OLD AGE

“Men, like nations, think they’re eternal. What man in his 20's or 30's doesn’t believe, at least subconsciously, that he’ll live forever? In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it’s harder to hide from reality. Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking: This will endure forever…Forever was about 500 years, give or take. France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim ummah. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in a perpetual twilight. Its 95-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline. In the 1980's, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone. I was born in 1942, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century – the American century. America’s prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the 'Greatest Generation,' we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity. We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia, and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA…the blueprint of life. But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism – which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world. We’ve gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We’ve traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution. The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, 'Dr. Jill' had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency. We can’t defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels. The president of the United States can’t even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence (‘You know — The Thing’) correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago. Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd. Amendment and slash police budgets. Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they’re women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they’re inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about ‘unloading a revolver into the head of any white person.’ Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It’s a $28-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our ‘entertainment’ is sadistic, nihilistic and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive. Patriotism is called insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a dress. We’re asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in. How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity? • Fighting endless wars they can’t or won’t win • Accumulating massive debt far beyond their ability to repay • Refusing to guard their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde • Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule • Allowing indoctrination of the young • Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy • Losing national identity • Indulging indolence • Abandoning faith and family – the bulwarks of social order. In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease. Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had? I’m surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected. This is the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I don’t want to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely. During Britain’s darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill reminded his countrymen, ‘Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.’ The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us? While the prognosis is far from good, only God knows if America’s day in the sun is over.” -Author Unknown

What can a governor do?

What if 100 to 300 or more parents decide they have had enough of Murphet's authoritarian edicts on the use of masks and kids in schools? What will the school district do? What will Murphy do ? What can he do? Fine the district? fine the parents? Is there a remedy to the situation -- individual liberty? Who runs this public school system - Parents? County? State legislature? Governor who murdered seniors by dumping Covid patients in nursing homes - What science is being used - what mask science is used - What data? What Data? Jack

At what COST

As a tax payer, former educator, parent and grandparent, former BOE member in TWP - I see the need for another step of action - defund NEA. >We pay taxes that pay teachers 'salaries that in turn pay dues to the unions.

>Teachers have the ability to pay only the 80% of the total cost out of their salaries and take a stand to push back against the CRT promoted by NEA - which our BOE will tell you CRT is not in our district - Be aware of the euphemisms used - diversity inclusion equity - the pedagogy contains many other terms. On June 30, members of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, voted to approve a plan to promote critical race theory in all 50 states. Union delegates representing 3 million public school employees approved funding for three separate items related to “increasing the implementation” of “critical race theory” in K-12 curricula; promoting critical race theory in 14,000 local school districts; and attacking opponents of critical race theory, including parent organizations and conservative research centers. Liberal pundits and activists including our TWP BOE have insisted that critical race theory is not taught in K-12 schools. This was always a bad-faith claim; the ideology has made inroads in public schools for more than a decade. But the NEA’s official endorsement puts the final nail in the coffin of this rhetorical dodge. In the resolution-- pointed out by Christopher F. Rufo >1. the union agreed publicly to “convey its support” for critical race theory, 2. oppose restrictions in state legislatures, 3. use schools to promote political activism. 4. The delegates pledged to “join with Black Lives Matter at School and the Zinn Education Project” to hold a “national day of action” on George Floyd’s birthday, 5.recruiting teachers to hold political demonstrations and “teach lessons about structural racism and oppression. 6. develop a study to critique “empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, [and] anthropocentrism”—that is, adapting the most fashionable and intellectually bankrupt ideas from the universities for use in grade school classrooms. 7. passed a resolution to: “research the organizations” that oppose critical race theory—including grassroots parent organizations—and provide resources to groups and individuals targeting them. The nationalteachers’ union will use union dues, collected from public employees paid by taxpayers, to attack parents who oppose the racial indoctrination of their children. The teachers’ union has nationalized critical race theory and committed to the full range of left-wing radicalism, including opposition to “capitalism” and “anthropocentrism.” Who should decide what happens in public schools—parents, voters, and state legislatures, or the national teachers’ union and its allies in the public school bureaucracy? Are you as a parent, grandparent taxpayer - ready to cede authority to left-wing ideologues masquerading as educators? Jack Scheidell

Free Ice Cream?

It has been nine months since the Presidential Election votes were tabulated. Essentially there were two real candidates and several others. The question is what did the pro-Biden voters expect? Did they want more expensive automobile fuel cost? Did they want inflation? What about uncontrolled immigration? Did the voters want free health care for non- citizens? Did they want the Teacher’s Union to control their children’s attendance with anti-Covid masks? Did they vote so that the Democrat Party would spend Trillions? How is unification working for them? ‘Remember, the government cannot give anything to anyone that they have not first taken away from someone else.’ Did you vote for the $3.5 trillion of ice cream?