Louis Roney: Ponderings

• A very savvy conservative New York pal of mine who knows what’s going on in the Big Apple called me to say that the media controlled the last presidential election, and are painting the future today exactly as Obama dictates. The radio and TV up North are saying “Obama” non-stop, and the newspapers give him their most valuable space in every edition. How can one know who is really controlling the media?

• The annual Christmas musical party at our house Dec. 22 featured the top-notch pianism of Lynn Peghiny, and the beautiful singing of Christie Hudson, David Martin and Kathryn Kilger, along with much lusty caroling by all present. On Dec. 28 we enjoyed a great party at Carolyn and Ned Cooper’s.

• In World War II, I was a U.S. Navy gunnery officer for four years. The Japanese threw everything they had at us in the South Pacific, but you know the final happy ending. Today I keep a pistol in my home and have a permit to carry it, but I have never taken the gun out of its hiding place or fired it. The Second Amendment is my personal protection should any “bad man” with a gun ever get into our home. I am not afraid of any of my neighbors who may keep guns, but I am damned afraid of armed thieves. The only thing that can stop a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun. If the people of this country are ever foolish enough to sign away their Second Amendment rights, good men will no longer have the power to stand up to bad men. It’s as simple as that. Bad men will always have guns — you can count on that!

• The U.S. has visibly weakened in the past few years. Prediction: The president will continue to ask for more and more money. It seems he will be satisfied only if he reaches the point where he has bankrupted us. He will continue to lower our national standards so that we are no more than a Third World nation. George Soros may be the long-ago driving architect behind this architecture, but there are many others. Of late, “we the people” have often betrayed ourselves, because instead of voting for our “best” interests we have voted the political interests of those whom we have supported unwisely. It has been accurately said that democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others. An election is a mirror of our conglomerate selves. We voted a lamentable president in because too many of our thinking citizens either failed to vote at all, or fell for the lies and baloney cooked up by a self-seeking political leadership. Power is what the pols crave, and what gives them the means to do our great country harm. I believe we have once again traded our birthright for a mess of pottage by giving power to those whose moral intentions we may now rightfully distrust. And it will be a long and painful wait until we have a chance to correct our folly. In the meantime, the rains will fall and the sun will shine, and life will grind slowly on without much national progress. Those whose arcane wish is to see the U.S. converted into a relatively inconsequential country, such as those which exist south of us, must delight in seeing us fall obediently into line. The ultra-left leadership may now be keeping thinking American patriots awake at night …

About Roney: Harvard’42—Distinguished Prof, Em.—UCF 2004 Fla. Alliance for the Arts award (Assisted by beautiful wife Joy Roney)