Misspeaking or lying

Hillary Clinton made a statement that she arrived in Kosovo as First Lady amidst sniper fire, and that her welcoming ceremony did not happen, and she had to run from the helicopter ducking for cover. Later it was brought out by others who had accompanied her that this had never happened.. Clinton in her book never even mentioned this as happening. She was just trying to make the crowd more sympathetic to her. When this was brought up her handlers said she just misspoke when she mentioned this as having happened.

Face it folks she did not just misspeak. She had total recollection of what happened and how it happened she just wanted to make the trip seem much more heroic than it was. Yes she was in a war zone, and yes there was some inherent danger to being there, but they flat out were not under fire when they arrived. This was an out an out lie, but because she is considered a choice for President we can not call her an out and out liar which is what she really is. No we have to say she simply misspoke, she was so under pressure she did not realize what she was saying. Do we want this as President of this country? If she is under pressure in the oval office and she misspeaks what are the ramifications of her misspoken words?

When I was in the service I had the opportunity to meet such celebrities as Loretta Lynn. If I told people in a matter of conversation or when I was speaking to a group that I had passionately kissed her on the lips, people wouldn't hesitate to call me a liar. Well folks that is exactly what Hillary did when she made this statement about Kosovo. This is probably not the first time she has "misspoken" or more accurately lied. Is this what we do want in the White House running the country in a time of crisis? Think about it folks, lets not sugarcoat a lie, call it what it is!

Lower Prices?

We have all received them, the e-mails begging us not to buy gas on a certain day, or not to buy gas from the "big guys" or "bad guys" in order to get gas prices to come down. If we all pull together and drive by the Exxon station in favor of the smaller lesser known gas station we can bring the gas companies to their knees and lower prices because the big evil gas companies are driving the market. I recommend any of you go to snopes.com and read the analysis of this claim. We have come to become a society where if it shows up on the internet it must be true. I shamefully admit I have fallen for this more than once. The Exxon/Mobile email starts A Coca-Cola executive came up with this one and was supported by an employee of Haliburton. This lends the credence to the news letter. The snopes analysis of this sounds much more plausible because gasoline is a fungible commodity just the opposite would happen. A smaller gas chain which does not have the supplies available to meet such a demand for fuel would turn around and have to buy its petrol from whoever has the supplies available which would be the boycotted station and could and would most likely have the reverse effect, instead of driving prices down, it would drive prices even higher than the market normally would.

Face it folks, the only way to change the gas prices is t affect the basic law of supply and demand. Supply and demand is the immovable force in the economics world. The tighter the supply and the higher the demand the higher the price. The larger the supply and the smaller the demand the prices go down. However as a society we do not want to be inconvenienced, we just want the prices to go down. We still drive our big gas hogs and the amount we drive has not changed any, if anything it has gone up in a lot of cases.

We do have options though, but it involves pulling in our belts a bit and some minor inconveniences. Rather than boycotting a gas station where it would hurt an innocent retailer in most cases rather than a big oil company. We change our driving habits. My family definitely has. Rather than driving the 2 1/2 hours to Quincy to get my daughter at college for holidays and weekends, we drive to Dover which is only 1 hour away and she takes the bus from Quincy to Dover. While a little inconvenient in relation to times the bus runs, it saves fuel as well as my time on the road and a reduced amount of tolls I have to pay. My wife and I are looking for a new vehicle for her, instead of the minivan she drives we are looking for a more fuel efficient car. To many people are joined at the hip with their gas guzzling SUV's. They don't want to drive any less either. We all want the other guy to suffer for gas prices rather than ourselves. It kind of reminds me of the quote from General Patton which states "we don't win a war by dying for our country, we win the war by making some other poor bastard die for his country" This will not work in the war on prices folks. we have to sacrifice ourselves in order to make the oil suppliers sacrifice. Mobil and Exxon do not control the prices either. Yes to some extent the Arabs do control the prices in the form of the cartel of OPEC but we have the power also.

Rather than going away on vacation explore the things your local area has to offer, museums you have not been to, historic sites you have always been meaning to see. How about exploring your own back yard? Rather than running to the store every day, can you either plan your shopping a little better? or do without? How about using a bicycle more? or walking more and these would have a few more more pleasant side effects like getting rid of the spare tire around your middle. I know I have rather than getting in the truck and driving somewhere t do something a little mindless, I dusted off my snowshoes which I hadn't used in ages and went out in the woods with my dog this winter, it was fun educational, and exhilarating.

