We are four days away from knowing who our next president will be.  I’m not even going to take a guess.  Though Romney has gained steam and, at the time of this writing, it looks like there’s no stopping him, we just don’t know what Obama has up his sleeve. The two campaigns couldn’t be more opposite then they are right now.

Romney/Ryan supports smaller government and bigger business. Obama/Biden supports big government, tax and spend, and expanding socialism.

Romney/Ryan supports the idea that, given a much needed hand up, folks can pull themselves up by the bootstraps.  If government would jut butt out, small businesses can play a large role in improving our crippled economy. ObamaCare must be stopped.

Obama/Biden supports the idea that, the government is there to make the playing field level by taking from the evil rich and trickling down to the poor in for form of government handouts. Raising taxes on “the rich” is at the top of their to-do list. And making sure that every woman who wants an abortion can get one at no charge is also a priority.

Romney/Ryan leans toward citizens taking personal responsibility for making things happen.  Obama/Biden seems to be saying, “You need to let us take care of your needs.”

At this point, there should be no “undecideds.”  If you are undecided, I encourage you to visit each of the candidates’ websites and side-up.  Go vote. If you are not registered, or don’t plan to vote, you have no room to complain when things don’t go your way. 

No matter who wins the election, America deserves just what she gets. I believe that no one is placed in a position of authority except that which God has established (Rom. 13:1). I know that not everyone believes in the God of the Bible. However, a lot can be gleaned from its words.  There is a lot of wisdom packed into its pages.

For instance, when the Israelites clamored for a human king over God as their leader, they were warned what to expect.

This was part of God’s warning through Samuel: The king who will reign over you will take your sons…and some will be made commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties…others will make weapons of war. Sounds like the draft.

Your…cattle and donkeys, he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. We work almost half a year before our money is our own. And we pay much more than ten percent.

Samuel then says, “When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.” (1 Samuel 8:18)

I’m sure there will be much crying Tuesday, no matter who wins this election.  

No man, party, Democrat or Republican, is going to fix what’s wrong with our society. If that’s what we’re expecting, we’ll be severely disappointed no matter who wins.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com

presidential election is about bigger picture

For some people the 2012 election has boiled down to protecting women’s reproductive rights.  Seriously? Is that all we are dealing with here? 

At the democratic National Convention women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke spewed out a bunch of nonsense about the threat of women’s reproductive rights being on the line. That’s a bunch of fear-mongering hooey. No president can make abortion illegal, and Congress and the Supreme Court won’t.

We have had four years of money pouring into extremist social issues, and what do we have to show for it? A runaway deficit, a depressed economy, foreclosures and job losses like we’ve never seen before, and a hit on small businesses so hard that many of them won’t recover. Enough is enough.

If I had to choose between a government that would guarantee my daughter a federally-funded abortion-on-demand, or a government that would back off and allow private enterprise to work to allow both of my children to receive a good education and a good job that would provide them with decent medical insurance, I’m going to choose the latter hands down.

We can’t afford to have a community activist in the White House any longer. 

We need a businessman.  We need a person that can turn an economic deficit into a surplus. We don’t need someone to create a bigger divide between blacks and whites, rich and poor, Democrats and Republicans, or Christians and Jews and Muslims. We need someone who can heal the scars and bring people together for the common good; someone who can eliminate this “it’s all about me and my rights” mentality and say, “it’s all about US.” 

We don’t need a president who tries to cover up terrorist attacks on our embassies and ignores the crisis in the Middle East.  We need one who isn’t afraid to show a little superiority and take care of business.

We need a president who can show us how to lend a hand to a weaker brother.  Not by way of government subsidy, but by actually caring for the needs of one another; by supporting charities, crisis pregnancy centers, homeless shelters and churches that reach out to help.  Romney donated nearly $7 to 8 million to charities in 2010 and 2011.

