The Bush letter nine years on

Noah David Simon

The Bush letter nine years on
Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin, to sue PA for terrorism at The Hague
New York attacks First Amendment
#Apartheid Roads

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 03:51 PM PDT

(Carl) Rick Richman reminds us that Sunday is the 9th anniversary of the famous Bush letter that effectively promised Israel the 'settlement blocs.' At the time, the letter was overwhelmingly endorsed by both Houses of Congress, but in 2009, President Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, tried to pretend that it didn't exist, and Obama has continued to behave as if the letter did not exist.
US Secretary of State John FN Kerry is unable to pretend the letter didn't exist. But that doesn't mean he's going to back Israel's position. Rick Richman explains.

At an April 9 press conference in Tel Aviv, Bow Shapira from Israeli TV (Channel 1) told Kerry he wanted to ask about “a guarantee from the past”–the 2004 Bush letter, which he described as “telling that blocs of settlements can stay, cannot [be] removed from the territory.” His question about the guarantee was straightforward: “well, does it exist?” Kerry responded in part as follows:
I remember that commitment very well because I was running for president then, and I personally have supported the notion that the situation on the ground has changed, and obviously, we’re talking about blocs that are in a very different status. I’m not going to get into telling you what ought to happen with respect to any particular piece of geography today because that’s for the parties to decide in their negotiation. But I have certainly supported the notion publicly myself that we need to deal with the ’67 lines, plus the swaps that reflect some of the changes that have taken place since then.
It is not surprising that Kerry remembered the commitment so well. He appeared on “Meet the Press” on April 18, 2004–four days after the Bush letter was issued–and was asked directly about it by Tim Russert:
MR. RUSSERT: On Thursday, President Bush … said that Israel can keep part of the land seized in the 1967 Middle East War and asserted the Palestinian refugees cannot go back to their particular homes. Do you support President Bush?
SEN. KERRY: Yes.
MR. RUSSERT: Completely?
SEN. KERRY: Yes.
Kerry’s response to the Israeli reporter last week is significant, because he recognized: (1) that the Bush letter was in fact a commitment, subsequently endorsed by both the Senate (95-3) and the House (407-9) in concurrent resolutions; and (2) that he supported it at the time, in unambiguous terms.
But it is indicative of the continuing problem President Obama created with his refusal in 2009 to endorse the Bush letter that an Israeli reporter felt it necessary to ask whether the U.S. commitment exists. The president has been attempting to assure Israelis with his have-your-back, all-options-on-the-table rhetorical commitments, but they remember that in the past he did not feel constrained to respect even a written commitment to Israel.
Given that Obama doesn't live up to his commitments, why should Israel give up real assets to appease him?
unbelievable!


Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin, to sue PA for terrorism at The Hague
Posted: 14 Apr 2013 10:13 AM PDT
NGO Chairwoman: PA starting war against soldiers, ‘we’ll defend them’. Shahar Chai’


An Israeli civil rights NGO is preparing to sue the Palestinian Authority in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its alleged responsibility for thousands of terrorist attacks on Israel.

Shurat HaDin’s Nitsana Darshan-Leitner – Photo: Zvika Tishler
The publicity material shows the tagline on top of photographs of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismayil Haniyeh behind bars.
After the United Nations upgraded its status to non-member observer state in late November, the Palestinian Authority hinted its intentions to sue Israelis for alleged war crimes at the ICC in The Hague.
Though recent attempts to revive the peace process appear to have halted these efforts, Shurat HaDin started preparing thousands of cases against the Palestinian Authority and its leaders.
“We call on all Israeli citizens who were harmed in terror attacks to testify through our Facebook page and tell their traumatic experiences,” the organization’s chairwoman Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner explained.
Shurat HaDin, founded in 2002, is an Israeli civil rights non-governmental organization aimed at using litigations against groups it alleges are terror organizations.
So far the NGO won cases to the sum of over a billion US dollars, of which over $120 million were collected.
On 2012 the organization aided in the thwarting of a Gaza bound flotilla and is currently involved in the campaign against the BDS movement.
“Our aim is to prevent this move (suing soldiers) by the Palestinian Authority,” said Darshan-Leitner.
“We’ve realized that when the Palestinian Authority is accepted into the ICC, it becomes exposed to lawsuits as well. “We’ve received dozens of terror victims’ testimonies, from relatively ‘light’ stories to truly shocking ones,” she said.
“I’m certain anyone who hears about the campaign will know at least one victim and encourage them to turn to us.
“They are starting a war against our soldiers, and we’ll do everything we can to defend them,” Darshan-Leitner said.

