Leaving for camping trip in State Park in Jacksonville with Dagny, Blake, Brian and Abby
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This is a powerful message from a beautiful young lady who threatens the message racist liberals and Democrats seek to perpetuate:
Stories of Us: Amala Ekpunobi | PragerU
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Just as WAPO revealed they were wrong to accuse Trump intimidated Georgia's Sec. of State in a phone call, years from now it will be revealed the 2020 election was fraught with fraud. It just is not a good time to come clean because, God forbid, it will make Democrats look bad and untrustworthy:
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Can you be inoculated from hypocrisy?
And
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This was sent to me by one of my dearest friends, a fellow memo reader and a highly respected graduate of one of our Military Academy's. He did so in reply to the video I sent of Leno interviewing Americans on the street and which I posted in a previous memo:
GOAT POOP
Reflections
From the Last Section
A few years back, when the editor of
Assembly
asked me if I would be willing to write this column, I confess I was surprised and more than a bit
mystified, especially when he indicated he wanted it to be a humorous
column. I’m not a very funny guy, and my
life bears much more resemblance to a Greek tragedy than a sitcom. Since I have to draw upon my own experiences
in order to write, I wasn’t at all sure that I could satisfy his needs. Never-the-less, it was a challenge, and I
like challenges, so I took up the gauntlet and blundered into the abyss. Since then I have done my best to carve what
humor I could out of my daily observations and experiences, and package that in
a way that will at least make a few folks smile.
I’m not sure if that’s going to work
this time or not, because what I’m going to pass on to you in this rendition of
Freed’s Foibles just might be so disturbing and frightening to you that you
will fail to see any humor in it at all. And that would be understandable. I, on the other hand, have learned to laugh,
because that’s the only way I can keep my sanity these days. You see, I’m
a public high school teacher now, and what we’re going to explore today
is geography and history and civics, as viewed by today’s youth. Lean back, pop
the top on a long neck - or maybe even something stronger to get you through
the rough parts, and come along for the ride. It’ll take you places you have
never been before, I promise you, and you can decide whether or not there’s any
humor in this story.
Six years ago, when the Army decided
the size and contents of my stomach were far more important than the size and
contents of my brain, I retired from active duty. At the time I made this decision, I had not a
clue what I wanted to do in the afterlife.
Well, that’s not really true. I
knew what I wanted to do, but the reality of three young sons at home who had
to be clothed, fed, housed and possibly even educated clashed with the idea of
traveling the world, fly fishing all the great trout waters on the planet. That, and the fact that my wife had already
made a list of what I would do with the rest of my life - one does not screw
with my wife’s lists - kind of put things in focus for me. Shortly after I’d told my wife I was
retiring, she asked me what I had in mind for a job. “Well, gee, my little kumquat,
I don’t know just yet. I’m working on
it,” I replied. At this point she offered
some input. It went something like this: “We are not going to move from
here. There is a job opening for a
Junior ROTC instructor at one of the local high schools. Apply for it tomorrow.
Any questions?”
Well, being a high school JROTC
instructor was about as high on my list of things to do as getting a root canal
on a live tooth without benefit of booze or anesthesia, but I had learned the
hard way many, many years ago not to question my wife’s decisions, even when
those decisions were about me. And, to
be honest, the more I investigated the idea, the more it intrigued me. For one thing, I really like to teach, and it
just so happened that at the time, I was an Instructor and Seminar Chairman at
the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk.
Teaching high school JROTC would let me continue doing something I
really liked. Also, the pay wasn’t too
bad - it certainly wasn’t anything I was going to get rich on, but then, I had
been working under that pay scale all my
life. And finally, and very importantly, the hours weren’t bad. What the hell, I decided, why not? How bad can it be?
Indeed! Well, I got the job, and then I got the
answer to that last question. But first,
since I suspect many of you may not know just what exactly Junior ROTC is
all about, let me fill you in. It is NOT a pre-commissioning course, nor is
it a tune up for basic training. It is
also not - at least it’s not supposed to be - all about boogie drill and break
dancing. What it is all about is self-discipline, teamwork, leadership and
citizenship. The curriculum, which does
include the obvious things you’d expect to find in an ROTC course - drill, map
reading, leadership and marksmanship (yes, we do teach the little buggers how
to shoot straight. That ought to keep you up at night.), also includes such
esoteric things as American History, the Constitution, Ethics and Morals
and Communications - both oral and
written. It’s open for kids in 9th
through 12th grades, boys and girls.
It’s supposed to turn kids into “better Americans.” Well, I thought, that’s certainly a noble
idea; I ought to be able to do that with ease.
To say that my first year was an eye-opening
experience would be the understatement of all time. For openers, you must understand that it was
the first time I had been in a high school since the day I graduated from one,
back when kids were expected to know how to read and write in order to achieve
that milestone. Things had changed. Kids had changed. Values had changed - a lot. You would think that I would have known what
to expect, since I had three kids of my own - but they weren’t in high school
yet, so I was really caught off guard.
Compound that by the fact that I came straight from a teaching
assignment where I was dealing with highly motivated, professional adults who
were actually interested in what they were doing, to an environment where
the most important thing in life was who
could wear their trousers the lowest without them falling off, and you have a
powerful elixir for culture shock.
My first real shock came during the
first week of school. I was talking to
the kids - in this case a class of 9th
graders - about the uniforms I would be issuing them the following week.
Suddenly a little girl - 14 years old - popped off with the question “can I get
a uniform if I’m pregnant?”
