“I’m 63 and I’m Tired”<\/p>\n
I’m 63.\u00a0\u00a0Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period\u00a0when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard,\u00a0since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to\u00a0get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and\u00a0I’m tired. Very tired.<\/p>\n
I’m tired\u00a0of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take\u00a0the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too\u00a0lazy to earn it.<\/p>\n
I’m tired\u00a0of being\u00a0told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” \u00a0Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if\u00a0they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.<\/p>\n
I’m\u00a0tired\u00a0of being told how bad\u00a0 America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and\u00a0Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of\u00a0the opportunities\u00a0 America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of\u00a0 Zimbabwe , the freedom\u00a0of the press of\u00a0 China , the crime and violence of\u00a0 Mexico , the\u00a0tolerance for Christian people of\u00a0 Iran , and the freedom of speech of\u00a0 Venezuela .<\/p>\n
I’m tired\u00a0of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives\u00a0and\u00a0daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some\u00a0slight offense; of Muslims murdering\u00a0Christian\u00a0and Jews because they\u00a0aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims\u00a0mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah,\u00a0because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.<\/p>\n
I’m tired\u00a0of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the\u00a0post-racial world of\u00a0Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative\u00a0action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S.\u00a0Senators from\u00a0Illinois.<\/p>\n
I think\u00a0it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is\u00a0doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln \u00a0wrote the Emancipation\u00a0Proclamation. I just wish the black president was\u00a0Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.<\/p>\n
I’m\u00a0tired\u00a0of a\u00a0news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to\u00a0Fox News?\u00a0\u00a0Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.<\/p>\n
I’m tired\u00a0of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America ,\u00a0while no American group is allowed to fund\u00a0a church, synagogue or religious school in\u00a0 Saudi Arabia \u00a0to teach love and tolerance.<\/p>\n
I’m tired\u00a0of being\u00a0told I must lower my living standard to fight\u00a0global warming, which\u00a0no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a \u00a0three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of\u00a0Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.<\/p>\n
I’m\u00a0tired\u00a0of being\u00a0told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m\u00a0tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.<\/p>\n
I’m tired\u00a0of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s\u00a0next?\u00a0 Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”?\u00a0 And, no, \u00a0I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a\u00a0few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. \u00a0I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is\u00a0self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for\u00a0three years in our military…. Those are the citizens we need.<\/p>\n
I’m tired\u00a0of latte\u00a0liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do\u00a0bad things happen in war?\u00a0\u00a0You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? \u00a0Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are?\u00a0\u00a0Not even close.\u00a0 So\u00a0here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation\u00a0and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded\u00a0Daniel Pearl\u00a0in\u00a0Pakistan, or the Muslims who\u00a0tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or\u00a0the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in\u00a0Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in\u00a0history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.<\/p>\n
I’m\u00a0tired\u00a0of people telling\u00a0me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are\u00a0bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in\u00a0 Illinois , where the “Illinois Combine” of Democrats has\u00a0worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.<\/p>\n
I’m\u00a0tired\u00a0of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both\u00a0parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting\u00a0caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or\u00a0poor.<\/p>\n
Speaking of poor, I’m tired\u00a0of\u00a0hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.<\/p>\n
I’m\u00a0real tired\u00a0of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m\u00a0tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or\u00a0big-whatever for their problems.<\/p>\n
Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also\u00a0glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my\u00a0granddaughter.<\/p>\n
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran\u00a0who served five terms in the\u00a0 Massachusetts State \u00a0Senate and is the actor who plays the coroner on CSI if you watch that show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“I’m 63 and I’m Tired” I’m 63.\u00a0\u00a0Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period\u00a0when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard,\u00a0since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-free-speech","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}