My View
BY DON SORCHYCH | SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
• The flood
• The primary
• NRA
• Schools
Just a word of explanation. Shari Jo and I were stranded for eight days on the west side of Cave Creek thanks to raging flood waters. When it receded enough we were able to hike across in rubber boots but that is nothing akin to driving across. A friend loaned us his car so we had transportation to town. In the meanwhile we communicated with Maricopa County Flood Control, Cave Creek Planning and Cahava Springs, all of us seeking adherence to 404 Federal Regulations.
You might think a person working in the flood plain without approval would be punished but it instead the land owner would be punished – even though the work is mainly on an easement granted by the land owner giving us permission to cross the flood plain. Another easement holder did major work in the flood plain without the land owner's knowledge after a past major flood.
As a consequence, the Cahava Springs President, Mark Stapp, sent out a communiqué explaining no work was to be done without permission and adherence to 404 Clean Water Act. We were stranded because although we have approval to trespass on Cahava Springs property to reach 48th Street we are blocked by boulders stacked on their property by a neighbor.
As a consequence of our dilemma Maricopa County Flood Control gave us emergency permission to create a way out. Bill Payne used our tractor to create a pathway which is entirely suitable for our use. We are set until the next big flood and I hope that is years from now.
Elections
Starting at the top, Doug Ducey is a Democrat away from becoming our new Governor. We had chosen Andy Thomas who was the most conservative of the lot. All the candidates wore the conservative label but most are RINOs. I am afraid of two things, one, he is a RINO and the other is the problems with Cold Stone franchises are exaggerated. I am already receiving claims of that nature by Democrats, obviously to bolster their candidate, one scary Fred Duvall. Do we need another Janet Napolitano?
For Attorney General our choice of Mark Brnovich paid off. In some ways I am sorry to see Tom Horne go, but he created most of the problems that did him in. We believe Brnovich will beat well-funded democrat Felicia Rottelina in November. Help his campaign if you can.
State Rep. Dist. 1: We split with our choice Noel Campbell winning but sadly RINO Linda Gray slipped in. Of all people our own so-called conservative Councilman Ernie Bunch endorsed her.
For Secretary of State we endorsed Justin Pierce but RINO Michele Reagan may be our governor if something untoward were to happen to the governor. That is how we got Brewer.
Our choice, Jeff Dewit, edged out two tough RINO candidates for State Treasurer.
With Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal's support of Common Core he signed his fate and Conservative Diane Douglas will now face a Democrat. Unfortunately, the superintendent has no direct control over curriculum which is desperately in need of modification.
The two choices for the Corporation Commission were ours and both Tom Forese and Doug Little prevailed. It was a delight to see Vernon Parker at the bottom of voters’ choices. Parker seems only interested in tax supported jobs and gave us Kristen Sinema in a Republican district. Maybe he should move to California or New York. It is sad that we as a red state now have five Democrats and only four Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The NRA
I have pleaded in this column that gun owners, outdoorsmen and hunters support the Constitution and the Second Amendment by getting a NRA membership. Last I looked annual membership is only $35 per year and now NRA has about 4.5 million members while about 70 million Americans own guns.
I still feel strongly about gun owners becoming members, but there is always room for improvement especially in their handling of political endorsements. I had a chat with a long time supporter of NRA, who also owns and operates a gun store. They had the same concern about political endorsements which they brought it up to NRA executives. Our concerns were verified in that the only basis of their endorsements was support of the Second Amendment. In our minds their endorsements should be consistent with a strong conservative view, which of course would eliminate RINOS and most Democrats. Bye John McCain, Jan Brewer and hosts of RINOs.
With increased membership they would be able to dig deeper into issues and broaden the basis for their endorsements.
Schools
There are so many ways to change the wrongheaded way this country is handled and the improvement needs to start in our schools. We published a Guest Editorial by Joe Otto in the August 27 issue entitled “Student suspended for saying “Bless you” in class!”
The teacher was furious and said there was no Godly speaking in her class and sent the girl to the school principal. The girl who said "bless you" suffered a suspension for the rest of the day.
This happened in Tennessee which is supposedly in the Bible Belt. The teacher also had a whiteboard list of which terms could not be spoken in her class. One was, "I do not know." Another was "bless you."
That is just one small incident, but in the attached blog many of the stories were all over the map. Numerous comments were from parents who said, "Why in the world don't you home teach or send your children to a Catholic School?"
It is time to teach kids about the great country we are and why. Let’s resurrect Patriotism!
