Outcomes

If you want a specific outcome to happen you have to be willing to do something to make it happen. If you are not willing to do that something, then you don’t really support the outcome you say you support.

Similarly, if you cannot discuss what you don’t understand about the outcome you say you want to support, then you have nothing constructive to offer anyway. So move on to something you do understand and can have an effect on.

OK, that’s been said. I will now share with you why this is important to me.

I think we are all capable of accomplishing good things in life. I think that most of us don’t allow ourselves the freedom to explore, to question, and to grow in understanding about many issues that we have to manage before we can solve them, live with them better, or improve upon them. Yes, I believe we are capable of doing much better than we do. And yes, I believe we need to gather the humility to admit we don’t understand everything and need to research and educate ourselves more before inventing solutions that will benefit countless others.

There are many issues that bother us when we are confronted by them in the public media. Immigration is not the issue really, but illegal immigration really bothers a lot of people and their reaction to this issue is rampant. Legal immigration is also targeted by many of these same people only because they didn’t stop to notice the ‘legal’ in front of immigration.

Immigration is OK. It is what our nation has been built on. Illegal immigration is the trouble for many. It really isn’t a problem for me although I can see the practical issues raised by rampant illegal immigration. Schools, housing and other social services are strained to the breaking point if the country is flooded by illegal immigrants.

However, there is another side to this coin: we are attractive to millions of people around the globe as a destination in which to live a long life of happiness and freedom. Period. We are the lure to our own problem. And that’s a very positive thing in my mind.

What we do about that is another matter. But sitting on the sidelines and complaining, bitching, and tossing blame at your political enemies is not a productive response to the issue.

Besides, nearly every president has attempted to repair the problem or at least ease it. But congress blocked the way every time. Every time. Check your history to prove me wrong in this statement!

But immigration – legal or otherwise – is not truly the issue. What are the main issues?

Here is a short list:

1. Paying taxes to any government; too many people think the money is wasted and it is a bad deal for taxpayers. It is an automatic reaction to taxation and not a pleasant one!
2. Trusting elected officials; Americans distrust the very people they have entrusted their governments to. Let’s be clear our nation has several levels of government, most of them elected so we have control over who is entrusted with the authority. And yet by definition if you are elected you are a politician and thus not trusted. That’s a lame excuse for casting blame endlessly.
3. Big government is too much government; small government borders on too much as well. There seems to be no limits placed on this debate.
4. Government should be run like a business to make it efficient. 

Here’s a quick response to the short list of issues:

1. Paying taxes is a privilege that allows our nation of freedom to function. To protect the money from being wasted, many controls and checks and balances are provided. These are costly to implement in the first place and raise the cost of all government. But then this cost is the price we pay for control over waste. Get over it!
2. Nearly everything of value in our national life is managed by one government or another. Better to trust each government and get involved enough to understand not only what they do but how they do it. Are you a watchdog that is informed and knowledgeable? The press used to do this function but they are nearly broke and can no longer afford to do this for the public. It is therefore up to the public to do this for themselves. Either get involved and know what is going on or keep your complaining yap shut.
3. Big government is the only entity we can trust and use to handle the really big issues: education standards; international and interstate commerce; highways, bridges, and national networks of transportation; national and interstate banking; defense and military preparedness; natural disasters and public safety; national judiciary, courts and prisons systems, standards of same; space exploration; health research, education and standards of same; and much much more. You really think private parties can do this without waste or greed entering the picture? Really? How naïve!
4. Much of government is run along business practices but its size and complexities makes it difficult to do this. Besides, private business may be in love with its mission, purpose and products/services, but in the final analysis it is in business to make money for its self, its stock holders, and its executives. Greed drives the monster, not power. I’d rather have an elected body with public oversight than a privately owned business running my nation. 

Maybe the actual issue is power. Who has it and why and how can I get a piece of it? If that is the case, then there is a totally different discussion we should be having.

September 9, 2016

Pursuit?

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…is a phrase nearly every American knows and cares about. It is in the Declaration of Independence. It is the paradigm of freedom. We are given life by what magical powers – most would say God – some would say chance – others would say what? – but then what gives us liberty?

We give ourselves liberty by living it and exercising it until some external power sets limits on the liberty. Then, depending on those external powers and evidence of their authority (national, state, municipal, parental) we either obey the rules or fight them. If large enough a fight we go to war for them and toil with our lives to be free – have liberty.

