CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, October 26, 2020

Difficult days: "Make the World Go Away"

Due to the East Troublesome Fire to the west of our home on Lake Granby, CO, Wonder Wife, Prince, and I had to evacuate just before bedtime last Wednesday. Our subdivision was not even in a pre-evacuation area. So, we were caught flat-footed. Grabbing what we could, we joined the bumper-to-bumper traffic streaming south from Grand Lake, CO.

We took refuge, sleeping on the floor of the Emily Warner Field Aviation Museum. The next morning, the Museum�s top docent and donor gave us use of a very nice house in Fraser, CO, where we stayed in comfort until Monday, October 26th.

Unfortunately, we hear some dozens of homes to the west of U.S. 34 were devastated. In the context of such horror, my worry about missing the first Monday deadline for "Central View" in 38 years paled in significance. But here we are: safe at home, albeit shaken.

The wildfires in CO, California, and the West just add to the weariness that the Chinese virus and the hard-fought election campaigns have visited upon all of us. It is safe to say that many voters long for a more peaceful, quieter America. And that reminds us of the late Eddie Arnold singing, �"Make the World Go Away."�

Today�s troubled World, however, is not going away. But voters get to choose which political party has the better chance of restoring America to the way it used to be before there was rioting in the streets of the big cities and before there was the Chinese Virus, AKA Covid-19.

One suspects many of us long for the time prior to the Communist takeover of Cuba. Or, prior to the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Or, for when President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev ended the Soviet Union. Surely, all of us long for the time before the 9/11 attacks.

If voters seek a return to normalcy, which side offers the better alternative? Which side will restore law and order to our streets while, at the same time, striving for social justice and racial equity? Which side has the best shot at returning the economy to its record pre-Covid-19 levels? Which side is more likely to stand up for the free speech and religious liberty provisions of the First Amendment? Which side stands for the right to self-defense as stated in the Second Amendment?

Which side will curb the influence of the military-industrial complex and put an end to needless foreign wars? Which side will defend the interests of rural/mountain America by retaining the Electoral College? Which side will keep the number of states at 50 and will not allow the "packing" of the U.S. Supreme Court by increasing the number of justices beyond nine?

Which side will secure our southern border from illegal crossers, drug runners, and human traffickers? Which side will stop the outsourcing of American jobs to China? Which side is more likely to achieve peace in the Middle East and prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons? Which side wants the three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial to operate within the powers assigned to them by the U.S. Constitution? You decide.

(c) 2020. William Hamilton.

Suggested reading: One Vote Away by Senator Ted Cruz, Regnery Publishing, 2020. Formula for Failure in Vietnam by William Hamilton, Ph.D. McFarland Press, 2019.

William Hamilton is a laureate of the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com