"Tea" (bag) Anyone? Massachusetts finds its Patriot Soul

Why are Conservatives so much better looking than lefties?  (Palin?  Brown?  Kennedy?  Reagan?)   I forgot to add a couple more good looking Conservatives to my blog...

It is with great joy that we find the Bay State of Massachusetts coming to it's senses and voting for real change, not theatrical change.  Is there any irony that Scott Brown won Barney Frank's district?  Is there any irony to be found in the fact that the BOSTON tea party took place in that very harbor and the lefties are making fun of the founders of our Country who sponsored that very tea party -     

doesn't that make our Country's Founders the party of the 'tea bag?' 

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and reference is often made to it in other political protests. 

So let's put this into present day context.  The brilliant Americans in Massachusetts, following the actions of their forefathers who ran away from these foreign, socialist countries where healthcare will get you killed, took direct action on 19 January 2010 against a leftist government and the most useless congress in U.S. history to throw their anti-American agenda into Boston Harbor.  That took guts.

I have experience with socialist, government run health care.  My good friend Father Joe Fluery, who had a small cottage overlooking the Adriatic Sea, came home one evening and the lights were off.  He had a very large glass door (not the falling apart kind of shattering glass), and tripped over a bolt that was on the porch of the apartment and fell into the glass door.  He got a gash in his leg that just about took it off.  He was rushed to a government run, socialist Italian hospital - the country has the kind of healthcare Reid and Pelosi want you to have but not for themselves - where they proceeded to sew up the wound.  Now before you say, "what a great thing they did, sewing him up for no cost, that is a government that 'cares,'" let me tell you that they sewed him up with NO ANESTHESIA.  That's right!  No pain killers!  He almost died on that table from shock because ANESTHESIA was (too costly)!  Not one person in the United States this very day would ever have that happen to them.  What happened later?  He was stuck in a room where he was given almost nothing to eat (too costly), given almost no pain medicine (too costly).  One night while he lay awake some thugs from Naples came in to beat up his roommate who apparently was a drug dealer and Father Joe had to beat them off with the cane they gave him.  Security for the government run hospital was (too costly). 
What benefit would government run healthcare provide?  NONE!  And Massachusetts figured that out.  They finally got their Patriot Soul back from our Founding Fathers. 

The boys on the porch in the picture for this blog were farm boys who if you look at the picture didn't have a whole lot going for them and not alot to wear.  Their skin color didn't matter, they're work ethic did.  They decided to not commit crimes, not do drugs, and work for their health insurance.  And every single American has that right. 
Way to go Massachusetts!  Way to go Senator Scott Brown - now on to the Presidency...

One on the Porch dies of a Broken heart

Not a good day...My brother Joseph William Kircher, the kid on the right in the picture for this blog, died in his sleep Sunday night, 4 January 2010. 

I'll get back to this later...

Joseph was the name of my great-grandfather on the Kircher side, the German immigrant who came from Fulda/Geisa to America in 1852 as a 12 year old and later fought in the American Civil War.  William was my Grandpa Swartz' name, everybody called him Bill - the guy who had the grocery store in Mill City.  Ancestor Joseph Kircher's gravestone is at left with the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) flag holder.  My brother, the most recent Joseph Kircher, will be buried between him and Susan Kern in the Newton-Ransom Cemetery, thanks to my brother Steve.

It's different when a brother dies, especially when he is younger, but not by much.  We fought like crazy when we were young.  Punching each other in the arm, playing in the fields.  All that 'brother' stuff.  He always picked on me and when we were real young there are pictures of him grabbing at my ears and just generally taunting me as a brother would do.  You can see him taunting me unjustly to the right.

But in the end, he gave up.  He was a guy who needed to work, and he did not do well with idle time and when he was not around people.  Sandy and I saw him in September last year when we visited and he seemed in good spirits although he was in pain because of his legs.  He did so well when we were together up there although it was obvious he was suffering - not only physically but also in his heart.  He was as he always was - cracking jokes about my RV and how it reminded him of the Beverly Hillbillies - I became 'Jed Clampett,' and Sandy was Ellie May.  He was always like that, a sense of humor although pretty dry.  He could play the guitar like Eddie Van Halen but never put it to use.  He loved Christmas and was famous for vast spreads of decorations and food around the house and was almost yearly in the running to win WNEP TV Channel 16's contest for the most elaborate Christmas lights outside the house.  In fact, they did show his house on TV one night a few years ago.

He was the mechanic.  Dad always put him at the Gas Station - Kircher's Korner in Clarks Summit - and me at the farm.  He wanted to work on the farm and I wanted to be at the gas station.  Go figure the people skills of dad Leon on that one.  So I ran away - but that's another story.  He was also a welder of immense skills.  He was so good that he could spot weld together the tin from soda cans.  I am not up to speed on all that but I hear that is a skill very few welders have.  His former boss said as much at the viewing. 

We Kircher kids are not good at saying much about the things we feel.  I didn't go to Church this Sunday because I didn't want anyone to have to feel sorry for me.  Go figure.  Joe was much the same.  He held everything in.  Brother Steve went over an untold number of times to try and get him to go to the doctor but Joe refused.  Steve had to stop by daily just to be sure he was still alive - what kind of duty is that?  But Joe was his brother, and Steve is the hero.  But in the end, we all admired him.  We all loved him although we never said it.  At right is mom Alice with me and Joe probably early 1957 when we lived in Clarks Summit.  I was smiling...Joe was wondering what was going on with the bright lights.

At the funeral cousin Kevin Swartz said Joe just went downhill when he didn't have a job.  He said when Joe heard of a family that didn't have enough money to pay their electricity that he went over and paid it for them.  He said Joe died of a broken heart.  I spent years in college and seminary and have all the requisite degrees...but it was Kevin who had it figured out...'died of a broken heart...'  We will miss him terribly.