Hope we can work it out, the Beatles, Congress, the Kardashains...America!

With the political climate in America today the average person cannot figure out exactly what is going on.  The Media - depending on what political side they are on - either puts the spin on the story one way or another. 

The Nation is divided between sides depending on who you believe, what broadcaster you listen to and what your parents told you about “what the “Democrats represent” and “what the Republican’s represent”.  

Facebook is strewn with phony quotes, crazy and misleading facts, and the biased hatred of a society that should know better than to pursue hatred for the sake of political and financial gain... as well as to listen to the fanaticism of some religious precept known by its “believers” to be the only religion and the only way! (I remember Hitler)

Some say all the “poor” are shiftless, druggie, ne’re-do-wells.   

I decided that what we lack in our society and in our Congress today is the ability to COMPROMISE!

So all week I have been humming a Beatles….song…

Try to see it my way,


Do I have to keep on talking till I can't go on?


While you see it your way,


Run the risk of knowing that our life may soon be gone.


Yes we are wasting the best years of our lives debating issues that have caused us great pain and moral upheaval in the past…Civil Rights – Race – Women’s Rights!  Issues that we thought were settled!

Think of what you're saying.


You can get it wrong and still you think that it's alright.


Think of what I'm saying,


We can work it out and get it straight,

or say good night.


We just can’t seem to compromise and work things out!!

Life is very short, and there's no time

For fussing and fighting, my friend.


I have always thought that it's a crime,


So I will ask you once again.



Now we divorce over any issue like the Kardashians or whoever is in right now… We dress and morally do whatever we want because we see it on line, on TV, or and especially in the headlines of the magazines on the racks at the checkout counter. 

Health care, crime, gun control… everything is either my way or “Take the Highway!”

Try to see it my way,

Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.

While you see it your way

There's a chance that we may fall apart before too long.


Yes there is a chance that our life-style and wonderful Democracy will fall apart before too long…because of it,... I think of Lincoln’s great line… “A house divided against itself cannot stand!”

Life is very short,

and there's no time

For fussing and fighting, my friend.


I have always thought that it's a crime,


So I will ask you once again.



Listen to all sides, research on all subjects, give alms to the poor and less fortunate…We can work it out…but it is up to all of us to COMPROMISE!

Listen to the beatles and sing along!

This week, the Government shut down, World War II, Patton, and The Lost Children!

What a week…. government shut downs…people burning themselves…. unarmed mentally ill people being shot in their cars ... instead of having their tires shot  out… boats of refuges trying to escape war capsized...  everyone on edge?????

I have been doing this year’s calendar for Eaton and decided to do it on the events and pertinent dates of World War II, the second war to end all wars… which of course never end.

I actually have finished my list of 7 books to read on the war from Eisenhower’s Crusade in Europe, Ambrose’s Eisenhower and the 5 volumes of Churchill’s…  I came away horrified that we still go to war without realizing the cost.  It appears our wars are more civilized now… war is not civilized.

Eisenhower’s book in his own words concentrates on the alliance of the Allied countries,  trying to keep all of the leaders happy, his work to win the war with the fewest losses, and at its ending … forming a world body to prevent war ... or to have countries work together toward that cause.  

Churchill on the other hand deals with it as facts and figures.  This or that ship went down… sunk… with 2,000 men drowned. 

Thousands of men on boats went down unable to be rescued in the cold waters of the North Atlantic… thousands.  In the book “The Grand Alliance” he talks with our general in charge of transporting troops to Europe and says the ship Queen Elizabeth can carry them… to paraphrase - "Our General asks how many troops at a time could she carry safely."  Churchill claimed... "If you get rid of the lifeboat worry (which could only save 8,000) you could carry a Division or 16,000 men…"   "and if it is sunk?"  It was basically the price of “War”.

Churchill seemed to be speaking of soldiers like the little plastic soldiers we post -war kids played with as children behind book forts. The more soldiers you had ... the most power you had.  We failed as children to realize each of them represented a young boy or man going off to war. (Today a woman.)

So to finish the calendar I decided to put in quotes on each page, mostly by soldiers or generals.  Some are famous like Patton’s - “When we get to Berlin I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!” 

Some are to voice of reason; my favorite is Einstein’s… “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Then I remembered a song by Gordon Lightfoot called “The Lost Children”.  Few people remember it …but this Viet Nam era song says it all.  I include the song and music video with words after it!

Down the hall their voices ring, their feet are on the run
Phantoms on the winter sky, together they do come
Faded lips and eyes of blue they're carried in the wind
Their laughter filled the countryside but they'll not laugh again

All the games are ended now, their voices have been stilled
Their fathers built the tools of war by which they all were killed
Their fathers made the uniforms showing which side they were on
And the young boys wear the middle name for guns to prey upon

You've seen the fires in the night, watched the devil as he smiles
You've heard a mother's mournful cry as she searches for her child
You've seen the lines of refugees, the faces of despair
And wondered at the wise men who never seem to care

Goodbye you lost children, God speed you on your way
Your little beds are empty now, your toys are put away
Your mother sings a lullaby as she gazes at the floor
Your father builds more weapons and marches out once more

Down the hall their voices ring, their feet are on the run
Phantoms on the winter sky, together they do come
Faded lips and eyes of blue they're carried in the wind
Their laughter filled the countryside but they'll not laugh again