I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EARS

Over the holidays I joined a gathering of friends from our community, and the evening network newscast was on a television set. As is usual for that time of the year a local station was presenting a review of major news stories of the year. What caught our eyes was a full screen of major Democrat politicians gathered to celebrate and puff about their majority power political agenda accomplishments.

One of the attendees asked me, ”Who are those people?” I was shocked by the question and responded, ”Don’t you know who they are?” FYI, the inquisitor was an adult high school graduate who has continued his education and owns and operates a service business, not an inexperienced uneducated child.

When I picked myself up off the floor, I responded that the individuals appearing on the screen were Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). I tried to remind the person just who they all were, and their significance to our daily lives. This individual told me that politics, newspapers, books, and television news were of little interest so those individuals were not important factors to his daily life.

This experience was a very important revelation to my understanding as to just why our country is in the state of disarray that it is, because there is apparently far more disregard and less interest in the preservation of our democracy than I realized. It is just this lack of attention to what made this country the bright and shining example it is to much of the world, and it is just this complacency that will lead to our further erosion and ultimate destruction. With high school graduation rates hovering below 50% in the major cities, we no doubt will have a growing percentage of the voting public exhibiting little or no interest in the vital political process. That fact does not bode well for our country’s future.

I will even bet that similar experiences occurred throughout “the land of the free and the home of the brave” this past holiday season. It is sad, but apparently true that a growing number of our fellow citizens just do not care or even know about the important issues and people of the day.

COMMANDER GRANGER