View original Ynet publication at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4367659,00.html
via israelandstuff.com


New York attacks First Amendment
Posted: 13 Apr 2013 07:09 PM PDT

(Examiner)The Washington Examiner reports that a town in New York has forced the removal of the historic Gadsden Flag, which has been a symbol of American determination to fight for liberty ever since the American revolution.
According to Jim Hoft's Gateway Pundit, a group of U.S. veterans is fighting the local city council in New Rochelle, N.Y. for the right to display the flag at the local armory. The Navy and the Marine Corps have been flying the flag since 1775. The Gadsden Flag has long been considered a patriotic symbol.
But the New Rochelle City Council says that the Gadsden Flag is a symbol of the Tea Party and has right wing connotations.
No one in the veteran's group, however, is a member of the Tea Party.
Some of the members of the council itself appear to be carrying their own unjustified bias concerning the flag. One council member likened the Gadsden flag to a flag used by homosexuals on gay pride day. Another stated that the patriotic flag is like the Nazi flag, or graffiti, or a Mickey Mouse flag.
The display of symbols traditionally has been viewed as an aspect of free speech and is thus protected by the First Amendment. But apparently in New York State, not only is the private ownership of guns considered tantamount to an act of violence but free speech is viewed with disdain.(MORE)


#Apartheid Roads
Posted: 13 Apr 2013 05:42 PM PDT

I've asked that question, too:-
The entire world denounces the "apartheid roads" in Judea and Samaria, although in broad daylight Jews and Arabs share every road open to Jews. On the other hand, large signs in bright red ban Jews from traveling on roads in areas specified by the Oslo Agreements for Palestinians. Route 443 has been opened to Arabs as well following a High Court order, but a nearby road – which would have cut the time it takes to travel from Gush Dolev-Talmonin to Jerusalem by at least 30 minutes – remains closed to Jews to this very day. Both apartheid and racism: Israel's Arab citizens are free to enter Jenin, while a Jew will be prosecuted.
When was the last time a state official took journalists on a tour on the ground, to get them to realize that the apartheid on the roads of Judea and Samaria is exclusively against Jews. And which of our media outlets ever exposed the shamefulness of their apartheid: That God forbid should a Jewish-Israeli set foot in Nablus or in 90% of Hebron or in any Arab village? Because that's the rule: The state of the Jews should be brought to trial. Why? Because it put itself there in the first place.

Elyakim HaEtzni
^
via myrightword.blogspot.com

Colorado State Patrol – Christians Need to be Watched, Treated with Caution

PRINCIPLES FOR A FREE SOCIETY NEITHER ORIGINATED NOR LIE WITH IN THE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRATIC PARTIES
http://www.we-the-people-of-illinos-constitution-lobby.com
Because "Facts are stubborn things." ~ John Adams

by Michelle Morin

A True Hero, Ron Trowbridge
We need more like him now.
When it comes to freedom, things are changing fast and for the worst in America, and it’s happening at accelerated speed here in Colorado.

Not only are laws being written at mach speed to regulate, tax, and restrict individual freedom, but ideas are changing amongst the Colorado citizenry. Local law enforcement, in particular, are being put at a new crossroads and are being positioned to make some tough decisions about their duties. They will very soon be choosing between enforcing Constitutional rule of law and new laws which contradict our Constitutional principles and which make criminals out of innocents.
If you are a law enforcement officer, a person of faith, or someone who values both America’s First and Second Amendments, then this is a MUST-READ.