As a country, we suffer from ingrown eyeballs.  We are so busy throwing ourselves a pity party that we trip over people who need our help.  We sit around and wait for the government to fix our problems and they make them worse.  We cry like a spoiled brat because we want federally funded abortions while 46 million people live in poverty.

There has always been rich and poor.  Being successful is not a crime.  Private citizens can do more to help the needy than the government.  Taxing the “rich” does not help the poor.  Obama is not Robin Hood.  Taxes don’t trickle down to the needy. They go into the black hole of government misspending for programs that don’t work.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group.

Can Obama run on his current record and win the 2012 election?

With Republican and National Conventions behind us and campaigning in full swing, I’d like to revisit the 2008 Democratic National Convention and see just how President Obama has since taking office.

On August 28, 2008, President Obama said: “Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less.” The unemployment rate in July of 2008 was 5.8%.  In July 2012, that rate was 8.3%. 

Obama went on to say, “More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet.”

 USAToday.com stated that the foreclosure rate was at 3 million in 2008. According to Newsmax.com, “About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and industry experts say more people will miss payments because of job losses and also loans that exceed the value of the homes they are living in.” This was in January of 2011. Bankforeclosuresale.com says, “With the new foreclosure settlement, critics are suggesting that 2012 could easily exceed 2011’s foreclosure numbers and even compete with 2010 for the worst year on record for the foreclosure crisis.”

Obama stated that the “failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.”  I suppose the same principle would apply to the failed politics of the Obama Administration?

“We (Democrats) measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business…an economy that honors the dignity of work.”  Why are there so many more on unemployment and welfare compensations, then?

The total number of Millionaire households in the US has declined by 129,000 since 2011. Globally, millionaires increased by 175,000. People with money are the ones who take the risks to open a business and hire those in the lower- to middle-class.

“Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small business owners who deserve it. I will cut taxes for 95% of all working families.”  According to Washingtopost.com, if Congress allows the tax rates for the nation’s highest wage earners to expire at the end of this year, millions of small businesses may be forced to cut jobs and wages to the middle class.  So we won’t tax the middle class, we’ll just cause them to lose their jobs.  Good plan, Mr. Obama.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this would drain $607 billion out of the economy next year, pushing us back into a recession. Is this how we “honor the dignity of work”?

According to Forbes.com, Medicaid is expected to grow from $425 billion taxpayer in 2010 to $800 billion by 2018.  And under ObamaCare 85 million Americans will be on Medicare, growing to over 100 million by 2021.

St. George has experienced its share of business downturn. These numbers speak for themselves. You have a chance to speak on November 6.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of The Spectrum and Daily News writers group.  She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com

Dissecting Intolerance

“We are much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family owned business, a family-led business. We are married to our first wives and we give thanks to God for that.” These words were printed in the Baptist Press on July 14th, reportedly said by Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy.

These are the most volatile, intolerant words probably ever spoken though there is not one word showing intolerance.

 Let’s take a look at a few more quotes that evolved since the BP report. Rosanne Barr had this to say, “Anyone who eats at S**t-fil-A deserves to get cancer.”

In a drive-thru video posted on YouTube, one anonymous man berated a Chick-fil-A employee by saying, “I don’t know how you work here. This is a horrible corporation with horrible values.” The cashier responded with a very intolerant, “It’s my pleasure to serve you.”

MSNBC correspondent Jonathan Capehart urged protesters to burglarize the food chain. Now, that’s tolerant and mature. The Daily Show’s John Stewart used words I can’t repeat in this column to show his tolerance toward the company. MSNBC’s reporter Thomas Roberts referred to gay rights supporters who eat at Chick-fil-A as “chicken-eating Judases”.  He was being tolerant of people who share his own views on gay rights. 

In a Torrance Chick-fil-A someone vandalized it posting a picture of a cow and a sign that said, “Tastes like hate.”

Vice President of Marketing, Steve Robinson issued a statement after all the brouhaha saying, Chick-fil-A appreciates all of its customers and “is glad to serve them at any time.” Yep, that sounds pretty hateful.

