Rigged Elections

November of 2016

Donald Trump who won the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton says the election was rigged because he wanted to win it all. The thing is all American elections have been rigged from the start. The founding fathers put in place a government where there is only two private clubs that select candidates for any office including the presidency. The American people get to vote between two candidates that are often twins in public policy.

          The American Revolution was about power so after gaining it the founding fathers didn’t want to give it up. So, they came up with the electoral college to ensure that they not the public got to choose who would be president. They also made it so the Senate was chosen by the State Legislatures that was changed to popular elections in 1913.

          So, all this talk about this year’s election being rigged is not new it is just more apparent because of the mass they made of it with foreigners hacking the election and all we are now in new territory, but you can be sure the power brokers will made sure they keep their power and the people their slaves that think they are free.           

The Lucky Generation

I Realize that I was born into the Luckiest generation to ever been born on this planet. After World War Two the United States of America was the only country that still had its industrial base still intact. My parent moved to the United States in 1929 from Scotland. My father left Scotland because he was an Irish Catholic who suffered suppression in Scotland and thought that America couldn’t be much worst and indeed it was much better. My Mother quit school in Alva Scotland at the tender age of nine to work in the local mills to help support her family. So, her mother and her mother’s sister sent three young girls to New York hoping they will find better lives. All three came to think that America was no better than the Scotland they left. Lucky for my brother, sister and I my mother met my father. She was a protestant whose family at that time was much against Catholics, but she fell in love so unlike her cousins she stayed.      

So, you see that hate has hurt my family as it has hurt many families across this country. We must move pass this mistrust of others to band together we must move forward and vote against those that divided us into groups to hate each other. Learn from your ancestors and don’t vote against future generations don’t condemn them to relive the lives of your ancestors.  

Hillary set her Goal should not we do the same.

Hillary Roddam Clinton set her life goal to be the first woman president of the United States and her did everything in her power to achieve that goal. We should do the same when we vote we should ask ourselves which candidate is more lightly to achieve our goals. The object is not just the fight for your goals, but to achieve them. First you must have goals, so the first thing to do is to set your goals like Universal Healthcare and Education, living wages are good starting points.

Pretend Democracy

The discussion among leaders of the later part of the eighteenth century was between one-person rule or some form of democracy would work. They all agreed that in the past there were some great rulers and that letting the people rule would end up in chaos. So they came up with a plan of pretend Democracy which would still be rule by an elite class, but let the people think that they have a voice, that is the system we live under today.

Maybe this was in response to what was happening in France in the early days of our republic where they ended up with Napoleon. When Germany finally got a democracy they voted for Hitler in the 1933 elections. So turning people against their own interest is quite easy like Hermann Goering once said “Naturally, the common people don’t want war, neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood, but the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy, all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

I am still optimistic that democracy can work, but it won’t be easy for we must get it through to all people on this planet that they all belong to the same race, the human race. This is not a new idea humans have been trying to make it happen since we came out of the caves. Those attempts were usually along the lines of if only everyone had the same beliefs there would be peace in the world, that is where the universal church idea came from or for others just through power like the Roman empire today I am hopeful that communications between people have improved to the point the in a few generations the people of this planet may come to understand one another.  

Crossing a frozen Great South Bay in February of 1955

          One Saturday in the winter of 1955 some friends and I were going to go to the Movies, but we thought we had a little time and the Great South Bay was frozen over so we decided to walk across the ice and see how far we could get, we obviously had no sense of time. We of course didn't realize then how dangerous it was, but we did get to the island just across the state channel from Gilgo Beach where we saw a hunter's cabin after looking at it we decided we better get back we were late for the movies. While we were returning across the ice an airplane buzzed us then we saw red light flashing from the shorelines in seems that someone saw us crossing the ice and called the police. We were almost to the shore when one of the older brothers of one of my friends came out to meet us and told Kathy where to walk. She fell though the ice, but got herself out with her legs now wet. I think we would have made it all the way without incident if it wasn't for our "rescuer". But we did get home safely even if we did miss the movie. Amityville Police Chief William Kay gave us a talking to, but we were home safe. All the local and City Newspapers Newsday, Long Island Press, Daily Mirror, Daily News, The New York Herald Tribune came to take pictures and do stories on us.

The Natural World of Racism

I remember a lot Anti-antisemitism as well as anti-black comments growing up on Long Island. My father was an Irish-Catholic living in Protestant Scotland that is why he came to this country where he hoped there would be a little less prejudice and always said don’t put anyone else down for you could be next. I don’t understand people who came from ancestors that suffered prejudice could turn around and do it to others.

I believe there are two kinds of people on this planet those that are openly racist and those that at least try to hide it.  I think it is a matter of survival to protect your family and to extend that to your race, ethic group, nationality, and even into religion or beliefs.

Humans have learned to control other emotions that they might have, why can’t they learn to get along with people that are not like them.  The United States has many different kinds of people with different cultures that mix is what makes America great. It might not look like it now, but I think all human societies will evolve into one great global Society.

  

Great South Bay adventure in April of 1955

Article from Newsday April 6^th 1955 issue

The writer took a lot of writer’s License in writing this story and got some of the facts wrong. Botz did not live on Carlton (Carleton) Ave, but on Bordette Place. We did not bring the rowboat around to the cabin and it was not washed out to sea. We did lite some grass torches, but had been spotted before we lite them and it was day light when we lit the torches. We had spotted the Coast Guard they heard our yells for help. Another thing is that Rex Botz’s dog was not with us this time. They did get some of the facts right  

It was my luck that in April when I was talking to a couple of friends Botz and Woody who also lived near us. I told them about the hunter's cabin and they decided that they wanted to see it. So we took a row boat out to the first island and walked across a sallow between the islands finally getting to the hunter's cabin after looking around we returned to the boat only to find that someone had taken our oars and anchor it was getting late so we went back to the cabin. We started a fire in the potbelly stove found some canned soup and went to bed in the cabin's bunk beds. Our families of course became alarmed, it seems that Woody's Father took his cabin courser out to look for us and came up to the cabin, but we were all asleep. So not hearing anything he left. The next morning, we decided to walk back to the boat when a Coast Guard boat picked us up. We almost got a helicopter ride but it couldn't land for the island was just marshland, a helicopter ride would have made it almost worth it. My father said he wasn't worried because he could see our row boat and he figured that we were on the island.  Actually we should have taken the boat around the islands to the cabin, but we didn’t so I go my second adventure of the year. All the Newspapers came for more pictures and stories. The Herald Tribune also did a human interest story with pictures of kids jumping off the docks.