Lurked around here for a bit, joined, and then posted some blog info in another forum--but without doing a proper introduction.
I'm just an ordinary American. ex-military, former law enforcement, and retired corporate executive trying to figure out what to do when I grow up.
Spending more time with some of the charities we support, I'm a volunteer pilot for Grace Flight/Angel Flight as well as Young Eagles, avid sport-shooter who also reloads and casts his own bullets, and enjoys a good day out on the boat.
I get tired of hearing "what we're supposed to hear" and get sick of being told "what we're supposed to think" and "what's really important" from all the talking heads in and around the Beltway in DC. A few years before I retired (and I'm still relatively young--not even in my 60's), I wrote a couple of columns in some business publications under the moniker of "An Ordinary American" and they were points of view from everyday, average Americans just like me.
The response was interesting--and plentiful.
Few years ago, I started An Ordinary American blog, but didn't put too much effort or thought into it and the response reflected it. About six weeks ago, the wife and I sat down and re-did it and pulled out some old columns I'd written back in my corporate-world days and put some new stuff in, solicited opinions and thoughts from friends and colleagues who think like us, and put it all together.
The response has been mind-boggling. Thousands of hits a day and still going up.
And what this tells me is just how fragmented our "united" country has become.
I don't know how the view is from the lofty perches that our conservative "spokespeople" sit on because I have no interest in squatting on a lofty perch. I live in the real world. A world in which there is a mortgage, grocery and utility bills, medical concerns. . . a world in which we're tired at the end of the day because we worked our butts off.
Our (so-called) leaders, from both sides of the political spectrum, have forgotten how we everyday, ordinary Americans live.
I think the Tea Party reminded them this past election, but there is a lot of reminding to do.
Which is why I enjoy discussion forums like this one.
--AOA