TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart As an original baby boomer, patriotism was all around me. My father had returned from a ship in the Pacific in 1945. He had survived the war to prevent the spread of fascism. I was born in Lewiston, Idaho, in 1946. With jobs now plentiful in Los Angeles and other major cities, my maternal grandparents, me, my mother, father, my little brother, and one of my uncles moved to the City of Angels in 1952. In the fall, I was sent to St. Mark’s Elementary School to attend 1 st grade. Every morning our teacher, a nun, had us face the American flag standing in the corner and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Those words, and their meaning, will live inside my head for the rest of my life. However, in 2025, they mean nothing to the orange buffoon defiling our White House. Today is the first day of 2026: a new beginning which offers hope for the return of democracy, and freedom to all people living inside the United States of America, regardless of race, sex, religious pre...

The last words of our nation’s National Anthem are, “O-er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” One word no longer applies. In the 21 st century, only one percent of all 340 million people experience the American dream, and the core reason our country was the most respected country in the world. That word is “freedom.” I am 78 years old, and struggle to keep our home, eat fresh and healthy food, and pay our utility and water bills every month. I am a slave to a government which ignores me, my wife, and nearly 80 million other citizens. We are not ‘free,’ we are survivors of the corrupt leadership in Washington. We are expected to show our appreciation for a 2.5 percent annual raise when Greedflation has increased by as much as 60 percent on necessities. If “the People’s President,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had not displayed his deep concern for all of our nation’s people and created the plan I and my wife paid into for more than 40 years each, Social Security, my wife an...