CALF_News_December_2020_January_2021

13 CALF News • December 2020 | January 2021 • www.calfnews.net A s of this writing, Vice President Biden has been elected president of the United States. President Trump is “lawyered up,” arranging recounts and filing lawsuits. Discarded, uncounted mail-in ballots have been found in dumpsters, ditches and the trunks of vehicles heading for Canada. It is reported that thousands of deceased citizens have voted! It’s a royal mess. This is an opinion editorial and these thoughts are my own. I have a few that have been gnawing on me for a while, so here they are. I don’t think they will offend anyone, regardless of party. Language We are all painfully aware that the past five years have been a great stewpot of name-calling, misguided Tweets and child- ish behavior. Most of the mainstream news media doesn’t even hide the fact that they report biased, inaccurate news. Did anyone see the horrible first presidential debate? I was embar- rassed for the participants and went to bed early. I started my education in a one-room country school in Seward County, Neb. It was located across the section from my home. It was one of the greatest times of my life. An unfor- tunate furnace fire prompted the closure of my favorite-ever place. Subsequently, my parents elected to send me to Catholic school in the next town north for the duration of my school- ing. I am sure they thought they were doing the right thing. Thus began the great marathon of “Riding a School Bus.” When you are little, you sit in the front of the bus, behind the driver, who can hear all the conversations. No problems. My bus was big, I thought it approxi- mately a quarter-mile in length. I rode 1.5 hours each way. It was dark most morn- ings when I loaded, and approaching dark at night when I got off. This is a fact. By the time I was 10 years old, I had made my way to the middle of the bus, where I could hear the “big boys” convers- ing in the rear seats. They used language that I had never heard! I had no idea what these words meant, but I knew my mother had a bar of Ivory Soap at home that she would be glad to shove into my mouth if I ever dared to utter them. In the past few years, I have heard members of our U.S. Congress use these same words in public, sometimes leading chants, as to what we can do to our President. Think “Squad.” These are our elected officials; we are supposed to look up to them. They are using language reserved for childish boys on the back of very long school buses, and I will not get over it. It seems the “F” word has become an accepted part of our vocab- ulary. What if someone had used it or the “N” word, referring to our previous president? They might have been incarcerated or even crucified for political incorrectness. We need to do the impossible and back up. Let’s get some class back into our lives. Instantaneous Knowledge About our need to know everything about everyone, all the time, instantaneously – I refuse to participate. Tweets, Snap- chats and Facebook are devouring our time, as a population. Many of them are no more to be believed than gossip around the proverbial water cooler. Social media is downright danger- ous in the wrong hands. Few things rankle me worse than a stranger tapping me on the shoulder at the grocery store, telling me stuff I don’t know about my own family. They have read about various family members on Facebook and want to share their thoughts. Apparently, these folks have nothing better to do than snoop. This mindset seeps into everything in our lives. Many people think themselves experts on politics and government; if they can vote, they get to express their daily opinion on all issues. Once we elect our governance, we need to put our shoes on in the morning, go outside and do our jobs. Our elected offi- When can conservative thinkers come out of the bushes? We need to emerge for our own sakes and for the sake of our future. Photo taken south of Valentine, Neb. By Patti Wilson Contributing Editor Continued on page 20  Happiness Is a Choice WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?