THE COUNTRY'S DIRECTION

As your Commander plods through his third year of expressing his feelings on numerous subjects it is coming to his attention that there are growing voices of concern relative to the direction of our great country. As I journey along a path of advocacy for constitutional conservative fiscal responsibility, I have heard little or no appreciation of those concepts by the vocal liberal pundits of our population.

In recent years as our enemies have grown, our financial debt rapidly increased, and our political debate has become far shriller, there appears to be an increasing number of liberal proponents expressing doubt about the direction of our country. I have long been a critic of the New York Times biased reporting and far-left editorial position, but in recent weeks I have observed a decided shift to the middle and even the right within the pages of the on-line edition of the paper.

I want to draw your attention to an excellent Op-Ed piece by Thomas L. Friedman (NY Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author) written as he travels in the Far East. I suggest you read his very thought provoking warning titled, “What’s Our Sputnik?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/opinion/17friedman.html?em

Your Commander is quite encouraged by Friedman’s accurate observations and concerns. As he says, “We just keep thinking we can do it all – be focused, frightened and frivolous. We can’t. We don’t have the money. We don’t have the time.”

Maybe, just maybe, we can get together in the middle and work to defeat our enemies, who have all the time in the world to divide and conquer our great democracy. I believe your Commander can see some light at the end of the tunnel when proponents of reasoned discussion can work together to find common ground. Arrogant bullies who abuse their power often have a short life-span.

COMMANDER GRANGER