| I was listening to talk radio this morning. I know it | | | | direction, embedded within its very small ten foot a |
| shouldn't, but I do. Sometimes the host seems sane | | | | side, triangle! Just you try and park or have access to |
| and sometimes you get a real stinking day, with the | | | | the side of the road to park, stand, picket, or protest!I |
| stinking-thinking of a Ghost-host, who is apparently | | | | put that "free speech" right in quotation marks for a |
| havin' a bad day.How else could someone talk so darn | | | | reason. It seems that there is none today in this |
| mean? It seems as if the far right, that's my opinion, | | | | country. You can get arrested for wearing a |
| takes what they call "the high ground" on a subject, | | | | "Veterans for Peace" tee shirt at the VA hospitals! |
| and then they get right down in the sewer! Not with | | | | Don't laugh. And don't be surprised. I have heard |
| their use of vulgar language or cussing, but the good | | | | warnings of this coming to your area soon!What with |
| ole' acceptable English words can be formed to do | | | | eighty-odd newly announced, roads such as that of |
| more than what a sword could do! This is because it | | | | the TTC, or superhighway, is soon coming to your |
| would be a "sword fight", and not a one-sided combat! | | | | area and is not remote prospect anymore. Changing |
| You see, from my perspective, the "target of the radio | | | | roads, such as our new 121 State Highway (I think) |
| host usually does not have the forum anywhere near | | | | extension into one of the many converted, taxed, paid |
| as formidable as the talk show host. So it is like | | | | for, roadways into money machines for Spain. Yep, |
| watching, or listening in this case, to an unarmed | | | | another toll road! Handled, managed, maintained, and |
| combatant going up against a man with a sword. You | | | | repaired, by a company from Spain. The company is |
| hear nothing from the "target-victim"! Even if the victim | | | | said to be owned by the King of Spain. I think I saw |
| is semi-famous, or semi-infamous, he or she, has | | | | that coming when I saw signs around here saying, |
| absolutely nothing, virtually, to say as they are | | | | "This section of roadway adopted by....". It figures, don't |
| "slaughtered"! This kind of combat, unlike a true debate, | | | | it.So as you drive down a toll road your Grandpapy |
| you know, a debate between peers, not at all like the | | | | paid for with his tax money, paying the Spanish Crown |
| ones we have been exposed to whenever we are | | | | as you go, and come to any seaport, (they are all |
| subjected to the horror of Presidential "Debates", but | | | | transferred now anyway, no tip of the hat to public |
| real debate, before an audience that contains no "Fan | | | | outcry I think, by the Saudi buying the several |
| Club", nor much of a "Party" to hone our word-battle | | | | companies!) to ship your cargo upon a Chinese |
| into a "prime time made for TV" show.I'm not talking | | | | Freighter, using the port owned and operated by the |
| about having a political opinion here folks. I mean, we all | | | | Saudis, you are probably driving a truck registered in |
| have an opinion on most national and state issues. | | | | Mexico. You would probably be coming from the new |
| Some even have opinions about local issues! Imagine | | | | Kansas Mexican Port , I am not at all kidding you here! |
| that, if you will. But to get on the radio, in this case its | | | | You see, we don't actually "Do" anything now. Except |
| KLIF in Dallas, and say something so cruel that it | | | | pay and pay and pay!When that super-duper-highway |
| curdles me, then it must be one of the lowest of the | | | | gets to cutting Texas in to two states, I wonder where |
| lowest "below the belt hits" I ever heard!Cindy Shehan | | | | the famous will live? I mean, it has to be one or the |
| is at, or will soon be, in Crawford, Texas. She will not | | | | other? I reckon. So which will have all the political |
| be in that little town exactly, but out in the countryside | | | | power, and who will be left "sucking hind teat" as my |
| on a County road, or FM road. She is going to picket | | | | old Grandpa used to say.Well, I went around the long |
| the Presidents' ranch again. Now, I have been there. I | | | | way din't I? But that is typical of me. I can get back to |
| mean, I have visited the location. Only after and | | | | the point fast enough. Cindy Shehan is, according to |
| in-between the commotion, I did visit to get my | | | | this radio talk show "Monster", controlled and funded |
| bearings, sort of get the lay of the geography, | | | | by all that is evil and horrible on the far left. And I guess |
| because there was a major controversy about | | | | that is true! And the "hunger strike", if there is one, |
| roadsides, right-of-ways, etc. That is a mental | | | | "isn't"! I guess that too. But still, even I know that these |
| throw-back to my days spent in Vietnam.I was in | | | | several radio talk show stations, and probably more to |
| Vietnam.The setting is a flat black dirt land. A deep | | | | the point, the talk show host, is funded by big |
| ditch, oh, about twenty feet at a straight-straight down | | | | "business" types on the far right, if not actually funded |
| angle in the area to drain the land. If you can picture | | | | by an arm of the U.S. Government!Now, don't you |
| that. And this ditch, as so many used to do back near | | | | doubt for a minute you are not a victim of propaganda! |
| where I grew up, goes down and into whiterock. | | | | For you are. You are bombarded with it from your |
| Whiterock is like chalk, and just as brittle and white. | | | | early coffee until you turn your lights out at night. All |
| There is only the one paved road that winds down | | | | financed by the U.S. Government, or the cronies of |
| and around so curvy that you begin to doubt that it | | | | whoever is in office. We are the same as every other |
| goes anywhere except back to town.In the old days | | | | country! We have "suicided" non-essential persons, we |
| of road construction I think the county just followed the | | | | have "arms cut off", we have "propaganda", we have |
| old dirt roads "donated" right of way, winding back and | | | | "corruption", we have "murder in the name of the |
| forth from the front yard of one home to the front | | | | state", we have it all. And "payola, to control'a" is not |
| yard of the next. And that is why we have such curvy | | | | beyond the pale! Not with so much at stake. That is, |
| FM highways. Well, they have straightened them out a | | | | the stake is being driven into the very heart of this |
| bit, a show of cut-off "old roadbed" is here and | | | | country to "meld" it to the world Government. To kill it, |
| there.Past this main point of our focus, the road hits a | | | | and if you don't believe that, you are kinda simple, ain't |
| junction. It is nothing more than the meeting of two | | | | ya?There is one small detail that stands in the way of |
| roadbeds, and it is just the same type of old roadway, | | | | all this. And that is the "middle of the kingdom". Not |
| that is, the same type construction. The pavement | | | | "The Kingdom", that comes later, that one is only |
| from this new roadway meets ours, but divides, going | | | | spiritual now, for some. But the middle of America. It is |
| off at an angle in both directions, constructing a small | | | | still alive. Still has a heartbeat. As a matter of fact, it |
| "Y:" looking spot in the middle containing a small bit of | | | | has a heart! Which is saying more than the "Monsters" |
| land, much as you would see anywhere, but why | | | | of talk radio have! To prove that to me again this |
| here? I have no idea. But it is all paved, except this | | | | morning, one national talk show host said something |
| landed, grassed center of the "Y", showing it is a bus | | | | horrid! It was in order to "put down" Cindy Shehan and |
| route. In this country they put down a whiterock based | | | | her efforts, whether good or bad, that is beside the |
| road over all the dirt roads used at the very least, and | | | | point, "she hasn't (even) put a tombstone on her sons' |
| then soon as they can, budget-wise, the county paves | | | | grave yet!"Now by God, that is uncalled for! That is not |
| each of those roads. I can remember when the | | | | only hurtful it is a disgrace. Even an old battle-horse, |
| county roads were dirt, those are roads that actually | | | | half-blind and half-dumb old salt like me, has a heart, |
| outline each county, as if it were a border crossing or | | | | and that was hurt by those words! Can you imagine |
| something. As a matter of fact, it was, to a point, and | | | | that being said of or about your family? That ain't |
| still is!Anyway, these County unpaved roads had | | | | hitting below the belt. That is, instead, right out of the pit |
| fences along the sides if you were lucky. And at times | | | | of Hell! Typically talk radio is a hard line, but this is talk |
| and at such places around, there was and is, more | | | | show radio, at its best! Come on man, have at least |
| than a handful of cattleguards in the roadway, where | | | | some dignity!Dan BunchCopyright 2006 by Dan Bunch |
| the county right of way and the property owner kind | | | | All Rights ReservedDan BunchDan Bunch is of Native |
| of have dual possession. There is the assumption that | | | | American Melungeon heritage. His mother a naturalized |
| you are entering into the land owners property, | | | | citizen, his father, a United States Army veteran of |
| including the roadway, as in Texas the property line is | | | | WWII, born in Texas a Cherokee-Melungeon.Dan |
| often in the center of the road, even in towns. Why | | | | Bunch, totally ignorant of his African and Melungeon |
| this concentration here with the lay of the land and | | | | heritage, spent his formative years in Whitewright, |
| road junctions? Because it became as much a part of | | | | Texas, where he was exposed to the typical "White" |
| the controversy and story as the picketing and | | | | American youth experience of; school; football, |
| protesting in front of the "ranch" did! "Ranch" is in | | | | baseball, and boxing, and farm work. He enlisted in the |
| quotes here because it is not at all a ranch. Believe me, | | | | United States Navy Reserve at the age of seventeen |
| there is not much to see, not worth making the trip! Its | | | | while still a junior in high school. He has had a multitude |
| more like the plowed ground between Israel and | | | | of experience in business. He attributes his interest in |
| Palestine held high ground than it is a ranch!This is the | | | | many subjects to his early career as a newspaper |
| battleground for Cindy Shehan. There is now signs | | | | boy in his hometown of Whitewright, Texas.He married |
| posted every ten foot, almost, that deny anyone the | | | | his high school sweetheart Gayle in 1965, a brilliant |
| right to park along the roadbed. So to avoid a ticket, | | | | woman with a professional carreer in finance. They |
| and perhaps incarceration, you have to be very | | | | have two children and five grandchildren. Dan Bunch is |
| circumspect as far as parking and distance if you | | | | a graduate of Grayson Co. Jr. College, which he |
| want to exercise your right of "free speech". Even the | | | | attended upon his return from active military service in |
| "Y" spoken of here has its many signs, one for every | | | | Vietnam. He was aboard U.S. |