Then there were the complaints that Chick-fil-A uses a small portion of its profits to support Christian organizations. How intolerant can they be!? Using their own money to support causes they believe in.

Gay activist Luke Montgomery of Los Angeles, said that Jesus Christ never said anything about gay people, and Cathy should open the Bible before he opens his mouth.” He went on to say, “We have separation of church and state. It’s great if they want to have their religion, but it should not interfere with our civil rights.”  Huh? Chick-fil-A is neither a church nor a government entity, and Cathy never mentioned the name of Jesus Christ.

Just for the record, there are places where Jesus addresses the issue by directing us to the Law of Moses. And the Apostle Paul explains things quite clearly in Romans 1. 

But the point here is who has shown the most tolerance? One man shared how God has worked in his own personal life.  That’s all he did.  Never once did he show any distain for anyone else.  He was merely talking about how God had worked in his life. Because of that he has been labeled has a homophobe, among other things, by people who are threatened by his life style. These traditional-family haters remind me of something else I read in the Bible, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.”

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group.

Good commonsense protects our freedom

How many freedoms are Americans willing to sacrifice? How many decisions are we willing to let our government make for us? How many laws are on the books that wouldn’t be there if we all just used commonsense?
Let’s take texting while driving, for example. It’s a national epidemic.  According to The Center for Disease Control, one-third of today’s teens reported in a survey to texting while driving. There ought to be a law. Oh wait, there is. Roughly 44 states have enacted some form of texting-while-driving law. But it’s not just teens who participate in such activity.  I’m amazed at how many adults I see looking down at their laps with one hand on the wheel and their brain disengaged from road.
Other laws that take away our freedoms to use common sense include seat belt laws, public smoking laws, speeding laws, and driving without headlights laws. 
Thinking people will never get cited for violating them.  We really don’t think of them as a lessening of our freedoms.
Let’s take a look at laws that have had to be passed over the centuries that have taken away freedoms.
The second Amendment was ratified in 1791.  Governments have been trying to limit guns ever since, with great success. Gone are the days when Charles Ingalls would grab his shotgun and head out the door to protect his little house on the prairie.
For the most part gun laws have been put in place for our own protection. The National Firearms Act brought about the first major gun control in 1934.  It was established as a direct response to the rise in gangster violence. Since then there has been thousands of gun laws established at the Federal, State and Local levels. Each new law chinks away at our personal freedom to own guns.
During a recent news interview a proponent of open field target shooting was upset because his right to do so is being suppressed during this wicked fire season.  It was determined that some of these fires were caused by such activity.  His comment was something like, “Because of the carelessness of the few we all have to suffer.”
He drove home my point.  It is either because of carelessness, lack of common sense or sheer disrespect for human life that everyone’s rights are winnowed away.  Authorities have to protect us…from us.
The city of St. George made at least two mass telephone calls to residents to let us know that aerial fireworks were prohibited over July 4th due to the high fire danger.  There were still numbskulls shooting off aerial fireworks.  There was even a city-sponsored fireworks show.  Go figure.
As long as we continue to show our lack of commonsense and do stupid things, we will, little-by-little, give our freedoms to make good decisions over to government entities.  Eventually, we will become a people who is comfortable only when someone is thinking for us.  Soon we will become like the characters in Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver. 

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of The Spectrum and Daily News writers group. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com.

Lesson learned: dogs need boundaries, too

We recently made a move from a two-story house in Santa Clara Heights to a single story in St. George, for which my bad knees and neuropathetic feet are very grateful.

After moving we had to reinstate the drip system our Labrador puppy had dismantled at the Santa Clara house when she was a young one.  Winnie celebrated her first birthday last month, and has matured (or at least grown)…somewhat.

Little did we know that while we were repairing her masterpiece of a destruction job in Santa Clara, she was “remodeling” the back yard at the new house more to her liking.  Within a matter of days, Winnie managed to remove all of the drip hoses from the trees, frustrating but fixable.  She then went to work on the bigger job of disconnecting the main sprinkler lines from both the front and back yards.

