Random Thoughts

          Independence Day is our greatest national holiday.  We annually celebrate with parades, fireworks, and all kinds of parties.  Hertford is no exception.  Yet a Marist poll shows that fewer than a third of young adults know that America declared its independence in 1776, and one in four people don’t know that the country we fought for our independence was Great Britain.  Only people over 60 scored well in the Marist poll.  What does that say about our younger generations? 

          When I see monuments defaced with “Black Lives Matter” graffiti, and when I read that the NAACP is calling for the toppling of statues of Confederate generals, I am reminded of ISIS’s barbaric smashing of antique artifacts in a Mosul museum.  Mindless destruction, whether practiced by Muslim extremists or people filled with hate, is an assault not just on history, but on civilization itself.

          What we’re seeing now in Greece may very well be a sign of things to come in this country.  Greece got itself into an intractable mess by overspending on social programs and refusing to take measures to bring its debt under control.  We are on the same path here in this country with an unsustainable national debt of $18 trillion and administration policies that threaten our economic security.  Greeks are already facing the prospects of food shortages and runaway inflation.  Is that our future?

          School-based clinics in 113 Seattle-area school districts now make it possible for middle and high school children to have IUDs implanted through Take Charge, a Washington State Medicaid program-- without their parents knowing about it.  Students who choose to be sexually active are eligible for a full array of “family planning services.”  Free and confidential.  Now that’s what we need to promote a healthy relationship between mothers and daughters.

          Sweet Cakes by Melissa was forced to close after being fined $135,000 for refusing on religious grounds to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.  Now the Labor Commissioner for the state of Oregon has gone even further by imposing a gag order on the bakery’s owners.  So much for freedom of religion and freedom of speech.  If you don’t think that the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage will have far-reaching consequences, think again.