President Obama largely owes his election to Americans 30 or under who voted for him by a 2-1 margin. Younger Americans are much more tolerant and open-minded on cultural issues and are decidedly less religious than their elders. Despite, older citizens’ concerns, America will soon be in good hands. Our country will eventually evolve into a secular society where bigotry and religious superstition will be eradicated and all citizens will truly be treated equally.

As for this website, I find that I am primarily “preaching to the choir”. Therefore there will be no further messages on this website.

At 66, I am not going to just sit back in my recliner and “give up”. I believe my efforts will be better spent pursuing other avenues in the attempt to get average working Americans to just “THINK”!!! For the rest of my life, I intend to join and participate in organizations sharing my values to help bring about a “more perfect union”. I hope you will do likewise!

P.S. Please look for my “letters to the Editor” in the Nashville Tennessean and hopefully USATODAY.

What happened in the 1960’s to bring about this transformation? The issue that forever changed the South’s political landscape was the passage of several civil rights bills which, theoretically, at least, emancipated blacks from their second class citizen status. Since the Democrats controlled the Presidency and both houses of Congress, the Democrats received the credit or blame for this legislation, depending on your point of view.

The above legislation did not sit well with white southerners who saw the recently liberated blacks as a threat. Southern Senators and Congressmen who voted for this legislation usually paid with their political lives. Albert Gore Sr. (the father, not the son) is a good example, being defeated by a conservative Republican in 1970 for a senate seat Senator Gore had held for 18 years.

Not much has changed in the past forty years. In the 2008 election, President Obama swept the nation with the exception of the South. In the “hardcore” Deep South, despite a huge black electorate, President Obama received less than forty percent of the vote.

Today, racism in the South is not usually openly displayed. On the surface, most southern whites show no animosity towards blacks. However, in the dark recesses of their souls, most Southern whites cling to the belief that the Republican Party is their last best hope of maintaining economic, social and political dominance in the region.

The NRA has threatened retaliation against any U.S. Senator who voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Surprisingly, several Senators who usually are in bed with the NRA, voted to confirm Ms. Sotomayor’s appointment. Even Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander, high in the Republican hierarchy and a NRA darling, voted to place Ms. Sotomayor on the Supreme Court.

Has a “toothless tiger” finally been exposed?

Students attending public schools, by necessity, associate with others who are different from themselves whether it is race, economic condition, religion or culture. This enables children to learn to think for themselves and to become tolerant of those who are different. This prepares children for the “real world” once they become adults.

Unfortunately, rather than sending their children to either public schools or enriching open-minded private schools, many parents choose to home school their children. Many such parents are often ill prepared to give their children a diverse, meaningful education.

Many parents home school for the wrong reason. Rather than being concerned with their children receiving a broad education, many parents apparently are more concerned that they grow up with the parents’ political, religious, social beliefs and prejudices, in essence being little clones of themselves. Home schooling makes these children’s assimilation into the diverse society with which they will have to deal with as adults much more difficult.

Cooperation is a two-way street.

Who survived this crisis? Among others, the Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) and their compatriots of the nation’s largest publicly held companies, who remain living on “easy street”. Their salaries remain well in excess of 5 million dollars. The wealth of these “fat cats” has little relation to the performance of their companies. Historically, when companies make “tons” of profit, executive pay goes through the roof. Conversely, when performance goes south, there is usually only a small decrease in compensation.

Regardless of how a public company performs, executives have little about which to be concerned as long as they keep their Board of Directors happy. Since “birds of a feather” usually flock together, the relationship between most executives and their Board of Directors is nothing short of a mutual admiration society.

Where does that leave the stockholders, the owners of the companies and, theoretically, “bosses” of the executives? Usually, knowing little of what goes on in the upper echelons of the company, the stockholders have insufficient knowledge to assert effective control over the compensation of the company executives. Perhaps, the U.S. should “shake things up” as did the Netherlands which passed legislation giving stockholders a “binding” vote on executive compensation.

Think America will ever follow the Netherland’s example and allow stockholders to control executive compensation? As long as special interest groups, including wealthy benefactors of the present system, fill the coffers of our elected officials in Washington, the poor will get poorer and the rich will get richer.

When a patient sues a physician after suffering an unexpected injury or ill effect as the result of that physician’s treatment, juries often award not only compensatory damages but
astronomical punitive damages far in excess of what reason would dictate. As a result, most physicians, to lessen the chances of such a result, order or prescribe every conceivable procedure or test available whether or not actually needed.

Attempts have been made in Congress to cap such awards so that a physician’s “victims” are adequately compensated but awards are not so large as to “unjustly enrich” plaintiffs by ludicrous “runaway” juries. Due to the enormous influence on Congress by organizations representing the nation’s lawyers, such attempts have gotten nowhere.

Physicians naturally attempt to mitigate their personal losses by acquiring malpractice insurance. Unfortunately, as can be expected, premiums for malpractice are huge. Physicians merely pass this expense to their patients in the form of inflated charges for services rendered.

As with all attempts by the government to reform America’s health care system and eliminate unnecessary costs, those feeding at the public trough always yell “socialized medicine”. Again, there is yet another irony. Of the 18 other countries providing their citizens better health care than the U.S., most actually practice what must be deemed socialized medicine.

Until a few years ago, most workers held permanent positions, with decent wages and attendant “perks” such as health insurance and vacation days. Today, many companies, especially large corporations, have adopted the practice of hiring large percentages of temporary workers rather than permanent employees.

“Temps” are not provided health insurance and other benefits previously provided full-time employees and usually receive sub-par wages. For many, the “American dream” has become a nightmare.

The most troubling aspect of “right to life” zealots is their inconsistency. Although unanimously opposing abortion, many perhaps most of these self-appointed guardians of the public morality, openly practice one or another method of birth control to prevent the birth of children. For every fetus aborted, there are thousands of “potential human beings” who never see the light of day due to the practice of birth control.

Most anti-abortionists have a religious basis for their intolerance. Most insist that God’s plan is for all creatures to reproduce and populate the Earth. If God’s plan is truly to reproduce and populate the Earth, is it not contrary to his plan to use birth control to intentionally abrogate God’s plan? Of course this is nonsense but is consistent with religious dogma.

Does common sense force the religious to be hypocrites?

Every individual is responsible for his or her actions and should be held accountable therefore. To hold anyone responsible for others’ conduct, even family members, is reprehensible. Who among us does not have at least one family member whose actions are less than exemplary and often downright embarrassing?

Guilt by association be damned!