Let's be perfectly clear about one thing...

I have never, EVER said in conversation, e mail or post, that I thought the United States was on the back nine, or any kind of a downhill slide.

My fatalism is not from a sense of despair concerning the state of the Union... It is an acceptance that we, as a Nation, are doomed to repeat ourselves. It has all happened before, and it will all happen again. The thing that makes us great is that we are not looking at the end of an empire, or the end of a reign, or a regime... We are merely looking at the tide going out and coming back in.

My grandparents KNEW, without a shred of doubt, that FDR was the destroyer of the Republic. Their grandparents more than likely felt the same way about Lincoln and Davis. Their grandparents saw the meddling of Madison in foreign affairs as an invitation of doom. And their grandparents, (yes, crazy as it sounds, we get the family tree back THIS far on Mom's side) saw rebellion against the British as the end of the world. My parents argued over Nixon, Carter, and Reagan. Titus and I grew up KNOWING that within the time of our generation the inevitable world war would see NATO and the Warsaw Pact wreak havoc on the planet.

None of which, by the way, happened, or spelled the doom of our Republic.

The strength, the unyielding beauty of our nation is the fact that one man cannot bring it down. There is nothing our sitting president can do that cannot be undone. And the unyielding beauty is our sitting president's days in office are numbered. In 40 months, two weeks and two days he is done.

And then something else will come up that will be the end of the Republic.

I am no fan of the current administration. But I get numb to the hyperbole. I am tired of listening to educated, intelligent people telling me that our nation is doomed. This nation has survived far, far worse than THIS president and his administration's policies.

Does this excuse my absence from the forum? No. And for that I apologize.