Once acquired – the liberty – we then do what with it? That is today’s question.

The pursuit of happiness is easy to say. It is another to explain or give body to. For example, ‘they lived happily ever after’ is a fairy tale ending. The challenges were posed, the good guy steps forward, rescues the damsel in distress, and they embrace, kiss, get married and walk into the sunset. Same with American westerns and sci-fi thrillers. Unmistakable plot lines of worn, repeated use.

But what does it mean to pursue happiness?

On an elemental level it means to rise from bed in the morning, stretch, yawn, ponder the day and get started living it. Food of course comes early in the day. Reading the news (paper, internet, tablet, whatever) comes next, perhaps, then getting ready for the day, showering, dressing and on with the commute to wherever I am to go for the day. To work, most likely.

If this is the routine, then work it is. And we labor at our tasks – physical labor, or mental processes, interacting with countless people to instruct, sell, serve or whatever it is we do for work. At the end of the day – one of many in the pay period – we think about the income we are earning and what we can do with it.

On payday we do what is necessary – pay rent, pay the auto loan, buy groceries, and settle other bills. What’s left is what we can spend freely. For what purpose? Well, for fun, of course. Isn’t this the pursuit part of happiness?

Well, that is the greater question to be tackled I think.

This has been bothering me for some time now. What does ‘pursuit of happiness’ embrace or contain? Is it specific or ought to be? Or perhaps no specificity is needed?

Isn’t the job we do each day for income part of the pursuit of happiness? Doesn’t the work itself comprise happiness? We are doing something good for pay; is the good we do making someone or ourselves happy? If yes, then that is part of the pursuit I think.

There are other levels of pursuit, of course. Over time we earn enough money to do what? To ensure our kids go to school to whatever level they are able to perform and to fulfill their interests and talents, too. Securing a comfortable retirement would be a goal that fits with the pursuit theme. So too travel to interesting and exotic places; that is a goal of some of our pursuits.

The other day I saw a Tiny House program on TV and the principals were choosing a tiny house so they could live without a mortgage and have more discretionary income to spend on the things that make them happy. They had examples of those ‘things’ being rock climbing, hiking, camping and traveling broadly.

It was then I wondered what pursuit of happiness was to these people. I wondered what their jobs were in the first place. Did they enjoy their jobs? Did they find purpose in what they did for a living? Was this part of their pursuit of happiness or was this an accepted drudgery that made the rest of their pursuit of happiness possible?

The joy of life is a many splendored thing. It can come from seeing – truly seeing – a flower and marveling at its beauty and delicacy and yet hardiness. Or the aroma of a fresh cup of coffee, or pine trees fresh from a passing shower sharing pungent odors of pine needles and damp earth. Or the sound of corn rustling in the field pushed by a steady wind hurrying the pollinating of neighboring plants to produce the ears.

Or maybe the joy comes from hearing the bustle of everyday life roaring on the urban horizon giving witness to millions of people getting busy and doing another day of activity. The trains, the buses and trucks, the ever present cars on the roadways, and the passing strains of music and conversations of countless people. Life is abundant all around us and ever so present.

Is the job we have part of our happiness? Are the outcomes of our work part of that happiness, too? Or is the time and money left over from doing the job the only part of the pursuit of happiness that matters to us?

It seems to me life is more complex than that. All of it should be part of the pursuit. We spend so much time doing what needs doing to make life possible shouldn’t it all be adding happiness to our lives? Changing diapers may not be pleasant or a desired activity, but it is a necessity and provides happiness, too, doesn’t it? Do we make it so? Or do we make it not so? It is a choice, right?

So much work. So much pursuit. So much happiness. Or not. Which do we choose? Which do we make happen? And do we do any of this with consciousness?

Hmmm. Something to ponder.

September 8, 2016

Bits and Pieces

Political National Anthem: We have encountered and survived many periods of social history in America where symbols of our national pride are used as political totems. The flag and the national anthem are most often the symbols used.

Sporting events in America usually begin with the national anthem and the waving of the flag. I’m not sure why this is so but it is the norm throughout the nation in high school, college and professional sports.

So it is an ever present symbol that can be honored or disrespected for effect by anyone who wishes to make the political statement. The latest incident is in pro football with Colin Kaepernik’s refusal to stand during the playing of the national anthem while black citizens are being killed by police throughout the nation. This is a serious issue the country faces. The why’s and where for’s are not fully understood. But making this a political issue involving the national anthem is most likely not an effective method of registering a complaint.

