Time to Think

Terror From Within  By Hank Silverberg What is the biggest threat to our country today?  There are rogue countries like Iran and North Korea trying to get nuclear weapons.  Russia is trying to expand its influence and world power by invading Ukraine and taking control of a major supplier of food for the developing world, while China is trying to use that conflict for its own expanded global influence.   ISIS and Al Queda, though weakened substantially, are still out there and still hate the concept of the United States of America.  Yes, these are all of great concern, and we must keep up our efforts to protect against them.  But the biggest threat to our way of life may be coming from within.  Now, before you read any more be advised I am not a conspiracy theorist, nor do I see the boogie man under everyone's bed. These are real threats that America has faced before which resurface from time to time, but this time it may be a bit worse.  An a...

On The Road                                 #231 By Hank Silverberg  My wife and I had a chance this past weekend to take a long-planned getaway--delayed a bit by that bout with Covid-19 I already wrote about a few weeks ago.    If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know I am a history buff. I believe everyone can learn a bit from the past, or you will be condemned to relive it.  So, our trip to Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's vacation retreat, was a search for knowledge and lessons from the past.  Poplar Forest is 77 miles southwest of Charlottsville, Virginia, where Monticello is located. Jefferson inherited the land for his vacation estate from his father-in-law, and those folks in Forest say Monticello would never have survived if it wasn't for the income Jefferson got from this second estate.  (Jefferson's Poplar Forest estate. Photo by Jody Silverberg) Those...

A Shift in Power?                         #230 By Hank Silverberg     Do you know who your state legislator is? Who represents you in Richmond, Albany, Sacramento or Des Moines? Recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court seem to be throwing more power back to state governments, whether it be on abortion rights or control of federal elections. That is going to give the lawmaker you send to your state capital a great deal more power, and that could have a bigger impact on your life.  Many of these lawmakers are part-time. They do something else for a living, yet usually work on legislation that hits home faster than anything Congress does. They also often do so with less vigilance and little public attention.   This shift also gives more power to governors in some states.  This possible return to pre-Civil War "state's rights" control of pol...

Happy Birthday America               #229 By Hank Silverberg   The United States turned 246 years old this week. In the history of time that ranks the U.S. as a juvenile. Rome, for example, in its various forms as a republic and then empire, lasted a thousand years. So,though we boast of old traditions and founding principals, our country is still relatively young and still has growing pains.  We are far from the "more perfect union" envisioned by the so-called "Founding Fathers" in 1776, or more accurately in 1787, when the second generation of Founding Fathers (James Madison, George Mason,  Alexander Hamilton, John Jay)  drafted the U.S. Constitution.   These past two weeks we learned the hard way that the balanced system of government the Constitution was supposed to create, does not always work and sometimes goes against the "will of the people."  When the Constitution was drafted it was envisioned that the U.S. S...