On April 5, 2013, blogger Steven H. Ahle over at The Red Statements received an email from Prowers County, Colorado Undersheriff Ron Trowbridge. Here is Steve’s original post:
I recently received a letter from one of law enforcement’s finest. He had attended a seminar in which he was told to be on the lookout for Christians. The letter was written by an attendee, Ron Trowbridge, Undersheriff in Prowers County, Colorado. I would like to thank Sheriff Trowbridge for the letter and the 25 years he has spent protecting the public in his county. Fear of reprisals from either the Colorado State Police and Homeland Security, fail to stop this patriot from exposing what our law officers are being subjected to. Because of his bravery, we are able to get an inside look on how nefarious forces within our government are attempting to indoctrinate our law officers. As this letter proves, our officers cannot be intimidated. Nor can they be turned on the people they serve. The people of Prowers County are very lucky to have him.
Without further delay, here is the letter unedited and complete in it’s original form:
From: rtrowbridge@prowerscounty.net To: forknown@hotmail.com Subject: CSP Training Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 10:30:22 -0600
On April 1, 2013 I attended training in La Junta, Colorado hosted by the Colorado State Patrol (CSP). The training was from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm and covered two topics, Sovereign Citizens, and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. I was pretty familiar with motorcycle gangs but since we often deal with the so-called sovereign citizen groups I was interested to see what they had to say. The group consisted of police officers, deputies, and CSP troopers. There were about 20 people in attendance.
Trooper Joe Kluczynski taught a 2-hour section on sovereign citizens. Kluczynski spent most of his two hours focusing on how, in his view and apparently the view of Homeland Security, people turn to the sovereign citizen movement. Kluczynski started off by saying there are probably some sovereign citizens in this room and gave a generalized list of those groups that have sovereign citizen views. Among those groups, Kluczynski had listed, were those who believe America was founded on godly principles, Christians who take the Bible literally, and “fundamentalists”. Kluczynski did not explain what he meant by “fundamentalists” but from the context it was clear he was referring again to those who took the Bible literally or “too seriously.”
While Kluczynski emphasized that sovereign citizens have a right to their beliefs, he was clearly teaching that the groups he had listed should be watched by law enforcement and should be treated with caution because of their potential to assault law enforcement. Kluczynski explained why he believed these groups were dangerous saying they were angry over the election of a black president. When someone in the group suggested the failing economy was probably much more to blame, Kluczynski intimated that those who are not going along with the changes in America will need to be controlled by law enforcement. Kluczynski even later questioned some of the troopers present if they were willing and prepared to confiscate “illegal” weapons if ordered to.
Kluczynski’s assignment with the CSP was an Analyst for the Colorado Information Analysis Center, (CIAC). CIAC is funded by Homeland Security funds and run by the CSP. Kluczynski said he gets his information from the Department of Homeland Security. Kluczynski said he was leaving the CSP at the end of that week (March 29, 2013) to begin his new career with Homeland Security. I thought he was perfect for the job.
Ron Trowbridge
Undersheriff
Prowers County Sheriff’s Office
Wow! This is a powerful letter, written incredibly well and I was blown away when I read it. My question for Kluczynski would be this: “If we look at recent mass murderers such as former officer Chris Dorner, who went on a rampage and killed 5 people and wounding others, Adam Lanza, the shooter at Newtown, James Holmes, who killed 12 and wounded many more, Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 fellow servicemen, or even Gabby Gifford’s shooter , Jared Lee Loughner, all were liberals except Hasan who is a Muslim terrorist. Why are you lecturing on Christians, who do not commit these type of killings? Why are you not lecturing officers on Muslims and liberals?”
Obviously, it was not his intent to prevent any further killings in the future but to defame Christians and to label them as racists because they oppose the disastrous policies of President Barack Obama. In my personal opinion, we have more to fear from propaganda merchants like Kluczynski, than we would ever have from Christians. Thank God we have men such as Sheriff Trowbridge, who cannot be corrupted or silenced. I will monitor the situation, in case he is harassed or faces reprisals and I hope I can count on all of you to make your voices heard, should he need our help.
h/t The Red Statements (Thank you Steve!)
Thank you Undersheriff Trowbridge for bravely sharing this, and for serving Colorado citizens as you have for so long. You are a hero.

