By Constitution Staff

Begin All over

While it would really be great to be able to "wipe the slate clean" and begin completely new, we all know there is no such thing in the year to year life in this old World. We have many things hanging over us to be repaired and directions needing to be changed if the year 2016 will bring about an improvement in our way of life and future outlook.

Space does not allow a complete review of all the situations confronting us that demand our attention. At the halfway point in my life it became obvious that to avoid disaster and total mental confusion it was necessary to adopt the attitude of "attempt to fix the things that fall within your control and let the World, and GOD, take care of those without my abilities." This did not always result in an outcome that was desirable, but at least unloaded a tremendous amount of mental pressure.

Attempting to change things that are completely beyond one's ability is much like attempting to spit into a hurricane force wind, over 74 MPH. That approach tends to result in a feeling of utter frustration, followed by one of incompetence and defeat. In other words, "Lord, let me take care of the things in my control, learn from the things not, and the wisdom to discern and accept the difference."

A good example of such occurred on December 18 when both houses of Congress passed an omnibus continuing spending measure of, reportedly, 1.1 Trillion dollars. Sadly, six of the seven members of the Oklahoma delegation voted for this monstrosity. The sole member voting as he had promised his constituents was second term first district Representative James Bridenstine. Those who have stated reasons for voting "yea" have stated that the normal, method as laid out in the Constitution of passing individual purpose funding bills would not work because of the Senate filibuster rules used by Harry Reid, D-NV and the promised veto by PRESBO.

It reportedly contains a two year continuing dept limit increase, continued funding for "Planned Parenthood', the PRESBO plan for immigration from the Middle East without tightened investigation, increased Government spending almost "across the board," and failure to reign in the those wayward and disastrous agencies such as EPA, IRS, DOE (both), and numerous others. The Democrat leaders, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, it al as well as national media reportedly have proudly proclaimed "we got all we wanted." Obviously, those actions are completely beyond my control, that is until November 8, and then that input is limited to casting a ballot, which will be done.

As stated before this election, like each one occurring in a "leap year," will hopefully bring about major changes in the White House occupant and staff as well as Congress. But it all depends on we, the people, who are legally entitled and registered to vote becoming active in the process, after becoming truly informed on the past records and backgrounds of the multitude of candidates. Each of us can vote for President, one Congress member, and on-third can vote for one Senator, as well as numerous candidates for State and Local offices.

We also must be on the lookout for, and willing to report, evidence of suspected or observed instances of vote fraud. After all, each fraudulent ballot cast reduces the importance of our own legally cast ballot. Much of this is the result of complaisant election officials and/or law enforcement members who choose to look the other way, or are themselves involved. It is our absolute duty to document and report any incident to the local District Attorney and to the U.S. Attorney with jurisdiction. And, vote for the betterment of the USA. A fair election is totally up to us. It won't be given to us by default!

Robert W. McDowell, Jr.

Broken Arrow, OK