My friend, the Republican is alive and well in Kansas!!

I have a friend in Kansas who is a Representative in the Kansas Legislature.  He is a Republican.  Joe Seiwert and I have been friends for a very long time.  Not sure how I met him, but I do know that the highlight of any trip to Kansas is meeting Joe at Skaets Steak Shop on the corner of  23rd and Main right in front of the fairgrounds.  Rarely do I ever meet a man that has the same sense of humor that I have, but Joe is one of them!  And we laugh and laugh!

He is a farmer or was.  I think he has now turned his farm over to his kids and I assume he is still a Representative, and I am sure he is still a Republican.  (They never seem to change!)  I do know that when I know I am going to Kansas, I put the word out and Joe and I will meet for coffee!  We actually discuss things like wind farms, state of the union, economy and the upcoming election.  Every cell phone I have had sports a picture of Joe and I at Skaets right up until the one I carry now.  I have not been back to Kansas for several years.  I do miss those trips, but life seems to be holding me here.

What I can not get straight about this whole Democrat/Republican snarling is why it has to be that way.  I have a list of friends and family that I have unfriended on facebook because they tend to want to shove their beliefs down my throat and it just isn't going to happen.  Joe seems to understand and be able to see both sides of the argument.  He never turns red and calls me stupid, which I sure appreciate!

But this is not about politics, it is about a strange friendship between an old woman who is a Democrat and a very stalwart Republican that have enjoyed a 10+ year friendship even without speaking for years at a time.  I had fallen heir to a bunch of cheap jewelry several years back and in it was a little golden tie tac which is an elephant.  I immediately thought of Joe.  It rolled around the desk a while.  Then I put it in a cubby hole on the desk.  The little grandson found it and wanted to play with it, so I decided it is time to mail it to Joe Seiwert, my Republican friend.    There really is no story to tell, it just is what it is.

So, Joe, every time you wear this, think of me!  I will be in Hutch this summer come hell or high water and I will be most happy for you to buy my lunch!  And until we meet again, 

May the road rise to meet you and the wind be ever at your back!  I love you, my friend!

Oh, Joe! You are a human after all!

Well, the Internet was a buzz last night!  Get online! Joe just committed political suicide!  And at first glance it seemed that my very dear friend Joe Seiwert from district 101 in Reno County, Kansas had done just that!  Having won his re election bid by 79% it seemed that he was truly the golden boy.  Now, those of you who do not follow my hometown as closely as I do will no doubt wonder what the boy did to warrant such an outcry.  Gonna tell you here.

He forwarded an email!  Can you believe that!  Unfortunately, he is a politician and this email contained an essay on the Muslim customs.  He did not comment on it in any way, just hit the forward button and off it went to 40 people!  They ought to tar and feather that fellow! (Sarcasm, for those who do not recognize the form I write in a lot!)

Now here is the deal, folks, how many emails do you forward in one day?  I shudder to think how many I get, glance at the first paragraph and hit my forward button sending it off to one of my lists of receivers.  (Can't call them friends because I have about 2, 000 in my address book and I am sure some of them do not even like me and vice versa!)

OK, back on subject here!  I am not sure this email never came across my sight.  If it looked boring, I deleted it.  If I read the first paragraph and it sounded like a conservative thing, I sent it to my conservative friends.  If it sounded radical, I got a bunch of them also.  Bear in mind that this looks boring to me, so it probably got the delete button early on in which case it is a moot point.

You know the routine on the forwarded stuff.  If it ends with the admonishment that " If you are a good christian, you will forward this!"  "If you believe in God, you will forward this!" "If you love America, you will forward this!" all of those will be deleted.  If people question my love of God or Country they did not read it, so I delete it.

But there is the small contingent of people who, when faced with that selection, will forward it because they do love God and country or are afraid God or Obama may actually be watching what they do.

Footnote:


The Muslims have said they will destroy us from within.

SO FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.


THE MARINES WANT THIS TO ROLL ALL OVER THE U.S.

Please don'tdelete this until you send it on.

In red is the last sentences in the actual email!  Use your own judgement as to whether you would have forwarded this!

I want to go on record as saying Joe Seiwert is one of the most intelligent, caring men I have ever met.  Granted he is a Republican and I am a Bleeding Heart Liberal, but we are eye to eye on many things.  Well, actually, most things! I only pray that the people of Kansas can get their thinking caps on and realize what a treasure they have in this man!  But in the outside chance that they want to ride him out of town on a rail, send him to Colorado, because we could sure as hell use an honest man out here!

I love you Joe!!!!!!!!!