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Remember our veterans

This Friday, November 11, veterans across the country will be honored on Veteran’s Day.  I found this piece in a newsletter I receive that gives voice to our veterans.   The author is unknown.

“It is the veteran, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.  It is the veteran, and not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.  It is the veteran, and not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.  It is the veteran, not the campus organizer or protestor, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.  It is the veteran who salutes the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, that allows the protestor to burn the flag.  All gave some ? some gave all.”

Remember to thank a veteran this week.

DEATH OF A DEMOCRACY

This article was sent to me by a friend.  I do not mean it as any kind of statement, but with the election this week, I offer it as a ‘think-piece’, if you will.  Tuck it away and think about it as you go to the polls on Tuesday to elect our officials

This was taken from “The Decline and  Fall of the Athenian Republic” by Alexander Fraser Tytler.  Tytler’s piece said, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury.  From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury;  with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship.  The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200years.  These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;   from spiritual faith to great courage;  from courage to liberty;  from liberty to abundance;  from abundance to selfishness;  from selfishness to complacency;  from complacency to apathy;  from apathy to dependency;  from dependency back into bondage.”

Looking into Tytler a little further, I did find, according to Wikipedia, “Tytler does admit that there are individual exceptions to the rule, and that he is ready to allow “that this form of government is the best adapted to produce, though not the most frequent, yet the most striking, examples of virtue in individuals.“”

BEVERLY-WATERFORD POOL FUNDRAISER

The Beverly-Waterford Pool Foundation’s Twelve Days of Christmas raffle is under way. Raffle tickets can be purchased at the Waterford Commercial and Savings Bank, Lisa’s Sweet Stop, or B & W Pharmacy for $25 each.  This enters the buyer into a chance to win one of twelve fantastic prizes.  Each day during the first twelve days of December, a prize will be drawn at different local participating businesses live on Facebook at 4 p.m.

How fantastic are the prizes?  Here’s the list so you can decide for yourself:   December 1 – $300 Skinner Firestone Gift Card;  December 2 – Diamond Cluster;  December 3 – Apple Watch;  December 4 – Kitchen Aid Mixer;  December 5 – Henry Golden Boy .22 gun;  December 6 – $300 Lakeside Gift Card;  December 7 – Flat Screen TV;  December 8 – Xbox One;  December 9 – GoPro Camera;  December 10 – Bose Wireless Headphones;  December 11 – $250 B & W Pharmacy Gift Card;  December 12 – $500 cash.

Take a chance and support the Beverly-Waterford Pool Foundation.

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Sue Sampson is a longtime columnist for the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.

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