I’m proud of myself. I didn’t choke,
I didn’t stammer or scream, I didn’t even laugh. I just suggested that if that
was the case, she should perhaps take another course. Well, as it turned out,
she was indeed pregnant, with her 2d child, and nobody that I ran into - kids
or faculty - thought that was
particularly unusual. Yep, things had changed.
It didn’t take me long to discover that,
despite the fact these kids were in high school, they didn’t know very much,
especially about the world they lived in.
So, I came up with a bright idea: I started a “Country of the Week”
program. Every couple of weeks, on
Monday, I would write on the chalkboard the name of a country that was
currently in the news. The kids (I still hesitate to refer to them as students,
as there is a positive connotation to that word most of them have yet to
demonstrate) had one week to write me a two-page essay about that particular
country. They were to answer such questions as where is it, what language(s)
are spoken, why is it in the news, and fill in a few details about the
government and culture.
I was really surprised when more than half the kids steadfastly refused
to do the assignments, despite the fact that there was a hefty grade attached
to them. After six years, I’m still lucky if 50% of a class ever turns a paper
in. But my real problems began when I
started grading their papers. Being a
semi-literate geography and history buff, I naturally started grading their
masterpieces not only for content, but also for basic English grammar and
spelling. Big, big mistake. None of them - not one - had a prayer of
getting a passing grade. I don’t know what language these kids had been taught
before they got to me, but it sure as hell didn’t resemble the English I was
weaned on. So, I just graded their
papers for content - did they answer the mail - though I did correct all their
grammar and spelling mistakes.
But then I took the problem one step
farther, and this was when I really got a shock. I made copies of the really bad papers - many
of which had been turned in by juniors and seniors - and took them to the
chairlady of the school English Department. I pointed out - very nicely, I
might add - to her that it appeared that a number of my JROTC students were
having trouble with English grammar, and perhaps a little remediation might be
helpful. This was not a spiteful gesture
on my part, I can assure you. Indeed, I naively thought I had actually been
hired to teach, and I considered this a part of that process. Her reaction, on the other hand, was not at
all what I expected. Rather than being
grateful for my interest, she was incensed.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
she demanded. “What do you army people
know about teaching English?”
A lot of answers ran through my
mind, but then I remembered that sage advice my daddy gave me when I was a
little boy: never argue with a fool,
because if you do, a bystander can’t tell which is the fool.” Needless to say, I’ve never felt compelled to
bond with the members of the English Department on an intellectual level since
then.
Nor the Social Studies or History departments. As a result of my “Country of the Week”
program, and other geography lessons and projects I have included in my curriculum
over the past six years, I have learned from my charges some incredible things
about this country and world we live in.
I will share some of the better ones with you. Believe it - these are all actual test
question answers or report statements provided by my high school students.
·
There are 50 states in the country of Virginia.
·
The United States of America is in Asia, right next to
Australia.
·
Mexico is a state.
·
So is Canada.
But Alaska and Hawaii aren’t.
Hawaii is actually one of the Japanese home islands.
·
Greece is one of the Caribbean islands, right next to Cuba, which just happens to be
off the coast of Italy. Got all that?
·
Russia is a small country in the mid-east wedged in
between Egypt and Brazil.
·
The Rocky Mountains are in Virginia. Pikes Peak is in the state of Pike.
·
New Zealand is right next to Old Zealand, and they are
both somewhere in Eastern Europe.
·
There are anywhere from 13 to 70 states, depending on
who I ask.
·
The Panama Canal is in Egypt. Panama, on the other hand, is right next to
China.
·
New York, Ohio, and Minnesota are in the Northern
Hemisphere. Virginia, Georgia, and Mississippi are in the Southern Hemisphere.
The jury is still out on California.
·
Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf are just off the
coast of Florida.
As fascinating as some of the geography I’ve
learned from these kids is, the history is even better. Some tidbits:
·
The Revolutionary War was fought about 30 years
ago. We were fighting against the
Indians.
·
On the other hand, the Civil War was a couple hundred
years ago, and we were fighting the British in that one.
·
The Declaration of Independence was written in 1945 by
Abraham Lincoln.
·
World War II ended about a hundred years ago when we
dropped an atomic bomb on Iraq.
·
Robert E. Lee was a president of the United States,
but Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t. He was a famous wrestler. (I’m not making this up,
folks)
·
The original 13 colonies belonged to France. England went to war against France in World
War I to free the colonies.
·
The cotton gin was a great invention because it helped
make liquor out of cotton.
·
George Washington was the King of England during the Revolutionary
War.
Don’t even
ask about the 4th of July. In
6 years of teaching America’s teenage
sons and
daughters, at an average of 115 kids a year, I have found a total of 22 who
could tell me why we celebrate that holiday.
I could go
on and on with these, but by now you’re either crying or laughing too hard to
keep reading. So I’ll finish with a
comment about citizenship. About halfway
through my first year of teaching JROTC, I was teaching a class to a group of
juniors and seniors, when, right in the middle of my lecture, a girl blurted out “Colonel, what
do we gots to know this shit for anyway!”
The “shit” she was referring to was the Bill of Rights.
Are you laughing yet? Remember, this is the future of our country
I’m telling you about.
OK, my friends, that’s it for this
time. It’s mid summer, and the fish are
biting. My casting arm is starting to
twitch. Until next time, stay in step, be nice to someone you don’t know, and
BEAT NAVY.
…………….Freed
Lowrey ‘67
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ General Keane reacts and lays it out in his usual straight forward style:
Gen. Keane Reacts To Biden Reportedly Reaching Out To North Korea
And:
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