Publisher’s note:  Among my other sources of informative and insightful content are friends I have made along the way on the various Social Media outlets.  They are a diverse group and they make for an amazing cross section of ideas and perspectives.  

Gail Appel is one of the best examples of that.  Being a conservative Jew, she is a rare commodity and is as bright and articulate as she is drop dead gorgeous.  In her very brief synopsis, Gail offers a great answer to a question that boggles the minds of non-Jewish conservatives everywhere.

Gail Appel:  The answer to the six year question, “Gail, what the hell is wrong with your people (Jews)?” I finally have the answer. Most of us were brought up to believe that we were hated by Christians. We had never really heard of Islam. Because we were not welcomed with open arms into the Country Club sector. I used to wonder why, albeit I never really cared .This abject idiotic mentality was exacerbated by not reaching out beyond our insular community. We did ourselves an extreme injustice.

My mother remarried a Conservative Jew who was totally outside the boxed in mindset. Last year I posited that the anti-Semitism was likely based upon partisan ideology and he answered, “You know, I never really thought of it that way". Subsequently, I became fascinated by the Republican support of American ideals and Israel. My stepfather was the first to realize the impending Christian genocide.

Last night, I surfed the net regarding Billy Graham and anti-Semitism. I mean, he was the poster child for Jew hating, right? WRONG ! He was a staunch Zionist and a dear friend and supporter of Golda Meir. Leftist Jews and the liberal media were seen as supporters of Communism. Most of us were too stupid to see the leftist agenda. Too many are still blind. So I ask my isolated by lack of curiosity supposed brethren, how is that socialist thing working out for you? The Israel bashing and support of the people who despise you? Are you blind to what is happening in neo-nazi Europe? The Jews fleeing to Israel as they are forced to evacuate? And if Israel succumbs, indeed, you will have been the architects of your own demise.

Publisher’s note:  Once again, our friend Mr. Jesus Alaniz has delivered an excellent discussion on a hot topic.  In very clear, concise terms, Jesus compares the horror of abortion and the politicians that heartlessly justify it for personal gain against those who stood tall against the Nazis while they murdered of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

Jesus Alaniz:  Speak up for the unborn…

I’m vexed by the politicians who attempt to justify the murder of innocents to buy votes from that "choice” demographic.  Abortion a "social issue”?  I suppose if a home invader can be classified as "part of the family.”  If rape and incest be the instruments for its preservation I would then suggest that America has a rape and incest problem.  "Her body, her choice.”  Is it her 'choice’ when 'he’ demands that she either gets an abortion or he leaves?  Privacy?  It is if my tax dollars aren’t used to fund this heinous act.  I often wonder what the world thinks of us when they see these places and wonder if future generations will ever look at them as they look at Bełżec, Dachau, or Auschwitz. Will they ask "Why didn’t they speak out?”  Will we use the excuse "the law was the law at the time” to justify our silence?  

Oskar Schindler took great risks to save 1,200 Jews from death in concentration camps. German and anti-Nazi theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung to death just two weeks before the allies liberated the camp where he was held prisoner. Among his crimes was his refusal to write religious propaganda justifying the horrendous and murderous acts of the Third Reich.  It was Bonhoeffer who warned “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.  Not to speak is to speak.  Not to act is to act.”  

Then there’s theologian & Pastor Martin Niemöller another anti-Nazi and outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler who also criticized German intellectuals for remaining silent on the Nazi’s atrocities.  It was Niemöller who said, "First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out - Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out - Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.”  Niemöller spent seven years in a Nazi prison before the Reich collapsed.

There are those who say that I should surrender any idea of having a political career for taking such a strong position on the subject.  John 15: 18-19, (NIV) reads "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

Our nation and the world need more Jefferson’s, Henry’s, Adams’, Schindler’s, Bonhoeffer’s and Niemöller’s and less political intellectuals who deem the killing of the unborn or infanticide as just another "demographic.”  I do not support pro-choice candidates and will speak for the unborn with the hopes that someday they will speak for me if needed and if they haven’t been aborted.     

