A small part of 'it'

One of my favorite authors is a diminutive lady, Lane Wallace, who writes for aviation-themed publications. Lane has been an aviation columnist, editor, and author for more than 20 years.

Assignments for past articles include her actually flying in a U-2 aircraft above 70,000 feet altitude, and in another event, she checked out in a Cessna Caravan and flew missionaries and supplies around southern Africa. I envy her wealth of experiences! I was privileged to meet and visit with the lady two years ago at the world's largest "Fly In" at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

In Lane's latest article, she wrote of flying her Grumman Tiger from California to a new home in Massachusetts. Newly married, she was also accompanied by her 17-year-old step son. Lane wrote of young Connor's succinct observations along the way.

"You know, America isn't really one country, is it? It's really a lot of different realities that share a common border. What the people in Montana know as America isn't anything like what the people in Peoria or Massachusetts know.

"And the people we met in Montana probably don't spend a lot of time in other areas, so they don't realize that what they think is 'it' is only a tiny piece of 'it.' Same probably goes for people everywhere."

Talk about astute observation of our fellow countrymen. Connor hit it spot on! How else to explain how we in this area of conservative thought and action view the perturbations of our elected officials in the House of Representatives, the Senate and our vaunted Executive Branch.

We stand in disbelief that Congress can even consider borrowing to spend ever more and more, and knowing that it is our children and grandchildren who will have the burden of paying our creditors back.

Feel good projects to bring about "Social Justice" (whatever that means). Projects that have price tags that we can't pay for and we really don't need. What part of NO we can't afford it do they not understand? Loans are meant to be repaid in our lifetime!

We wonder how Congress can keep extending unemployment benefits on and on when we know that most of those receiving will refuse to even attempt to find work while still on the dole. Want to cut the rate of unemployment? Simply shut down the benefits, paid by our tax money of course, after about three months. It is relocate, find another job or starve. Three months used to be the limit; it worked then and will work now.

We respond with disgust that those in Congress have exempted themselves from prosecution for enriching themselves by insider trading. It wasn't long ago that we felt little angst when self made millionaire Martha Stewart was sent to prison for the very same insider trading scheme that is evidently freely practiced every day by some in Congress. Those important people evidently have no sense of right and wrong, but I suspect that they would get a conscience when forced to realize that jail loomed in their future for disobeying the laws that they have formulated for the rest of us.

We don't think very favorably on a favorite son who represents himself as a "conservative Democrat" and then casts the deciding vote to shackle us with universal health care. The "Cornhusker Kickback" engenders a feeling of shame for most of us. We know that elected officials are prohibited by law from taking bribes and the "Cornhusker Kickback" was indeed a bribe in all its naked glory.

We don't like unfunded mandates. Expensive projects dictated by faceless bureaucrats', living who knows where, but freely spending our tax money. The unneeded airport "wildlife" fence comes to mind. The funds to build will come from aviation gas tax money that we aviators pay on each gallon of fuel burned. Those funds are to be granted back to us for the project, but also the city has to pony up local property and sales tax money to pay for something that we don't need. Somehow I haven't heard an offer to pick up McCook's share from our U.S. Senator so eager to get his name on the airport.

Earmarks are expensive projects slipped into the Federal Budget that will only benefit a small local area. "We might as well get 'our share' of the money because it will be spent somewhere else if we don't take it." is the usual explanation we hear from those clamoring evermore for "their share." Somehow that process has to be stopped, as we can no longer afford it.

We don't think much of a President who tours the Mid-East apologizing that America, bastion of personal freedom that we are, is trying to make the world a better place. The veterans who live here, those who won World War II, served in Korea and Vietnam, Kosovo and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are flat insulted that our commander-in-chief has so little regard for past sacrifice. We are proud of how we helped rebuild war devastated Europe and Japan to become the economic powerhouses we see today. We are proud to have a part in the disintegration of the evil Soviet Empire known as the USSR. Unified Germany is a testament to what capitalism and personal freedom will do to escape the totalitarianism of Soviet domination that held East Germany in poverty for all too many years.

The Wall Street Protest movement seems to have been overtaken by elements distinguished by a yearning for Jew-hatred and Communism. I suppose that their dream of Nirvana is communist Cuba or North Korea.

Most people that I know would gladly give them free one way passage to either of those two paradises.

Our best ally in all the Mid-East is our soul brother Israel yet our President does his best to separate their interests from our own. We don't think much of the way Radical Islam treats women or each other for that matter yet President Obama doesn't seem to recognize the problem.

Yes we in Southwest Nebraska, like the people Connor met in Montana, don't spend a lot of time in other areas so we don't realize that what we think is "it" is only a small piece of the big "it." We like our way of life and hate that the elites in Washington are hell bent on bankrupting it. We want an even more prosperous future than what we have lived for our grandchildren and don't think much of those who are trying to destroy this great country. Our great hope is the election that is coming in less than a year and I for one plan on casting a deciding vote!

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail