Category: Having My Say

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Being In Love With The Idea…

RJ Walters

Often in life we think we are in love with something but it turns out that we were really in love with the idea of something. I currently think I am in love with RVing. It sounds like a freedom that I seek. But have I really thought out all the ramifications of being on the road for long periods of time?  Am I in love with RVing or just the idea of RVing? That is the question. Many of us would love to be or do certain things in our lives but once we realize the efforts it would … Continue reading Being In Love With The Idea…

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On The Road Cleveland – Day 8, The Final Run…

RJ Walters

Here we are in the final hotel of our Cleveland vacation. We are in Newark Ohio which is a little east of Columbus. We spent much of the day in more Amish country of Berlin Ohio. It claims to have the largest Amish community in the U.S. I bought a couple of framed pictures as mementos of our trip.  When we left this area to head south to I70 we found you couldn’t get there from here. Two of the three roads we tried were closed! Finally after three failed attempts we managed to find our way south and will … Continue reading On The Road Cleveland – Day 8, The Final Run…

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One The Road Cleveland – Day 6 Gallery..

RJ Walters

Here we are sitting in our hotel room on Sunday morning waiting for the museum to open at noon. So, I thought I would pull a few more pictures out of the album to show here. We are headed for the Western Reserve Historical Society today to get a more detailed account of local history.  Then it will be off to our friends home for a few days. I’m not sure how technology conscious my friend is so I don’t know if I can get on the internet while we are there. If not, this will be a last post … Continue reading One The Road Cleveland – Day 6 Gallery..

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On The Road Cleveland – Day 4 Museums

RJ Walters

We spent today with some old-time high school friends of mine who are near-Cleveland residents.  We spent the majority of the day at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History but before that we got a thorough driving tour of the Cleveland Clinic.  The scale of the clinic is almost unimaginable.  There were at least twenty huge buildings in the complex. The Cleveland Clinic is thought to be the healthcare of the future in that they do it much more efficiently than most. All their doctors are on salary as opposed to independent practices. Surgeons don’t make money performing more surgeries; … Continue reading On The Road Cleveland – Day 4 Museums

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Being Afraid of God…. (Part 1)

RJ Walters

I am saddened by how many people are afraid of God, projecting their negative experiences with parents and the Church onto God. Often we’ve reinforced these false images of God. I assured Susan her Father in heaven was different from her earthly father. I could tell she wanted to believe me but still hesitated. Susan asked me, “What if you’re wrong, and I believe you and go to hell?” I replied, “Do you really think God would damn you to hell for overestimating his love?” Susan didn’t leave our church. In the following years, she cautiously opened her heart and … Continue reading Being Afraid of God…. (Part 1)

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On The Road Cleveland – Day 2 Youngstown

RJ Walters

As noted in yesterday’s post we spent the day at Youngstown. It was everything I expected it to be. The Youngstown Historical Center was of course all about steel. I took about forty pictures of the exhibits and will give you a few of them here.  I didn’t realize that there were actually seven mills running here during their heydays in the 1960’s. They started shutting down after the Japanese started flooding the market with sub-cost steels in the early 1980s and Ronald Reagan didn’t do anything to stop them. As a result they disappeared very quickly along with thousands … Continue reading On The Road Cleveland – Day 2 Youngstown

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On The Road, Cleveland — Day 1

RJ Walters

Yes, we decided to visit the Cleveland Ohio area for our April vacation this year.  As expected we spent most of the day in the car. I don’t know why even after 27 years this Friday of being married I haven’t learned to lie about the time I want to leave.  I told Yvonne we need to be on the road at 9:00am so of course as usually it was about 9:30am before we left.  Why didn’t I say 8:30? We took almost all interstate roads to get here to Macedonia Ohio. After seven hours on the road the most … Continue reading On The Road, Cleveland — Day 1

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On The Road Again….

RJ Walters

Starting tomorrow we will finally be on the road again. These last six months seemed longer than most. Cabin fever was really getting me down.  I know several of you really enjoy my “On the road reports”. I thought about not doing them this time and instead taking a hiatus from blogging but I realized that I really do enjoy writing the reports. They allow me to sit back and think about how my day was and to record things in a “Travels with Charley” format similar to what John Steinbeck did about fifty years ago. So my daily posts … Continue reading On The Road Again….

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We Learn Nothing By Speaking…..

RJ Walters

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead… Thomas Jefferson Remember, we learn nothing by speaking. St. Francis of Asissi I thought I would pull up three inspirational quotes from some of my heroes for this inspiration Sunday. Gandhi was a man of simplicity. He lived his life with very few luxuries. But his words were full of riches. We can’t just complain about something in life. Doing only that is a worthless task. Instead of complaining work to find … Continue reading We Learn Nothing By Speaking…..

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Feeding the Cynicism….

RJ Walters

I have been thinking about all the partisanship and our legislative process lately.  We seem to be in a gridlocked pattern that is almost impossible to break. Washington is completely out of step with the rest of the country.  Poll after pole tells us that we the people want them to get off their butts and do something. Doing nothing in the U.S. Senate feeds the cynicism in the country which enhances the Republican view that government can’t do anything right. The filibuster is the latest major tool used  to accomplish that task. All it takes now it for the … Continue reading Feeding the Cynicism….

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About Gerrymandering….

RJ Walters

Source: Republicans Win Congress as Democrats Get Most Votes – Bloomberg. The 2010 elections, in which Republicans won the House majority and gained more than 700 state legislative seats across the nation, gave the party the upper-hand in the process of redistricting, the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional seats. The advantage helped them design safer partisan districts and maintain their House majority in 2012 — even as they lost the presidential race by about 5 million votes. Also nationwide, Democratic House candidates combined to win about 1.4 million more votes than Republicans, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. Gerrymandering which is … Continue reading About Gerrymandering….