Reader wishes for a country now long gone

Dear editor:

Among my souvenirs of life, is an old green-handled screwdriver that use to ride in my first car, a 1957 Chevy, and whenever I see it, it always takes me back over 40 years to a simpler and better time in my life, and in the life of what used to be this country.

At age 64, I've been blessed to have lived in an America I no longer see today. It was, in fact, an America FULL of '57 Chevys, Roy Rogers, Nehi Orange and Wolfman Jack. Where I was once proud to be an American, today I'm livid and offended over what it has become, but worse than that, how casually so many just seem to accept and endorse it.

As a young Marine of 19, I was fighting communists in Vietnam, never suspecting that I'd have to do it again in my 60s, right here in my own country. Even as kids, we were much closer in tune with what being Americans are than the kids are today. The old war movies we watched and toy soldiers we played with are despised today by the spineless left, who would rather see our grandkids taught the acceptance of melting pots, socialism and homosexuality, as the norm.

But even in 1958, at the age of 10, whether we were outside with cowboy cap pistols or playing in the dirt with toy tanks, we all knew it was always best to be on the side where the good guys won. The Lone Ranger and Tonto were capturing the outlaws on television, the real life outlaws were going to Alcatraz, and the courts weren't coddling the criminal element. As kids, we were taught that lying and stealing was wrong. Today we vote for it.

Our fathers and uncles, who fought in World War II, made us proud to be who we were. Our flag and all it stood for,was the very symbol of freedom that was vanishing even then in other parts of the world. Today, our flag is burned everywhere and even the current President had to be pressured into finally wearing a lapel pin. There was a prophetic statement they made in school back then, though. When our teachers told us that America was the land of opportunity where anybody could be president, that certainly turned out to be sadly true.

When I was old enough to drive, my old green screwdriver rode in the trunk of a real steel American car. If you saw an import, it was usually an old VW, owned by some teacher or hippie. In 1969, 38 cents per gallon bought you Richfield Boron gasoline of 106 octane. Today we shell out nearly $4 for not quite 91. The liberals call this "progress."

We saw the films of the Hitler Youth singing praise songs to "der Fuhreto" and were shocked. When it happens here today for Obama, half of today's America is OK with it. Doug Traubel's letter to this paper last week was refreshing because it showed that indoctrination hasn't affected everybody yet.

"COMPROMISE" is finishing off this country, because that concept has extended into too many areas where it doesn't belong. Because quality wasn't compromised, my old '56 Olds is still running today. Our Drill Instructors in San Diego didn't "compromise," either. No bars were lowered for anybody. You survived and made the cut, or you didn't. I never really saw my first "compromise" until I got to Vietnam and we started being issued M-16's, where "compromise" started costing lives. Today it is costing us the country.

I remember how proud I was to begin every school day citing the Pledge of Allegience. At every re-enlistment ceremony, I still got that lump in my throat as a dedicated young warrior, keeping America strong and keeping the REDS out of here. Today, they're practically running Washington. Millions of burned-out, pot-smoking "yuppie wannabe's" are out here now trying to dance with the head socialist, thinking they're going to "teach the world to sing."

I guess it's gonna be up to the kids and the grandkids to pick up the tab for OUR idiocy. If the average person today lives to be 78, than I truly find it a comfort to be 64 "with 12 to go." I'd hate to be 12 today with "64 to go and this IS going to be a left-wing land from now on. As soon as Obama gets even MORE illegals amnestied, there'll never be enough balance in the voting again. By then, there'll be a dictator. Those of you on the left who are still here, will rue the day you stopped thinking for yourselves and surrendered your will to an "ism." But by then it'll be too late.

Obama's apologies are of blatant treason. If we owe anybody an apology, it should be to too our founding fathers, and to our kids, who we have failed through our stupidity,

We did our best for the first 212 hundred years. Then we started getting "fashionable" and "correct'. I'm proud of MY older relatives for not being afraid to "offend" the Nazis or the Imperial Japanese. God only knows where we'd be now.

I'm still blessed though... grew up in AMERICA with my Roy Rogers cap pistols, I still drive real cars today, and finished my military career under our last real commander-in-chief.

Good night "Uncle Ronnie", wherever you are. And I think I'll have it arranged for that old screwdriver to be cremated with me when the time comes, so IT doesn't have to be here anymore, either!

-- Mike Bradbury