Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

This may sound really dumb but for the sake of making a point I will ask the question, which if some people are WOKE does that mean the rest are asleep or just brain dead? We hear of people making a big thing about the WOKE folk and every time we hear that comment it seems someone is putting their foot in their mouth.

  Just like the comment about “Time to get the country back on track and working for the good of the people and stopping the liberals”. Well last time I checked they were part of the population as well as the conservatives and should be allowed as much voice and choice as the other side of the street. So let us stop figuring out ways to make one party have more power than the other based on how we can redrawn a map to make sure voting allows an advantage for R over B.

  Fair and equal really should not depend on anything other than you are a citizen of the nation offering the treatment. It is hard to imagine that any emotion affects any particular group differently than it does another, whether that is winning the lottery or suffering the loss of a loved one. We may show emotion differently but it has an affect on all of us. If we are cut, do we not bleed? Blood types do not come with markers for all our differences, or at least I am not aware that they do. 

  What makes us so determined to find fault with one another? Most of that is passed to us by proceeding generations. It is not an inherited condition. Go into a daycare that has a diverse population and you will see the children playing and getting along just fine, especially the younger ones. When they get a little older and can begin to pick up on the biases of the parents then there begin to be problems because children learn from their parents. Do children overcome these issues, they can and oftentimes may if they have enough positive contact and do not see what the parents claim to have seen.

  Each of us deserves to meet for the first time with a clean slate. As that relationship evolves that slate should have at least 2 columns so that the positive as well as the negative are kept track of. Yes the fact is that most of us will keep track of the negative and overlook the positive. The one thing we should remember about this is that the other person is also running a tally on us and we don’t want negative comments either, or at least most of us don’t.

  This goes back to do unto others. Simple concept and a viable concept to live by and yet we look around and we see so much anger, so many people in horrible moods, and wonder why. Is there an easy answer to this problem? Very possibly there is, and that is that fair and equal treatment is not what some are willing to give and other will probably never get as long as we continue to believe that the color of our skin, our religion, our ethnic background, or any one of a hundred other reasons makes us better than our neighbor, it doesn’t, get over it.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

  We are hearing that the 14th Amendment para 3 does not apply to Trump because it has the word support in it and his oath did not contain the phrase SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTION. Isn’t that special, that if a specific word is not included it does not apply to ___.  How many court cases are going to be relooked because a contract did not use the same word the lawyer did in the courtroom. Maybe the time has come to make the piper pay instead of getting away with figuring a way out.

  His friends in the former Soviet Union have been looking for a way to take us down since the Second World War. If we are going to play games with the words we use to protect ourselves from the less honorable of our society we are on the way to the cesspool of despair known as communism or some form of government that provides no freedom for the people living under its rule. 

  The privatization of schools and post offices and everything else that has been overseen by governmental departments means less control of everything because there is less government participation. That is good for the people that want less government involvement in things. It allows more free will of management to set wages, limit benefits, hire and fire without possible repercussions. It allows censorship to be a local issue run by a very few both in the schools and the libraries as well as what can be sent in the mail. It also means less taxes for the rich and if you don’t think that is important look at what happens every time a Republican gets into office. 

  Our country chooses its leaders through elections and those leaders must campaign to get elected. If we treat a campaign like a job interview not a beauty contest then we should get some reasonably decent applicants to serve. This is not to say that good looking people are not capable or can not do a good job, just saying do not pick the person based on a photo, read their bio and listen to what they have to say on important subjects.

  How did we get Trump, well no one listened to him on important subjects, he listened to all the whiny butts and then told them what they wanted to hear. He attacked other people running for office and told lies about them. If he heard or read something that was negative on anyone he repeated it, over and over again. Did anyone hear him say how he would deal with a particular problem or issue? Most likely they did not as he had no solutions to anything he was just gas lighting to the crowd and “telling it is like it is”. For the sake of augment he told it the way the most dissatisfied among us viewed it. Why is their view important, because they feel that they are the ones deserving and everyone else, especially anyone of a different color, or different attitude should be kicked to the curb and taught a lesson about who runs things.

  Mr. Trump had no prior experience in politics, yet a good number of people thought he would be a good President, as he proved them wrong. He had a shot at it and did not do well, many others have suffered from the one hit wonder game in politics, so pick up you cards and go home. Why does he feel he should get back in the White House? Is it because his ego can not accept the one tour, is it because he did not steal enough from the treasury? Is it because he had not fulfilled his deal with Putin to sell us down the river? Or was there some other self serving reason for this effort, it is a sure bet that it is not for the good of the United States.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Today is Friday the 13th, a date many people associate with bad luck, but is Friday the 13th as unlucky as many people believe?

Not likely, but don’t tell that to someone who hides under the covers every time Friday the 13th rolls around on the calendar because that person probably suffers from paraskevidekatriaphobia.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the scientific word for someone who has a fear of Friday the 13th.

The day, for those who fear it, is often riddled with superstition and bad luck, but is it as unlucky as many people believe?

It’s derived from the Greek words for Friday and thirteen with phobia, or fear, tacked on.

There are many theories about why Fridays which fall on the 13th day of the month are unlucky.

Some believe that the Friday the 13th superstition has an origin in Norse mythology. In one story, the evil god Loki is said to have crashed a party with 12 guests and tricked the blind god Hod into killing his brother Balder, the god of light, joy, and reconciliation.

Also, according to Norse mythology, it was the Vikings who decided a hangman’s noose should have 13 loops and in British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

Others believe Friday the 13th has origins in Christianity. According to the Bible, Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and there were 13 men at the Last Supper — Jesus and his 12 disciples. In addition, Judas the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table and, for that reason, 13 is considered to carry a curse of sorts.

In some places, it is also believed that it was Friday the 13th when Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit.

Another significant piece of the legend is a particularly bad Friday the 13th that occurred in the Middle Ages. On this day in 1306, King Philip of France arrested the revered Knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion as a day of evil. Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment.

In Numerology, every number has a particular meaning. The number 13 symbolizes “Death”. It’s a picture of a skeleton with a scythe, reaping down men.

Tradition also has it that God confounded languages at the tower of Babel on a Friday the 13th, and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed on a Friday the 13th.

Friday is named for Frigga, the goddess of love and fertility who was exiled in shame to a mountain and labeled a witch. Some believe that every Friday, Frigga held a meeting with 11 other witches and the devil – a group of 13 – and plotted ill deeds for the upcoming week.

By some estimates, businesses lose millions of dollars on Friday the 13th because people are hesitant to make deals, travel, or shop as they would at other times.

In France, a dinner for 13 is thought to be unlucky, and superstitious hosts may hire a “quatorzieme,” a professional 14th guest.

Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue and there is no gate 13 at many airports, the numbers go from twelve to fourteen.

The state lotteries of France, Italy, and elsewhere never sell tickets with the number 13.

The fear of 13 has also prompted most high-rise buildings not to have a 13th floor. Hotels do not have room number 13.

It is interesting to note the contrasting history of the number 12 with the number 13.  We have 12 months a year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 hours a day and even 12 days of Christmas — the prominence stemming from the historical influence of the New Testament of the Bible and other Judeo-Christian traditions.

But no matter what the origin, the fact is that many people are superstitious about the number 13 and are highly superstitious when it falls on Friday.

Any month’s 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday.