By Frosty Wooldridge
July 28, 2022
One of the worst mistakes a journalist can make is to get the facts wrong. It degrades his or her credibility, and it embarrasses the publisher. So, what can I do to make it right? In last Monday’s column, ( America in 2022: Leaderless, Rudderless, Confused, Muddled, NWV, July 25, 2022), I mistakenly said that House Member Liz Cheney, (R-WY) was the “wife” of Vice President Dick Cheney who served under President G.W. Bush. She, in fact, is the daughter of Dick Cheney. She’s heading the January 6th inquiry now proceeding in Washington DC.
Quite a few of my long-time readers caught my mistake. They were nice mostly, and others abrupt. I appreciate one of my readers, Sharon, saying that she didn’t want me to lose credibility that I’ve built up over the past 30 years. Many readers didn’t catch my mistake. I apologize to you who noted my mistake, and to you who missed my mistake. Thank you for calling me on it. It will make be a better journalist.
For the record, I’ve never cared for Dick Cheney because of his warmongering, and profiting from his major company called Halliburton—that profits from war goods production. In other words, the whole family has profited from those two 20-year wars that accomplished nothing but death, destruction and carnage for their people and ours. I still cringe with the fact that 114,000 of our finest soldiers committed suicide during those 20-year wars. I still suffer anxiety over so many needless deaths caused by men in high places that considered our troops “cannon fodder.”
Any decent, ethical, and/or principled general or DC politician that knew about those horrible deaths would have taken charge to vacate those useless wars. That’s a lot of kids that decided to end their lives because of their service to their country in the Marines and Army. Think of the pain for their final choice, and then, the suffering of their wives and families.
The reason I feel all of this deeply stems from my time in the U.S. Army during Vietnam. Again, a 10-year war that was created by the military industrial complex corporate heads who pocketed all the millions of dollars for their bank accounts while 58,479 died over in Nam. I don’t have the numbers on suicides during Vietnam, but you can bet it was into the thousands. In fact, I researched to find:
(Source: www.pubmed.gov) “Unconfirmed reports that 50,000 or more Vietnam veterans have committed suicide, give the impression that these veterans are at exceedingly high risk of suicide compared with other veterans and nonveterans of the same age.”
We slaughtered an estimated 2.3 million Vietnamese, but Dick Cheney and family made horrendous amounts of money. Tell me you aren’t appalled by our leaders!
Why I Carry A Different Perspective
First of all, I want to thank my mother and father for bringing me up with academic discipline, purpose, love, value of hard work, understanding and enthusiastic drive. If every kid could have a Dad like mine, wow, such a great start in life. It really gets down to that family unit. If you have a good Mom who loves and supports you, you’re going to be a good kid and a good person. When you have a great Dad, you’re going to be a great man.
That doesn’t mean that you have to be rich or famous. It means you’re a good person to your core. You think critically. You speak wisely. You learn your lessons. You maintain a balance. You are kind. You are thoughtful.
After busting my rear-end through college, and after the Army, I earned a teaching certificate. I taught in the inner city, but fled within two years because it was hopeless. You’re seeing the results in cities like Detroit, Chicago, LA, NYC and beyond where over 70 percent of the kids are illiterate. If you listen to social media reports, the majority of kids today, even college kids, don’t know the name of our first president, what the Civil War entailed, or who is their current senators or House member. They don’t even know the reason for the 4th of July.
Furthermore, they don’t care. You’ve got more kids today disparaging the finest country in the world as to food, water, schooling, jobs and endless opportunity—for those willing to work, strive and participate. You’ve got more kids living in their cell phone rather than participating in this world. Have you noticed how petty, inane and downright stupid most of the programs produced for television are today? Why? Average reading level for Americans today is 6th grade. At the same time, over 42 million Americans cannot read, write or figure out simple math problems!
Another reason I possess a different perspective stems from 30 summers of driving a United Van Lines furniture 18-wheeler. You have never experienced hard labor until you move furniture. One hundred yard “long carries’ with 10,000 pounds…oh my God…back-breaking work for 12 hours…then drive back to Detroit for 25 hours to load 20,000 pounds on Monday. Steps, basements, second and third floors, New York City traffic jams, Atlanta beltway frozen traffic, Chicago’s insanely polluted air along with fear of being shot, having to hire someone to stay on the van to make sure thieves wouldn’t steal the TV’s. Try driving a huge 53-foot trailer through the suburbs and into LA’s nightmare traffic.
I watched it all get worse in our cities as we jumped by 130 million people from the 1965 Immigration Reform Act that has inundated our country to the point of collapse both environmentally, sociologically and unsustainability-wise. I know you’ve read my dire predictions for three decades. Unfortunately, they are coming truer and truer, daily.
And then my perspective changed from my continent-hopping bicycle travels. When I reached Asia, my entire worldview changed. I’ve been preaching, speaking, writing and educating Americans since that time in China, India and Bangladesh in 1984. What a nightmare and crush of people piled on people!
And yet, after three books on America’s overpopulation crisis, Immigration’s Unarmed Invasion: Deadly Consequences 2004, America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans 2009, America’s Overpopulation Crisis: Blindsiding Future Generations 2021, nothing has changed. We’re still galloping over a demographic cliff.
It’s like no one even blinks at catastrophic climate destabilization crisis, species extinction rates, wildfires, droughts, loss of quality of life, and the fact that our country follows the same path as China’s and India. I’m beside myself because I’ve already witnessed what’s coming to America. With another 100 million people added within 28 years, none of it is pretty. I actually feel sorry for future generations.
So, there you have it—a bit of my personal history. During my lifespan, I’ve done my best to be a good man, to be an honest man, to be a good citizen, husband and friend. I own my mistakes and I apologize for my mistakes. Thank you for your kindness. God bless and keep you and yours, Frosty Wooldridge, Golden, CO
© 2022 Frosty Wooldridge – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Frosty: frostyw@juno.com
