Of concern: The 2020 Election

Tomorrow is election day 2020. The candidates are incumbent President Donald Trump and Democrat hopeful Joe Biden. Trump is not a politician and Biden is nothing except a politician. 

The United States has been in turmoil for the last twelve years. My way of life, that of a peaceful rural existence where folks get along with each other, work hard, and still believe in God, has been under steady attack from people who believe we don't deserve what we worked hard to achieve. There are unrest and riots in the cities across this land. 

We rural dwellers are perhaps too complacent about this. We sit on our porches, the ones the rioters would take from us for whatever reasons they can create, and discuss the stupidity of burning your own community. It's not something we do. We value community far too much, and we value the individualism that makes our communities peaceful, safe places to live. 

Our individualism is under attack. It is suggested to us we have somehow wronged the millions of people we have supported through our tax dollars. You see, we rural dwellers don't have much of a problem paying our fair share, which under current tax laws is more than our fair share. We don't scream about it too much, but we do have a certain level of resentment about paying tax dollars that are used to help the less fortunate and then having those people throw it back in our faces that we're not doing enough. 

How is going to work every day not enough? How is giving to various charities not enough? How is being small business owners and offering jobs not enough? How is our churches offering programs for all children not enough? 

Never in my life have I witnessed such unrest. So many minds have been poisoned and for what? 

The late President John F. Kennedy's famous quote no longer resonates. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country."  

We seem to no longer understand the meaning of those words. Of a vision of a country united. When we simply go about our daily lives, working to support each other, we are all elevated. I work and pay my taxes, giving a portion to support programs to help others. Should I not also be allowed to keep a portion for myself? Is it wrong that my parents and grandparents set aside a portion for me? Is it wrong that I in turn have set aside a portion for the younger members of my family? And that portion comes AFTER the tax portion paid for the good of all. According to some, my way of thinking is very wrong. 

The 2020 election is tomorrow. 

The 2020 election is tomorrow, and choices are severely limited. Due to the Covid 19 situation, I dropped my ballot at a collection location. The State of Maryland sent an email telling me my vote has been counted. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

The many colors of 2020

Many of us will remember the year 2020 not for our many blessings but for the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It became known as COVID-19 after being identified in China in December of 2019. 

In our current political climate, specifically, the leftist push to erase centuries of the United States' history and replace it with rhetoric more favorable to their views, I wonder how long it will take for the truth about COVID-19 to be bastardized. 

The media pushes the idea that this virus is more deadly to anyone who is not Caucasian. They insist white people are somehow to blame for ALL the misfortunes of others. That may have been true in the 1400 to 1600 hundreds, but is it still true today? It fits their agenda to say so.

How will we look back and remember 2020? How will we remember 2021? COVID-19 isn't going away at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 2020. 

Here at Holly Tree Manor, we recognize how very fortunate we are to live in a very rural location. We are buffered from casual contact with others by our woods. The Liberals would probably accuse us of using our "white privilege" to stay safe. What bullshit. 

We used our "white privilege" to work hard for fifty years, pay our debts, put money aside for retirement, and pay our taxes so those less fortunate could receive tax money for food and other necessities. Ceasar taking our money to pass to the poor. Is that not a manner of tithe? 

That was our privilege, that we worked to keep our American society strong. That those our money was supposed to help squandered the opportunities provided is not our doing. 

It's not a surprise that those who cry they are still in slavery feel that way. Debt is the modern-day slavery. If you've created debt, you've put yourself there. Being debt-free is being free. The color of my skin did not teach me that. Working hard did. 

These days I peer at the world from behind a facemask. Never would I have expected to do so. To be safe in the United States, I must hide from others. This is not a future ever envisioned. 

Nor was a future where all my years of hard work has been thrown back in my face, and I have, in fact, been criticized for that hard work which gave money (opportunity) to those less fortunate. 

The year 2020 has not unfolded well. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor