Once upon a time, parents behaved at youth games

As a 14-year-old Little League umpire, only once did I have a parent become so vocally abusive that I stopped the game and had the person ejected from the premises.

He had to physically leave the area, or I was going to either suspend the game or have the home team declared the winner.

He left and the game went on. That was the only problem in which I actually had to have a person removed from a game. All other problems were either minor, or I would inform the coach to keep his team’s fans in check.

And this was in 1969.

Our beef isn’t that Trump won; it’s that he’s damaging our nation

Why is it that Republicans think all is good and are not worried about our nation’s safety and its democracy?

Our president is a puppet to Putin. A third world war is more possible today than in almost any other time in history, and the Republicans accuse those of us who care about the health of our democracy of merely being upset that Trump won.

No, that is not it.

We are upset that life as we know it could end.

We’re teaching our young people that everything should be free

The state of Arizona has become a very bad example for children. We tell children, if you dont have backpacks, dont worry we will get them for you.

Each year about this time we hear someone on the TV or radio begging for everyone to get the children backpacks and school supplies.

I know we cant return to the days when parents who have children provided for them. Our parents would say if you dont have a backpack, mow some lawns, deliver papers, take someone’s garbage out for them, rake some leaves.

Yes, we learned to do what we needed to get what we needed.

Today we show the kids how to get free food, how to get a gift during the holidays, etc., etc.

I own my own business and at least five times a week people will ask how they can get our service for free. When we say we give to our charity, they become offended.

There is so much expected by many that someone will provide for them. This creates laziness. When something is free, people do less and want more. We are making a city of so many with their hands out.

We never had trouble in past questioning U.S. intelligence

Is it really treason to question our intelligence agencies?

I’m old enough to remember the “best and the brightest” during the Vietnam war providing us misleading and, in all likelihood, false information.

Or how about the weapons of mass destruction which we never seemed to locate in Iraq. If we weren’t lied to they still got it wrong.

How about the CIA interrogations and the prisoner treatment in Iraq?

We can hate Trump and his conduct, but the day we let that blind us or cause us to not question authority is the day we have lost our country to the deep state.