From the Editor: On his way home to California from Dnever: Notes on politics as I take the hardest ride of my last four years.

<<<< Still on the rode and out of the office.


I am sitting at a desk in a Comfort Inn just outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.   I wanted to get to Albuquerque in my first day's ride home.  Well,  I am 35 miles from that goal and having to spend an extra day,  dealing with bruised ribs from a spill (on my bike),  caught in the middle of a hail storm that suddenly appeared during the first leg of my return trip from Denver to Fresno, California.  In addition to a hail storm  (hail the size of marbles),   I had to deal with an 80 mile stretch of 50 mph  crosswinds   . . . . .   at times,  I am certain this estimate should be closer to 60 mph.  Most of the truck traffic stayed off the road,  and there was a tornado warning in and around Pueblo, Colorado.  Lighting strikes all around had me a little concerned,  as well.  You know how it is with lighting  . . . . .   a lightning strike a mile or two or three miles away,  can seem as if it was "in your own back yard."

Then there was the rain,  torrential but limited to the ride between Denver and Colorado Springs.

This eight hour ride turned into a 10 hour affair and included three hail storms,  the threat of lightning,  80 miles of some of the hardest winds in my memory, cold weather that demanded my heated gear,  tornado warnings, and, the sharpest learning curve of my last four seasons; and,  that is saying something for me after putting 41,000 miles on my vtx1800 in three seasons   . . . . .   going on my fourth.   There are many others,  men and women who seemingly live to ride.  I am not one them.  If you contrast loving to ride against living to ride,  you have framed my penchant for "the rode."

I ride more than most,  and,  at times,  am overcome with the need for the solitude  a long and lonesome ride provides,  to think about [especially] the two things that currently occupy my thoughts:  my Christian faith as expressed in something called "the ontological gospel,"  and politics.    The former has been a developing concern since I was 14  (and I am now 70),  and the latter is a vocational concern because of my brother,  21 years my senior,  a man who fought in and survived WW II, First Army,  Corps of Engineers, only to live and die an angry drunk who worked hard but had no help as he dealt with the guilt from which so many war survivors of his generation  (he was part of the Great Generation) could not escape.
 
What is happening to this nation,  under the cowardly supervision of those who are currently in charge,  and,  are no friends of this nations history,   is a disgrace to him and the millions who have fought, died, or have been wounded for a nation that has become the greatest nation in the history of mankind.  I write this,  knowing full well of the evils of "manifest destiny,"  the barbarism of the "land grab" that gave us most of the 48 states,  and our use of slave labor (blacks,  Irish, Chinese and others),  all features of the international angst of the day.

It is not what we were,  but what we have become that is the issue of the day.

The United States of America came out of an evil and barbaric world scene.  Our slaves were sold to us by black slave traders in Africa   . . . .   not white slave traders.  Our imperialist expansion was no less evil than the greed and imperialism that drove the growth of nations in the rest of the world  (the imperialism of  China, Russia, the French, Spain, England, the sheer barbarism of the African communities, the brutal sectarian imperialism of Islam,  and,  the tribal interests of both the American Indians and those in South American   . . . .   all waring nations).

What made us different from the rest,  what has given us the ability to lead ourselves and others out of the darkness of barbarism,  are the thoughtful principles given to us by our Founders.  The Bill of Rights,  the Constitution,  the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers,  all gave us the impedance to become a nation of states and the leader for peace and freedom in this world.

If it is true,  that the blind cannot lead the blind,  then I add the greatest influence of all,  that of our evolving faith in God.  His influence is everywhere in our documents and monuments,  none of which is to be found in other nations on this earth.    And,  while His grace was not ours,  in the beginning,  we are becoming more the leader for peace and freedom,  than ever before.

All nations,  three hundred years ago,  shared in our perceived evil.  But,  no nation, at that time, had our history as to a developing faith in God,  law and order,  or an evolving quest for freedom and liberty for all.  To put it in Obama's terminology,  "We were the ones the world was waiting for,"  and,  we continue to build upon our thoughtful successes.

The enemy within,  leaders in our national politic, today,  want only to stress the negatives as they work to tear down and enslave.  We must not allow that to happen,  for the sake of our divine destiny in this evil world and the sacrifice of millions who have gone on before.