Funny: "They told me if I visited the hospital to take flowers. So I waited until they were not looking and I took them."

Hello Americans and others that happen to find themselves parked here at the ole blogger ranch on this Wednesday, August 28, 2013. I hear folks all the time talking about people who come into our country needing to learn our history, our culture, and our language. All of that is included in the process of how one makes the transition from immigrant to citizen. One hurdle includes passing a citizenship test. I remember several years ago working with an immigrant from Vietnam who was studying for his test. It was a pretty thick document. Here's my point. I wonder how many Americans educated in our public schools could pass that same test. The Christian Science Monitor newspaper recently put one such test up on their website. It was a 96 question test in multiple choice format. I took the test. I got 93 correct or 97%. The average score on their particular test is 87%. I missed the number of amendments to the Constitution. I marked 23 but the correct answer is 27. The other two I missed were the 'all of the above' variety where I had chosen what I thought was the strongest of the answers but they were all correct. I will tell you there were some pretty tough questions regarding our government, its origin, and who, what, when, and how it functions. It wouldn't hurt any of us to try our hand at it. It could help open a lot of eyes, perhaps even our own.

Most of the kiddos in our area returned to school this past Monday. I can attest to the chaotic change that brought to the traffic patterns in and around the mega metroplex. Facebook has its pros and cons but I will tell you that it is absolutely a joy to log in and see all the photos of the kids we know and love in their back-to-school first day snapshots. Some of them are our very own grand kids, nieces, nephews, inlaws and outlaws. Many of them belong to our Church family, therefore, they are a part of our family as well. Others are friends beloved because they were once where we could see them often, and now we mostly catch up with them via their postings on Facebook. Maybe it's my age but I look at those photos and I whisper a prayer as I consider the world we are living in, and the great potential I see in those bright eyes and smiling faces. May God bless them all is my prayer. Amen. (On my way home I did see one bus driver on a side road trying to figure out exactly where he was or perhaps more importantly, where he was supposed to be. He was busily looking through his notes and had several of the kids standing around him offering their expert advice.)

What goes around comes around. Or so they say. When Mitt Romney ran for President they found out he had some tax shelters and the opposition labeled him the tax avoider in chief. This was played up all over the land and it was effective as Romney was painted as a rich guy who figured out ways not to pay his fair share. This week I was listening to a news program where a think tank political expert was being interviewed. While he made it clear that he is a supporter of President Obama, when talking about the President's leadership style relating to making critical decisions about hot issues like Syria and others, he said the President had proven himself to be the Avoider In Chief. He went on to say that this style could cripple the President's authority because of the void it creates. It reminds us all that a decision not to decide, is, after all is said and done, a decision, and it typically comes with its own set of issues. Okay. I thought that name calling boomerang story had some relevancy, or, at least it seemed that way to me. That's a wrap for today's visit and I do hope you will have a good day and pray that God will add His blessings to it. Amen.    ....More later.