Borders

Borders are not made for friendship
Borders are not made for love
There are plenty of hawks flying over
But you seldom see a dove

You draw a line in the sand
And dare the other to cross
You think he's coming for welfare
So you say, Brother, I ain't no Santa Claus

Bodies are found on the border
People whose lives were lost
They give their all to come to America
And everything is sometimes the cost

Love thy neighbor as thyself
Doesn't apply at the border
All the so-called patriot wants
Is his form of law and order

So bless the migrant
As he crosses the desert
Bless him under the hot and burning sun
For when he reaches the border
His love of  America easily could be undone

 

Almost Their Second Religion

The Second Amendment is a second religion
To some
For it
They always beat the drum

Oh, they don't have hymns and scriptures 
No, I guess they don't
And they'd never kill someone they shouldn't
No, they say won't

But guns are guns
And they love guns
Almost to the point of worshipping them
And if you gave them a choice
They'd choose it over an expensive gem

Some have arsenals
And some just have one
But they prize it and show it off
That's where they have their greatest fun

Take your gun and keep it
I have no use for it, I say
I've seen what it can do
And how many people it can slay

 

Protect the Gun?

Guns, they say, protect you
But have you noticed how
You protect them
You think they're the cat's meow

You protect the tool of  death
When you say, Don't ban the gun
And the masses  of man
Can only run, run, run

Yes, you protect the tool of death
From suffering its own death
And you endanger a list of humans
From George to Nancy Beth

Protect the gun? I refuse
Too many people have died
So, if you want to protect the gun
Well, that's just cockeyed

 
 
Destruction

Wicked by nature
Criminal by choice
He chooses to do evil
And heeds Satan's voice

Bless the Donald
Bless him, the same
But the destruction of America
Is all of his game

 
Listen to what the D of I Says on Guns

We don't take the Declaration of Independence seriously. It doesn't count much with us in discussions about guns.

 It is clear, it is precise, and yet it is being ignored.

"(Men) are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Life, then; life then: does it not matter? When a shooter kills a mass of people, that right is lost. If we believe in freedom, we must provide safeguards against it.

 
 
Assaults

Sexual assaults don't matter
When you've got policies to share
Do we really believe this?
We shouldn't, I say, I swear

 

 
Just One Word

There was a fence between them
A fence that stretched for miles
On one side were the Ramadams
And the other side were the Childs

Two races of people, they were
And two religions, too
They spoke different languages
And in politics, one was red and one was blue

Two different peoples
As different as you could get
You'd think they wouldn't like each other
And with each other they'd have a fit

But the Ramadams and Childs
Weren't at all like that
They'd wave and shout their greetings
Though their languages prevented them from chat

You probably want to know
How they could still be friends
And I've been waiting for you to ask me
How these opposites made amends

Just one word
One word explains it all
One word tells us why they didn't
Treat each other small

Goodness is the word
And goodness is all it takes
For when you're filled with goodness
You treat each other right, for goodness sake

Teach the Students to Think for Themselves
 
"If your student know your political affiliation, you have failed as a teacher. You are there to help students think for themselves, not think like you," says a meme on Facebook.

I disagree. I politely disagree.

Too often we agree with what Facebook teaches us. Too often, we swallow as truth things that simply are not true. Too often -- well -- we do not think for ourselves.

Here are my thoughts:

Your students are influenced by your opinions. But, they are also influenced by how you arrived at your opinion. Did you study? Did you hear both sides? Do you respect both sides? If you want your students to think for themselves, be an example of that.

Tell them to reach their own conclusions. Teach them that just because someone says something -- even when it's you -- it doesn't mean it's true.

Teach them to be firm in their beliefs, and accepting of the beliefs of others.

We do not need apathetic Americans. We do not need people who have been taught not to endorse an opinion. We do not need people who stand on the sidelines, neither hot nor cold. Don't teach your students those things and don't be an example of them.

Teach them to have passion, but teach them to have respect. We need more Americans who stand up for what is right without putting others down. We need citizens who weigh matters, and allow others to weigh matters on their own.

The greatest political teacher is the teacher who teaches these things.

 

 
V.A. Hospital in Utah to Restore Church Services

   America was founded by those who escaped England to be allowed to practice denominations other than the Church of England. It worked out well for them. They arrived in America to practice their separate faiths.

   But it isn't working out so well for veterans in Salt Lake City. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are residents at the Veterans Administration hospital there only have one choice when it comes to Sunday Services -- and it isn't their's. No, the only service that is allowed is nondenominational.

   These are veterans, mind you. They fought for freedom, including the right to worship according to the dictates of one's own conscience.

   The Salt Lake City V.A. dropped the LDS services recently when Lorna Graham arrived as the new chief of chaplain service. One LDS resident there said Graham even treated her with hostility when she walked into her room to find the her reading from the church's scriptures.

   The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper has carried a story on how LDS services at the hospital have been banned. That story has resulted in good news for the LDS residents: Graham says she is working to restore the services, needing only to get an LDS chaplain in place who can direct the services.