Face it folks the only way to affect gas prices is to sacrifice ourselves take public transportation when you can. Do without when you can, and conserve when you can we will all become a little less dependent on oil and maybe discover a little more about ourselves in the long run. One less flight a year, one less car trip a week, turn you heat down a few degrees in the house, and your air conditioning up a few degrees. I moved my thermostat from 68 to 64 degrees this winter and drastically cut my oil usage, you can do it also.

Can yu imagine how much oil we could save in this country if every driver was able to cut out even only 2 gallons a week and every building was able to use 1 gallon less of heating oil per month?

Drive Throughs

I have a pet peeve, and it is one of the few areas my wife and I disagree, and that is the use of drive through windows. We complain about Americans getting obese, and how they don't exercise enough, but society makes it so easy not to get any exercise. We get in our cars and drive to the bank and drive up to the window, and complete our transactions, we then drive to the pharmacy and pick up our prescriptions at the drive up window. we then go to McDonald's and drive up to the window get our fat filled lunch super sized and then pull into a parking place and eat it. I have even heard of drive through bars in at least one state, tell me is that makes any sense at all???? At least drive in movies are pretty much a thing of the past at least in New Hampshire. But this whole time we never gt out of the car and walked anywhere.

Now I am not saying I am in the best of shape, but I despise drive up windows I prefer to park my car or truck and walk in to transact my business in person rather than through a microphone. At least I get a little exercise, and rather than drive around the parking lot looking fr a spot closest to the door, I don't mind walking across a parking lot a fair distance to get to the store. I think drive up windows are a very negative impact on our society. We try to make things to easy for ourselves. It isn't a lot of extra work to walk a few feet into the store. to get what you need. And then to top it off and add insult to injury it seems like in a lot of locations with drive up windows the lazy people in the car have priority over the people who walk in to do their business in person, so reward them for not wanting to walk anywhere.

MEDIOCRITY

MEDIOCRITY

I live a life

That’s different you see

I live a life

Of abstract mediocrity

Ideas of glory

That I see

Die the death

Of insidious mediocrity

Ideas I have

The light of day they never see

They go down

In a blaze of mediocrity

Thoughts I dream

When confronted by a PhD

Wither on the vine

Of complete mediocrity.

To aid the human race

A dream I see

Gets mired down

In the muck of mediocrity

From a family of money

I may not be

But I can aspire

To the heights of mediocrity

Dreams of successes

As a child wee

As an adult I aspire

To raise above mediocrity

My thoughts are all there

And the visions I see

I get told are full

Of complete mediocrity

To be taken seriously

I seek to be

But all that I get

Is the glare of mediocrity?

A voice of velvet

It will never be

I sing my way

Around in mediocrity

Some people do tell

That greatness is in me

But the ones in the know

Say I am bound to mediocrity

Ideas do flow

And people agree

When they are mine

They remain in mediocrity

If ideas are others

Places they see

But when they are mine

They mire in mediocrity

How I do strive

To put in my life some electricity

And bring my lot

Above that of utter mediocrity

The harder I strive

The more that I try

The more I fail

To get out of mediocrity.

Maybe I should resign

And accept I will be

Continually bogged down

In a field of mediocrity

Stories I hear

Of escaping the bonds that tie

May people down

In the blues of mediocrity

Though shrug the bonds

I try

The people around push me back

Down in the depths of mediocrity

When an education

I continued to see

Those in the know

Tried to confirm my mediocrity

When it comes time, argue

Who am I to be

The scholars tell me

I should be content with mediocrity.

This poem seems to have become a biography of my life. Though I struggle and try to fight my way out, I seem never to be able to shrug the bound of a mediocrity or obscurity.Everything I do is overshadowed by the accomplishments of someone else. I do not even really seem to have an identity of my own. When I was in high school, I was constantly asked if I was Bill or Pam's brother. When I was first married everyone introduced me or identified me as Henry Parson's son in law. When he passed away I felt that identity would finally pass away, and then people would identify me as Janet's husband. In the course of my work I run into to people who ask me if I am the Bartoswicz who does the furniture refinishing, which of course was my brother, who hasn't done that work in several years.

