A Democrat Responds to Robert A. Hall's "63 and Tires"

A DEMOCRAT RESPONDS TO ROBERT A. HALL'S "63 and Tired"

by Tom W. Dorr

[Hall’s original text is in standard type. My responses are in italics.]

"I'm 63 and I’m Tired"
by Robert A. Hall

I'm 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.

>>You’re not alone, Bob. Those of us in our 50s are worried about the same thing, no matter what our political viewpoint may be.

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

>>Do you know where all the money goes today, Bob? If not, I’ll tell you. Almost 85% goes directly to pay for national defense, homeland security, the war on terror, Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, food and children’s health care.

Here’s the official table for the 2008-2010 federal budget: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget,_2009

I don’t have to tell you that this budget was submitted by none other than George W. Bush during his last two years in office.

If you don’t want to “spread the wealth” on this stuff, what would you cut? Are you willing to give up your Social Security and Medicare benefits? It’s easy to be against something, but much harder to come up with solutions.

“But I paid for my Social Security benefits!,” you might say. Turns out that poor people pay a higher percentage of their income for Social Security and Medicare than middle-class and wealthy people, according to the Cato Institute, a conservative foundation in Washington. Also, wealthier individuals generally have higher life expectancies and thus may expect to receive larger benefits for a longer period than poorer taxpayers.

Here’s the link to the Cato Institute report:

http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-mt051705.html

I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

>>I don’t like real estate speculators and McMansion types either, Bob. But let’s get real. According to the Mortgage Industry Association and HUD, the most common causes of foreclosure are job loss, health crisis, and divorce.

According to a study by the University of Michigan, loans approved by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) actually had a LOWER rate of default than private industry loans to the same population. Yep, that’s right – LOWER. Here’s the link if you want to read more:

http://assets.wnec.edu/164/7_arti_Credit_W.pdf

They’re not alone. The same conclusion was also supported by research conducted by the following private industry analysts: Traiger & Hinckley LLP, Geosegment Systems Corporation, and The Schoenkin Group, Inc. Here’s that link if you want to read more:

http://www.traigerlaw.com/publications/traiger_hinckley_llp_cra_foreclosure_study_1-7-08.pdf

One other thing, Bob. Guess who voted for the original Community Reinvestment Act in 1977? More than 155 Republican members of Congress. Guess who submitted the update to the CRA in 1989? George H.W. Bush. Go figure!

Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .

>>I don’t like Hollywood celebrities either, Bob. But let’s remember that some big stars, such as Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, give us very patriotic movie fare. Recent examples: “Saving Private Ryan,” “Band of Brothers,” “The War in the Pacific,” “World Trade Center,” and “Flight 93” about the passengers who fought back on 9/11. You might want to watch some of those films. You’d be pleasantly surprised! (And, oh, by the way -- both Tom Hanks and Spielberg are registered Democrats.)

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.

>>Bob, did you know that one in four people in the world today are Muslim – about 1.57 billion in all, according to the CIA World Fact Book (2009). Do you really think all of those people are rioting rapists who want to kill us all?

Did you know, Bob, that the biggest Muslim populations aren’t even Arabs? Indonesia and India have the biggest Muslim populations in the world – and they aren’t even in the Middle East.

Come to think of it, Bob, did you know that the Bible (cf., Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers) also calls on people to kill their family members, stone people to death and wipe out entire ethnic groups? Did you know the Bible also condones slavery, genocide, killing infants and other gruesome activities?

I’m Christian myself and I know that most of us don’t believe in those things anymore. Do you? Could it be that most Muslims are not murdering wild-eyed terrorists?

What about the actual terrorists? The CIA estimates there are about 5,000 Al Qaeda members in the entire world right now, spread out across 40 different countries. The number of Taliban fighters today is estimated at 25,000 – mostly in western Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Even if you double these numbers, you end up with 60,000 people out of 1.57 billion worldwide. That means there is one terrorist, on average, for every 26,000 Muslims. Should we condemn the other 25,999 because of one nut job?

In comparison, one of out every 21,000 Americans committed murder in 2008, according to the FBI. Does that make us worse than Muslims, Bob? Here’s the link:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/index.html

The point is that can’t judge 1.5 billion people based on the actions of a few – if you want to be taken seriously. (Certainly you wouldn't judge all Marines by the actions of those who few who committed murder, rape or treason.)

I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

>>Of course race matters, Bob. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. The fact is that African-Americans are way more likely than white Americans to be unemployed, murdered, imprisoned, uneducated, poor, sick and without health care insurance. Here are the stats:

http://www.radford.edu/~junnever/bw.htm

If you think it’s all their fault, maybe you’d like to show these folks a better way. Or is it easier just to condemn an entire race of Americans based on your “feelings”?

By the way, Bob, racial quotas were outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1977. Most state, including mine, have laws against racial quotas – especially in the work place.

I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

>>Gee, Bob, you don’t have to vote for Obama or anyone else, for that matter. Isn’t democracy great! It just so happens that Barak Obama won the 2008 Presidential election by a margin of 8.5 million votes – including traditionally Republican states like Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina.

Freedom loving, Bob? Did you support the warrant-less wiretaps and searches conducted by the Bush Administration? Do you support the NSA’s recording of every phone call made in the U.S. today, started under the Regan administration? Talk about “all-knowing government.” Oh, boy!

I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

>>Bob, isn’t Fox News part of the “news media”? Or did I miss something?

As for Sen. Kerry, three entire books were written about his military record both before and after the 2004 election. If you want to read them, start with the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/Tour-Duty-CD-Kerry-Vietnam/dp/006058372X/ref=pd_sim_b_1

I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

>>I don’t like that either, Bob. So what do you propose?

I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.

>>Agreed. Thanks for that, Bob! If everyone else followed your example here, we’d be better off.

I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

>>So what do we do about it, Bob? For my two cents, I’d rather see a drug addict or alcoholic enter AA than roaming the streets at night. You don’t have to buy someone’s “excuse” in order to care about recovery.

I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.... Those are the citizens we need.

>>Sounds pretty good to me, Bob. Except for the part about Catholics. You might want to read up on the 30 Years’ War before claiming innocence for the Protestant wing of Christianity. Here’s a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War

I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

>>Jeepers, Bob! Did you know that Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded by terrorists, was a “liberal journalist”? (You could look it up, after all.) Did you know that 139 journalists died in combat situations since 2003? Here’s the link:

http://www.cpj.org/reports/2008/07/journalists-killed-in-iraq.php

One other thing, Bob. Al Qaeda didn’t run torture rooms in Iraq. That was Saddam Hussein. Even George W. Bush finally admitted that Al Qaeda wasn't active in Iraq before the 2002 invasion.

I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet.

>>Plenty of room for criticism on both sides of the fence, wouldn’t you say?

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

>>Agreed. No argument there.

Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

>>Hey, Bob. The official poverty level for a family of two people today is $14,570 per year. That’s the upper limit. Would you and your wife like to spend the rest of your lives on that amount, including all sources of income? Would you want your kids to?

I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

>>Yeah, Bob, so am I. But I’m also tired of old farts like you who do nothing but complain and spew lies under the guise of “patriotism” and “personal responsibility.” Why not show some real personal responsibility and check your facts next time? It’s easy to do! You can even get help for free at your local library.

Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.

>>Bob, you'd leave a better world for your granddaughter if you'd start checking your facts first: "Then you shall know the truth and the shall set you free." John 8:32