Is our second amendment obsolete?

Nothing could be sadder, more painful, and more revolting than the murder of innocent little children. There never has been any justifiable reason for such depraved behavior and there never will be!

The politicians, school officials, and citizens are in agreement that something must be done! However we must not rush to a solution that would destroy our second amendment rights of self-protection in this very dangerous world.
America has open borders and we really have no idea how many criminals are in our country at the present time. Surely, most of us would agree that we need personal protection. Some people say, “Let law enforcement handle it.” It’s a known fact law enforcement can’t be everywhere a crime is being committed and this is the primary reason for self-defense. In areas of our country where concealed carry is legal, the crime rate has decreased.
In England and Australia where guns have been confiscated, quite an increase in crime is experienced.
We must consider an improvement to the situation that would work for America.
Israel’s schoolteachers are trained in small arms protections techniques. Teachers wear pistols in their schools. Could this method also work for the United States? Mentally disturbed individuals who attack innocent people always select a gun free zone. Disarming the American population will not solve the problem that we have. When Germany elected Adolph Hitler, the citizens were disarmed and the result is history. After the recent atrocity in Connecticut, there has been continuous debate about the dilemma of correcting this problem.
One retired, law enforcement official said that our constitution is obsolete. The United States Constitution is still the great document that has provided us with freedom and prosperity. Freedom and prosperity will NEVER be outdated!
“A free people ought to be armed.” –George Washington, 1790.
“This year will go down in history for the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future.” –Adolf Hitler, 1935.
“The great object is that every man be armed.” –Patrick  Henry.
“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” –Alexander Hamilton.
“The disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them.” –George Mason.
“No free man should ever be debarred the use of arms.” –Thomas Jefferson.
“The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed, which places Americans over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” –James Madison.
The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, at a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” –Thomas Jefferson
“I don’t believe gun control is the answer. A crazy will always be able to their hands on a gun.” –Margy Miller.
“He who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.” –Jesus Christ, Luke 22:36.
“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6.

Ted Garrison
Manchester, KY.

Martins Creek Memories, Charlie Murphy Jr. 2

With nine children, Daddy, Mother and Grandmother all living in one house, we had to grow everything we could to live. Every level piece of gorund was planted in something. There were four pieces of ground that we used. One had only the driveway between it and the house.
We mowed very little, what we called the ‘yard’ or lawn. One Saturday for many years, we ‘swept’ the yard. We actually took a broom and swept in front of the house.
Daddy plowed the fields with a pony and a plow. He never talked about buying a tractor, or tiller. Daddy’s job was plowing the garden, the hoeing and planting was done by Mother and us children. The pony ate on pasture land in the summer and sweet feed, corn and fodder in the winter months.
I cannot remember, but there must have been a time when Daddy did not own a car. He walked to the ‘cut’, the junction of 1524 and 421 at Goose Rock, to catch a ride to the mines. A distance of at least three or four miles one way. When needed, he would carry a 25 lb. bag of flour or meal from the store. Next time he carried a 50 lb. stand of lard.
He bought groceries from these stores: Bob Howards’, Raleigh Walkers’, J.D. Walkers’ or Chester Corums’ store. Daddy could get anything from these stores, on credit. He had a good name for paying his depts..
We always had a cow for our own milk and butter. Chickens for their meat and eggs. It was not unusual for Mother and Grandmother to get up before breakfast to kill a chicken to fry. We feed ‘slop’ to our hog. In our home, Thanksgiving was not a day for a turkey dinner, but it was hog killing time. We worked all day, in cold wind and sometimes snow, to get the hog butchered.
That night we ate fresh hog meat, until we would say that it went to our ‘heads’. We didn’t know it then, but the pork made our blood pressure go up. I have watched our grandmothers dip bread in pure meat grease and eat it, but back then, we worked hard and worked the grease out of us.
We ate ‘poke’ salad, picked blackberries and gathered walnuts and whatever else God provided. There was not as much ‘give away’ then as there is now. Or at least, we didn’t know about it. No food stamps. There was a program, where the government gave away food. People would say they were going to get their ‘commodies’.
This was free food, but we did not receive much of it and not every month, like people do now. I remember we receive cans of roast beef and cans of peanut butter. One time a man was running for sheriff and he was promising, that if elected, he would see that the ‘commodies’ were of a better quality.
On a radio ad, he asked voters, “Does your peanut butter have holes in it?”
I am serious, this actually happened, but with or without the help of the government, we survived. Daddy provided for this family and taught his children that the world did not owe us a living, but just an opportunity to work for what we got.

Charlie Murphy Jr.

Martins Creek Memories, Charlie Murphy Jr.

Martins Creek Memories
This article is in response to this newspaper asking people in Clay County to write about things from the past. Since I seem to live in the past as much as I do in the present, it is ideal for me to write. I hope someone gets enjoyment out of it.
Most of my childhood was lived on Martins Creek (Highway 2000), on Lipps Branch. Daddy rented a house from Carlo ‘Peanut’ Lipps. For the longest time I remember that we only paid ten dollars a month for rent. Not much compared to today, but we’re talking about the 1950’s and 60’s. Paying such a small amount of rent, Daddy made any repairs that the house needed. It was rare that Daddy asked Peanut to buy anything for the house.
I have a picture of the old house, which had long since been torn down. If you could see the old house, you would think it was a barn. As a matter of fact, when my brother started dating his wife, he gave her a picture of himself in front of the house. At which, she asked him why he took a picture in front of a barn.
But for me it holds many childhood memories. it may have looked bad on the outside, but inside it was filled with love. Daddy worked in the mines. Mother never worked out of our home, her and Daddy had nine children, so Mother had a career, her family. To her it was the most important job.
It was a four room house, but the living room and a bedroom were actually two large rooms, with no door to divide them. In those days we had beds in the living room. One or two of us children slept with Mother until we were considered to be too old. Brothers slept together and so did sisters. It was unheard of for each child to have their own room.
Heated by a large stove in the middle of the house, in the winter time we slept under several thick home-made quilts. We didn’t dare try to turn over under those quilts.
In the winter months, Mother and grandmother (who lived with us) set up a large quilting frame across the living room. To get passed it, to other parts of the house, we had to stoop down and go under it. No fancy store-bought material for quilts, they used whatever material they could find. If pants, shirts and coats became un-wearable, they were cut up and made into quilts. But we never froze to death.
I was already married, when one day I thought about how that in winter months when we got out of bed, breakfast was ready and the house was warm, because Mother had gotten up early and made things ready for her family.
Ah! The old home place, how I would like to spend one more night there. Under those home-made quilts without a care in the world.
Charlie Murphy Jr.

Letter to the Editor, Hazel Bowling

Do you have a small corner where your readers can express the positives they've encountered? It could be something during an ordinary day that made it extraordinary, during a difficult time when the encounter uplifted and encouraged, or just an insignificant gesture that brightened a dreary day?  

My shout out would go to Oneida Baptist Institute cooks. I recently fractured my foot, had it immobilized in a cast, and was ordered to avoid weight bearing. Subsequently, I walked on one leg and wobbled on crutches for four weeks. That rendered me hand-less at the bathroom door, exit and entrance doors, and even at the cafeteria food line. OBI cooks learned my work schedule and held hydraulic doors, ladled food, carted away empty trays and beverage glasses, carried my folders, and even volunteered to carry out garbage and mop my kitchen floor. Some days they simply slowed down and walked alongside to keep me steady.  It has been a difficult four weeks, but their acts of kindness has been a constant ray of sunshine. They were my temporary angels, and hopefully, my lifetime friends. They rock!!  

Hazel Bowling
Oneida, Ky.