The last day of 2013 has arrived folks, as we prepare for New Years Eve tonight and a New year tomorrow. we need to stop for a moment and look at where we are in life and in the world and all that happened before we start a new one. The world is a dangerous place for all to live and we Americans are the luckiest ones on it currently. We live in peace and we have choices and can vote for what we wish. we control our own destiny if we come together as a nation, throw aside who is what color, what race, what nationality and what party and learn that it takes all to make it work right!

       I have lived now 57 years, and seen Presidents come and go, from Eisenhower to now Obama,seen wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan, seen economic boom to economic bust and still I am here and icking and soon to turn 58. I am entering now my downside of life, an age where many retire and disappear to hotter climates and warmer places and slowly fade into the past. Yet I wonder what more I shall live to see, an America with full health care for all, an America with all colors, races and nationalities and religions getting along would be nice.  As I sit here and think back, I remember a lady in my old project neighborhood, her name I don’t remember her actions I do.  It was the 1960’s before the March on Washington by Martin Luther KIng Jr. and it seemed to me as a  little boy a simpler time than now. I was outside playing, I had a simple empty jar and I was chasing bees to catch them and look at them that day. As I went to close the cover on the jar, the bee escaped and stung me on my right hand and I cried out in shock and pain from it. Out rushed this nice, sweet lady who looked at me and helped me right away, she held my hand out and said watch this as I looked at her in amazement. She reached down and got a bit of mud out of the ground and packed it on my palm where I had been stung. One minute later, the stinger was out, my tears were dried and I was ready to play once more and I thinked her. I remember her big brown eyes, her smile at me and her friendly and kind nature. I was a white boy and she a black woman in her late forties. She didn’t have to help me back then for the division between colors and races was still in action, yet she did out of the bigness of her heart. And the warmth of her being shone through to me and we were friends from that day on till we moved. The point being this folks, it matters not what color, what nationality, whet religion if we care for one another as Americans we can do anything, together. I hope 2014 will bring that cooperation, friendliness and more back to America. Lord knows we all need it folks no matter what color we may be.

        I have lived through attacks on America by others that took down the World Trade Towers in New York and stood still frozen in time as a plane went down near Pittsburgh, Pa. where my daughters lived and prayed they would not get killed.  I have served my country as a soldier, national guardsman and in the end a sailor and seen the world. I have visited countries of wonder in Europe, The North Atlantic, South America and even the Bermudas, on active duty, and been fascinated by all the different people, the cultures and wonders of it all.  I lived through 199 seizures in the first nine months of my life and survived, beating given to me as a child by abusing parents, fought through institutions to stay free. and survived. I survived my military life, with six herniated discs in my spine, depression, PTSD and Anxiety, and much more. I have recently survived lung cancer in 2013, having a lobe and one third removed from my right lung, to remove the cancer. I am a lucky man in many aspects and I know it.  So, when I say this I mean it America, 2014 must bring peace and get us out of wars, it must bring peace between the races, and nationalities of America and we must all move forward to improve this country, it’s economy and how we care for one another. America is indeed the shinning beacon it once was before if we make it so people, we the Americans can do it!

       The one thing we all need to do, no matter what race, color or nationality may be or religion, is to stop policing other nations and fighting their wars for them. we can’t keep spreading our forces around the world policing nations that don’t want us there and spending what wed on’t have to defend others. We need that cash, our people, and our weapons and money at home and added to our economy to create new jobs for all, to pay for the unemployed and to help healthcare for all to get underway. I hope and pray 2014 will be so much better for all of America, and all Americans everywhere. May Peace reign and may mankind discover, it’s better to love than hate one another!

          Happy New Year To All!