It is true there are too many black American deaths at the hands of police. But is it intentional? Or is it related to the statistical function of crime occurring at much higher incidence within black communities and neighborhoods? Or is it some other cause? At this point in time we don’t truly know the answers to those questions. I would be shocked to learn this is intentional on the part of the police. But I’ve been shocked before.

I doubt police are the culprits of this tragic statistic among black Americans. I do believe, however, that the communities most affected have lost their own control over their own communities and neighborhoods. I think they know this is the root cause. But what to do about it is not theirs alone to struggle with. Nor is it the lone struggle of the police either.

This is a community issue that the leaders throughout the communities must focus on to control and eliminate. Black gangs exist and do their dirty work in their own communities. It is where their power and angst is best understood. And thus the crime exists there. So too in Hispanic areas; gangs and internal political and cultural unrest exist there. So crime and violence follows in the wake.

Police are required to respond to calls for help. Some of these cries are legitimate; increasingly we learn that many are not; they are in fact entrapment of police personnel so they may be picked off one by one by snipers or violence prone gangs to get back at police for whatever it is they feel upset about.

The uncomfortable truth is this: police are losing this battle for balance and the public is making that happen by believing police are the cause. They are not. They are the answer and the saving grace in so many ways.

But they cannot act alone. Community leaders must step forward to lead the cultural soul searching necessary to find the answers within the communities that will lessen the cause of gang formation and violence in the first place.

The larger society must also find means and ways to solve the cultural problems that lead to unrest in the first place: lack of education and job skills development; poverty; crime that follows poverty; unequal pay for women and men of color and culture. The list is longer than this, but we have to start somewhere.

And this cause relates to both the black and Hispanic communities. Do not forget either in our quest for peace and tranquility.

Putin’s Denials: We know before he opens his mouth that he will say something opposite the facts. Westerners are conditioned to this. Russian premiers do not have credentials of truth when they speak to the press inside or outside of their Mother Russia. We know them to be purveyors of what they want us to think and believe, not what the facts support.

The latest proof of this is Putin’s denial that anybody in Russia or connected to Russia had anything to do with the hacking of Western data bases especially the Democratic National Committee. But for several months that’s what the press has been reporting from reliable sources throughout the global computing industry. Hackers have been trained for espionage of information culturally, politically and militarily. The process is actually one and the same. Why not hack all data bases and learn what you can.

My hunch is that Russian intelligence already knows a lot about western life (mostly American) because ours is an incredibly open society. We say what we think and believe. We are open and honest about how we live and why we live the way we do. Ours is the path of freedom. It is not always pretty. It is not always productive. But it is honest.

Telling it like it is is something we do here in the USA. Not always politic or diplomatic, but it is truthful. We hide very little. And what little we do hide socially and culturally, we talk about in Twitter and Facebook accounts and in email traffic. Gobs of email traffic.

The wonder is why any freedom loving person in Russia remains there when American lifestyles are open for all to see and experience! But then there are people who love, and I mean adore, cold, brisk snowy weather! We live in Chicago and don’t like the weather in winter. But we like most everything else about Chicago so we have learned to survive the winters. But Russian winters? I can’t imagine learning how to survive them!

September 7, 2016

These Days of Liking

Walk into a room and look around. Furnishings give the space personality. Does it fit with your personality? Or likes?

Look around the room some more. Anyone else present? Do they stand out apart from one another? Or do they merge into a group of nonentities? They are dressed in their own garb. Do their styles of attire fit with your personality? Or likes?

The room has activity within it. Sounds as well. Tinkling of glass, a muffled clank of silverware. Dishes being set down and removed. We are in a dining hall of some sort. Is this a restaurant, a hotel banquet room, or a private home with caterers buzzing around picking up spent plates and dinner ware and refilling dishes with fresh food?

Do the sounds welcome you? Do they fit with your mood? Or likes?

And the aromas of the room. They are many – perfumes, after shave colognes, wafting food platters and, of course, the many odors of cocktails – spicy, juicy, tangy – and liquor arousing perfumes. Do they fit well with your inclinations of the moment? Or likes?

And the talk. Murmurs of polite conversations and an occasional burst of passion from a quartet of discussants near the corner of the room. They are deep into their subject matter. Evidently they care a lot for what they are sharing. Wonder what it is? Does this interest your mind? Or likes?

