Greetings all and welcome! I have another guest post for you today but first things first, a brief explanation of my absence. There are a number of reasons why you haven't seen much activity on this blog for a while. Let's just break it down into list form because I know how all you bloggers just love lists.
1. I have kids. I am dedicated to my family and blogging only cuts into that valuable family time. I wish to ensure my children and my wife are properly nurtured with all the attention they need. And this year, my kids will be playing baseball and softball so I will practically be living at the ball park in the coming months. Needless to say, my absence will continue.
2. Time is a factor. There are a million great blogs out there but I can't read them all. Proper blog etiquette suggests that if someone comments on your blog, you are to return the favor by visiting their blog and commenting as well. This is one of the major contributing factors to my absence. It's overwhelming for me to try to comment on all the blogs in my blogroll. I honestly don't know how you people do it. It's overwhelming. I have lost interest in blogging because of this very reason. I noticed that my page views and comments were dropping significantly simply because I quit trying to return the favor. I want people to read my blog and leave feedback because they enjoy it, not because it would warrant another comment on their blog. For those of you who still visit and leave feedback even though you know I will most likely not get around to your blogs, I thank you. For those of you who are here only to solicit a comment from me, go to hell! Spammentors need not apply!
3. I have chosen to no longer spill personal details about what's going on in my life. There for a while my blog was becoming more of a personal journal rather than a source of entertainment. What's going on in my marriage or any other aspect of my personal life is none of your business. If I wish to share such details with any of you, I will do so in an email. I still consider some of you great friends but any personal information needs not to be spread all across the internet for people to use against me.
4. I work for a living. Eight hours of my day are spent working. That is a significant chunk of time out of my day, especially when I have a family. I come home from work and clock in on my second job, which is being a father, a husband, or a friend. The house can't clean itself, dinner won't just magically appear on our dinner table. I do most of the cooking and I take pride in what I do. Now, factor in the 8 hours of sleep needed each night, 2/3 of my day is gone, leaving just a few short hours to spend playing with my kids, helping them with homework or even giving my wife the best sex ever.
5. This is just an excuse to extend my list to five items. I think I've explained myself well enough in 1-4 that there are no more reasons to give here in #5. Well, let me just say that I only write when I'm in the mood and I haven't been in the mood lately.
Now on with the post by Elsie who so graciously wrote for me because I no longer write for myself. Take it away girl...
1. I have kids. I am dedicated to my family and blogging only cuts into that valuable family time. I wish to ensure my children and my wife are properly nurtured with all the attention they need. And this year, my kids will be playing baseball and softball so I will practically be living at the ball park in the coming months. Needless to say, my absence will continue.
2. Time is a factor. There are a million great blogs out there but I can't read them all. Proper blog etiquette suggests that if someone comments on your blog, you are to return the favor by visiting their blog and commenting as well. This is one of the major contributing factors to my absence. It's overwhelming for me to try to comment on all the blogs in my blogroll. I honestly don't know how you people do it. It's overwhelming. I have lost interest in blogging because of this very reason. I noticed that my page views and comments were dropping significantly simply because I quit trying to return the favor. I want people to read my blog and leave feedback because they enjoy it, not because it would warrant another comment on their blog. For those of you who still visit and leave feedback even though you know I will most likely not get around to your blogs, I thank you. For those of you who are here only to solicit a comment from me, go to hell! Spammentors need not apply!
3. I have chosen to no longer spill personal details about what's going on in my life. There for a while my blog was becoming more of a personal journal rather than a source of entertainment. What's going on in my marriage or any other aspect of my personal life is none of your business. If I wish to share such details with any of you, I will do so in an email. I still consider some of you great friends but any personal information needs not to be spread all across the internet for people to use against me.
4. I work for a living. Eight hours of my day are spent working. That is a significant chunk of time out of my day, especially when I have a family. I come home from work and clock in on my second job, which is being a father, a husband, or a friend. The house can't clean itself, dinner won't just magically appear on our dinner table. I do most of the cooking and I take pride in what I do. Now, factor in the 8 hours of sleep needed each night, 2/3 of my day is gone, leaving just a few short hours to spend playing with my kids, helping them with homework or even giving my wife the best sex ever.
5. This is just an excuse to extend my list to five items. I think I've explained myself well enough in 1-4 that there are no more reasons to give here in #5. Well, let me just say that I only write when I'm in the mood and I haven't been in the mood lately.
Now on with the post by Elsie who so graciously wrote for me because I no longer write for myself. Take it away girl...
I grew up an only child, my brother so much older than me, he was out of the house by the time I was six. It wasn’t until I dated my first serious boyfriend, who would become my first husband, Senior, that I learned what it was like to be protected by someone other than my dad.
Not only did Senior protect me, his four brothers protected me too, even the ones who were younger than me. It was instinctual and a matter of duty to all of them. It was also peace through strength in our neighborhood. It wasn’t long before people knew I was dating Senior and by default I was protected by his family.
I remember working in a local Video Store when a gentleman, and I use the word lightly, came in and asked to apply for membership before disappearing behind the shuttered doors of the porn section. It wasn’t long before it became apparent he was masturbating and as a sixteen year-old teenager, I was scared to death.
I was too embarrassed to tell my parents but I told Senior and between him, his brothers and his mom, they began stopping at the video store and “dropping off dinner” but I knew they were really checking on me. Keeping me safe. I was protected.
I had an entire family protecting me. Peace through strength.
Several years later Senior joined the Military and we learned the true meaning of Peace through Strength and Senior learned the duty of protecting others selflessly. A Reduction In Forces (RIF) began and we had a choice to make. Senior either stayed in the military or get out and start a new career path. He chose the new career path. Unfortunately, he died not long after the RIF.
My second husband, a career military man, joined the service when Peace through Strength was still the majority rule in our country but retired shortly after H.R. 808 was introduced, the bill to create a cabinet-level Secretary and Department of Peacebuilding.
Yes, you read that correctly. In a country where we can barely afford to pay our own personal bills and the government is struggling to pay their own and continues to cripple us by devaluing our dollar by printing money at a record rate (imagine if we tried that when we were broke!), Congresswoman Barbara Lee reintroduced the bill proposed by Congressman Kucinich back in 2007.
At face value, this is a fantastic concept and I agree with it. They want to stop violence in our schools. Me too. They want to stop bullying in our schools. Me too. They want to stop discrimination. Me too. They want to block grants that contain any requests to go to war or contain aggressive action. Wait, what? Don’t we already have the State Department and the Defense Department to do that? Why do six people get do it and who appoints them? Hang on a second, they also want to the advise media, religious leaders and military academies.
Who the hell are these people and why exactly do we need to create yet another damn department of anything when the president just cancelled the deployment of a crucial mission protecting Americans because it was to expensive?
I want to feel protected again. I want to feel safe. I don’t want to feel vulnerable economically and as a country. Our military should not be experiencing any types of cuts. They should not be practicing with vocal commands instead of live rounds. They should not be paying for their own office supplies. They should not be cancelling training exercises.
What the hell is wrong with our country that our defenses are being cut but new departments are being proposed?
Right, not Peace through Strength. APEACEment. Cumbaya everybody.
Thank you, my dear friend, Elsie, for writing a rant as I requested. And I couldn't agree more! The government is prone to introducing these changes that are supposed to help Americans but only leaves us crippled!
Thank you and blog safely my friends!
