OUR NEW SIDEWALK

Over a week ago, several backhoes and other digging machinery came into our front yard and began feverishly digging and leveling and putting stakes in the ground where our new sidewalk and gutter are going to be.

Today, after more than a week of silence, "they" started working on our sidewalk. Actually, "he" started working on our sidewalk. A lone man, who doesn't speak English, is outside using string and a level and some stakes to, I assume, lay out our sidewalk. It looked like he really needed an extra set of hands to accomplish what he was trying to do.

I asked him if he had any help, since he seemed to be struggling with the job. He said, "Que?"

I said, "Do you need some help? Do you want me to hold that?" He said, "No speek English."

So, the two-handed Mexican, who needs four hands to get the job done, is outside, balancing one end of the level on his leg, the other on the stake, all while he tries to hammer the stake into the ground. It looks like he's going to use about 10 - 12 stakes, so it will be a long, arduous job.

If only I spoke Spanish.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH? NOT FOR CONSERVATIVES!!

As all Americans know, freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and is guaranteed to all Americans. I was just watching John McCain on television delivering a Foreign Policy speech at the University of Denver. John McCain is a U.S. Military hero. He's a U.S. Senator. He's a candidate for the office of President of the United States. For these reasons alone, he's worth listening to.

I have many areas of disagreement with Mr. McCain. If I vote for him, it will be with a big clothespin on my nose. However, Liberals, who love Freedom of Speech only when it applies to them, have interrupted McCain's speech several times.

Conservatives David Horowitz, William Kristol, Pat Buchanan, and Ann Coulter, along with several others, have also been assaulted or shouted down while trying to speak on university campuses.

It seems that the favorite tool of Liberals against Conservative ideas is pie. They like to throw pies at Conservatives. In my humble opinion, this kind of reaction by Liberals and radicals implies that they feel their best weapon against competing ideas isn't discussion and debate, it's a food fight! Are they so weak-minded that they feel that food is their only remaining effective weapon?

In the 1960's, when I was a teenager watching the '60's radicals demonstrating for free speech, I told my friends that it appeared that the only speech they wanted protected was filthy and vulgar speech...they loved the f-word. Today, that's still their favorite word.

I wanted to be a Liberal in the '60's, but I couldn't bring myself to agree with the things they were saying. I concluded, sadly at the time, that I was a die-hard Conservative. I'm still a proud Conservative today, some 45 years later.

So, anyway, between pie-throwing and f-bomb-hurling, Liberals are still losing debates all across the country. It's a shame they don't simply discuss and debate areas of disagreement and honor and respect one of our most sacred rights, the Freedom of Expression.