Thank you for your thoughtful comments.

My view: No to nationalization of private industries!

Forgive my beating a dead horse but I overlooked your flip closing.

The Second Amendment is an urban vs rural issue. People living in cities are utterly tone deaf to the importance that country folk place on gun rights.

A serious attempt to outlaw firearms would result in a bloody nationwide civil war. That aint over-the-top conjecture, Belloscm. That’s cold reality. No joking.

Missed the humor entirely on first reading. Not to worry, though. I got it second time around. Pima cotton refers to Klan sheeting. Gosh, I’m so dense, sometimes.

When I was growing up, conformity was the big word. Beatniks were hip non-conformists. My parents’ generation and anyone in authority was square and conformist.

If beatniks were left or liberal I never heard about it. Nor did I hear members of my parents’ generation described as conservative.

The word conformity has fallen out of favor as a social identifier. Beatniks were replaced by hippies, the sixties came and went and the hippies eventually matured into yuppies.

Conformity today is liberal and leftist. Monyed, comfortable, full bellied liberal leftists are the modern elite. Joe Sixpack in full camo with shotgun in hand and assortment of plastic and wooden duckcalls around his neck is non-conformist.

If you want to amuse yourself with odd imagery, Belloscm, imagine a right wing civil rights movement. Imagine the upheavals of the sixties with Joe Sixpack playing Abbey Hoffman. I’ll leave the Weatherman, The Black Panthers, Ayers and Dohrn for you to fill in on your own.

Couldn’t happen? Dream on Belloscm. It’s pendulum. Swings this way and that. And does damage.

The documentary, “Silenced 2008″ tells us that the Obama folks have been honing their thuggish, illegitimate skills for some time:

http://wewillnotbesilenced2008.com/

An excerpt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGZFgMNM-UU

They appear to be the creepiest, nastiest major political force to hit this country since the 19th century, and they seem to have no scruples.

We will be living in even more interesting times after Nov. 4, and not just if Obama wins. If he loses, there’ll be a lot of fireworks. If he wins, well . . . we shall see, but I’m not optimistic.

How so, David? You wouldn’t be alluding to a possible wide-spread return of white reactionaries such as the Klan, would you? Hmmm… Joe Six-Pack draped in pima cotton and carrying a 12 gauge. Interesting.

Can Obama confiscate the 12 gauges before working class white rage reaches critical mass?

I shouted as loudly as I could. I wrote my Senators and President Bush. I even outlined alternative proposals to the TARP plan as long as one year ago.

I work in New York in corporate banking for a major multi-national firm. I know the issues, root causes, who is to blame and who was complicit in this mess.

Let’s just hope that the recovery from this recession is a “V” versus a “U” or and “L”.

America will pay for generations to come under an Obama administration with a Democratic Congress and a socialistic agenda. The economy and life in general will suffer long-term damage.

Again, no to socialism in America. I hope you think and feel the same way.

…I really don’t anticipate a white rage in the streets…

Nor do I, in truth. White Americans aren’t in the habit of rioting.

But I had a a chat with a duck hunter the weekend before last. Beaching his canoe and unloading shotguns and gear along with his teenage son just after first light. A liberal urban sophisticate’s definition of Joe Sixpack. We chatted about the election in the honest manner of strangers meeting in the woods. His anger was focused and palpable.

The fear of Obama winning is that the political pendulum will swing way left. Scary but not nearly as scary as the equally wide return swing to the right that will surely follow.

Black rage doesn’t frighten me. It’s temporarily destructive but finally nothing more than unfocused and powerless energy expenditure. The reactionary rage of hard-working Whites feeling themselves scanted and robbed by well-heeled White socialists elites and their Black proteges and surrogates terrifies me.

The best course for the nation has always been middle of the road. I have three children in their twenties. I’d like for them not to live in the interesting times followed by even more interesting times that an Obama presidency guarantees.

May your letter above be heard loud and clear across this nation for the next three weeks and become part of required reading in all our schools in the “US”. Your family is the fiber & strength of this country, and you are so right, the greatness of America was built by men & women “a rainbow of color”, and we must not let their struggle be for not. We must continue to rid contamination of
“Freedom” by those educated to turn our country in to a Socialist one, before it is to late. Cut the sick branches before the tree dies and watch the tree come back to a healthy beautiful strong one.
Thank you for your words of wisdom.

My grandfather believed in keeping an American flag flying in front of his home, all day, every day. He was given an opportunity, at the turn of the century, to help build a nation into an industrial symbol of strength. He spoke with a heavy accent of the old country, but he worked long and hard hours and thought that was proof of his opportunity, so he saluted the flag of his country and stood ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with his countrymen. He believed that to squander the opportunities afforded to such an immigrant family would be a family disgrace. He insisted that my father (and my father’s sisters) advance the family pride by being excellent students in school and productive members of society.

I guess when you help build something, you feel the pride of ownership in it.

