More thoughts about - A New Day

Let's hear what Juan Williams if FOX News has to say.  This might be interesting.

"Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the 1876 Presidential race by one electoral vote.  But he respected Americans who voted.   "To vote is like paying a debt, a duty never to be neglected, if its performance is possible."   Hayes was right - and we should encourage the "performance" of voting and holding elections on weekends.  It is one step that can enhance voter turnout and boost confidence that  the people remain in control of the government.  Legislation to move Election Day to weekends has already been introduced to Congress.  A group of "Why Tuesday" has been working for the past decade to highlight the benefits of weekend voting.

The group notes that the U.S. ranks last in voter turnout among Western democracies in the G-8.  The key difference is that five of those other countries have weekend voting.  Limiting voting to a single day during the weekend is a challenge for people who have to get to the polls before or after work.  On Election Day, they often have to juggle traffic jams, unexpected meetings, day care pick ups or drop offs, in addition to trying to vote.  The Number One reason people give for not casting a vote, is "too busy/couldn't get time off to vote".

In the past two Presidential elections the nation has seen record turnout.  But only about half of the eligible voters got to the polls.   Meanwhile, faith in the direction of the country and government has plummeted.  Giving the American people the best chance to become a part of the democratic process is key to reinvigorating trust in our elected leaders and the idea of self-government that is the basis of our liberty and prosperity.

With the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act coming next year, weekend voting is an idea of whose time is near."

Please, I feel like vomiting.  Read Mr. Williams own words - "...the past two Presidential elections the nation has seen a record turnout."  Now, what caused that?  It surely was not an Act of Congress nor could it become one, given the numerous polls that have revealed the public's interest in Presidential elections.  The essential fact regarding Mr. Williams' conclusion appears to be because the preceding President had left office with a budget surplus, whereas his successor would leave office with a historic deficit.  And something could be said for the fact that four of the five preceding Presidents - prior to Clinton, were very unpopular Presidents.  It could be said that Presidential elections have become more of a popularity contest than an effort to elect a leader.

I must add, based on the 2008/2012 election results, the electorate appears to favor reason over rhetoric, regardless of the date of the election, the opinions of our political commentators notwithstanding.

Reason and Judgment

As this month comes to a close, the insurance actuaries who keep track of such things will record by my name, 85 years of age, and if I am still  here, I will be pleased to join in the celebration on that day.

For that reason and, that reason alone, I am changing the content of this blog to reveal what I had intended from the start.  I know for a fact, my opinions will probably disappear by sundown.  My life, however, will continue far beyond any grave marker as what I have to offer now was born in the years of my life.  This I know, above all, I am obligated to offer thanks for the many who have helped along the way.

Interestingly, the following came to my desk this very morning.  The words of an English Quaker by the name of William Littleboy.  “It is in the common facts and circumstances of life that God draws near to us.  He teaches us in the routines of life’s trifles, gently and unnoticed.   His guidance comes to us through the channels of “reason and judgment”.   We will realize we have been taught by Him when we least expected it, we have been guided, through His guiding hand rested upon us so lightly that we were unaware of its touch.”

Nothing could have been more fitting than these words as I open the doors of my life to reveal the “routines” of daily living.

For most people living in Detroit, MI, on August 28, 1929, the “news” of the day centered on the flight of the German dirigible, the Graf Zeppelin, as it flew by.  In the maternity ward of Henry Ford hospital, however, William and Blanche McRae, were eagerly awaiting the arrival of their daughter, Shirley Lou, named of course in honor of the child star in those days, Shirley Temple.  There appeared to be a problem.  The baby was not a girl, but a boy, and in those anxious moments for others, I was born.  What to do about the name, that was the question.  Somehow, some one recalled a banker who lived in St; Clair, MI, where they had met and married, by the name of Sherwood Recor and so it would be Sherwood.   Shirley Lou would come later.

Those were happy days for my parents, but then came the stock market “crash” a few weeks later, a harbinger of the hard times that would follow.

“We” would move to Toledo, OH, and then on to Cleveland, actually Lakewood, OH, where - in 1932, their Shirley Lou would enter our lives.  These were tough times, financially, and when our Mother’s Mother came to help, she offered to take young Sherwood home with her, to Yale, MI, where there was lots of room to play and plenty to eat.   We never knew her motives but she had suffered the loss of a son - to be named, Keith, who was still born.   The way she loved on me and treated me has always made me believe that God had replaced her grief with a first grand son.

Times got worse, the family moved back to Detroit and then, our Father who had been in a minor auto accident in Ohio, was incapacitated by a cyst that was pressuring on his brain - as a result of an earlier accident, and things went from bad to worse.  I had come home to Detroit, but with this burden on our Mother, I was welcomed back to the farm where I would live until I joined the Army Air Corps in 1946.  Somewhere along the line, our Father passed away.   I know the date but it would be years before anyone wanted to share with me, the circumstances that ended his life.

No one seemed to notice that I should have known as I seemed to be a happy youngster, had close friends in neighboring farms, a wonderful grade school teacher and a high school where it seemed to others, I was accepted by one and all.   Except for the fact, it often seemed to me, I had no Father and only an “occasional” Mother who would come home to Yale from her busy life, working and caring for my sister.

Hope I haven't bored you with these facts.  I'll be back tomorrow with an explanation.