Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

  I can't tell you how many times lately that someone has told me they believe that Obama will be impeached because of the many scandals that he is involved in or of the many ways that he has abused the Constitution. His chances of being impeached are slim to none and Slim left town. I say that because only Republicans are forced to leave office over high crimes and misdemeanors. Richard Nixon was forced out of office for trying to cover-up a two bit attempt at breaking into the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate office complex. A crime that he probably didn't know about but because of his paranoia about being politically embarrassed he ordered a cover-up of the crime. And yes he should have been impeached for what he did. I don't give a Republican politician a pass for wrongdoing. Although I was still a Democrat when I voted for Nixon in 1972 because I considered McGovern too far to the left. Now I want you to consider the fact that on November 7, 1972 Nixon w...

  Although Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence fifty-six men signed the final document. They were some of the most prominent men in America. A who's who of American patriots. Names like Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, Robert Morris, John Adams, John Hancock, Eldridge Gerry, whose claim to fame is the term gerrymandering. Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Nelson Jr.,whose house I visited while in Yorktown Virginia. Francis Lightfoot Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee. Benjamin Harrison, the ancestor of two future American presidents. Edward Rutledge whose son is buried in City Cemetery in Nashville. John Witherspoon, the ancestor of Reese Witherspoon, and Roger Sherman just to name a few.    The Declaration of Independence : (We hold these truths to be self-evident). All of the signers agreed that there were certain truths in life. There was no rationalization or moral relativism going on here and they all agreed tha...

1st Lieutenant Charles Rumsey Broom   Leatherneck, Devil Dogs, and Jar head. These are terms or nicknames that have evolved over the years to describe a U.S. Marine. While I was at Verizon today a man saw me in my security uniform and asked me if my company was hiring. As I usually do when someone asks that question I suggested that he fill out an on-line application. He looked about my age and was wearing a t-shirt with the U.S. Marine Corps logo. I smiled and jokingly told him that I am sure that they would probably be glad to hire an old "Jar head" like him. He laughed and rode off on his bicycle. I have used that term for years but it hit me that I didn't know how the term originated. You know me. I hate to remain ignorant of a subject. I am aware of how the terms Leatherneck, and Devil Dog originated. The term Leatherneck came about due to a leather collar that American Marines wore from from 1798 until 1872 and was three and a half inches high. It was called ...

  When is this nation going to realize that we have a group of traitors, Benedict Arnolds, Quislings, or Copperheads as they were called in the Civil War, in the guise of the Democrat Party? During the Civil War they made up only a portion of the Democrat Party but since the early 1970's they are the bulk of the Democrat Party. It feels like Deja Vu watching as the Democrats stand by while our enemies take over a country where we left behind so much blood and treasure. There are valid arguments as to whether or not we should have ever fought in Vietnam or Iraq but in both cases good or bad we chose to fight. In Vietnam Nixon gradually fulfilled his promise to end American involvement in that war, which he did on January 27, 1973. In March 1972, the North Vietnamese launched their Eastertide offensive. There were only 75,000 American troops and two Army combat brigades left in country at that time from a high of 500,000 in 1968.   The American Army destroyed the Vie...

  Captain David Van Buskirk stood six foot eleven inches and weighed 390 pounds at a time when the average soldier stood five foot eight and a quarter inches. He was born in 1826 in Gosport Indiana. He was a farmer by trade and married three times producing eight children. He fought at Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. "Big Dave" was captured several times and would bargain to be put on display for extra rations. He was captured in 1862 and was sent to a Richmond Prison where a Confederate entrepreneur put him on exhibit & they split the proceeds. Even Confederate President Jeff Davis came to see this giant & was astounded when Van Buskirk claimed, straight faced, that back home in Bloomington Indiana, "when I was at the train station with my company, my six sisters came to say goodbye. As I was standing there, with my company, they all came up to me, leaned down and kissed me on top of the head." Buskirk resigned from the army because of health...

Phoebe Pember   Phoebe Pember was the administrator of Richmond's Chimborazo hospital during the Civil War. In her memoirs she tells about a young patient named Fisher. He was a Confederate soldier who everyone had become very attached to. Fisher had been convalescing from a serious hip wound for the past ten months and everyone was impressed by his cheerfulness and positive attitude. The night following Fisher's first successful walk on his own from one ward to another he screamed out in pain after turning over in bed. Blood began spurting with each heart beat from the wound in his hip. A splintered bone had cut an artery. Phoebe stopped the blood flow by pressing her finger on the artery. She sent for the surgeon who grimly concluded that nothing could be done because the artery was too deeply embedded in the flesh. The following is her personal account of the incident. "When informed of the hopelessness of his plight the young man gave the matron his mother's a...

