A painted wagon with a callistoga top
Was parked there by the river side
The family was cooking at this stop
Out in the open and nothing to hide

There beside the stream among the trees
The children played some hide and seek
A baby's cry was carried on the breeze
And the dad was fishing in the creek

Twas right around noon when first I saw
That painted wagon, the girl with black hair
I heard that they were running from the law
But I didn't see the sheriff any where

There on the river bank the family settled in
Dad caught some fish and brought them back
The woman got a frying pan to put them in
After eating lunch they all pitched in to pack

Their meager belongings into the wagon went
They stopped long enough their family to feed
And from a distance I saw that they had spent
The several hours to satisfy a single need

Where they might have gone I will never know
The family in the painted wagon that I saw
Next to the river when I was young and so
It brings back memories of Bryant Arkansas

When it is hot I want to walk in the shade on the dark side
On the dark side, in the shadows of life we can be cool

The dark side of our selves can be out in the open and not seen
Because within our selves we can break the golden rule

And only we will know that the horror that we think about
Can remain within us deep inside while we can play the fool

But when others delve into our inner being and then expose
our darkest feelings that we try to hide just like a ghoul

They discover there within us the frightening and the scary
Hidden deep dark secrets of our lives that haunt our soul

The hidden secrets that we alone are sure of what they are
Until we trust another deeply, and allow the secrets to unfold

Sometimes we try our hardest not let our darkest side prevail
Other times we are willing to place our souls up for sale

And when another finds our darkest and our naughty side
There will be nothing left of our modesty or pride

No nothing left to secrecy out in the open our self resides
'cause self is more than surface and more than what's inside

It's the combination of all the things we are and even more
It is how our inner darkest side and surface self collide

And which of those pieces of our souls and minds prevail
In the totality of our being from our outer or inner side

Darkness fills the souls of evil men who prey upon the weak
And put asunder those good of us who's darkness we can hide

END

I have the opportunity to talk with and e-mail with a good number of people. I think most people are just like water, they take the path of least resistance.

Most of the people I know spend too much time with their T.V. and not enough time reading. Only 9% of the adult population in the U.S. reads the newspaper.

Most people trust their politicians, and shouldn't.

Most people are too lazy to help their community by volunteering.

Most people don't know their neighbors names if they live more than three doors away from them.

Most people think it is our diversity that makes us strong. They are absolutely wrong. It is the commonality of the diverse that makes us strong.

Some people think they can borrow themselves into prosperity. That concept is totally foolish.

Some people think that by raising taxes we can create a better world for poor people. That concept is flawed, because the more you give to the poor the more dependent people you have.

To create a better world for the poor, the best thing is to force them to become educated in such a manner as to make useful citizens of them.

An applicant who comes to an employer unprepared will not get the job.
So, I say why not prepare people for the real world. Government give away programs that do not educate or train people for the working world are as useless as tits on a bore hog.

And last but not least with each program there a whole bunch of unintended consequences.

I was nine years old on the 6th of June 1944. In Cedar Rapids Iowa where I was born, I sold the Cedar Rapids Gazette on the corner across from the court house. I remember holding the paper up in my left hand and hollering, "Get your paper here; Yanks storm beaches in Normandy" I sold out in twenty minutes. Usually it took about an hour and a half to sell 100 newspapers. May 7th 1945, Germany surrendered. In just this one battle alone, which lasted 3 days, we lost almost 10,000 U.S. Soldiers, Marines and Airmen. If we had not stayed the course after the invasion and brought our troops home we would have handed Germany over to the Russians or back into the hands of the Nazis. There were Nazi sympathizers still killing Americans for 8 years following WWII. If we pull our troops out of Iraq, Iraq will be a dictatorship again in a matter of months. The Iraqi people have had three decades of tyrannical rule and the Suni's, backed by support from Iran and Al Queda are doing their best to put Iraq back in the hands of a dictator. The last thing that the militant arm of the Islamic fundamentalists want is to see a democracy in the middle east. They know that freedom and liberty that succeeds in one area of the middle east will bring more people to want it. If we get out now, then we will have lost 2000 of our finest, bravest and have gained nothing. Every day in Iraq the Iraqi army and police, who are being trained by our troops, are carrying more responsibility and will someday be able to sustain the Democracy. Give liberty a chance. It will all be worth it in the long run.

In the mirror we see the false impression
Of self and not the inner based reflection
For mirrors do not reach into the soul
Where our true self hides for its protection

From the harshness of realities we often face
And from our self abuse when from selection
We error in our judgment and then regret
What others have to say of us by inflection

But, in the mirror of our soul when we see
The real self that brings us to our knowing
Of that steel strong self that seeds the future
That grows the fruits of knowledge we are sowing

Introspection of our own doing that will save us
From defeat by those who may wish to do us harm
And when the threat comes from someone we may love
It fails to make the soul aware, it sets off no alarm