Back to the Good Old Days

Sunday night is date night. Going to town and dragging Main Street a time or two and then heading for a movie is the routine. After the film, it's back in the car, drag Main Street one more time, and head for the local A&W Root Beer stand. Over a cold root beer and following good conversation sitting around on the fenders and hoods of our cars, it is time to take our dates home, that is, if we are fortunate enough to have a nice girlfriend. The rest of the boys said "good night" and headed for home. Monday morning, the alarm rings early, lots of work ahead, including tackling the morning farm chores and preparing for the day's work. The work varied from planting time in the Spring to cutting weeds and detasseling corn during the hot mid-summer months, county fair time in August, and harvest in the Fall. Oh yes, Fall was also back to high school time. Everybody worked unless prevented by some health condition. We all look out for and take care of each other. If a farmer has an accident or becomes ill, the neighbors all jump in to plant his crops or harvest them from the field, depending on the season. One more thing before moving on. The Internet hadn't even been dreamed of, nor the cell phone. Instead, we are connected on "party lines," usually with twenty or so families sharing the same telephone line via an "operator." However, we did have "instant messaging." All we have to do is mess up in school or someplace in town, and the message reaches home by the time you step off the school bus! However, these are not the good old days this article is remembering. No one should live in the past. It's over. Today and tomorrow are where we live, which should be our total focus. But do not ignore history as it is our best teacher!

With these thoughts in mind, do you remember when Gasoline was $2.78 a gallon or cheaper? How about milk at $1.89 per gallon and a loaf of white bread at $1.99? By the way, these numbers are taken from USDA statistics. One other number to ponder, USDA says food today is 7.4 percent higher than January 2021. America is energy independent and sells petroleum products to other countries. The XL Pipeline is being constructed from Canada to our Gulf Coast to bring more crude oil to Texas for refining. The World is relatively peaceful; peace is starting to break out in the mid-East. Both China and Russia respect and are afraid of the USA, our military might, and our leadership. These are the "good old days" we should remember. With Gasoline at $3.99 per gallon and going up in significant jumps each day, dragging the prices of everything else along with it, today is not the "good old days" of 2021. Can the clock be set back to 2021? Absolutely not. Today's task is to start working together to build a much better 2022 and beyond. As it looks from this old country boy's chair, it is way past time both Democrats and Republicans replace their partisan hats with Patriot hats.

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Having been honored to serve in Congress, my observation is that this, hate each other never deal with the enemy attitude, set in during the last several years. A Congressman or Congresswoman's priorities were God, Country, Family, Community, and Me in precisely that order when I served. Sadly, today, God and Country have been replaced with Me first. My pledge is kept only to serve 12 years. 13 people I served with in the US House 28 years ago are still in Congress. An additional 62 members, with over 36 years of service, are also on my acquaintance list. Don Young (R), from Alaska with 49 years, and Steny Hoyer (D), Maryland with 41 years, are good friends from the past. And they are still there. Longevity has produced a culture controlled by the same people in both parties. This is not saying these are bad folks; they are not. However, they have lost touch with the people they represent and have become more and more partisan. This is a bad thing for the country. As the likelihood of any of these long-term people being voted out of office is akin to my winning the lottery, it is incumbent on them to start working for God, Country, Family, Community, and Me. Take the front seat away from caustic partisanship and replace it with patriotism. Thomas Jefferson said: "Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power and restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government." We have all failed our job of electing creditable people to Congress and then allowing some members to serve a lifetime. Jefferson also stated: "A true patriot will defend his country from its government." It is time for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to stand up as Americans, united to bring our country back to the solid beliefs and principles it is built upon. Look back to learn; keep your eyes on the future. We must build a new 2021, even better than the original.