The McDowell Memo

Well it is that time of year again when we make up our Christmas wish list for friends and foes: For Wal*Mart and Sams Club a video teaching tool that white is also a race For K Mart at least enough sales to last to Easter For Tom Selleck a cream that makes you actually age otherwise he will be 90 playing the male leads For the NRA an injection of new diverse members so that they can be more appreciated by the rest of us. For UHS a better billing system For Packer a better billing system For NYSEG  a better billing system For Frontier a better billling system and a real phone system If you notice a similarity , it's because our dog Bear who is almost blind and not the smartest thing on the planet  could do the bills better than anyone at all four of these companies. For my Wife Jody two real important gifts , first a bed that automatically adjusts for arm flings laying at 45 degrees and feet that kick you in the back and onto the floor. It would take all those things you

How many of us have spent this summer hurrying from place to place , event to event, and felt wore out by the time it's Tuesday each week. I know I suffer from this type of summer schedule.So this morning I sat down to right the "Memo" and thought what is it that I liked the best about summer time in my past. Well first there was swimming in the lake and just laying by the pool. Then there was spending time on a simple picnic with the kids. There was reading a book at Stewart Park while the kids played. And lastly was going to an outdoor concert from a local band . What of those had I done absolutely none. Why that darn schedule. I realized summer is God's time for us to unwind and enjoy what he has given us. Time to stop and smell the roses, time to watch that bird in the backyard, time to find out what you really think about things. So my plan for the rest of the summer is to everyday take 2 hours and do something relaxing, I am going to read a book or two, go swimm

I wanted to bring this quick 5 minute essay on how our rights and opinions have been changed in the last decades to eliminate personal, states, and business rights. What the Judge does is simply ask the questions that almost all of us have asked but in one flow of thought. The clarity that this brings to what we have allowed to occur in this country is shocking. Now I am not a Libertarian or a Tea Party supporter, I have been called a moderate Republican  and even a liberal by some, But I believe in individual rights and the sanctitude of the Constitution. If we want to change or alter it we have to do this following the methods developed for that. It is not appropriate to just end run the constitution. That is what lawyers want to do, but not what we the people want. We want our government to listen and respond to us. I hope each of you sees that the issue is not with Republicans or Democrats individually but with bureaucrats and a government that is a monstrous entity of it's o

A great many of the people now making decisions are from the " Millennial"generation , those born after 2000 . These folks and those born from 1990 on have no real memory of 9/11 and the hit America took. So as they move into leadership positions, they like we did after WWII and Pearl Harbor lack that personal feeling of loss from the sneak attack of 9/11. Many of the reasons 9/11 occurred was because of our feeling of internationalism, we felt the whole world was one body and that we had to think of other countries every time we did something. I think George H.W. Bush strengthened this by building a world wide cooperative war effort in Kuwait. Many then felt we needed the UN or worlds permission to act to defend American interests around the world. This negatively impacted our business power and our power to influence world cultural views. So as we were attacked many in our government felt that we needed to build a coalition. Thankfully George W. Bush acted immediately and m

Ever wonder why things today are not like they were when we were kids? There are no more hills to slide our sleds down , somebody owns them and they have signs no sledding allowed. No more ponds that you could just go jump in , we didn't know who owned it , it was wet and that is all we cared about. Why do people today have to always limit kids , I would wander my town all the why getting to meet new folks and having simple fun wherever I could find it. I could ride my bike around and around on the tracks at the school and parks, imagining a great trip somewhere. I learned to entertain myself and learned to dream . I think being able to dream is the essence of being a kid. It is where we start our plans for our life. But today kids are stuck in houses afraid to come out and play, they have to be watched by us "Nervous Nelly" adults . We stop them from doing things for fear they will get hurt , forgetting we did much worse when we were their age. They are kept in school an

Back in class for the Spring semester and thinking about what we are teaching our young folks. When I was a kid the teaching always was about learning to learn and memorizing the facts as we knew them at that time. Today it is about learning to question all facts and what technology does to help you find the "truth". The problem I have is someone designed the technology and inputted what was the "truth". We don't know if they had an agenda or if they were even drunk when they did it. But if Google says it's so it's so. Today we are teaching that Jefferson was a racist slave owner, but not that he was a true renaissance man or that his purchase of land made the America we know today. We teach all about the frailties of our leaders and do not stress the strong points. Education has turned to the negative view point instead of being a positive attitude about most things. We stress English in all studies and make sure we can write well , but we don't str