Blake Thompson

This time of year it isn't unusual to hear that it is better to give than to receive. Unfortunately, a number in our country have forgotten such a simple truth. If one wonders why our country is hopelessly divided, imprisoned by debt and surrounded by crime they need to look no farther than people that want to take without giving.

My very best childhood friend, we will call him Dave...primarily because that's his name, was the kind of friend that you never get tired of being with. We spent countless hours together from when his family moved just two doors from my family in 5th grade until we were 23 years old. We were inseparable and in fact, we went to the same university, pledged the same fraternity and eventually enlisted in the U.S. Army together. After completing Basic Training and Combat Medic School together we served in the same unit until...

The news lately seems to reveal increasingly disturbing information. In Missouri, Baby Lisa is missing and her mother was too drunk the night she "disappeared" to know anything that may have happened to the child. Jerry Sandusky has been accused of molesting, fondling and raping numerous children. Sky Metalwala, a 2 year old boy from Washington, has been missing for 9 days and even though there have been hundreds of tips, the authorities have no suspect and no clear cut direction in which to search.

Do you remember when a woman at a TEA Party rally in Cleveland was raped? Can you recall the man at a TEA Party rally in Seattle who exposed himself to children? Who can forget the TEA Party protester defecating on a police car? It's no wonder that Nancy Pelosi was reduced literally to tears as she claimed the violent, racist Tea Party rallies reminded her of violent protests in her younger days. The mainstream media provided story after story of the gray-haired, veterans and middle class families that were sure to have as their foundational principles hate, racism and evil in general.

As a lover of history I often think about the past and the ways in which the past influences the people we are today. In honor of Oktoberfest I feel compelled to write about something German.