Walking into a room, a building or down a path into the woods. What is it we experience? What do we notice? Or rather, what do we not notice but the effects are just as present anyway? We may not be aware but we are affected.

Do we surround the self with environments that matter to us? Do they shape our thoughts and feelings and thus affect what we do with our time, mind and talents?

I think intentionality is an ingredient we often do not allow for. It is an ingredient of life, isn’t it? Can’t we purposefully care for it and add a dash every now and then into our transactions of daily routine? Does it matter which neighborhood we drive through, or walk past, or travel through on public transportation? Is the area beautiful and inspiring or is it dull and stultifying? Does it smother or lift up? Does it change our mindset? Or do we have control over the effects of those surroundings on our mindset?

Just how much in control of life do we have? If we think about it, maybe we control the ingredients a bit; but most likely we do not think about it. And thus the happenstance of routine dictates again and again what we confront often. Does it lift up? Or does it depress good things?

I hear a strain of music and like it. I hear a snippet of a spoken phrase and am engulfed with wonder over the rhythm and spice of the words. It becomes a short poem in my head as I trudge toward my destination on the commute. Will this snippet – this poem – this thought – stick with me during the day and become something larger? And important to my life? Or will this snippet become a symbol of passing fancy and focus on the passing?

Each day has these little awakenings. To what we do not know. Bits and pieces that have meaning and some substance. They need connecting, though. Connecting with something more and something larger until the big picture forms around the bit and piece. It will become something. But with what intention? What guiding power and from where?

The days of liking lead to intentions we hope. With some discipline – just a little – maybe the intentions become more procedural and thus intentional. And meaningful. Toward the future. Toward more likes.

Until the morrow upon which the process continues.

September 6, 2016

Life Beyond Self

I met a girl the other evening. A teen – 16 – sweet and innocent in so many ways of life. A drug addict with complications with alcohol as well. Behaviorally she is normal and an American teen. A high school student not much interested in school. A young life with little thought of what she wants to do in the future. So far, nothing much makes her a monster. Nothing much makes her different from the norm, either. That latter point may sound odd from a middle class retiree; but I am learning. I am observing and realizing that norms today are different from the norms I experienced when I was 16.

But that’s the way of the world these days, isn’t it?

I think back to when I was 16 and I wondered about sex. I wondered how people ‘did it’. I wondered how I would do it. I didn’t know. I had feelings but didn’t know much about them. Such were not taught in class but they were talked about among students. And some acted upon the talk. They experimented. They fooled around. And a girl got pregnant. Much was then said and done to ignore the pregnancy and cover it up. And somehow we all got the message that sex was taboo and was left untouched.

And untouchable. That’s the message I got. Don’t talk sex. Don’t think sex. Sex is wrong. Sex is dirty. And sometimes there was a ‘wink wink’ that signaled another message. Those moments confused my 16-year-old self.

I thought again of the 16 year old girl addict. Surely she thinks of sex as do her contemporaries. And surely she thinks about sex in ways entirely different from me in my day of wondering back then.

I asked her what she wanted to focus her life on in the future. She responded with a shrug of her shoulders and a slight sideways motion of her head. She clearly didn’t know how to answer. I said it didn’t matter; no pressure. You have time to work through all of that later.

Later that night I formed a picture of this young lady in my mind. She was sitting on a bed in a brightly flowered bedroom, pleasant and comforting. But then the image closed in on her like that of a cell.

My thoughts turned quickly to the time I briefly felt of volunteering at a local youth detention center. It serves young women, girls really. They are there for serious felony violations with a strong hitch of behavioral mental health. They are dissociative of society. They are misfits. They are locked up and safe from society; and society is safe from them.

They sit in cells of bleakness. The future beckons little and what does leak through seems quite institutional. There are locks on the doors and windows. From outside those enclosures. Outside the facilities are locked down as well. And high steel fences with razor wire spirals topping the fences. This is a prison facility really. To protect both sides of society I guess.

How different is this experience from the 16-year old girl addict sitting in her bedroom without phone, without friends, located in her father’s new home in a new suburb and starting school the next day at a new institution in which she knows no one? How locked away must she feel? How isolated is she? In reality and in her own mind?

