In November, 2008, we elected a Marxist/Socialist to be President of the United States. It is not all our fault that we didn’t see it coming. The Republicans had not been doing a good governing job but at least they respected our Freedom and the Constitution. In 2008, the Republicans also nominated the old fossil McCain. The Dems were swept into office and Obama proclaimed that his goal was “Fundamentally transforming the United States of America”.

For starters, there was Obamacare, passed without a single Republican vote. Then there was “Fast and Furious” Holder, the Benghazi massacre and cover-up, the New Black Panthers, the IRS interference with legal fundraisers. The list goes on. In 2010, the Republicans won the House and almost the Senate. That slowed but did not stop the transformation.

In 2012, Obama was re-elected but, as we just learned, the Census Bureau fudged the numbers to allow the jobs situation to look better than the truth. The Republicans countered by eating their own in the Primaries. Obama and Reid are still determined to transform our country into something like Venezuela or Cuba. Rule by the privileged political class.

Their latest move happened when the Senate struck down 212 years of the cloture rule, written by Thomas Jefferson, which results in the denial of any minority say in the passing of legislature by the Senate. The minority had the weak right of filibuster when things were going vastly awry. Reid and company took that away. By doing so, the Dems are now in a position to appoint judges (but not yet Supreme Court judges) with only 51 votes instead of the traditional 60 or 67 votes. Here come the liberal judges to the DC Circuit court, which rules on administrative rules (Sibelius) and executive orders (Obama). Can you see it coming? This administration is pulling out all the stops and it behooves us to get a move on to stop this power grab. Party affiliation must be overcome.

Sincerely,

Joe McCann

Elk Lake, PA

Although I am a member of the Rotary Club of Montrose I would like to speak from our larger Rotary world and describe the horror we are all feeling when we see the devastation in the Philippines. Over the years through Rotary, we have nurtured friendships with many individuals in the Philippines. Vocational and youth exchanges as well as, various Volunteer Projects have brought guests to our country and opportunities beyond Rotary to spend time, and share ideas and dreams with a new friend.

With the help of my club we have already begun to send aid. We are purchasing shelter boxes which are being transported to the Philippines as I write. A shelter box contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, blankets, water storage and purification equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, and children’s activity packs.

I have been in contact with other Rotary Clubs in our district, their response is positive. The need is immediate, now and for a long time to come.

Can you help? Please go to www.shelterboxusa.org or contact me with questions at 570-289-4226. Thank you, deeply for any consideration.

Sincerely,

Ruth Wilmarth

Rotary Club of Montrose, PA

You see them on ads for the Wounded Warriors Project. They wear their prosthetics proudly, a badge of honor, an emblem of their patriotism and sacrifice lightly borne. As Jefferson put it, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.” For some who “refreshed the tree” the price was willingly paid, for others the price was extracted, and for some we'll never know.

We'll never know into which camp Staff Sergeant Douglas Spade pitched his tent. That's because SSgt. Spade is a number, a composite of the 19,000 who have returned to America's shore from the Mideast wars with severe injuries to mind and body.

It's between 2001 and sometime in the future. SSgt. Spade is in command of a crew of four riding in an armored personnel carrier in Afghanistan. He's on patrol or as they call it, “the shooting gallery.” It's an ordinary day. One like dozens that have proceeded it. Except for one second in this day, a second that changed everything.

A week ago a team of insurgents skillfully planted a roadside bomb, one of those improvised explosive devices, an IED. They wired together three 155 mm U.S. artillery shells. Under cover of night they buried it, skillfully camouflaged it, and waited. Days. A week.

Finally the moment came. From a distance a train of armored vehicles betrayed their presence with a tail of dust. Nervously they watched until one vehicle was directly over the IED, then the bomb was detonated by a cell phone.

The force of the blast hurled the 14-ton personnel carrier six-feet into the air, ripped open its metal belly, and landed hard on its side. The shock wave stunned those in the vehicle that followed. But they knew what to do.

In 15 minutes a chopper arrives. Medics applied tourniquets to the stumps of Spade's legs, now one of the 1,653 U.S. troops who have lost one or more limbs. The docs stopped the hemorrhaging of blood, attached an intravenous saline solution to his arm, and hastily loaded him into the chopper.

Spade's life hovers in limbo, the golden hour, those 60 minutes between a traumatic injury and treatment giving the best odds for survival.

Later a mortuary detail will gather the remains of Spade's comrades. They assemble the scattered parts like pieces in a puzzle later to be encased in a welded-shut aluminum coffin and sent stateside.

Another squad will cart away the personnel carrier, remove all debris, and fill the four-foot deep crater. All traces of the incidence will be erased except one: SSgt. Douglas Spade.

In the chopper, a medic sedates him and puts him on a ventilator to do the work of breathing. Another doc radios to a forward medical unit. He informs them of Spade's injuries.

With ten minutes to spare in the golden hour, Spade arrives at the medical unit and is under the care of physicians. His wounds are surgically treated and his condition is further stabilized. He inches closer to life.

The surgeons are well practiced. Some have had ER experience in the U.S. They are familiar with injuries sustained in high-speed collisions. And all have received training in battlefield injuries. But nothing prepared them for the sight of a body mangled by high-velocity explosives, the controlled chaos of primary treatment, or the smells and sounds of those first terrible hours.

Next it's a flight to Bagram Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in country. From there the catastrophically injured are carried aboard a C14 and flown to Germany. And then to home, only “home” is Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. It is here that Douglas Spade will spent the next two years.

Somewhere between Bagram and Walter Reed, Spade learns about his injuries. He will spend the rest of his life bound to a wheelchair and will never be able to father children. The physicians were not able to assess the possibility of brain damage at that time.

SSgt. Spade will require numerous restorative surgeries to his face that was burned and torn by the IED as well multiple skin grafts to repair the third degree burns covering 30 percent of his body.

At home, stairs are replaced by a ramp, doorways are widened, his bedroom is moved downstairs to the first floor, and the bathroom is remodeled to afford him the greatest possible independence.

In time, an ambulance will drive him home. He's not the same 19-year old who left five years ago. And neither is the home he remembers. Everything's changed.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA