Mom

It was 30 years ago that my Mom slipped the bonds of this earth for much greener pastures. By that time, however, she had given me 36 years of example, instruction, and love that live on to this day.

Well done, Mom. Thank you.

Really America? Really?

Just pondering a few questions, answers to which are possibly more important than we may realize:

• Are a professional basketball player's bedroom choices really worth a couple days' headlines and a personal, congratulatory phone call from the President of these United States to commend him for his courage? Really? Frankly, I don't give a damn.
• Why did the United States leave four citizens hanging in the wind in far away Libya, resulting in their deaths? Really, why?
• Must I accept the redefining of Marriage? If so...what's next on the agenda?
• What good are even more gun laws going to do in the prevention of murder? After all, check the trends from 1993 to 2011 as published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics here. 
• How rampant is human trafficking in the United States? Is one particular group responsible for most of it? 
• Is my Baby Boomer generation the last to experience "retirement" as it used to be known?
• Did the Cleveland PD totally drop the ball on fully investigating strange reports from that house-turned-prison in their city? 
• Where have all the Woodward- and Bernstein-like real investigative reporters gone? 
• Why do we give more of our time and effort considering the latest Lindsay Lohan drunken episode or Kim Kardashian's marital mess than we do to matters that are actually important? 
• (By the way, who was thrown off Dancing With The Stars last night???)
• Have welfare programs doomed America's future? 
• Is personal responsibility a thing of the past?
• Has consideration of these questions ruined your mood for the day?

I'm normally quite a positive guy, but these questions and more have me a bit in the doldrums lately. 

Lord, help us.