Sobering isn’t it? It is to me. So alone. So rootless. A mother that is angry with her for her drug use. A home split by divorce more than once. A step mother, another step mother. More divorces. Atomized family structure. A brother who uses drugs. Denial within the family of the drugs. Dysfunction aplenty.

Yet there is connection. Love of a kind exists. It is hard to put asunder. Mother love. Father love. Family connections. Significant generations of family living far out of state. Dysfunction groping for footing. Wanting but not yet finding.

This young woman has a far road to follow toward health and happiness. I wonder how that road can be made easier for her and yet instructive? I wonder how others can reach beyond themselves to touch her life and nurture her toward something better?

I wonder. I wonder if we can entice her to reach outside of herself and connect with another human being who needs help and affirmation. Would this be possible for her? Would this in turn affirm herself and pull her toward a brighter future?

Perhaps we will know more. Meanwhile we can hope.

September 5, 2016

Off to See the Wizard

A bit of nostalgia. This is American nostalgia and probably most of my foreign readers would not understand what I’m writing about. But I’ll push forward anyway.

Gene Wilder’s death (83 years old) has stirred fond memories. I remember watching Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory on TV on a Sunday afternoon when our kids were little. They loved the movie. So did the adults. So many in the cast, each and everyone memorable, even the bratty kids.

I especially liked Willy Wonka played by Gene Wilder. Of course we loved him! He was both kind and harsh, teaching and guiding all the time. A mystery developed around his motives but by the end of the movie it was clear what he was up to.

The Oompa Loompas were also our favorites. Little, active, weird voices and odder colors. But they were unique and played a very important role.

And of course the music. Lyrics told a story that supported the motif and plot of the storyline. Good entertainment all around.

I was shocked to learn with Wilder’s death, that the movie was a box office flop! How could that be when it was so successfully played and replayed over TV? Generations of kids now know the movie and of course Gene Wilder. So do we all.

My ex-wife and I fell in love with The Producers starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder! That movie was so funny I had an asthma attack from laughing so hard. The zany antics of Mostel and Wilder were irresistible. The gags, the facial expressions and the chaotic story line had us in gales of laughter for the entire length of the move. And then it wasn’t replayed on TV again. I finally found it in a VHS tape library and ordered it for my wife years after our divorce. She still loves that movie.

And Blazing Saddles! I recall watching that film at a drive in with another family. We both had station wagons. Theirs was larger than ours, so all of our kids occupied their wagon, and the adults were seated in our wagon. What a hoot! What fun. Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder were a special team and they worked together several times on Mel’s films.

Of course Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor did a few comedic films together, too. Also very successful and funny as hell.

Comedy that truly made us laugh. All generations in the family, laughing together and enjoying each other as well as the entertainment. A family moment. A good memory of good times spent with neighbors, too.

Gene Wilder had a creative, zany side to his personality. He was smart. He was quick. And he created humor even when he was being serious. When he married Gilda Radnor – a major comedic star of Saturday Night Live – we wondered if they would work together. They shared humor and both had impossibly funny antics seemingly built into their DNA. I don’t recall them working together, but I bet they did, especially on TV. But the thing was we all marveled at how these two creative people found each other and still worked on many projects for years.

When Gilda was diagnosed with a fatal form of cancer, we thought the humor would die with her. But it didn’t. Her work was played and replayed. And of course Wilder’s work continued on for several more projects.

When his death was announced this week I was surprised. I didn’t know he was ill. I had forgotten he was much older than I.  But his passing informed me of his Alzheimer’s and his desire to keep it private so his fans would not be saddened. 

With his death we are reminded again and again of the value of humor in our lives. Good times or bad, a good laugh works wonders. We learn how to accept the negative and the undeniable. We face the reality and we force ourselves to accept it and make it even more real with some form of humor. We remember Gene Wilder and Gilda Radnor. And with those memories we relive again the many times they made us smile and laugh.

Again with the humor, still entertaining us all these years later. The gags may be old now, but their freshness continues to surprise us. And yes he was a wizard of our very special Oz!

September 2, 2016

Misleading the Masses

With so many news reports focusing on Trump and Clinton I guess we truly are engaged in a political campaign for high office. Too bad so much of it is simply misleading and not factual.

Here’s a few thoughts on this.

Hillary Clinton is a very accomplished person. Not just a woman, a full-fledged human being who has mastered many areas of specialty, earned meaningful educational degrees, held jobs of enormous importance and other jobs most of us would make into a career. Her career, however, has taken her to places very few of us would ever think about let alone seek.  In so many ways, Hillary Clinton has done it all.

