Opinion

 Last week a true American hero passed away.  

Juanita Hill Baird, of Jacksboro, was the quintessential American.  Her decades long activism in Republican politics exemplified the best of what Benjamin Franklin could have ever hoped for.

When Franklin left Independence Hall on September 17, 1787, at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, a woman asked him, “What kind of government have you given us, Dr. Franklin?”  He replied, “A republic if you can keep it.”

Dear Readers:

My name is Ida Mae Whittaker. I represent your ancestors somewhere along the top of your family tree. Now, some of you are probably wondering where J.E. is this week. I told him that I felt some of you needed to hear what my generation had to say, and he allowed me to do this. Besides, don’t blame him for what is about to be said. Check your history books and see how some of us handled things. Not all, but the majority of us.

American Publisher George W. Childs once said, “Do not keep the alabaster box of your love sealed up from both your friends and from total strangers. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier.”

In this day and time we live in, I find this statement to be truer with each passing day. Now, with the hustle and bustle of the season, this saying is something that could certainly be put to use.

We all lead very busy lives.

Back in 1882, Clement Clarke Moore, wrote the famous poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Throughout the years, it has become a tradition in many families to read the poem every Christmas season along with watching It’s a Wonderful Life and Christmas Vacation.

Last year, I received another poem from a dear friend, referred to as a Different Christmas Poem whose author is unknown.  This poem described a dream that a gentleman had regarding a soldier standing guard outside his home on a snowy night on Christmas Eve.

There is one for sale in Illinois - if the price is right.  From Gov. Rod Blagojevich to Tony Resko to Rev. Jeremiah Wright to Father Michael Pflegor to William Ayers, the Chicago cesspool of politics is very deep.

One peculiar thing is that Chicagoan President-Elect Obama knows little about them, what they have been saying or what they have been doing.   He, who is said to be one of the most intelligent politicians ever, is completely oblivious to what has been happening in Chicago, or his church for that matter, for the past 20 years.  

Or, is he?

The first president of the United States George Washington once said, “Undertake not what you can not perform, but be careful to keep your promises.”

Imagine if you will, the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. Everyone cheers, exchanges a kiss or two, and sing verses of the legendary song, “Auld Lang Syne.”

Everything seems to be going in great harmony. And where there’s great harmony is also a lot of caution throwing to the wind.     

Early in the 18th century a group of farmers in North Carolina established a political identity for themselves that has become the ideology of today’s Red State voters.  They were the Regulators of Orange County.  They would be known today as values voters espousing the political orthodoxy of the rural and suburban middle class.  They fought the corrupt elite as well as the ruffians who were not being properly restrained by the government.  

This past weekend, we welcomed the arrival of my nephew, Jacob Isaiah McCullah.

He is doing great and my sister is on cloud nine headed for cloud number 100.

With the arrival of Jacob, we now have four arrivals in our family this year.

We’ve welcomed a niece, a soon-to-be brother-in-law, a Boston terrier, and a partridge in a pear tree. In fact, I am rather jealous of my little nephew because he’s got more hair on his head than I do.