there may be poverty in Texas ... but there is also a LOT OF PROSPERITY ..and OPPORTUNITY to grow wealth
When you're one of the poorest states in the union... I guess the only way to go is up... From $2.75 an hour up to, if you work hard and are lucky...$3.00!
No social services... no jobs... 9% of the jobs are minimum wage... Lots of opportunity to starve.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
When you're one of the poorest states in the union... I guess the only way to go is up... From $2.75 an hour up to, if you work hard and are lucky...$3.00!
No social services... no jobs... 9% of the jobs are minimum wage... Lots of opportunity to starve.
Have you ever been to Texas ? Have you been there lately ?? It is definitely NOT one of the poorest states in the union.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Everyone should experience a Texas sunrise and a Texas sunset .. at least once in their life.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Have you ever been to Texas ? Have you been there lately ?? It is definitely NOT one of the poorest states in the union.
Texas has much to be fond of, and for many, it's a successful place to do business. The rich do well in Texas... everyone else... not so much.
Texas with all it's oil, and all it's wealth is 6th in poverty in the USA.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Texas has much to be fond of, and for many, it's a successful place to do business. The rich do well in Texas... everyone else... not so much.
Texas with all it's oil, and all it's wealth is 6th in poverty in the USA.
A lot of people are doing well in Texas -- not just the rich.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
While I am already planning a return visit to the great Lonestar State, I thought I would share my experiences in Ohio's Amish Country.
After visiting Pennsylvania's Amish County in 2010 and finding it over-commercialized, it was refreshing to visit Ohio's Amish Country. The area is only about 6 hours west/southwest of Rotterdam and stretches along US Route 30 from Dayton to Mansfield (just south of Cleveland and northeast of Columbus).
There are many farm stands and shops selling Amish grown produce and food products. A number of restaurants serving good old-fashioned Amish cooked meals. There are also a number of shops selling everything from quilts to furniture. One of the great places to visit is the Biblewalk Wax Museum in Mansfield with life sized displays of various scenes from the Holy Bible.
The area has a number of motels and resorts -- and is close enough to places like the National Football Hal of Fame (Canton) and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland) and the huge amusement park at Cedarpoint (Sandusky) to make it a great base from which to enjoy a family vacation in the Buckeye State. Quail Hollow resort in Painesville, Ohio is one resort that I would highly recommend.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
On my return trip -- I made stops at the homes of several former presidents -- Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, Andrew Johnson's home and the childhood home of Woodrow Wilson in Staunton, VA.
The Hermitage was the most impressive -- well maintained and it has retained quite a few acres of the original plantation -- although the bulk of that great estate has long since been developed with suburban homes and commercial properties.
Nothing is left of James Polk's home -- a statue marks the spot where Polk Place stood.
I would have made stops at Jefferson's, Madison's and Monroe's homes in Virginia -- but having already visited those several times on previous trips and due to the rains from Tropical Storm Lee .. I opted to skip those sites.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
It is almost time to head back to Texas -- to enjoy its mild weather during the late autumn and the winter months.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
As we approach the 48th anniversary of the the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy - I was thinking about my visit to Dallas several years back.
The hotel that I stayed at looked over Dealey Plaza -- in fact my hotel room has a panoramic view of the plaza. It was creepy to the point that pretty much kept the curtains drawn during my 4 day stay.
A few blocks away from Dealey Plaza stands the City of Dallas' John F. Kennedy Memorial. It is a striking piece of modern art -- that after a couple of visits and much contemplation - I determined reminded me of a shattered or broken tomb. While the critics and, eventually assassin's bullets may have attempted to "entomb" the ideas espoused by John F. Kennedy ----- the fact is that JFK's ideas have shattered that tomb and continue to ripple out into the world and influence it.
The ideals of racial equality and equal opportunity. The ideals of fighting for democracy and freedom around the globe and against tyranny and authoritarianism. The ideals of citizens being actively involved in their communities -- at all level -- being givers rather than receivers ... being participants rather than observers. Not being afraid to embrace bold, new ideas while being respectful of what is good and right from the past.
I was born too late to remember anything of the actual Kennedy presidency -- my first memories of presidents and of politics are of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon and the late 1960's early 1970's ---- but I have always been drawn to the words of John F. Kennedy. I remember having to memorize his Inaugural address in the 9th grade --- all 9th graders in Father Bob's Speech and Public Debating class had to memorize it and recite it. Later that year, I chose to memorize and deliver JFK's favorite poem Tennyson's Ulysses for one of our campus' oratorical contests.
Final thought --- while most Americans use the term "Camelot" in regards to the JFK presidency -- I remember running across something in either Kenny O'Donnel's biography or another Kennedy biography which stated that President Kennedy actually disliked the musical Camelot --- disliked musicals and theater in general --- but that he did actually enjoy one Broadway production --- and that was The Fantasticks ... and he particularly enjoyed the song sung by Jerry Orbach "Try to Remember". The words of that song IMHO capture my feelings about my memories of my childhood - the 60's, the post-JFK era and the LBJ era ...
"Try To Remember" (lyrics by Tom Jones)
Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow. Try to remember the kind of September when grass was green and grain was yellow. Try to remember the kind of September when you were a tender and callow fellow, Try to remember and if you remember the follow.
Try to remember when life was so tender that no one wept except the willow. Try to remember when life was so tender that dreams were kept beside your pillow. Try to remember when life was so tender that love was an ember about to billow. Try to remember and if you remember then follow.
Deep in December it's nice to remember altho you know the snow will follow. Deep in December it's nice to remember without the hurt the heart is hollow. Deep in December it's nice to remember the fire of September that made us mellow. Deep in December our hearts should remember and follow.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
This is starting to turn into some kind of John Waters/creepy/showtunes blog now...creepy creepy creepy.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
By by Amanda St. Amand St. Louis Post-Dispatch '11/22/63'
by Stephen King
Scribner, 849 pp, $35
BOOK REVIEW |
If you like history and you love Stephen King, good news arrived last Tuesday in the form of "11/22/63," his latest novel and one of the most ambitious tales he's crafted.
The book begins innocently enough as we meet a high-school English teacher, Jake Epping, in — where else? — a small town in Maine.
Epping has just endured a divorce and is teaching adult English to a GED class to pick up a few extra bucks. One of his student's essays, written by no less than the high-school janitor, moves him to tears. And as Jake tells us many times throughout the book, he is not a crying man.
But how can he not cry when the janitor, Harry, spills his life story onto cheap notebook paper, remembering the night in 1958 when his father "murdirt my mother and two brothers and hurt me bad."
That essay leads Jake to attend Harry's GED graduation and take him for a celebratory burger to a diner, Al's. And going to Al's is the event that makes Jake's life turn on a dime.
The diner's owner has a secret, and now that he's dying of cancer, he must share it with someone he can trust. Someone who's single (that convenient divorce) and childless. And Al decides Jake is the one he'll tell: He has found a hole, a ripple, whatever you want to call it, that lets him travel back in time to 1958.
King is at his finest describing the shock and sense of wonder Jake feels when he takes his first trip back to a Maine street he never knew. Where everybody smokes. Where a thick fountain root beer costs a dime. And where kids still know their manners, like this:
" 'Yes sir?' Sir, yet. And nothing sarcastic about it. I was deciding that 1958 had been a pretty good year. Aside from the stench of the mill and the cigarette smoke, that was."
And no matter how long Jake — or Al before him — stays when he travels back to 1958, when he comes back to 2011 Maine, only two minutes have passed. Now Jake must decide whether he will fulfill Al's dying request: to go back in time and somehow stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing the president in Dallas in 1963.
Much of this satisfying tale is told in the details as King lavishes us with descriptions and behaviors of the late '50s and early '60s, as seen from Jake's point of view. The music, the gigantic cars, the cheap gas and the unshaken assumption that America is the land of the free, home of the brave — for the most part.
As Jake travels back to the 1950s, he becomes George Amberson. In one of King's regular touches, he also crosses paths with people, places and characters from earlier books. He makes a stop in Derry, home of "It," where he also meets up with Bev and Richie. A red and white Plymouth Fury, just like "Christine," makes more than one appearance.
The evil that awaits in Dallas is much like the evil he finds in Derry. Knowing that, he changes his original plan to live in Dallas to await Oswald and moves instead to a town called Jodie.
It's in Jodie where his plan to stop the assassination hits all sorts of complications. In the newly arrived school librarian, Sadie. In his loathing of Dallas. And in his efforts to track Oswald's comings, goings and conversations along the way.
King is a master, too, at reminding us of just how easy things have become in 2011. Jake longs for the easy information access of the Internet and his cellphone. But he also revels in the kindness of strangers and the ease of plopping down money to buy a gun or get on a plane and other niceties long gone.
The question of whether Jake/George succeeds won't be answered here. But the question of whether King has written another hard-to-put-down story — heavier on the thoughtfulness and a little lighter on the gore — is an unqualified yes.
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