Surely by now you have heard the recording of Barack Obama’s recent “speech” in which he makes some rather disparaging remarks about those of us who happen to live in “small town America”. If you haven’t, he more or less said that people who don’t live in a big city are bitter about the state of their country so they “cling” to guns and religion and blame their poor lot in life on illegal immigrants and other “people who aren’t like them”.

Well, Mr. Obama is right about one thing: Many small town Americans are indeed bitter about the state of their country, thanks mostly to the way liberal politicians and activist judges have changed it over the years from the nation founded by our forefathers into something quite different.

As for his assertion that we “cling” to guns and religion, well, he is obviously out of touch with the reality that most ordinary Americans must deal with every day. Like it or not, we live in an increasingly violent society, and the government has shown little ability to protect us and our property from those who would do us harm. Therefore it is incumbent on all law-abiding citizens, city-folk and small town Americans alike, to take whatever measures we feel are necessary in order to protect ourselves and the people and things we love.

And oh, by the way, as of today the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution still guarantees the right of us Americans to own and bear arms to help us provide that protection for ourselves. In case you haven’t noticed Mr. Obama, we are living in a time when home invasions, robberies, school shootings and other forms of general mayhem are in the news on a daily basis. And you refer to our need to “cling” to guns as if it’s a bad thing?

You also spoke about the way we “cling” to religion as if we pin all our hopes for our personal safety, security, and success in life on an unseen power. Apparently you and Ted Turner are on the same page since he once said that organized religion is only for “weak-minded people”.

The fact of the matter is, we small town Americans do indeed put our trust in a loving, all-powerful God, but we also take it upon ourselves to ensure that our lives, our families, and our property are protected from those who would take them away from us – hence our desire to “cling to guns”.

Mr. Obama, we love and worship our Creator not because of what he can do to protect us from harm (although he does plenty in that regard). Instead, we love and worship Him because of what He has promised to do for us when this life is over. Surely you don’t disagree with that since you consider yourself a Christian and attend church on a regular basis?

As for your remark about how we small town Americans dislike illegal aliens and blame our societal woes on them, suffice it to say that by and large we like ALL law-abiding immigrants who come into this country the right way and for the right reasons (of course by definition the law-abiding part pretty much omits all illegal aliens from that group). Enough said on that subject.

In short, we small town Americans aren’t the weak-minded, mean spirited, gun-loving rubes you seem to think we are Mr. Obama. As a group, we are better educated, higher paid, and less prone to commit gun crimes than our counterparts in the inner cities, so your comments tend to show both your arrogance and ignorance concerning those of us who happen to prefer living away from the hustle and bustle of a big city.

If you ever decide to take the time to venture out of your protected elitist world and visit some of us who live in the real world you just might be surprised at what you can learn about us “small town Americans”. And you might want to remember that we small town Americans will be voting in droves come November.

I was in Wal-Mart the other day when a group of young teenagers walked by, and I overheard one of them make the following statement: “I wish my parents would just die already and leave everything they have to me.” The sad part is, judging by the serious look on his face, I don’t think he was kidding.

In all of my days, I have NEVER been mad enough at my parents to say something like that, even in jest. It seems that many kids these days have no respect whatsoever for their parents and other people in positions of authority over them. Of course there are indeed bad parents in the world, but I have always been amazed at the capacity of abused and neglected children to love their parents even when they received little love from them in return.

I could be wrong, but I believe the primary reason for the growing animosity some kids have towards their elders is the way government has interfered in our family lives and in the schools. When I was growing up, if a kid said or did something out of line while in class, the teacher could (and usually would) get out the paddle and give him/her something to think about. That option has all but disappeared in our public schools, and these days kids know they can do or say pretty much anything they want without receiving any real punishment.

And as if that isn’t bad enough, the situation is even worse at home. Most parents are now afraid to discipline their kids due to the very real threat of child abuse charges being levied by over-zealous Social Services offices all across the nation. Spanking is no longer an acceptable punishment, leaving non-effective actions such as “timeouts” and “grounding” as the only options available to frustrated parents.

I can say with absolute certainty that no parent has ever loved her child more than my mom loved hers, and I can recall many a time when she would send us kids out to the woods to cut our own “switch”. And believe me, she used it, and used it quite well. If she “whipped” us today, she would undoubtedly go to jail and/or lose custody of her kids, and that would be a true shame because no one on the planet could have ever loved us and cared for us as much as mom.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly NOT advocating real child abuse, either by teachers and principals or by parents. But I AM advocating the judicious use of corporal punishment whenever and wherever it is needed in order to instill and maintain discipline in a child. I grew up getting “whippings” when I deserved them, and I thank the good Lord that I grew up in a day and time when they were allowed. If I hadn’t, I hate to think what kind of life I might be living today.

Mom, thanks for all of the love and kindness you gave to me and my brothers and sister when we were growing up. And thanks most of all for loving us enough to “wear us out” when we needed it.

Pierre Omidyar launched Ebay on September 4, 1995 as a “place” where ordinary folks like you and me could sell our merchandise on a level playing field with other sellers of all types and sizes. Over the years literally millions of small businesses have sprung up selling their wares on Ebay – many of them exclusively on Ebay.
 
But then the inevitable happened: Ebay became a public corporation, and all of a sudden the friendly “community” that once made everyone feel at home became a restrictive place with lots of one way streets and confusing rules, not to mention an ever-increasing hunger for more and more revenue.
 
Over time, the powers-that-be at Ebay weeded out many of the less profitable (for Ebay) small mom-and-pop sellers, making it clear that they had little room for those who earned little cash for the shareholders. That much was to be expected since we see similar changes any time a company goes public. But lately something quite strange has taken hold at the offices of the online auction giant: Now they’re taking the inexplicable step of driving off their largest sellers too.
 
Guised as an attempt to make Ebay more “friendly” to buyers, the company has raised the fees sellers must pay for every completed transaction and stripped them of the ability to leave feedback for sellers, the longtime cornerstone of the community’s foundation of trust between buyer and seller. Somehow I doubt if this strategy will work.
 
As a former “Ebay seller” and occasional buyer, I feel something of an emotional attachment to the company. That’s why it’s so sad to have to sit back and watch it lose its luster and become a mere shell of its former self. But such is progress I suppose. Like “Main Street America”, the Ebay community is changing into something that bears little resemblance to the one I “grew up in”.