Enter

 

100 and 700 

Can you count to 100?
How about 700, then?
Now, I'll only tell you once
I won't tell you again

100 is the number
Of those who served with him
Some were very important
Sitting at his table's rim

They all said they don't want him
To return as president
Republicans all
But their distaste for him was evident

Now, let's take 700, too
700's quite a number
It's anything but few

National security and military officials
They nixed the thought of Trump
They all suggested throwing him out
Throwing him in the dump

 

Hoofbeats
 
You will only need to listen
To save this land of ours
Hear the warnings, heed them
As they're shouted from the towers

Or place you ear against the ground
Like the Indians used to do
You will hear the enemy's hoofbeats
They will be loud, and not be few

 
The Winds Whip

The winds whip and the snow blows
And the farmer plants his field
There will be nothing growing this year
In the cornfield

Climate change, they call it
Extreme weather
Turning into a cold tundra
Where there once was country heather

 
 
Greedflation

Is it inflation -- or "greedflation"? 
Take Kroger, if you will
Prices shot up 25 percent
That's more than the national average
Now, that's a hard-to-swallow pill

But is it really greedflation, then?
I read how it's mostly not
Some intellect named Mark Kritzman
Said it's mostly Covid spending
That got us in this spot

 
 
A Hotel in Heaven

They have a hotel in Heaven
For all those who don't know if they're staying
They build it just for folks like me
Who between Heaven and Hell are swaying

I checked in the other day
Thought I'd stay just one night
But the accommodations were fabulous
Everything was perfect and right

But, when I went down that next morning
To ask for an extended stay
They said they were all booked up
All the way to the end of May

I swallowed hard
This was hard on me
For the way things were down in Hell
Had prompted me to go absentee

I picked up my saddlebag
And rode my horse down into the valley
And when I reached the bottom
I kept a-going til the underearth was my finale

And so my final rest was there
A flower marks the spot
I'm buried deep beneath the earth
Because Hotel Heaven would have me not


Alternate ending with a happier conclusion:

I picked up my saddlebag
And rode my horse all the way back to Hell
A telegraph was waiting
They wanted me back in heaven
As best as I could tell

I turned my horse back again
And rode fast as I could
And checked back into Heaven's hotel
Just like they said I should

 

Now It Could Burn

Will the work of our founding fathers
Be washed away so quick?
Is the day soon at hand
When our heels we must click?

Almost 300 years
If you count the time freedom has stood
But now it could burn
As if kindling wood

Shocking
 
   I find it surprising that the V.A. hospital in Salt Lake City has canceled, banned, and forbade LDS religious services at its facility.

   I find it even more surprising that those commenting beneath the story almost all agree -- not only agreeing, but taking shots at the right of people to worship as they please. 

   I find it not just surprising, but shocking.

Once-in-1,000-Years Rainfall Hits North Carolina 

North Carolina is experiencing high levels of flooding in what it is said to be a once-in-a-1,000 rainfall. Monday, 18 inches of rain fell within 12 hours in Carolina Beach.

Climate scientists have warned that severe weather events would become more common. Did we listen?

Everywhere

They spread their campaign signs everywhere
Put up billboards everywhere
T-shirts and hats -- everywhere
You could even buy bobble dolls
They sold them everywhere

So when Trump ran for president
It was expected he would win
His chances were so certain
It made him laugh and grin

But a laugh from him
Is a laugh at you and me
He thinks we aren't intelligent enough
All that's rotten about him to see

So, despite campaign signs and billboards everywhere
T-shirts and hats and bobble dolls
Let us not be so foolish as to vote for Trump
No matter how loud he calls 

Calling Utah Power to Repentance

   The Utah Legislature is failing us. While utility rates are projected to shoot up in coming years, the legislature is doing nothing. With charging electric vehicles and other uses expanding, we are running towards a shortage of electricity.

   Now, it is Utah Power's responsibility to ensure our power plants to meet our energy needs, but it is the legislature's responsibility to insist that Utah Power meets its obligation. Trouble is, instead of keeping Utah Power on track, the legislature has been knocking the utility company off track, passing laws curbing the use of sources such as solar and wind.

   The legislature should repent.

If You have Questions about Climate Change, Direct Them to the Future

 
   In Brazil, smoke hangs over the country so thick that it can be seen from space.

   In Shanghai, the strongest storm in 75 years hits the city.

In Vienna, the city is awash in 7 feet of water.

  And dams are bursting and rivers overflowing in Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slavokia. 

 Much of the severe weather is due to climate change. Any questions? If there are, direct them to the future.

Sex Trafficking with Tim Ballard
 
There are few people on earth as dark and deceiving and wicked as Tim Ballard. Ballard was an organizer and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), which purportedly delivered children out of sex slavery.

Do I have your attention? Probably.

I mean, how much more noble of an endeavor can you get than to save children from sex trafficking? So, why am I bouncing the other way, suggesting he is about as wicked as a person can get?

Ballard convinced women to pose as his sexual partners, saying this would allow the child sex trafficking operations to be infiltrated. And, he would persuade the women he connived into having sexual relations with him that they needed to practice, so when it came time, they would be polished enough that it would look real. And, when they arrived at the hotels in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, or wherever, he would suggest that the sex traffickers could be monitoring them, so they should have sexual activity in order to show show they were really involved in such a thing.

The New York Times this past week, after speaking to no less than 10 such victims, carried a story describing the sexual exploits of Ballard. That's right, 10. Should that not be enough witnesses to convict in a court of law? "This guy should be in prison. End of story," says one person in the comment section of the Salt Lake Tribune (which reprinted the NYT arcticle).

This past week, Ballard said there have been "an unbroken string of failures in cases against me.” The world of fools will say that proves his innocence, but the evidence in this article is overwhelming. It's overwhelming, but underwelming to a justice system that hasn't the strength to bring even such a large criminal to justice.

How can a person commit such vile crimes and get away with it?

 
 
If America is to have a Tomorrow

If America is to have a tomorrow
It must weather the storms of today
If our country is to survive
It must get changes underway

Chase away threats of lost freedom
Become more moral in what it does
Become a more peaceful people
A nation and people that loves

Oh land of spacious skies
And amber waves of grain
Do not such things as these
Become a ball and chain