The American Writer
Hi!
American Writes is a blog about America, and presents facts and historically accurate review of our journey on this continent and straightforward commentary on the history that is made every day by those who run our government.
Interspersed with the occasional social or family observation, American Writes will give you a pretty good idea of who I am and what I believe, and I think it will give you plenty of opportunity to learn something.
What’s important to me is your comments on any post, because I don’t consider myself an expert but, instead, and honest intellectual and an honest skeptic. Either one of those means that I am glad to hear your point of view and have the opportunity for us to share with and learn from each other.
As a homeschooler, this blog serves as a constant education for my children. As an individual, American Writes helps me to journal my thoughts and leave a legacy that I’ve always thought every person should leave, so that we know who someone was when they are no longer with us. As an American, I do this to keep alive that which made this country great – the Idea known as America.
And as a political junkie, this serves as an outlet for my passion and hobby…because I only meet my friends Bob & Dale once a week and that’s not nearly enough time to bloviate and satisfy my need to vent and cajole!
I am digressing into stuff about me, so I’ll continue at your own risk…
I am a public speaker and political commentator. My speaking is focused on America and what’s right with our great country. Most of my speaking engagements include keynotes, civic organizations, and business meetings and conventions. Most people find my presentations motivational and educational, and at the same time very inspiring and patriotic. My topics do not comment at all on what makes America great relative to making other countries and cultures look small. In fact, I rarely mention other parts of the world. America’s greatness comes from her ability to better herself and be better than she was the day before, so there’s plenty of material there to inspire the listener with stories of our unique foundations of individuality, patriotism, and entrepreneurialism. All of my speaking draws on many of the life experiences outlined below and my knowledge and experience of our unique American Way.
In a nutshell (which some say makes me a nut!), I am…
- …afraid of God.
- …husband to Beth
- …father to Kristofer, Andrew, and Nathaniel
- …American-made and American-born, with roots in Ireland from a couple of generations ago on my mother’s side, and from England when my ancestors on my dad’s side made it to Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1619
- …Catholic, having journeyed to the faith in 1995 after some fifteen years of Atheism and Agnosticism, and exploration of every major religion I could find once I KNEW God existed. My personal proof of God’s existence is unassailable
- …Conservative. Absolutely not Republican. Once a Liberal and a Democrat…I registered to vote in 1988 when Jesse Jackson spoke to me and helped me do so.
- …a business owner. I own an LLC with my wife one of my best friends. That company in turn runs some others. I have run a computer services company since February 12, 1996, and a professional training organization since 1993.
- …a Free-Market Capitalist. Unapologetically, I can show you in conversation (sound bite blogs aren’t very good for this sort of thing unless you read a LOT of the archives as we go along) that the free-market and capitalism work for anything you want to do, and that the only thing that makes it fail is government intervention.
- …Straightforward. I’m known for talking about the elephant in the middle of the room when nobody else will.
- …pretty uncomfortable with confrontation. But I put myself out there for disagreement when I believe passionately about something. This blog will test my mettle, I am sure.
- …CDO. I know it should say “OCD” but I prefer them the letters to be in alphabetical order!
My obsessive compulsiveness is really mostly in my head, I think (!), like counting things and such. - …challenged by anxiety and depression. I think I keep those in check most of the time, due to some great help from Lucinda Basset, but when I don’t I rely on my wife who sets me straight.
- …diabetic, which has probably led to my anxiety and depression. I was diagnosed on November 2, 1982, and have been taking insulin ever since. Should I ever get into the topic of stem cell research, I hope you will have read this bullet-point first!
I was born in New Hampshire and lived there for a year before we moved to Vermont for the next five years of my life. I then moved to the Pittsburgh, PA suburb of Glenshaw with my dad and three siblings to live with my Grandmother after dad and my mother divorced. We lived there during the Bicentennial and then moved to Delaware, Ohio in early 1977, where we lived on the south poor, and black side of town (where I learned to breakdance, rap, and walk my dirty clothes to the laundromat a mile away) until October of 1985, when I moved with my dad (I was the only kid left in the house) to San Antonio, Texas. I left there a year and a half later to go to college, first at The University of Texas in Austin and then Texas A&M University…eight years of college and 254 hours but no degree…though I’m qualified for three if I ever finish the last 11 hours, which I promised my Mother-In-Law I would do someday. I learned in college what I needed to know, and can point to the very spot on campus where I decided to start my own business.
There is alcoholism and sexual abuse in my family history, though not with me or my wife and children. I carry scars from that, but not as many as some of my family members have. I grew up on welfare, no television, and for two winters in Ohio had no heat…and no hot water for many other years. My Grandmother paid the mortgage on our house while I was growing up, and the vacation I remember most was going to New Mexico on Food Stamps and Grandmother’s Mobile Credit Card.
I was a drinking, carousing, fornicating misogynist in college, and smoked pot during that time…twice. And the second time I just wound up hyperventilating. In my entire adult life, I have only been able to pay my bills on time within the last four months, and I have been working for money in some way since I was eleven. Some of that work included being a paper boy; a crew training at McDonald’s (both franchise and McOpCo); a runner for a lawyer; ice, T-Shirt, pizza and photo lab delivery; radio advertising sales; on-air radio personality; computer sales; cell phone outside sales; printing company sales manager; motivational speaker; business owner…and lots of stuff in between.
As time goes on and you continue to visit and read my posts, I think you’ll find that I’m just an average guy…which is why I call these American Writes…
They are things we all have.
My hopes for this blog are to generate honest, open, clean and unhurried or mean conversation about current events and historical perspectives. I’d love to see comments on each post, and have thousands of regular followers readers and participants. It would be nice to generate some speaking leads from my commentary, though I don’t doubt that my commentaries could easily drive some potential business away.
Most of all, my goal here is to be honest and practice The Golden Rule, summed up best in my personal motto:
We are not responsible for the
Legacy of our History;
We are responsible for the
Heritage of our Posterity.
