Editorial

EDITORIAL - As we approach Memorial Day, give thanks for our soldiers who gave and are giving sacrificially for our freedom. One of the freedoms we enjoy is the freedom to own a house. The greatest asset of most people is the roof over their heads. Your house may be worth more than all of your cash, savings accounts and in some cases retirement funds combined. 

If your house is paid for then congratulations to you. You have achieved a beautiful piece of the American dream. When I was 26 years old, I bought a house on a land contract. The house cost $80,000. Interest rates were 17% back then and a man sold it to me for no money down and 10% interest rate. The rate then was good and it was good for him. He was using the sale to fund his retirement for 20 years at about $800 per month.

EDITORIAL - Kirk Dewayne Franklin is an American choir director, gospel musician, singer, songwriter, and author. He is best known for leading urban contemporary gospel choirs such as The Family, God's Property, and One Nation Crew. He is a beloved and influential figure in the gospel music world. 

Instagram exploded recently with an audio of the famed gospel singer Franklin berating his 32-year-old son. The son posted the audio of the verbal exchange between him and his father. The audio was a profanity-laced call that included his father the elder Franklin threatening to break his son’s neck. 

EDITORIAL - One problem with all Americans making a minimum of $15 an hour is that some business owners don’t make $15 an hour. Hundreds of thousands of small business owners struggle every day to keep the lights on and the doors of their business open. The only way they can afford help is with people who are willing to work for a low wage. This is tough for all. In most cases, the business owner would like to pay more and the employee needs to make more. 

You can’t economically survive on $290 a week. Apartment rent can easily be $500 to $3000 a month depending on where you live. Add utilities, cell phone, transportation and you can forget to eat much if any. The reality is that minimum wage workers can barely survive. They end up applying for public assistance, standing in food bank lines and eventually face deteriorating health and often homelessness. You cannot care for yourself on $7.25 an hour. Living out of your car or in a tent is not the American dream. 

EDITORIAL - Now is the time to develop your plan for avoiding a blue holiday season and having a merry holiday season. I love Elvis's song Blue Christmas, but I don't want to have one. However, In the best of times, holiday blues strike most people.

If you are missing a significant person in your life the blues are inevitable. You miss them sitting at your table. You miss them coming in your home. You are reminded of how much that person meant to you. Holiday shows don't often help. While some are festive, they often remind us of the voids we have in our lives. We don't always enjoy songs like I'll be home for Christmas because we know that often the home is a past memory. Being reminded of the past is not always warm and fuzzy. 

EDITORIAL - Halloween is typically a relaxed day for America's kids to fill their coffers with candy. Children and adults often don their favorite wacky attire for a day of comic relief. America needs a day of some kind of relief and maybe Halloween will provide some insanity or terror relief. Because nothing about Halloween is as scary as what America and the world have been experiencing. 

We have buried over 220,000 Americans from Covid-19. Over eight million have been sick. Nursing homes and Intensive Care Units have become horror wards. The projections for more sickness and death scare most Americans. We are afraid to go to church, out to eat, and to the grocery store. The airplane, hotel, and restaurant industries are in peril as many have already closed or are on the verge of closing. Over 12 Million Americans are now unemployed and many in financial devastation because of Covid-19. 

EDITORIAL - September 29, 2020, was just another bad day in 2020. We thought that with Covid-19, unemployment, and riots in the streets of America's cities it could not get worse. It did. Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Chris Wallace gave us a "show?" we will never forget.   

Our leaders used to make us proud. We grew up wanting to emulate people in high places who inspired us with their remarkable lives. We watched how they conducted themselves, communicated, and chose their words wisely with dignity, diplomacy and grace.  This doesn't happen anymore in America. Tuesday's debate was just another plummeting example of how badly and poorly people can act in America. Biden and Trump are supposed to be our two best men running for the highest office in America.