Let’s Take a Break and Count Some Blessings

As we watched the completely dishonest, hate-driven attempts by Democrats, other progressives and statists to derail Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to America’s Supreme Court, it began to be too much.

As we further witnessed the unraveling of conspiracies involving those same Democrats, etc., plus the corruption at the top levels of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice, assisted by their allies in the lamestream media, it pushed us to the wall.

It’s time to pull out the stops, cast off the restraints and say what we really know and feel in order to clarify the truth about all these things, to hold these ill-intentioned people to account and try to right the wrongs.

But just then an inspiring moment.  We saw a replay of the 1991 examination of then-judge Clarence Thomas by Senator Orrin Hatch.  We stepped back and took a breath.

It was an extremely moving scene of two real men – of very decent character, maturity, supreme intelligence, and moral clarity – that turned around the travesty those same people were trying to make of that nomination.

It was the perfect counterpoint to a replay of the vile, ultimate sin we saw earlier.  The one that kicked off the efforts of Democrats, progressives and statists to hijack the Supreme Court and destroy our country: Ted Kennedy’s 1987 “Robert Bork’s America” speech.  Driven by hate, dishonesty and viciousness, Kennedy lied copiously and maliciously slandered Judge Bork in unprecedented ways the Democrats would continue to employ right up to today.

Meditating briefly on the Hatch/Thomas exchange refocused our view of the world.  The triumph over evil that it produced after Chappaquiddick Ted’s mega-obscenity said there’s hope that good will triumph over evil.

So we decided to offer you a short list of joys in life, of progress, of goodness, of reasons to be hopeful, albeit not complacent.

We begin, of course, with family.  We are so blessed in this regard, and we hope you are too.

How about the good people of our communities?  When Ron’s daughter Karyn needed medical help at an event Saturday, a number of people stepped up right away, including particularly Dr. Robin Titus and nurse Eileen Rice.  Plus the Muzzys, the Beers and others.  We revere all of them always, but bless them especially for that help.  Karyn is now completely well.

Some technological things seem small and perhaps unimportant, but they improve everyone’s lives greatly.  Both of us got new vehicles in the last two years and we often rent cars when we travel.  Almost all of them now include back-up cameras, electronic navigation support and similar features that greatly improve safety, convenience and human well-being.

Although the monopoly public school system is still unduly favored by public policy, many students now benefit from on-line home-schooling, charter schools and other innovations that actually improve education for our children, instead of serving special-interest provider  groups.

Even in the health care and insurance blob that threatens to lay waste to our economy and deny an equitable future to Nevada’s children and grandchildren we find some hope.  Without the surgical advances and medical devices of recent decades, Ron now would probably be riding a wheel chair or on crutches for the rest of his life.  And Vicki Smack would face a grim future without her medical alert dog Oreo.

It’s almost a cliché to praise communication and data technologies, but that doesn’t make them any less a blessing.  People who don’t write columns, etc. may not know how much easier it is now to find information immediately that previously required extensive research or that simply could not be accessed.  Our daily work and our writing have been greatly improved by the Internet.

And those who regularly travel can keep in immediate touch with their families, offices and colleagues and make adjustments on the run.  As illustrated by the hurricane and flooding in the Carolinas, these means also save lives and property.

Oh, and a Constitution that resists many assaults.

All this is not to say the evils that pushed us to the wall before we saw that ray of hope are any less threatening than they seemed.  But reflecting on these things renews our hope and strength.