Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

  Richard Nixon was the first presidential candidate and future president, that I ever saw in person. It was totally unexpected. My elementary school class was on a field trip to the Weather Bureau at the Nashville airport in the Fall of 1960. After finishing our tour I thought we were going to board the school bus and ride back to Martha Vaught Elementary, just off of White Bridge Road in West Nashville. To my surprise the teacher said that we were going over to watch Vice President Nixon land at the airport on a campaign stop in Nashville. A DC-3 landed, and taxied over to the terminal. An excited crowd of Nixon supporters were on hand to greet him. Steps were rolled up to the plane and soon Richard and Pat Nixon were heartily waving to the crowd. Nixon girls were leading people in a campaign song. They were singing the children's song Merrily We Roll Along to different lyrics."We want Nixon, we want Nixon, we want Nixon, to be our president". Even though I had no c...

There are many things in life that I cannot relate to. I cannot relate to a person who could murder someone in cold blood or even do it in the heat of an argument. Nor could I relate to a person that would purposely injure or sexually molest a child or has an abortion during a normal pregnancy. I cannot relate to a person who would jump out of a perfectly good airplane or play with snakes, especially poisonous ones. Finally I cannot relate to someone who likes Barack Obama but disagrees with his policies. Obama's approval ratings are over 50% and as high as 55% in some polls. This does not square with the 70% that believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Contrary to the opinion of Donald Trump I believe that this election, like the congressional election of 2010 and senatorial election of 2014 was a rejection of Obama's very unpopular policies of the last eight years. Either America is schizophrenic or the polls are wrong. I have been told that although Ame...

Excerpts from Hillary Clinton's speeches on the campaign trail. "He (Trump) refused to say that he would respect the results of the election. Now make no mistake by doing that he is threatening our democracy. and the peaceful transition of power. The peaceful transition of power is what sets our country apart. It's how we hold our country together no matter who's in charge". This entire year the anti-Trump protestors have preached that "Love Trumps Hate". We have been portrayed as a "basket of deplorables" and hateful and intolerant. The following is from her deplorable speech. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people -- now ...

The mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system . . . which has escaped without severe censure. . . . I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm that if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent. -- Alexander Hamilton Until the election of 2000 I had always thought that the Electoral College was an outdated, archaic system that had outlived it's usefulness. It only made sense to me that the president should be elected by the popular vote of the people. One man, one vote. To be honest if Bush had won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College, I would probably still believe that a president should be elected by the popular vote. Since my man won I was forced to defend the Electoral College system. In the process of defending it I realized that I really didn't know that much about it. By studying the Electoral College my eyes were opened to the brilliance of the Founding Fat...

  Toward the end of Jimmy Carters's term of office Vice President Mondale landed at the Nashville airport on two separate occasions. One of these times was to watch his daughter perform in a horse show at M.T.S.U. Whenever Air Force One, or Air Force Two, landed in Nashville the planes were parked on the Air National Guard side of the airport. We were tasked to guard both planes, along with augmenting the Secret Service and local law enforcement. There was only one problem. We were carrying empty weapons. National Guard troops had shot 13 Kent State University students, killing four of them, during an anti-war riot on May 4, 1970 while I was home leave before going to Turkey. The state of Ohio did not insure their Guard troops and they were held personally liable in civil court. Since Tennessee also did not insure it's troops against personal liability we were not allowed to carry loaded weapons after the Kent State fiasco. Regardless, our commander wanted us to carry ...