Originally published in 1916.  Now, almost 100 years later, it's still true but is still not understood, or cared about, by the people that need to the  most!  
  

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
• You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
• And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

 William John Henry Boetcker (1873–1962)

This post will slowly go away so I've added it to the part of the blog that doesn't change unless I change it!

If you love our country you should check out this 2009 video!

Old - but still good!

Quitman welcomed home a fallen son today

Army Sgt. Joshua D. Powell

Died June 4, 2011

Laghman province, Afghanistan

Some more pictures

This was in my blog comments for moderation today

 Actually it had been flagged as spam.  It was one of the posts about the zip line.  So I Googled the translation (Chinese to English) and it says "Really good. I might download. Thank you".  So I allowed the comment to post.  And since I was posting this I decided to add the below stats.  These are blog views for this month only.  The multiple counts are probably the same person returning I would think - particularly the Germany and Russia views. .

Fourth of July fireworks at Cedar Creek Lake

We went with Mary, sig other Chris, and a couple friends to see the fireworks show at Cedar Creek Lake last evening. After some Mexican food, we took the long route to the Pinnacle Golf and Boat Club - that also has some nice homes. When we arrived, an airshow was in progress. We thought it was part of the golf club entertainment but I later found out that it was a show called "Thunder Over Cedar Creek Lake Airshow" sponsored by the Cedar Creek Lake Veterans Foundation.. It had started about and hour and a half before we got there and twenty airplanes were in the show. We saw a couple A-10 Thunderbolts (Warthogs)and a C-130 Hercules cargo plane. Both did numerous very low flyovers but the star of the show was an F-16 that came over many times and sometimes went straight up until he was out of sight or lost in the clouds. It was an impressive show and, if you were wondering, the sound lets you know why the show has the word "thunder" in it's name - really loud! On the lake, many boats had gathered for the airshow and the fireworks and there was really an air of a big event taking place - lots of fire trucks and other "official" groups around like the Viper East F16 Demonstration Team. Glynda had talked me into taking the camera and, although the equipment wasn't up to the event, I took quite a few pictures. Here are a few of them. And we were back home in bed by midnight!

A million Texas "likes" on Facebook? Almost!

Have you seen this Facebook page? 26 of my friends have. That leaves about 80 of you that haven't - and it's closing in on the million now. The screen print shows 930,000 - 70, 000 to go. The average daily over the last few weeks has been about 755. That means we'll hit the million mark the first week of September if the rate stays the same.

Something to really think about!

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be
fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or
one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our
children’s children what it was once like in the United States when
men were free.

—Ronald Reagan

(The post title is a link to the first chapter of the book "We Still Hold These Truths" by Matthew Spalding.)