There are a growing number of folks for whom we can be grateful, who understand what’s happening and how it directly affects individuals, and who are bravely speaking out about it. One of those individuals is Prowers County, Colorado Undersheriff Ron Trowbridge. I’m praying for Undersheriff Trowbridge, and I hope my readers will too. We need more courageous local law enforcement like Trowbridge who understand both our times and our Constitution.
I also ask that my readers share this post broadly, both in support of Undersheriff Trowbridge and others like him, but also so Colorado citizens (and beyond) will understand what’s really happening to our freedoms. If individuals from other states can learn from my crumbling state and get involved at your own local level today, we really can stop this freedom-crushing madness.
But it’s got to start today, and it’s got to start with you

Obama/Stalin..."Turn Them into Useful Idiots!"..........

Behind the Curtain: Newtown families: Victims turn lobbyists - POLITICO.com
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/behind-the-curtain-newtown-89977.html

Rep. Steve Stockman (@ReElectStockman) on Twitter
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/293601-rep-stockman-if-babies-had-guns-they-wouldnt-be-aborted

Medicare hike could also hit some in middle class - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/medicare-hike-could-hit-middle-class-075045878--politics.html

Study Reveals Global Warming Not To Blame For Last Year’s Crippling Drought « CBS St. Louis
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/04/12/study-reveals-global-warming-not-to-blame-for-last-years-crippling-drought/

"Obama Will Let Me Go" - 1200 WOAI San Antonio's Breaking News, Traffic and

"Obama Will Let Me Go" - 1200 WOAI San Antonio's Breaking News, Traffic and

Taxes...We pay 28%+, Obama pays 18%... Fair Share NOT..HYPOCRITE!

Obamas' Tax Return Shows Lower Earnings - WSJ.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324240804578418842282798284.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird

North Korea states 'nuclear war is unavoidable' as it declares first target will be Japan | World | News | Daily Express
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/391376/North-Korea-states-nuclear-war-is-unavoidable-as-it-declares-first-target-will-be-Japan

Interesting Information 4U.

I thought you would find this interesting to put it mildly!
There are actually two messages here. The first is very
interesting, but the second is absolutely astounding - and explains a lot.

A recent "Investor's Business Daily" article provided very
interesting statistics from a survey by the United Nations International
Health Organization.

Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years
after diagnosis:

U.S. 65%

England 46%

Canada 42%


Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received
treatment within six months:

U.S. 93%

England 15%

Canada 43%


Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it
within six months:

U.S. 90%

England 15%

Canada 43%


Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within
one month:

U.S. 77%

England 40%

Canada 43%


Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million
people:

U.S. 71

England 14

Canada 18


Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are
in "excellent health":

U.S. 12%

England 2%

Canada 6%


And now for the last statistic:


National Health Insurance?

U.S. NO

England YES

Canada YES

Check this last set of statistics!!

The percentage of each past president's cabinet who had worked
in the private business sector prior to their appointment to the cabinet.
You know what the private business sector is; a real-life business, not a
government job. Here are the percentages.


