Before this week, the last time I can think of to praise a Democrat was April 11, 1951, when President Truman fired General MacArthur for insubordination. I was 10 months old, and The Highland County Press did yet not exist, so you can stop wracking your brain trying to remember my column of Democrat praise. I did not know how to write, let alone type, at that time.

The point we should keep in mind is that energy has always been and will always be fluid. What is being touted as the be-all and end-all at the moment could be gone tomorrow.

Thank goodness for the founding fathers who were able to design a system that has withstood the vilest, crookedest and most incompetent politicians we can elect. Let’s just hope that Covid does not become the final, magic elixir that does us in.

I have gotten so I don’t talk to hardly anyone about climate change, including highly educated family members. I just don’t need the angst.

The popular press (and “settled” science) has made us all chemists with the increasing contemporary discussions of carbon dioxide. Well, we are only sort of chemists.

Modern predictions are draped in mathematics. Yet, mathematics cannot predict what humans are going to do. Mathematics cannot predict humankind’s inventiveness or the courses of action humans will take in response to events around them.

Ezekiel (not his real name, but one you might hear in this venue) told me to be ready by 6:15 a.m. (7:15 a.m. EDT – the Mennonites do not use Daylight Saving Time). When I had gone to bed the night before, I had asked to be awakened by at least six. I needed to ask because my Apple watch, along with my iPhone, computer and other electronic gear were locked in my car. I turn off all modern devices when visiting.

How many times have you heard someone say, “But I can’t?” Most “I can’t” statements are not that a person really can’t, but something is holding them back. Lack of confidence, clinging to traditions or many other things.

I recall a story from the 1972 presidential election – which Richard Nixon won by a landslide with 520 electoral votes. Upon hearing this, reportedly a matron of the anointed class in New York said, “I don’t understand it, I don’t know anyone who voted for Nixon.” This person obviously had a very narrow perspective of the world, at least on this subject.

I have no problems with airplanes at 44,000 feet. I can look out the windows with ease. But climbing a few hundred feet off terra firma, I can’t do it no matter how hard I try. You may have similar distances you can’t travel. There is another distance you may have trouble traveling, but that I would urge you to try. It is the distance to that family member or former friend with whom you have had a falling out.

It is the crime of the century, the dumbing down and demotivation of America. Let’s see if we can do something about it here. Adults, let’s resolve to all become Mr. Wisecups and encourage young people to be all that they can and should be.

You absolutely can’t voluntarily give to others without love. It is impossible. Do you give Christmas or birthday presents to people you don’t love? Of course not. Therefore, the isms have to use the threat of incarceration or worse.

Well, we finally get to the purpose. What is the purpose of socialism? This breaks into two pieces.

For all its flaws, the United States is still the most successful country in the history of the world. The Constitution and capitalism have lifted more people out of poverty than any other government at any other time in any other place in the history of the world.

When a government gives you money or goods or services, their side has the same implicit expectation. The government expects you to perform in a certain way in exchange for the money they gave you.