I have said from the beginning in my blogs that my focus was to make a difference in other’s lives. I have hopefully done that by giving you positive encouragement, food for thought, asking you to think outside the box, and to believe in yourself etc.

Because I cannot, in good conscience, continue to avoid talking about this presidential campaign. I may lose some of you; however, I hope that you will take the time to at least read my thoughts.

My goal is to have you consider my thoughts and ideas. I realize I’m taking a chance that you will understand I am doing this for personal reasons. I look at my children, their spouses, and all six of my grandchildren. I fear they will not have what this country was founded on; freedom of speech and religion, a pride in the good in this country, all the freedoms of living in a democracy.

I will state up front that I am disgusted, like everyone else, about the released tape of Trump saying horrible things. I do not agree with his name calling and some of the things he has said. With that said and making no excuses for his past behavior, but it also was 20-30 years ago. There is nothing in the past 10 years since he’s been married to Melania. To me, I want to hear about the issues.

Michelle Obama, a woman I do feel has done an amazing job as First Lady, gave a speech last week about Trump and the sex tape. The essence of what she said I agree with, however, doesn’t that also apply to Bill Clinton and Hillary’s actions to destroy the young women who were involved with her husband?  How can Michelle Obama not address the lies, the corruption, the actions of putting our country’s security in jeopardy? She had very poignant attacks against Hillary during the past election.

Our country is at a turning point. I can talk with my children and my grandchildren about being respectful of women, standing up against abuse, it’s ok to say no and for the boys to understand that no means no. I can do that. What I can’t do is explain to Sophia and Ethan, who are Catholic, the condemnation from Hillary Clinton about Catholics. What I can’t do is explain to my other grandchildren that their religious freedoms are in jeopardy.

What do I say to my grandchildren about the lies and deception that has followed Hillary Clinton throughout her career? How do I explain that they’re suppose to tell the truth but that Hillary lies? How do I explain that 33,000 emails were destroyed AFTER she knew a subpoena was issued by Congress?  How do I explain the fact that all of the people subpoenaed to testify, in front of Congress, were given immunity? How do I explain that our own FBI then destroyed evidence? How do I explain that Hillary lied not only to Congress but to the parents of the Benghazi victims saying that it was because of a video? How do I explain that because of all her lies she put our country’s security in jeopardy? How do I explain that others who have done far less are serving prison time and have paid fines? How do I explain this double standard?

To be clear, personally, I don’t care who released all the emails. Blaming Russia, for me, is one more diversion. What I DO care about is the information IN these emails. The Clinton campaign has not denied the content. When ordered by a judge, it’s amazing Hillary’s responses of not being sure, she couldn’t remember, and in the questions she was to have given a specific answer to she answered 21 of 25 times that she couldn’t recall.

BUT we are only hearing about these emails at all or at least in any depth on some of the networks NOT all. There are released emails that state the bias in the media and the focus is on getting Hillary elected. In the 5:30 news last Friday night, Lester Holt led with the Trump controversy with women claiming they had had unwanted contact with Trump. The rest of the half hour there was NOTHING said about any of the WikiLeaks about Clinton and her emails. Flip from Fox to CNN and you can only shake your head.

ABC CBS CNN and several other media outlets have a conflicting interest. It’s “interesting” that ABC News executive producer Ian Cameron is married to Susan Rice, Obama’s National Security Advisor. It’s “interesting” that CBS President David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communication. It’s “interesting” that ABC News and Univision reporter Mathew Jaffee is married to Katie Hogan, Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary, and isn’t it “interesting” that CNN President Virginia Moseley is married to former Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary Tom Nides.

Journalism use to be a job for the common man who was there to get to report the facts from a neutral view point and being sure there were facts and corroboration of those facts. That is NOT the case any longer. We now have an upper class system of “reporters” with their own agendas. It has been stated that journalism died in the 2008 presidential campaign.

What is sad, for me, is who would ever subject themselves to run for the highest office in the land (or any government office for that matter) when you see what our current tabloid culture has done to influence elections and even destroy careers/people? Look what they did to Mitt Romney who the media successfully sentenced him to failure for being successful when people should be happy for those who do well in life among a barrage of other lies and misstated facts. Herman Cain is an African American, author, Godfather’s Pizza CEO, radio host, syndicated columnist, and Tea Party activist from Georgia who ran for president in 2012. In polls of how various Republican candidates would fair against Obama, Cain was briefly the front-runner leading President Obama in these polls. However, his campaign struggled with the media allegations of sexual misconduct – all denied by Cain. Bam! Another media coup.

I tell people to check out facts, do their due diligence, get information on both sides of a situation/issue and then make an informed decision based on the information they find. I thought that was a relatively easy task. That is until this presidential election. Until the released emails from the Clinton campaign we may have thought or suspected that the media was biased, but now we know that it is actually happening.

In my mind this election comes down to what country do you want your children and grandchildren to grow up in? Obama Care is a problem that is only going to get worse under Hillary. Even Democratic Minnesota Governor, Mark Dayton, says that Obama Care is “no longer affordable,” a stinging critique from a state leader who embraced it just a few years ago.” Hillary wants to “fix” our health care by having a single payer versus Trump wanting to open up bidding for the best plan across state lines.

What do I fear with a Clinton Presidency? She wants a hemisphere without borders, she wants to bring in over 65,000 Syrian immigrants despite the fact that it’s been stated by immigration officials that it’s extremely difficult to vet those that come into our country. We will loss not only our identity, but we will lose any hope of keeping our communities safe.

Obviously, I’m not going to go into everything. There is A LOT at stake in the election; the Supreme Court, the Middle East crises, limitless undocumented immigration, the 2^nd amendment rights, religious freedoms and much more.  Let’s all truly look at what will make a difference in our children and our grandchildren’s lives.

What are the real issues you think about? I am an almost 65 year old white woman and will not let a Donald Trump with bad language and behavior 11 years ago stop me from listening and believing that he is THE person who can: rebuild our military to be strong once again, who will focus on economic growth, who will control our borders, repeal and improve our failing health care,  he will protect our 2^nd amendment, he will serve the people rather than only the donors and Wall Street. 

I wish you a week of soul searching and what you want for your children.