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A Culture of Fear and Firepower, Part I - An Introduction

I was recently required to take Active Shooter training at my workplace.  This was a basic training video that I had to go through to prepare for the possibility of an active shooter event at my place of employment, discussing what to do in case the office was attacked by someone with a firearm intent on killing employees. My wife just a few weeks ago, had to go thru Active Shooter training and training on the dangers of IED's.  She is a school bus driver... My father worked for 53 years, some in not so good places.  As a veteran of the Korean War, never once did he carry a firearm as a civilian (at least in the time I knew him), nor did he take or was required to take by his workplace an Active Shooter Training.  Something is very wrong here. After watching years of public commentaries and discussion on the issue of Gun Control in the United States, I have heard many say that this is not the same world that my father grew up in, which for the most part I wou...
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The Syrian Kurds, Part I, Just a touch base.

Not only has there been a war in this and about this area for years, but the "media war" doesn't make it much clearer...  It's really difficult to find clear unbiased information on this subject...It takes a lot of time, sometimes more time than I want to be reading. Most Americans don't even know who the Kurds are. I started researching them two years ago in detail after several years of watching the ISIS situation develop along with the Syrian Civil War.  I also watched several "on the ground" documentaries on the war with ISIS in which several factions of Kurdish fighters played a prominent role. I just hope by this latest of foreign policy decision doesn't create a whole new group of enemies for us... clearly, we have been careless with this region for quite some time...  we have lots of history of being careless in our foreign policy. There really is no black and white in this... its a lot of gray... and what a mess.  It's a mess we ...
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Medicaid for All - one family's experience with the Welfare system and Medicaid - Part I

One family's experience with the Welfare system and Medicaid, my family. Considering I have spent most of my married life in a single income earner situation raising five children, three of whom are special needs with disabilities, (which currently by the way are not receiving the SSI or Medicaid they are entitled too, because of current sidestepping and bureaucracy of the current system we have).  I have dealt with all sorts of medical issues under all sorts of insurance schemes and platforms, from HMO's to PPO's to yes, and Medicaid. Yes, over 15 years back, when all five children were little (our youngest was an infant), I lost my job two weeks before the Thanksgiving.  Yes, companies are that heartless, that's how great America is.  Still though had it not been for a sole project manager and friend who had known the layoffs were coming which were to affect over 40 people, he notified everyone two weeks early that the layoffs were coming on their actual date, the...
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Politically Homeless, An Awakening.

Dwight Jeffress, Updated Jul 1, 2019 Re-post from FB, some months ago. Long post... some rabbit holes, and some reflections - apologies. I wouldn't blame you if you kept scrolling. Ahhh... another one I debated about posting... but I find so much in common with the author of this opinion piece. Politically homeless... yeah, that could describe me... but in a sense, after being a die-hard conservative Republican for almost 20 years I think personally I have found unequivocal freedom in abandoning it, well sort of. It will most likely continue to form the basis of some of my belief system for the rest of my life simply because of the influence it once had. To be able to now “take the blinders” off and see other perspectives, and not to tune out other opinions, as well as see merit in another way of belief, is freeing... in short, a liberation of the mind. I found this also with abandoning contemporary Christian institutional religion, walking away from that community allowed...
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Welcome to Polytx

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by Dwight Jeffress, Updated Jul 1, 2019 Welcome readers to Polytx.  Polytx will attempt to address, explain, educate and comment on that trepidatious subject of politics. Today's society is more polarized than ever before.  The various factions find it even more difficult to find a compromise, to come to workable solutions than ever before in history.  It has come to such a point now, that some do not even seek to compromise, and even see such a thing as a weakness in principle as well as person. When did compromise ever become seen as weakness?  I truly believe this is a troubling age we live in and we see the divide grow ever greater, as populists and extremists grow in popularity and power.  Is this something good for our republic?  I believe it is one of the many inherent dangers of a free democratic republic, one of many we will explore together. I do not claim to be an expert in Politics, but rather ...
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