Yet there are millions of people who deny her the respect and belief she has accomplished any of these many things. I wonder why that is?

Those people prefer to think of her as dishonest because they cannot believe an honest person could ever accomplish what she has? I wonder if it is because they – mostly males – don’t like thinking of a woman being ‘better’ than they? And for her doubters who are women, I wonder why they prefer to think of Hillary as a sham?

The evidence is in. Hillary is not a sham. She is the real deal.

Topping it all off she accomplished what she has with a pack of wolves nipping at her heels because she is a woman, because she is clearly effective and talented, because she is a Democrat, because she is married to Bill Clinton who detractors claim to be a wanton philanderer and somehow this reflects badly on the woman who stood by him?

Hillary Clinton has withstood all of this trash talk for decades. She has continued to pursue goals and objectives that are good for the nation in spite of the flak she has dodged throughout. Has she made mistakes? Sure; several. Who wouldn’t in this highly charged environment where few people are able to perform at all let alone succeed? But Hillary has succeeded.

Hillary also writes policy, thinks policy, strategizes policy, thinks through policy, and ultimately implements policy. Not a lot of people do this. Certainly not on a national or global scales. Hillary has. Trump has never.

And Trump has never held a public job in which policy was the main suit. Such demands change thinking. The policy maker cannot play to one interest group or another; the policy maker must consider the public good overall in such matters. It is not easy. It often takes the Wisdom of Solomon to perform such tasks well.

Because governments get tied into messy balls of confused interests, especially when they are attempting large international projects (think peace, strains among religious cultures, AIDS relief, Ebola relief, etc.) the Clintons created the Clinton Foundation to fund research and service programs that reached critical populations in need of major help but who were significantly untouched by their own governments or groups of governments. That’s what the Clinton Foundation has done. It continues to do this difficult and demanding work when others simply didn’t try or failed in their own attempts.

I’m sure the Clinton Foundation has had its failures as well; few important things are accomplished without attempts and failures that truly test us and teach us how to do things better. And the Foundation knows it cannot do this work alone. It must attract other nations, other donors – corporations and individuals – to share the load both of the work itself, and the cost of it. And influence; who can accomplish anything meaningful and large without others pulling strings and helping the machinery of governments – almost always balky – work smoothly enough to get some good things accomplished?

Yes. The Clinton Foundation has been influential and successful in much it has attempted to accomplish. And it continues to do so. Only now Hillary has attention as a campaigning candidate for high office. Somehow she is supposed to dump her valued work with the Foundation and separate herself from its success?

How ungrateful her detractors are. Yes, Hillary will need to distance herself from the Foundation if she is elected to the White House. But she doesn’t need to apologize for the Foundation’s valuable work. It is a visionary organization that has done wondrous things.

Same goes for Bill Clinton. He’ll need to distance himself from the Foundation if he serves as First Gentleman in the White House. But later he and Hillary should freely rejoin the Foundation’s efforts.

I overheard some gripers the other day claim that Bill and Hillary only created the Foundation to create and launder revenues for their own personal use.  I would counter their opinions with this stunning fact: when Bill left the White House at the end of his second term as President, both Hillary and Bill were standing at bankruptcy’s door. Their enemies had sued them into near extinction. That was the way they attempted to keep Bill from fulfilling his promise as President. Such an effort failed, however. Bill did complete his terms of service and proved to be a very effective President.

So starting their retirement flat out broke was how the Clintons faced their future. With book contracts and advances paid, they bought their New York home and began forming the foundation. The latter takes will and stamina and strong principles to sell to other people who will listen. With an effective background as President, Bill was able to gain traction and get the Foundation built and placed into operation. They did this with little personal cash.

Of course Bill had his presidential retirement income and expense account allowance. Hillary ran for public office as Senator for New York. She won. She, too, had expense allowances and an income. Meanwhile their books sold millions of copies – both of them wrote books – and all were best sellers. Millions of dollars flowed from the book deals past, present and future. The house was paid off. Living expenses became routine. The Clintons were financially secure. Now they could concentrate on accomplishing good things the world needed.

And they have. Instead of casting doubts and accusations, we should thank them and honor their persistence and their honesty.

Methinks I hear jealousy and envy aplenty in the land!

September 1, 2016