We live on a hillside at the edge of the woods. It’s a beautiful setting and the woods around us are alive with all sorts of creatures, from bears and bobcats to deer and raccoons. Most of the wildlife seems to fend pretty well for itself but, somehow, beautiful Bambi tugs with special tenderness at our heartstrings. Winter is the toughest time of all when freezing temperatures drive the succulent shoots, grasses and berries into hiding along with the snakes and bears.
I know we’re not supposed to feed the deer but sometimes the bone in my head that says, “Apply common sense here,” simply comes loose or even disappears completely. So I built a sturdy wooden trough, filled it with hay and waited. Well, we didn’t have long to wait.
Within a mere matter of days we had waves of livestock thundering through our yard including several herds of deer, a number of foxes, a few things we couldn’t identify and even the odd bear, who I thought was supposed to be hibernating. They had all come to take advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food. But then, the hay wasn’t enough. The deer began to eat the shrubs and bushes, destroying nearly all the vegetation I had spent so much time and effort planting the previous year. They even had the pine trees at the edge of our property looking thin and spindly.
A bear destroyed our picnic table, raccoons spread garbage everywhere and all manner of feces overwhelmed the area to the degree it was nearly impossible to bring hay to the trough any longer. The time had long since passed when I could provide enough nourishment to equal their demand. The brazen wild turkeys began to screech and peck at our windows all hours of the day and night, if they were not happy with the quantity or quality of the food supply. Even those gentle, cow-eyed Bambi creatures were beginning to show a mean streak, although we had been feeding them and this whole cast of characters out of our own pocket.
Finally, after running out of patience and admitting that our good intentions had backfired, I cleaned up the mess, created a space indoors for the garbage and took down the feeding trough. Before long, our property was like it used to be: quiet, serene and with no one demanding the right to a free meal.
Now, wait just one minute. Our government gives out free food, subsidizes housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to automatically become a citizen. Word spreads and illegal aliens come storming across our boarders by the millions. Suddenly our taxes go up to pay for these free services, small apartments are housing five families and you have to wait six hours to see an emergency room doctor. Your child’s second grade class is learning well below par because more than half the kids don’t speak English, Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box, you have to press ‘one’ to get your bank balance in American and people waving flags, other than ‘Old Glory,’ are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
If that’s not enough, this unskilled, uneducated horde has not only broken all sorts of laws getting into this country but they’re about to break the Medicare, Medicade and Social Security systems as well. And, if you happen to object to any of this, or to illegals instantly obtaining more rights than legal citizens have, you are accused of being a bigot. Even the President has become so mired in politics that he tells us we’re “hurting the country” if we’re against the current amnesty bill.
Maybe it’s time for the government to face facts, clean up the mess and take down the feeding trough.
R.S.F.











Reflections
Let me suggest that, as we commemorate this very special day in America, we also remember the living; the brave men and women who, even as you read, make death a daily bedfellow to protect our precious freedom and keep us from harm. This week, these intrepid souls finally got funding approval so they could receive the vital equipment and supplies they need to do their job.
May I remind you that it’s the sacrifice of these incredible people, and the millions who came before them, that permits John Edwards [aka The Breck Girl] to make stupid statements like, “There is no war on terror. It’s just a bumper sticker slogan” or Dirty Harry Reid to declare to the world that “The war is lost”. Their dedication not only guarantees these fools the right to keep blathering but enables the likes of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama to continue voting against military funding measures and to play political games with our troops very lives. The actions of those who defend, rather than undermine America, even allow much of the country to ignore the imminent terrorist danger and plod merrily on with their own self-deception.
There are people around the world that have declared they want us dead. They tell us what they intend to do and they do it. There is no guessing game. They have already murdered some of us and will carry out their threats to finish the job unless we unite in understanding the magnitude of what we face. As we embrace life, they embrace death. Those who refuse to understand this are no less dangerous than the terrorists themselves, because they will stand on the sidelines and let it happen.
We need to come to grips with the events and background of 9/11 and realize we won’t be talking our way out of this one. We have done nothing to ‘deserve’ this and, as ‘The Great Satan’ need only exist in order to inspire the vicious hatred directed at us.
Two DVD videos, that should be required viewing by every American, are a documentary from the National Geographic channel entitled “Inside 9/11″ and the movie “United 93″. “Inside 9/11″ is presented with no detectable political agenda, either right or left. It’s simply an eye-opening mosaic of what was and what is. “United 93″, while not a documentary, is an accurate reconstruction of events that will make you squirm in your seat. Both videos provide bold insight into the terrorist menace and give us an idea of what can happen if we continue as a nation remain in denial. Both are available on this web site and, probably, at your video store.
To most of us, Memorial Day means barbecues and time spent with family and friends; but let us never forget our fallen heroes and celebrate those who toil to keep terror from our doors. Let us be grateful for the gifts life has provided, most especially our freedom and our liberty, being ever aware that there are those, both foreign and domestic, who would go to any length, take any measure, to make those gifts disappear.
R.S.F.