The key that really hit home that I was somewhat mediocre, and obscure was an article recently in the newspaper thanking the work of the Effingham Budget Committee for their work and the writer identified me as Frank Bartoswicz. I walked out of church on Sunday and in passing a lady of the church I said hello to her with the response of a blank stare, yet when my wife walked by her, she responded to my wife by touching her arm and exclaiming how nice it was to see her. I seem to be a shadow that just blends in with the background, almost a non entity. I go out of my way to respond to people and let them know I care. I'd give the shirt off my back if that is what is needed. I am a simple man and do not require a lot to keep me happy. To have e few people outside of my family notice my blog and comment on it, to have my book be even moderately succesful would make me happy, but what would make me even happier is to have people recognize me for me not as an extension of someone else. I am a person in my own right not Khrys' Dad, or Janet's Husband, I have my own accomplishments and my own joys and sorrows.

Light of our Lives

After yet another snow storm in New Hampshire this winter, it brings the growing piles of snow even higher in front of my windows. After clearing out the driveway for the umpteenth this winter, I again went out on my snowshoes. This time was a lot harder than some of my previous expeditions because I was sinking almost knee deep in fresh powder, and it was tiring, but as I got up closer to the crest in the field behind my house I was greeted with the scene at the top of this entry. As I often do, I reflected on how this is an illustration of our lives. No matter how dark and bleak our lives seem, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If Jesus is in our lives he supports us as I have said in some of my previous posts, but He also lights our world and gives us hope and illumination. There are some who would try to tell you that organized religion is nothing but a method of keeping the masses down and locked in despair. I am telling you that it is just the opposite, a strong faith and belief system give us the hope we need to go on in an increasingly crazy world. It gives us a structure of morals and values to work with and base our lives. With this belief system we can see the light ahead illuminating our way on the road of life, and when the road seems darkest, alight bursts forth giving us guidance and hope in our lives.

Pride

As I sit here in my living room, looking out at a pile of snow in front of my windows, and know that more snow is falling. Yes they are calling for another foot+ of snow.

I was reflecting on Barack Obama's wife that for the first time in her lifetime she is proud of this country. I was thinking about this statement. She is proud because the country in her words is hungry for change. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama just celebrated her 44th birthday in January, and this is the first time in her life she can be proud of this country. Let us look back at the time line of the country and see what she is not proud of.

1969 when she is five years old, Neil Armstrong walks on the moon, a feat that was unimaginable just ten years prior, and no other country in the world has been able to accomplish.

1970 The United States created the Environmental Protection Agency recognizing the fact we need to do something to protect the environment around us.

1973 Skylab is launched into space

1980 The Miracle On Ice. The United States Olympic Hockey beats the USSR and goes on for the Gold Medal. definitely brought a lump to my throat when they did

1981 Space Shuttle Columbia launched on its maiden voyage the first of

Every four years 1968,1972,1976,1980,1984,1988,1992,1996,2000,2004, and we are in the midst of it again there is the chance for a peaceful overthrow of power in the highest level of our government

1983 the liberation of our medical students in Grenada, an operation I was proud to have been a part of albeit a very small part.

1980-1988 the Presidency of Ronald Reagan who during which time we saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the breakup of the Soviet Union

1990 Hubble Space Telescope Launched and activated

Not to mention how proud I was of the people in this country in their pulling together after such disasters of such magnitude as the Oklahoma City Bombing, Katrina, The Earthquakes in California ,and the rebuilding after each one. Seeing men like Paul Dorian from my church go forth to help people reclaim their lives in Mississippi after the devastation of Katrina, not once but several times. The way the country pulled together after 9/11.

I am proud of this country every time I stand up to the playing of the national anthem. I am proud of this country every time I see a man or woman in uniform walk past me. I am proud of this country every time I see the flag flying proudly above me whether it be in my yard r any public space. I am proud of this country every time I witness a protest of one sort or anther, because we have the right to protest for whatever reason we see fit.

I am proud of this country for many reasons, at many times over my almost 50 years n this earth why can't Michelle Obama find a few reasons to be proud in her 44 years. Her husband has achieved levels of accomplishment that in prior Generations would never have been possible. Is it a perfect society we live in? No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a society that is willing to grow admit its problems and look for ways to change them. Yes this is a country that has taken on change many times in its History. In 1972 after a country weary from Vietnam put a democrat White House out and put a republican one in who got us out of the war. In 1980 a country weary of "scandal" in the White House put a democrat back in power. We have been a country of change on many fronts, and I believe we will be a country of change for many years to come in the future.

Stand up and show your pride in the country in which we live. It may not be perfect but we try and we have been and always be open to change