DAY: My thoughts on subjects

July 11, 2008 10:00 pm

— One of my readers asked me what my feelings were about our armed forces, and right here is where I tell you that I am a proud American and I support every man and woman who has joined together to protect you and me from being taken over by another country or group of power-hungry killers who would want to take us hostage and kill us. We need the armed forces for that purpose, and we shouldn’t use them to regulate peace for the other countries.
And to set the record straight on where I stand about kids going to war in those countries, when they are members of the National Guard. I have to stand firm that they should only be used right here in the United States to protect us at our borders. And not in a foreign land where they have to put on the hardware of war and do what they can to stay alive while protecting someone in that country.
Too long have we been in those countries where the people there will not protect themselves, nor will they ever have peace in their land. In those countries when there is a civil war, we should not have any soldiers there, let alone some kids just out of high school. In those countries, you never know just which side each one might be on, and you could be working right alongside someone who, when given the opportunity, will try to take you out.
Our country should never intervene in a country’s civil war. Let them fight it out and come to an end at the cost of their people and not ours. That is my stand on it, and I stand by it with pride because my country is free and I want to keep it that way.
Stand up and support our troops, but bring them home to protect us and not the other countries. Enough said about that from Uncle Ray, who has had many members of his family doing their job protecting us when the need arises. And remember that the last four letters in American are “I can.”
Another reader asked what I thought of the crime in our country. So let me air out the laundry on that subject. I don’t think you can stop crime with just a spanking. Nor do I believe that we should plea bargain with a crook in order to get a bigger one. We don’t do our job if we continue to let guilty people go because they snitch on another.
Don’t give in to the sanity pleas of one who really knew what he was doing. In the old days, you did wrong, you did the time. For those who kill, then there is only one way to get justice and that is life without parole or death. That life that was taken, was as precious as that one who lived. And to keep on that subject, let's stop allowing kids to be able to have their parents arrested for disciplining them.
We have let this child abuse go too far, and now if you or I were to be said to have abused a child, we still would carry that stigma of a child beater. That really is not fair to anyone. That is my two cents worth on the subject.
I enjoy doing this column each week because it gets me out to the world during times when I have to stay in to take care of my pretty lady. It also is great therapy for me since I had major heart surgery in 1998. To be able one day to be known nationwide for writing about “The Days Of Old”, written by Uncle Ray in Kokomo, would be the shiny brass ring of life.
To be able to bring back memories to those my age or older pleases me. To be able to get a youngster to ask his or her parents about the old days is gold at my fingertips. The future is only one day, but the past is a bundle of days well remembered.
Ray “Uncle Ray” Day of Kokomo is a weekly contributor to the Kokomo Tribune. He can be reached by e-mail at uncleray@skyenet.net.