Publisher’s note:  Rodica Novak escaped Romania many years ago to find the American Dream.  She is a Patriot and fears that America is on the verge of becoming what she left behind so long ago.  

She had some thoughts she wanted to share, and while I did need to do just a little editing, I didn’t touch the essence of what she wants us to know.  Because many of us, myself included, that have never known anything other than the relative cake walk that America is, don’t really have a grasp on what life is like in so many places.  I cannot thank her enough for sharing her heartfelt beliefs as we begin this very solemn weekend of reflection.

Rodica Novak:  My thoughts are about the VA scandal.  In 1980 I came to America legally from a communist country.  I was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1949 and came here to escape from the communist regime…I came here for Freedom!

Freedom is the most important reason why the people like me come to America…freedom!  I work, I pay taxes, I became an American Citizen, and I love this Country very much.  I do know the history of America, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In the past 5 years we have seen a very bitter regime rise up against America, its people, and the very freedoms that so many have fought and died for, and so many refugees still long to get to. 

Let me tell you something, Obama cannot do what he is doing by himself, just as Ceausescu in Romania did not do everything by himself; I call this regime foreign even though many of them are American born.  What is happening today is unacceptable for me. 

America is the land of freedom and everybody wants to come here because of that.  So the question is why do our own Leaders want to give America away?  Monday is Memorial Day and while we have many problems, we have two recent situations unfolding that we need to consider.  The VA scandal is the worst because it affects the men and women we are gathering around the country to remember. 

Let me tell you about military care in communism for a moment; the military hospitals are the best in the Country of Romania.  I know because I was working for the Romanian Airport and it was under military control. I got sick and I have to have a surgery once and they saved my life.  All of the communist countries have the best food and care for their military, and the reason for that is a big difference between the American military and theirs.

The American Military swear an oath to the US Constitution and to protect the country from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.  The communist military take the oath to protect the regime and especially the tyrant in charge of it.  This is a huge difference between these two forms of government and the allegiances.  

Publisher’s note:  Clarke J. Jones, Jr. is a friend of mine.  He is very bright, articulate, to the point, and he has a grasp on our national condition as few among us do.  While he was looking around himself, gathering his thoughts, and contemplating his many blessings recently, he took into account how so much of it is owed to our brave men and women in uniform.

The following brief commentary stems from those recent thoughts, all of which I agree with completely, and especially the very last line, the truth of which just reaches out and grabs the astute reader. 

Clarke J. Jones, Jr.:  This morning I was reflecting upon just how very grateful I am for our military. We are currently invested in a conflict that we can never win, protecting a country of nomadic desert dwellers who despise us. Of course I am referring to Afghanistan.

We entered this barren wasteland as usual with good intentions to route the Taliban and to restore the rule of law, though none had ever been established for thousands of years prior to our involvement there. Thousands of Americans have tearfully stood over the graves of their brave sons and daughters who fell at the hands of savages throughout the rural desert shanti towns there and did so with a sense of duty and purpose, though admittedly we entered this far away killing field with no plan for an end game. 

Exacerbating the issue is our media and their fellow socialistic pacifists on the left who have continually muddied the waters of engagement rules by handicapping our soldiers. All wars are won by killing the enemy and demoralizing him. We have failed miserably in this endeavor and as was the case in Southeast Asia, we will soon be removing our forces, heads hung low as the heretical armies of Allah regain all of the ground that was purchased with American blood.

We have no leadership in this country. It is broken from top to bottom. We have an impostor in the White House, gridlock throughout our polarized house and senate, racial division, dumbed-down education of our youth and total disrespect for our constitution. America has become consumed with pop culture, sexual promiscuity and moral turpitude. 

I have never prayed as earnestly as I have recently for our survival through all of this as a nation, but things simply are not going our way.  Only God can save us at this point.