Nick Fickling
April 30, 2008

Those making the news seem to forget April Fool’s was weeks ago.

Apparently there are those seeking to allow military veterans, and others with firearms training, to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. How crazy is that? Even “trained” students can use a gun to “improve” their grades. Don’t many returning veterans have serious mental issues? What is properly trained anyway?

If relaxed, gun savvy Dick Cheney can shoot his buddy by mistake then imagine the havoc he could wreak under stress. Would professors feel happy teaching armed students (or their impressionable copycat siblings packing heat in grade school)?

Campus shootings continue and proposals for change include arming students, reviewing gun law enforcement and reconciling legal differences between states. So no real change is coming anytime soon, just more church services, memorials, hand-wringing and prayer. College kids are the future elite and so their wanting to pack heat and cling to guns in the face of school shootings means that maybe Obama was not as elitist when he made similar observation about small-town folks enduring economic hardship. A blog comment from an ordinary Joe seems more appropriate here: “Hell, the only real problem with [Obama’s] statement is that he said ‘bitter' instead of 'really f…ing pissed off,’ which is a much more accurate portrayal of the emotions at play here.”

Then McCain suggests suspending federal gas tax for the summer driving season.

What is this man smoking? He claims to be conservative; against spending and big government. His proposal would generate loads of government paperwork just so we can feel good about summer gas bills, and have more cash in our pockets come the election (sorry about that cynicism). Sadly, at a time when our leaders should be telling us to tighten our belts to pay for the cost of the Iraq War, “McBush” tells us that Iraq, and everything else, can be put on credit and paid for later. OK, so he is not good at sums, but he must realize that today’s spending is tomorrow’s tax hike; any mother running a household budget knows that. Can’t he see that $3 billion-a-day Iraq War spending, when combined with seven years of government excess and tax cuts, merely delays the day when taxes must rise?

Silly me, I forget that at election time politicians say what the electorate wants to hear and forget about responsibility and leadership. So am I saying that Senator McBush is lacking in leadership? Well, yes I am. Leadership is getting people to feel good about accepting or performing necessary, but unpopular, things, it is not about irresponsible spending and then handing a mess over to the next guy. Leadership is easier in good times; harder when things are tough. In the current recession, with an energy crisis, housing crisis, financial meltdown, infrastructure challenges, and the burgeoning cost of the Iraq War, our next president will only be able to offer us belt-tightening and hardship, or “blood, sweat and tears” as Churchill put it. It will require a true leader to carry the people along on the road to recovery, accepting hardship together with a smile on our faces. I do not see such leadership in McCain.

And Clinton and Obama worry me too when they foolishly promise no tax increase for those with incomes under $200,000.

Then we have the recent Philadelphia debate. I am appalled that lapel pin-wearing, or some such ridiculously trivial issue, may decide our president.

The next decade is going to be tough and America needs a steady and intelligent leader who has sound judgment and personal integrity; not some flag-waving, crowd-pandering, trigger-happy, God-is-on-our-side, self-absorbed, arrogant zealot.

Nick Fickling is retired from the British military and lives in the Vail Valley. E-mail him at fickling@vail.net or editor@vailtrail.com.