T. Roosevelt.................... 38%

Taft................................ 40%

Wilson ........................... 52%

Harding........................... 49%

Coolidge......................... 48%

Hoover............................ 42%

F. Roosevelt..................... 50%

Truman........................... 50%

Eisenhower................ .... 57%

Kennedy......................... 30%

Johnson.......................... 47%

Nixon.............................. 53%

Ford................................ 42%

Carter............................. 32%

Reagan............................ 56%

GH Bush.......................... 51%

Clinton .......................... 39%

GW Bush........................ 55%

Obama............................. 8%


This helps to explain the incompetence of this administration:
only 8% of them have ever worked in private business!

That's right! Only eight percent---the least, by far, of the
last 19 presidents! And these people are trying to tell our big
corporations how to run their business?

How can the president of a major nation and society, the one
with the most successful economic system in world history, stand and talk
about business when he's never worked for one? Or about jobs when he has
never really had one? And when it's the same for 92% of his senior staff
and closest advisers? They've spent most of their time in academia,
government and/or non-profit jobs or as "community organizers." They should have been in an employment line.

Pass this on because we'll NEVER see these facts in the main
stream media.

=

Now He's After Your 401(k)
The White House pulls a switcheroo on retirement savings accounts.

How many times have you read financial-advice stories lecturing you to max-out on your IRA, save as much as you can in your 401(k), and even pay taxes now to change your regular IRA into a Roth IRA that will be tax-free until you die?

Well, be careful how much you save.

That's the message in President Obama's budget for fiscal 2014, which for the first time proposes to cap the amount Americans can save in these tax-sheltered investment vehicles. The White House explanation is that some people have accumulated "substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving." So Mr. Obama proposes to "limit an individual's total balance across tax-preferred accounts to an amount sufficient to finance an annuity of not more than $205,000 per year in retirement, or about $3 million for someone retiring in 2013."

Thus do our political betters now feel free to define for everyone what is "needed" for a "reasonable" retirement. Not to be impertinent, but does this White House definition include being able to afford summers at age 70 at Martha's Vineyard near the Obamas?

The feds may think $3 million is all you need after a lifetime of work, but that's roughly the value of a California police sergeant's pension if she works for 30 years, retires at age 50 and lives to normal life expectancy.

Out in the private economy, people generally have to work longer than that before they retire, and some of them do manage to save significant amounts. We're talking about people who work for decades and abstain from buying the bigger house or the new car so they can contribute the maximum to their 401(k)s or IRAs. The people who defer gratification and build a nest egg to avoid becoming a burden on their kids or their fellow taxpayers. The people whose savings finance productive enterprise. You know, the bad guys.

Best-selling books used to celebrate these "millionaires next door" who worked and saved their way to financial independence. But now Mr. Obama wants to treat them as if they all got rich by sheltering investments in the Cayman Islands or extracting bonuses from bailed-out banks or scooping up sweetheart mortgage deals from allegedly nonprofit universities. Someone should tell the President that most Americans can't swing the bonuses that his Treasury Secretary Jack Lew arranged at NYU and Citigroup C -0.83% .

The budget offers few details on how the government would enforce this cap across a worker's various accounts, but you can bet it would be complicated. Right now the government doesn't track all tax-deferred account balances. Financial firms don't have to send IRS 1099 forms to investors unless there's a distribution, nor do the firms know how much customers hold at other institutions.

So the IRS would get new power to impose new burdens on millions of taxpayers. And all so the government could raise what the White House claims would be $9 billion more in revenue over 10 years, as if people wouldn't change their savings habits. After this proposal, only a fool would pay taxes now to transfer to a "tax-free" Roth IRA that the feds may decide to tax someday.

The Occupy Wall Street crowd will be cheering this ideological assault, but the occupiers who mature into productive citizens will someday find themselves in the cross-hairs. The cost of a $205,000 annuity changes over time and inflation will reduce its value. The Employee Benefits Research Institute points out that such an annuity stream could be had for as little as $2.2 million, not $3 million, within the last several years. As a result, EBRI estimates that under such a scenario as much as 6% of today's younger workers age 26-35 could end up hitting the cap.