My father, spoke with absolutely no accent. He was a young man fresh out of post graduate school when a war broke out that tested the resolve of mankind to fight evil with all their might and every ounce of courage they could muster. My father volunteered to serve and was assigned the rank of Lt. Commander. After twice being turned down for medical reasons, he insisted that he be allowed to to his part. It was a matter of honor that he serve his country and be allowed to defend his flag, his country and his countrymen. And it was imperative to him, that we “never forget”.

I guess when you help defend something, you feel the pride of allegiance to it.

He also insisted that I respect the opportunities that I was afforded. I was to take school as an opportunity not to be squandered. He also insisted that I go to school in an integrated neighborhood, because I was to learn to defend the rights of my countrymen, who all flew under the same flag as I did. In my grammar school, we said the Pledge of Allegiance every single day. I asked my father why we did this. He said it helped to reinforce our committment to the “united” portion, of our United States of America. It signaled out loud that we were behind the “us” in the US.

Today, we have a choice before us that causes me great conflict. It tears at the lessons instilled in me by my ancestors. A man wishes to be my President, our Commander in Chief, who gives me the opportunity to show that I stand behind the “us” in the U.S. in manner profoundly and historically significant, as no other vote has. I get to show that the son of an immigrant, whose loved ancestor spoke with an accent, and believed in education…is deserving to serve as my President.

My father donated half his practice to inner city handicapped kids. Substantially less money than in his private practice, but part of what he felt honored to give. He told me that they were part of the “us” too and deserved our love and attention. I believe in my ancestors and called upon them for wisdom and guidance.

And here is what came to me. A man who wishes to lead us under that flag that my grandfather flew and my father insisted on defending, the one I swore allegiance to every day…was called the “wrong kind” of patriotism, an embarrassment to wear on his lapel.

That flag, which was carried onto the beaches of Normandy to help free a continent and was carried into the death camps to turn off the ovens of mortal sin at Auschwitz, …was stepped on with dirty boots by the man who launched the political career of this candidate for President and Commander in Chief.

Stepped on. Ground his feet on it, for a picture and for the symbolism it reflected. While being quoted that this country makes him want to puke. William Ayers would matter to my ancestors, so William Ayers matters to me.

Every President I have ever witnessed give an address…Republican or Democrat…stood in front of that flag in every address to this nation. And he said God Bless America.

The man who would be my President, helped William Ayers institute an indoctrination in school children to learn to hate that flag. Helped to direct millions and millions and millions of dollars to fund that indoctrination of hatred of my flag.

And he also cleaved himself to a man who asked God to specifically NOT bless America, but to damn it. Jeremiah Wright would have mattered to my ancestors, Jeremiah Wright matters to me.

My ancestors said that college was my ticket to springboard my life to its greatest heights. That education at college was an honor and it should not be squandered as an opportunity. The man who wants to be my President and Commander in Chief was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis that college was a way to be compromised and not to believe in the greatness of America or the fraudulent notion of the land of opportunity, he literally spit on our flag. Frank Marshall Davis would have mattered to my ancestors, Frank Marshall Davis matters to me.

For all those men who died at Gettysburg fighting to free men they didn’t know, but who did so because of the “us” in the US flag, it must matter to me. For all those men who put an end to the horrors of Treblinka and Dachau, carrying that flag, it matters to me. To the men and their innocent dates at a dance at Ft. Dix who were the target of nail bombs, assembled to kill them for carrying that flag…by the despicable likes of Ayers and Dorhn, it matters to me.

I called upon my ancestors because I want to show that the color of the candidate matters not one whit in a foxhole, it should matter not one whit in the voting booth. They sent me to an integrated school to be in a foxhole with everyone under our same flag. They lived a life of acceptance and brotherhood. I was to defend with my life every American, Christian or Jew, white, brown, yellow, red or black, male or female, straight or gay.

If I did not vote for this man, would I betray my ancestors teachings. This is an historic opportunity for our country, the foxhole takes in anyone willing to stand shoulder to shoulder as brothers. We believe in that, don’t we, Dad? Gramps?

Yet, when a man asks to lead you and is ashamed to wear it on his lapel, when his closest lifelong confidantes swear allegiance to another “flag”, when they say your countrymen are mean, bitter, and unworthy…how many signs and signals do you need to see there is no “us” in their US?

When a man’s army spits on your flag, stomps his dirty boots on it, desecrates it, defames it, asks God to tear it asunder…how many signs and signals do you need to recognize your obligation to defend it? When they attempt to indoctrinate schoolchildren into hating America, and misdirect millions of dollars in funds to do so, how many signs and signals does it take to stand up and be counted?

I asked my ancestors for guidance and they called down the answer. Under his command, the color that matters is this…what color is the flag his men carry? Which one do they salute? Which one do they honor and swear allegiance to? If it’s yours, no other color matters. You MUST bring all your resources to bear to elevate him as your leader.

If it is not, and you do not defend yours…then why did you Pledge Allegiance to it beginning as a boy in grammar school, if you won’t defend it? Why did we fly it, if you will not defend it? Why did we volunteer to serve under it, if you will not defend it? It was preserved for you, now stand up and preserve it for those who come behind you.