by Judy Bushy
Isn’t it amazing the conflicts that we have these days!! Seems hard to discuss with anyone that disagrees with a person’s viewpoint. Learning about each others viewpoints seems to me to be the best way to get the balanced view of a topic and proceed to coming up with solutions.

Dr. Blue quoted the historian Alexander Tyler, professor at Edinburgh Scotland back in the early 1800s. He was talking about the fall of the Athenian Republic 2000 years earlier. He said, “A democracy is always temporary in nature. It simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate who promises the most benefits from the public treasury. With the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to lose fiscal policy which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

No nation in the history of the world has lasted forever, according to historian Alexander Tyler. I wonder if his views were as apparent in his day as they are in our own We have been very grateful that our forefathers came here out of bondage, to spiritual faith to great courage, and achieved liberty and have had such great blessings and abundance in this nation. We are going through some of the things that other countries have gone through when they have abundance and descend to complacency, to apathy and to dependence, which leads back into bondage.

So much has changed with our technology of the day. Dr. Royal Blue, who was telling about Alexander Tyler’s views, asked people listening to him each morning to let him know if they are listening by Streaming audio from Redding to the uttermost parts of the world via Internet. It is amazing that people around the world who can hear the same talk.

There’s an old saying, “Dead wood can light a great blaze if it comes in contact with a little spark.’ We hate to see that when it makes a great wildfire that threatens homes and towns, such as we are seeing this week on the Salmon River, Sawyers Bar, and over the hill in the same area that the Biscuit Fire was years ago. I remember visiting Dan when he was working at Lake Selma, the same place that the Incident Command for the Complex is now stationed.

Today, you can be the spark to make a difference in the hearts & Lives of our neighbors. Volunteer to make a difference. Attend Town Meetings like the one Tuesday, August 13th with Sheriff Lopey, whatever your vies so that you can be well informed and express your viewpoint. He was elected to be the Sheriff of all Siskiyou County citizens. Take part in respectful debate.

Let’s not be complacent but light a spark by using the wwisdom and kind respectful words which may just be the spark to light a blaze for good among our friends and neighbors along the Klamath. Light a spark!!