Unpredictable Times Are Upon Us!

This is an important topic that every American should be thinking about because it affects all of us. America has become a divided country. I’m not too fond of politics, and I don’t pick sides. I’m not a Democrat or a Republican; I’m just a citizen concerned about this country and its direction. 

I vote for a person, not for a party. I also believe we should have another party, called Independents, to split the votes. We need another, better choice.

Life is an exciting journey and where we end up is mostly up to us but, not always. There are some things that we can’t control, and we have to take those things one day at a time and try to work out the kinks as we go along.

I was born in Budapest, Hungary, and my family escaped communism. We ended up in the United States as legal immigrants. We lived in Vermont for about a year and eventually settled in New Jersey. 

When I finished seventh grade in Newark, New Jersey, my parents decided to send me to Germany to attend a private Hungarian high school so I could learn how to read and write in my language and learn more about my culture. 

I didn’t want to go, but I had no choice. My parents were always working and had little time to spend with me. They wanted me to stay out of trouble and not get involved with the wrong crowd.

I spent three years in Germany, and every Easter and Christmas, I would spend time in a different country with one of my classmates’ families. I traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. During the summer I would come home to the USA to be with my family. 

While attending school in Europe, I had some challenging times, but I would call them life experiences. Looking back, I must admit that it was an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Most Americans or their relatives come from a different culture, and we are known as the melting pot. Most Americans also take their freedom for granted and have no idea what they have because they have never seen how other people in other countries live.

When I returned to America after spending three years in Germany, I was a junior in high school. In my first year, I was an outstanding student. When I became a senior, and it was time to graduate, I couldn’t because I didn’t have English I and II, so I stayed back one year. I also couldn’t graduate the following year because I needed Math I and II. I asked to take a test because school in Germany was a lot more difficult, but I was told they could not do that.

By then, my grades had gone down, and I was demoralized, so I quit and got a full-time job. Of course, my parents didn’t know. I carried my schoolbooks every morning, and they thought I was going to school, but actually, I was going to work.

After a few months of being absent from school, an attendance officer came to my house and asked my parents where I was. I came home for lunch that day when he was there, and the shit hit the fan.

My mother was disappointed and crying, saying I would grow up to be a nobody if I didn’t finish high school. Then, I started crying and told her I would go back, which I did for a few days.

I met with my guidance counselor, who asked me what I would do. I told her I was going to join the Marines. She answered that I should because I would never become successful in civilian life.

I laughed at her and left. The following week, I went downtown to the draft board with a friend to join the Marines. We couldn’t join because we were both born in a communist country and had to wait six months for a background check. It was the same with the Navy and the Air Force.

As we were about to walk out of the building, an Army recruiter yelled at us to come talk with him. I ended up volunteering to be drafted, and I was in the US Army within 14 days. My friend waited a year and joined the US Air Force.

Everything worked out because I got my GED while in the Army. When I got out I went to college on the GI Bill and had no student loans. I graduated with a BA in Economics, got into sales and management, and moved to California for 15 years.

I was living in San Diego when the Internet came into our lives, and within a few months, I landed a job as a government contractor working as a linguist during the Bosnia peacekeeping mission in Hungary, the country where I was born. After seven months, I became the Deputy Site Manager for all the translators in Hungary and Croatia.

When the Bosnia Mission ended, I took some time off and then spent 18 months in Iraq again as a Site Manager in charge of translators. I arrived in Baghdad the day they hanged Saddam Hussein.

The local national translators in Iraq who worked for me, before they were hired never wore shoes, only sandals made out of car tires. The US military provided them with shoes and clothes. They did not have any quality education. Many were kind and friendly and appreciated that they were hired, but some resented us being in their country.

Bosnia was a different story, but it was also a war started by a sick politician. Have you had experiences like the ones I mentioned? A few people reading this might have, but most have not.

I mention some of my experiences to give you an idea of what I went through. Most of it was good and ended well, but we live in a different world today.

Our border is not protected, and millions of illegals come into our country every year. They get free telephones, credit cards, and health insurance, which the American public pays for. Not to mention the fentanyl and terrorists coming over the border as well.

Social Security is on the verge of running out of money, and the national debt is $34 trillion. What kind of leadership got us into this mess? A few days ago, I heard on the news that all the politicians in Washington belong to the top 1% of Americans in terms of wealth and income. That is not what they were elected for.

There will be elections in November, and the current president is senile. Most of the time, he doesn’t know where he is, and the ex-president is currently on trial and being investigated for all the bad things he has done. Politics is a dirty business.

There is a war in Ukraine, and Putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons; Iran recently bombed Israel, North Korea is supplying Russia with weapons, and China is supporting Russia. China also wants to take back Taiwan.

With all these things going on, the stock market is very volatile, and the government is talking about having digital currency replace the dollar to control us and our money. 

Shootings and robberies are happening every day all over the country, and everything is out of control. Many cities have homeless people living on the streets. This is not the life I expected for my family to have, especially my son.

I mentioned some things that I experienced, and everything worked out, but today looks pretty uncertain. Politicians need to do their job, but there is a great deal of corruption, and it’s all about the money. Who do you think will have to pay the $34 trillion to reduce the debt? You can be sure that it’s not the politicians.

Oh, and by the way, there is a new law that you might or might not have heard about. The Department of Labor has a New Independent Contractor Rule. They want to eliminate Independent Contractors. They want everyone to be employees.

I have been fortunate to have lived in many countries and traveled to many places. But I’ve learned that the most difficult thing to find in life is someone you can trust. Politicians are at the top of my list that can’t be trusted in any country.

I hope that things work out for America, and only time will tell, but we have some tough times ahead!

May God Bless America!