Let’s just call this my “once and for all clear the air” column.<\/p>\n
In my very first MidWeek <\/I>column some eight years or so ago, I pledged to you, my readers, to always tell the truth – as best I know it – to eschew political correctness, and to resist pressures, from whatever source, to compromise my personal values and beliefs.<\/p>\n
Over the years I have screwed up a few times, like getting my Central America geography wrong, or in the case of a recent column failing to distinguish the difference between oil and “fossil fuels,” for which one of MidWeek<\/I>‘s letter writers – who always have their slings and arrows at the ready (as they should) – was quick to remind me. In neither case did it change the point of my column.<\/p>\n
All of MidWeek<\/I>‘s columnists are unique according to their diverse backgrounds and experiences, and our views and opinions reflect that.<\/p>\n
What makes my views and opinions unique? For starters, I was taught as a youngster to be accountable for my choices, and to take responsibility for their outcomes … and to expect the same from others.<\/p>\n
I was taught that whatever outcomes may be, life isn’t always fair, and that as my late mother-in-law used to say, “You gotta just bloom where you’re planted.”<\/p>\n
I was taught the value and dignity of an honest day’s work.<\/p>\n
I was taught appreciation for my freedoms and for the men and women of our military who protect them.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of my 28-year career in the U.S. Navy, I took my military oath of enlistment very seriously: “I, Gerald Coffee, do solemnly swear that I will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”<\/p>\n
As many of you readers know, I spent seven of those 28 years in the Communist prisons of North Vietnam, resisting daily the efforts of my enemy there to forsake my oath.<\/p>\n
During that ordeal I learned that our “cold war enemy,” communism, controls its people with a constant barrage of lies, slander and deceit, and that there is no dignity of the individual.<\/p>\n
While there, I witnessed, up-close and personal, the grim alternative to a free and democratic system. Not surprisingly, my love and respect for the constitutional freedoms and values we enjoy here in America compounded daily.<\/p>\n
Even though I left active Navy duty 27 years ago, I continue to take that oath very seriously – to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”<\/p>\n
Obviously, I can no longer do that flying combat missions from aircraft carriers, so I speak in public and I write in MidWeek<\/I>. And although I prefer to speak and write of more uplifting things, I am compelled by a sense of “true faith and allegiance” to do all that I can to reveal to my listeners and to you, my readers, how Barack Obama is America’s No. 1 domestic enemy.<\/p>\n
During his election campaign four years ago, he asserted that America “needs fundamental change,” and that’s what he meant with the slogan “Change.”<\/p>\n
Now, in effecting his changes, he is making our country weaker militarily, poorer economically, more dependent financially and energy-wise, more divided domestically, and less respected and trusted internationally.<\/p>\n
He has come to pose the greatest danger to America’s security, historical values, freedoms and future that we have ever known.<\/p>\n
And that’s where this columnist is coming from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let’s just call this my “once and for all clear the air” column. In my very first MidWeek column some..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coffee-break","category-political-views-hawaii"],"yoast_head":"\n