse. He failed the economy, failed to protect the American citizens, and represented the interests of the world, of United Nations, not the interests of the United States and the American people.

President Obama has tripled the deficit and did everything possible to destroy the economy and the job creators. He caused huge unemployment among the oil and coal industries, doing the EPA’s bidding and the environmentalists’ will. The price of oil skyrocketed from $1.79 when Obama took office to $4 now while blaming others for his refusal to allow drilling domestically and to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

His own economic ignorance was on full display during the presidential debate when he stated that gas was cheaper when he became President because the economy was about to collapse. Since he “saved” the economy, oil is now $4 a gallon.

In a few days, we are going to vote. We hope the producers and the informed will outnumber the ignorant liberal voters and voters on welfare who are only interested in “free stuff” from Obama. We conservatives who believe in the free market and self-reliance will eventually stop producing “free stuff” for welfare recipients and Obama will have to take benefits away. Before you vote, ask yourself, how much worse off you are when compared to four years ago. If you give an honest answer, the choice will be clear.