Off the Editor’s Desk – 1-30-2013

Sunday afternoon the movie “The Patriot” was being shown on TV. I have watched that movie a number of times and only watched the first couple of scenes Sunday. It stars Mel Gibson as Benjamin Martin.

 One of the scenes that I really like, and it hits home to this day, is shortly after the movie opens and the South Carolina Legislative is debating going into the Revolutionary War against England.

One of the members, a Mr. Howard, stands and addresses the assembled body stating: “We are citizens of an American nation! And our rights are being threatened by a tyrant three thousand miles away!”

Our hero, Ben Martin, replies: “Would you tell me please, Mr. Howard, why should I trade one tyrant three thousands miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away? An elected legislature can trample a man’s rights as easily as a king can.”

On another note: Paula and I will be going on vacation for most of February. We will be traveling to Arkansas to visit number three son and family first, and then on to Mesa, Arizona to spend a couple of days with my sister and her husband and then a week at Sedona. After that I want to go over the new bridge above Hoover Dam. The last time we were there, it was not completed and you still had to drive over the dam to get from Arizona to Nevada, the bridge should cut time off the trip. The bridge is some 900 feet above the Colorado River just downstream from the dam.

I might just pass by Las Vegas and go right to the Mojave Desert and do like an ostrich does – stick my head into the sand and hope by the time I pull it out, the people in Washington will see the light and fix the government. Or maybe I will see the light, and change. Fat chance of either of those happening.

Thanks for reading.   — Carlton