James Robertson   James Robertson is known as the founder of Nashville but he was also the founder of Nashville medicine because he performed the first surgery. Robertson it seems had settled at Freeland Station after leading his party of men here in December 1779. In an early trip to this area in March 1779 his party of ten men included George and James Freeland. John Donelson, who was bringing the women and children by a flotilla of boats would not arrive here until April 1780. Originally there were eight small stations or forts. Fort Nashboro or the Bluffs as it was called was on the banks of the Cumberland near where the replica of the fort stands today. Freeland station was near where the old Werthan Bag Company stood on 8th Avenue N. in North Nashville. The old French Lick or sulpher springs was nearby. On January 11, 1781, John Tucker, Joseph Hendricks, and David Hood left Freeland's Station headed for the bluffs when they were attacked by Indians firing from the canebr...

  It really irritates me how the media overemphasizes unemployment figures when Republicans are in power and they deemphasize them when Democrats are in power. Democrats and the media downplayed the accomplishments of Ronald Reagan and how his leadership led us out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. When Reagan took office he inherited a GDP of 3.2%. Two and one half years later it was at 5.1%. One quarter later it grew to 9.3%. Obama inherited a GDP of 4.9% and two and a half years later it was 1.3%. It has steadily declined ever since. Reagan inherited an inflation rate of 11,8% percent. Obama inherited a inflation rate of 0.3%. Two and a half years after Reagan took office it was 2.46%. Two and a half years after Obama took office it was it rose to 3.56%. Reagan inherited an interest rate of 20.5%. Two and one half years later it dropped to 11.0%. I can attest for this because the real estate business was virtually dead because nobody could buy a house....

  Death is not a pleasant subject for most of us unless you are Dr. Kervorkian. Early in my life I was sheltered from it. Until I was twelve no one had ever died that was close to me. I avoided the subject and I can remember riding by cemeteries or graveyards and I would turn my head in order to avoid looking at them. The first time that I saw a dead body was kind of by accident. My mom took me to the old Cosmopolitan funeral home on West End about where the big Barnes and Noble store is now, across from Centennial Park. It was 1960 and my grandmothers brother, Jake Frogge, had died. Mother knew that I was frightened at the thought of seeing a dead body so she left me in the lobby. I walked by the room that Uncle Jake was in and there he was, lying in his coffin. I was startled and quickly took a seat in the lobby while mother, with her guitar in hand, took a seat by the casket. She sang and played many of the old hymns while I sat and listened. I could listen to her sing all ...

  I am telling my age when I say that I can remember the twentieth anniversary of D-Day. I was 14 when the movie "The Longest Day" was released to commemorate the anniversary. The movie premiered at the old Paramount theater on Church Street in Nashville. I eventually saw the movie at least 3 or 4 times before the movie left the Paramount. I took my brother Mark the first time I went to see it I believe. The first few rows were roped off for all of the D-Day veterans that came to see the movie. On one occasion I overheard a veteran tell another veteran " I wish it had been as easy to take those beaches as it was portrayed in the movie". On the seventieth anniversary of D-Day I wanted to put a different spin on D-Day by talking about the mistakes that Hitler made in World War II leading to one of his biggest mistakes in Normandy. It is amazing to think that if Hitler had died in 1938, even after the agreement at Munich with Neville Chamberlain he might have go...

  For many years I thought that my generation had the greatest negative impact on this country along with the administration of Lyndon Johnson. Johnson's policies were the catalyst that gave birth to the radical politics of the left that is now running rampant in the form of the modern day Democratic Party. Political correctness is a tool of the left and a big part our culture today. If people understood its history and how dangerous and insidious that it is they would not be so tolerant of it. Political correctness has been around for a while and goes back to World War I. Karl Marx believed that capitalism would fall of it's own weight and was willing to give it time to implode from within. The disparities between rich and poor or the bourgeoisie and proletariat would become greater and greater until the proletariat would rise up in rebellion to replace the bourgeoisie as the ruling class. As time went on however the proletariat continued to reject Marxism.    Whe...