I just heard that the guy I called 'my son' Victor died a couple of months ago. He was I think 87 and he taught me what he knew about irrigation pumps. I am without words - what was worse was I wasn't informed of his passing until today, but I think if he taught me one other thing it would be that It is not government which makes our lives better but the people we interact with which we fulfill our lives that make life worth living. In the passing of friends we are all diminished  ... the times we are going through today sadden me to no end as I see a trend in this country's government  toward the very nationalism my father and his father before him fought against in the two great wars of the last century and my cousin Ralph who died with the First Marine Division at the battle of Chosin Reservoir in Korea shortly before I was born. It is only a matter of luck that I am even alive today to respond to this thread as I could well have died defending this land, as did Ralph and others in my family.

The U.S. Constitution has been like a good friend; I will morn it's passing as passionately as I will the passing of 'my son' Victor and will continue to hope that what we have all fought for will not in the long run, be in vain.