Reflections

Hello everyone, I hope you’re having a good week.  
It’s incredible but this year is already half gone–the longest day of the year has passed and the days will get shorter from now to December. I see that the global warming nut cases are saying that the earth is melting since it’s never been this hot before.    
This pseudo science that is their bible ignores the fact that the hottest temperature ever recorded  was 134 degrees in Death Valley in July 1913 and it didn’t melt.
I’m more concerned about the lack of respect other countries have for the President, but of course that respect must be earned.
Teddy Roosevelt was referred to as that Cowboy in the White House but he made the world respect us and we became a world power as a result. I didn’t care much for his cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, but I do admire how he caused the whole world to respect us, and he did it from a wheel chair.  
Many people dismissed Ronald Reagan as a “B” movie actor, but he ended the cold war which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. My personal belief is that the difference in these three and the current crowd is, they  had PERSONAL COURAGE.
Papa Badley wasn’t a politician or soldier, but he had the courage to refuse to join a lynch mob chasing the killer, Ed Gammons, because as he told Uncle Charlie, it wasn’t  the right thing to do.  Dick Cooper walked up and disarmed two teenage criminals even when they threatened to shoot him if he took another step, and they respected him for it.   
Alvin York was against killing yet he wiped out several enemy machine gun nests killing about 25 of the enemy. When asked how he felt about that he replied, “those guns were killing  hundreds maybe thousands and the only way I knew to stop it was to clean them out.”  
Chester Joyner told me he was an infantry rifleman when he  saw a bazooka man cut down by a machine gun. The sergeant handed him the bazooka and ordered him to take out a tank.  He said,  “I never had fired a bazooka but I took it and did the best I could.” The best he could was to destroy that tank and earn a purple heart at the same time.
My belief is true courage is defined as doing what’s right instead of what’s safe or popular and until we have people like that in government, we won’t be respected.
When you read this it will be Independence Day, so remember the courage of those men who risked their fortunes and their lives to create this great nation.  
On a personal note, this week I received some hand written notes and you know how much it means to me for someone to take the time to write and in accordance to your wishes, I won’t mention your names but thank you so much.
My email address is cncooper1@hotmail.com or write me at P.O. Box 613189 Memphis, TN 38101 and have a happy and safe Fourth.