Home Opinion Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: All in the view

Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: All in the view

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IT’S ALL IN THE PERSPECTIVE. Saw an article in the ‘Washington Post’ that said people who are devoted followers of President Trump won’t believe anything bad about him. And, conversely, people who DON’T like President Trump won’t believe anything he does is good.

It’s all in the perspective.

Saturday in Center Point, I ran into an old friend. We were both in the former Howard County seat of government for the purpose of filling our tummies.

In our conversation he commented that former FBI Director Comey had made ‘them’ in Washington, D.C., shut up with his Senate testimony.

I agreed. He said he liked President Trump and believed him. I said that at one time I liked Trump but no longer believed everything that he said or tweeted. My friend was shocked.

It was obvious that he and I thought Comey’s testimony had silenced different groups of people. He thought the testimony vindicated the President. I thought it made all of the secretive Russia connections look even worse.

It’s all in the perspective. I don’t know if a border wall would do any good, but I am favor of U.S. government benefits going only to bona fide U.S. citizens. I believe that English should be our official language.

I believe that you should show a photo ID in order to vote, and I believe that persons getting food stamps, unemployment, government housing, or other federal assistance should have to take a drug test just to prove to the rest of us that we are not enabling them to be druggies. I do not want to bail out Wall Street, again.

I want us to look very, very closely at any Muslims wanting to come into this country.

It’s not unreasonable. But that’s just my perspective.

I remember some advice from my late father. He said “Don’t argue with someone about their religion or politics. You won’t change anyone’s mind, and you might lose a friend.”

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that we’re all Americans who want the best for our country.

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THINGS I LEARNED from opening the organic gardening handout at the Farmers’ Market in Nashville: It used to be that all of the hummingbirds we saw here were migrating through the state, but now most are actually remaining here over the winter (take THAT global warming deniers — although the handout notes that one factor may also be the increasing number of hummingbird feeders put out in fall and winter weather by people who love to watch the little critters).

Southwest Arkansas has several hummer species, and I am wondering if I am seeing a real rare one for the first time flitting around my patio. It is tiny and might be a Calliope Hummingbird, the smallest species in North America.

The rarest of the hummers in our neck of the woods are the Buff-bellied Hummingbird and the Refulgent Hummingbird. There was only one official sighting of each species during an Arkansas bird census in 1993.

If you see a tiny, tiny nest in a bush or low tree it may be the common Ruby-throated Hummingbird which is the ONLY species known to both nest and breed in our state.

I’ve never had any luck with hummingbird feeders. The birds just fly up, hover, inspect my feeder and go away. Sometimes they fight among themselves and then go away. But they do love my blooming salvia plants which have scores of neat little red blooms.

I saw a different article which suggested that if you want to have a hummingbird feeder, just use plain sugar water to attract them. It said the red dye stuff wasn’t good for the birds.

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ANOTHER COMMUNISM failure.

Just a decade or so ago Venezuela was maybe the richest, most progressive country in South America. Then they elected themselves a communist government. They also got a dictator and he ran the country into the ground before he died. He also suspended the country’s constitution. He was succeeded by another communist who is in office right now.

Today, things are so bad in Venezuela that cases of malnutrition have tripled in the last two years. There’s no food and no medicine. And — this is almost unbelievable — Catholic bishops in Mexico have begun a drive to collect food to send to the starving people in Venezuela.

Yes, Mexico.

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THE TWINS. Tweedledee and Tweedledum. I’ve heard of them all my life and I still don’t understand. For some reason I want to clasp my hands and rotate my thumbs around each other.

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THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

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HE SAID: “Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good … Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.” Pope Francis

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SHE SAID: “In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.” Marianne Williamson, spiritual author and lecturer

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SWEET DREAMS, Baby

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