I love America! I love MY country! I love what our Constitution stands for and I love it for the dream that our founding fathers imagined for us. I would give my life for my country!

Indeed, I’d give my life for the country that I grew up in and the country that I served while on active duty in the United States Navy from 1979 to 1990. THAT is the country I love! That America~ is the country I pledged to support & defend against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic! My pledges (two pledges taken during my 11 years in the U.S. Navy ) not only bound me with my fellow sailors, soldiers and American citizens but it also bound me to specifically support the Commander(s) in Chief of the United States Armed Forces, no matter what my political preferences were at the time. I Took An Oath! Under God! Twice!

I can attest that during my first year on active duty serving under then President Jimmy Carter, the military was pitiful & morale was at an all-time low. Iran had held 52 American hostages captive after sacking the American Embassy in Tehran 14 months earlier at the time & President Carter’s failure to secure their release through diplomatic means eventually led to the fatal “Operation Eagle Claw” mission that resulted in the deaths of 8 members of the Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (popularly known as the Delta Force) & Naval Special Warfare Development Group (more popularly known as Seal Team Six) when their helicopter crashed on the night of April 24, 1980. I can tell you first hand that the entire U.S. Navy & our sister services mourned this horrendous tragedy!

Under President Ronald Reagan, we were proud, united and eager to serve! During THE GULF OF SIDRA INCIDENT on Aug. 19, 1981 two U.S. Navy F-14 jets shot down two Soviet-built Libyan SU-22’s about 60 miles from the Libyan coast after being fired on by one of the Libyan aircraft. While stationed overseas, I can tell you that we all went wild when we heard that! Tee-shirts, ball caps, pins etc., were printed up so fast and every Sailor or Marine I ran into on base (including me) had one on that read “USA=1 Libya=0”. What a kick!

Bush 41 carried Reagan’s legacy into the 1990’s but by then, I was a military wife & I observed much of this through my husband’s career which finally ended with his retirement (after serving 21 years) at the end of the Clinton Administration in 1999.

My father, uncles & father-in law all served in World War II. My grandfather(s) served in World War I. I have direct grandfathers, great grandfathers & direct ancestors that served in the American Civil War, the War of 1812  & the American Revolutionary War.  I have served and my husband has served in the U. S. Navy. Hey, I’m a Jersey Girl and I was born in the middle of the “baby boom”!

Over the years, I have watched our country’s military decline. I barely recognize this country anymore and am terribly afraid of where this country is going. Many people I talk to about this are afraid as well. I spit on the leadership (if you can call it that) and the politicians who are currently running this country! And I don’t care what color they are or what race they are or what nationality they are or what religion they are. They are ALL to blame!

Sadly, we have a president and his staff continually peddling bullshit to the American people. Our unemployment numbers are NOT approximately 5% because the underemployment rate is approximately 15% as of February 2016. I’m no financial genius but I’d say if we added those two figures together we’re at about 20% unemployment rate in the U.S. And since when do we include part-time employment in the weekly jobs report? Oh, I forgot~ it’s the hope & change Obama’s Administration & OUR White House has been peddling since 2008! And tell me, please~ what is this so-called “recovery” the White House is still babbling about? What recovery? I don’t see it. Do you? Indeed, once the Affordable Care Act (aka) Obamacare went into effect it’s costing hard-working American families thousands of dollars more every year all the while government employees, Congress, the Senate and ALL their staff(s) get the “Cadillac” plans that many of us once had & paid to have. (Take it from someone who actually pays for health care through employment & has seen her premiums go up over $3000 a year as well as co-pays & out of pocket costs since Obamacare took effect in 2009!)

Regrettably, most insurance companies no longer carry those plans because of Obamacare & due to the high federal taxes being imposed on it! Why can’t insurance companies compete across state lines anyway? Answer: Because Americans were suckered into voting for politicians promising to serve them in Washington but are now being ignored in favor of  big-money donors & lobbyists giving them perks & promising  to get them reelected! Therefore~ the American voter who elected them in the first place is then brushed aside because we’re not needed anymore! Did you know that insurance companies have pulled coverage out of so many states that many states are left with just one? How’s that for a monopoly? I thought monopolies were illegal in this country? Nonetheless, Obama- the Hope & Change Monarch of America- has decreed it is not! (What a creep!) And, Ditto~ for those slimy politicians WE voted for! 

We Americans have been shrouded in darkness by our government. We have been lied to and violated. We have been surreptitiously and methodically stripped of our rights as Americans by the politicians with whom we have voted for and placed our trust in for years! Our politicians are “in” the top 1% of the American “elite” who get rich while the rest of us get poorer. We, the working class (working poor in most cases) are left to eke out an honest living by working hard, paying our bills AND paying federal, state & local taxes in order to provide for our families every single day. It never stops! Have you ever heard the saying; “Death & Taxes”? I have~ and I know that in our country, even our heirs must pay taxes even after our deaths! But there again, it’s double jeopardy because the deceased has already paid taxes on the very money or property that their heir(s) have inherited. It’s mindboggling!

How about voting? Do you believe that as an American, voting should be sacrosanct? Isn’t it supposed to be one vote for each LEGAL and LIVING American citizen? I always believed that. Additionally many people have voted several times in several states! Did you know that thousands of dead people, convicted felons as well as dogs & cats actually voted for Obama in the last two election cycles? Amazing!!! How did they do this? It is “Houdiniesque” (my word). Meanwhile, there are several states that want to protect our right to vote under the Constitution by requiring that each voter (ONE vote per person) provide a photo ID and have passed bills into law in their respective state legislatures that require this. Indeed, don’t we have to show an ID to someone almost every single day? Ever try to rent a hotel room or a car without one? How about buying a beer a pack of cigarettes; using a credit card and being asked for a photo ID or cashing a check ANYWHERE without an accompanying photo ID? Ah, what to say about those airlines, huh? Try getting on a plane going anywhere without showing several IDs along with the added (dis)pleasure of a possible cavity search! Yikes!

Regardless, the federal government is currently in the process of spending taxpayer dollars in an effort to sue those states. Now I ask you; what is wrong with that picture? And why are WE AMERICANS allowing the FEDS to spend taxpayer dollars to do so? I believe it’s because they (the feds) figure that very few Americans (accept the state being sued) are actually paying attention. So what happens when we, Americans and the states try to correct this or any imbalance or uphold the constitutional rights promised to us in our constitution? We are sued and called racists. This, my fellow Americans is BULLSHIT!!!

A final thought. Now~ we are in an election year but I’ll reserve my opinions on the candidates of both parties until after the primary is held in my state of New Jersey on Tuesday June 7, 2016. Heaven help us all after it’s all over. Until then, I remain hopeful that America~ the country & land I love, will once again become the country I had always been proud of & that I once unswervingly served. 

For now, I can only remember~ My America!