This was quite a feat considering she had to locate the lines under dirt, rock and paper.  She has a very keen and precise sniffer.

Needless to say, my husband had had enough, and the order of the day was to find a new home for Winnie.  But there are not many folks who want to adopt a juvenile Lab who has a mind of her own and a seemingly less-than-teachable spirit.

Not willing to take her to an animal control shelter, we amended our thinking.  She was no longer allowed in the back yard unsupervised and she would make more trips to doggy daycare. We also reinforced our new sprinkler lines with a six-inch deep ditch, wire mesh, more paper, rocks and dirt, which, by the way, she’s already started to work on.

When we weren’t home, she would stay in the house. Before we would leave the house we took Winnie out in the backyard and run her legs off so she would be tired enough to take a nap.

This last step seemed like a good one until we came home to a chewed up Dish remote control and half-read paperback.  It was then we realized that Winnie’s separation anxiety issues were much deeper than originally thought.

We were left with two remaining choices: hire a doggy therapist or buy a crate.  Calculating the cost of these two options I hit the internet to learn how to crate train a wayward pup.  We purchased our crate and set out to save the world from mass destruction, at least our little corner of it.

I have become a firm believer in boundaries.  Winnie eats her meals in her crate, and she is confined there when there is no one home.  The wire crate has become a         

And to my delight and surprise, Winnie likes her new boundaries as much as I do.  She has a plethora of new chew toys, some of which hold hidden edible treasures to keep her busy while confined.  Winnie has even managed to find favor with Mr. Tommer. Yes, miracles do happen.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com

Lesson learned: dogs need boundaries, too

We recently made a move from a two-story house in Santa Clara Heights to a single story in St. George, for which my bad knees and neuropathetic feet are very grateful.

After moving we had to reinstate the drip system our Labrador puppy had dismantled at the Santa Clara house when she was a young one.  Winnie celebrated her first birthday last month, and has matured (or at least grown)…somewhat.

Little did we know that while we were repairing her masterpiece of a destruction job in Santa Clara, she was “remodeling” the back yard at the new house more to her liking.  Within a matter of days, Winnie managed to remove all of the drip hoses from the trees, frustrating but fixable.  She then went to work on the bigger job of disconnecting the main sprinkler lines from both the front and back yards.

This was quite a feat considering she had to locate the lines under dirt, rock and paper.  She has a very keen and precise sniffer.

Needless to say, my husband had had enough, and the order of the day was to find a new home for Winnie.  But there are not many folks who want to adopt a juvenile Lab who has a mind of her own and a seemingly less-than-teachable spirit.

Not willing to take her to an animal control shelter, we amended our thinking.  She was no longer allowed in the back yard unsupervised and she would make more trips to doggy daycare. We also reinforced our new sprinkler lines with a six-inch deep ditch, wire mesh, more paper, rocks and dirt, which, by the way, she’s already started to work on.

When we weren’t home, she would stay in the house. Before we would leave the house we took Winnie out in the backyard and run her legs off so she would be tired enough to take a nap.

This last step seemed like a good one until we came home to a chewed up Dish remote control and half-read paperback.  It was then we realized that Winnie’s separation anxiety issues were much deeper than originally thought.

We were left with two remaining choices: hire a doggy therapist or buy a crate.  Calculating the cost of these two options I hit the internet to learn how to crate train a wayward pup.  We purchased our crate and set out to save the world from mass destruction, at least our little corner of it.

I have become a firm believer in boundaries.  Winnie eats her meals in her crate, and she is confined there when there is no one home.  The wire crate has become a         

And to my delight and surprise, Winnie likes her new boundaries as much as I do.  She has a plethora of new chew toys, some of which hold hidden edible treasures to keep her busy while confined.  Winnie has even managed to find favor with Mr. Tommer. Yes, miracles do happen.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com