Liberals say tax-advantaged plans are unfair because the affluent benefit more than the poor. It's true that you can save more when you earn more, but the savings are also channeled into productive investment and they are eventually taxed when they're withdrawn. Congress wanted to encourage people to save, especially as it understood that Social Security and Medicare will become increasingly unaffordable.

The Treasury Department says its proposal would still allow existing accounts to continue to grow tax-free until distributions occur, but it would prevent new contributions once a saver hits the cap. We'd be happy to support a reduction in these tax incentives as part of a tax reform that reduced tax rates. But until that happens, these tax incentives are ways that thrifty Americans can shelter savings from punitive tax rates.

The Administration's political motive here is two-fold: First, it's a redistributionist play and a revenue grab. But for many on the left it's also about reducing the ability of individuals to make themselves independent of the state. They have always disliked IRAs, just as they oppose health-savings accounts, because over time they make Americans less dependent on federal entitlements or transfer payments.

Amazingly, Mr. Obama has surveyed the economic landscape and somehow decided that it's time to discourage savings if you make more than he thinks is "reasonable."

A version of this article appeared April 12, 2013, on page A14 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Now He's After Your 401(k).

pistol vs.knife. WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS

Pictures a little on the graphic side… but sometimes that is what is required to make people wake up and see the light of day.

ALWAYS Carry a pistol to a knife fight!

(and use it first)

Ever wonder why cops shoot people armed with knives, broken bottles, glass shards, etc.? If an experienced knife fighter gets in close, you may not have the opportunity to use the handgun before he can do damage.

Remember the 21 foot rule?

Well, don't forget the "Ego Rule"...

These photos are of an officer trained in hand-to-hand combat. The officer figured that due to his size and fighting skills, he could disarm a knife wielding aggressor.







Here is why I am forwarding these.

To all the idiots out there who always say, "Why did the cops have to shoot him? He only had a (insert your choice of weapons here, i.e. knife, bat, club or whatever). HE DIDN'T HAVE TO BE SHOT. To that, I respond, "tough crap... shoot 'em".

If an officer tells you to drop your weapon, just drop it.

If you're a retard, stupid, on crack, mental or just "scared"... too bad.

No one deserves what this cop got for just doing his job.

If you got a knife, then you should die... period.

This is vivid proof of how deadly people who are "only armed with a knife" can be.

Some of the public think that officers should try to disarm someone armed with a knife but anyone who has had training in knife fighting will tell you even if you win you are going to get cut. Keep this in the back of your mind when confronting someone armed with an edged weapon.

HAVE I MADE MY POINT?

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.



"IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM"

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian." -- Henry Ford

Cranky Old Man....

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in an Australian country town, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.
Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, They found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.

One nurse took her copy to Melbourne. The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas editions of magazines around the country and appearing in mags for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

And this old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet.

Cranky Old Man
What do you see nurses? . . . What do you see?
What are you thinking . . . when you're looking at me?
A cranky old man, . . . not very wise,
Uncertain of habit . . . with faraway eyes
Who dribbles his food . . . and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice . . . 'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice . . . the things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not . . . lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding . . . The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? . . . Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse . . . you're not looking at me
I'll tell you who I am . . . As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, . . . as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten . . . with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters . . . who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen . . . with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . . a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty . . . my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows . . . that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now . . . I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . . With ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons . . . have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me . . . to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, . . . Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children . . . My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me . . . My wife is now dead.
I look at the future . . . I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing . . . young of their own.
And I think of the years . . . And the love that I've known
I'm now an old man . . . and nature is cruel.
It's jest to make old age . . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles . . . grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone . . . where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass . . . A young man still dwells,
And now and again . . . my battered heart swells
I remember the joys . . . I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living . . . life over again.
I think of the years, all too few . . . gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last
So open your eyes, people . . . open and see.

:-)

Not a cranky old man. Look closer . . see ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within. We will all, one day, be there, too!

The best and most beautiful things of this world can't be seen or touched. They must be felt by the heart!