Fractured
Fractured, embracing our imperfections.
We all are fractured one way or another mentally or physically.I want this to be a away of coming together and embracing each other through telling my story, there stories , speakers , interviews and so on.
Fractured
The Power of Compassion Amidst Division
Amidst the turmoil, we turn our focus to unity and gratitude. Reflecting on our nation's strength through challenging times like 9-11 and Pearl Harbor, I urge listeners to support the President and embrace kindness, even amidst political differences. Sharing personal stories of family divisiveness, I emphasize the importance of compassion and understanding in bridging our divides. As I announce an upcoming medical procedure and a possible podcast hiatus, I extend heartfelt thanks to our global listeners. Join me for a fervent discussion on patriotism, gun safety, and the enduring power of unity.
Remember, be good to one another
Hey folks, this is your host, patrick the Alien. You know, the one with the brain trauma. This is where we confront the ups and downs of life. It's like therapy, without all those silly licenses and certifications. I thought maybe we're going to try something a little different today. I know we said we never discuss politics, but how about patriotism? But how about patriotism? Not politics per se, left and right, not red and blue, but I think maybe we need to have a discussion.
Speaker 1:A few days before the shooting that happened, just by coincidence, I had put a post up on Facebook about something that had happened here in the state of Florida. There's going to be vending machines placed in the town next to where I live that are going to carry ammunition Deltona, to be precise, and then DeLand. We live in a funny little community. This is Orange City. We live in what's called the Four Towns District. It's DeBerry, orange City, deland and Deltona. It's always been called the Four Towns area. They're kind of interlocked between each other, always been referred to as the four towns area, and florida has been changing over the years. We're definitely a conservative state and you know that's fine. We're not. We're not talking about politics today. I'm just saying it's a conservative state, it's definitely conservative. And they decided that they're going to go ahead and have vending machines placed in stores and I guess they're going to go in grocery stores.
Speaker 1:So I just I put the question out there on Facebook and I'm just curious what the response would be of people, how they felt either side. I didn't want either side, I didn't want argument, I didn't want debates, and I asked it in that way. I said please just give me your thoughts on the subject. Either way, I don't care, I don't have a dog in the fight. As some of you may know or may not know, I served in the military. I'm one of four brothers who proudly served in the military. I was a gun owner. I do not own a gun at this time. I was diagnosed with bipolar depression. I take four different types of medication for my bipolar my own personal choice, no one else's and I was not asked to or forced to. I gave up my handgun for my own personal choice, because of my condition. I felt it was the smartest and safest thing for me to do. No one told me to, no one advised me to. That was my own personal choice. Again, that was for me, and me only. I'm not telling anybody else to do it. I'm not advising anybody else to do it. That was for me and me only. So there again, I have no dollar in that fight either. So, uh, I put the question out there. I I think I've probably got about 25 responses.
Speaker 1:A couple people chose to go into the heated debate. I simmered it down as best as I could. For the most part there was pretty good response to it, I thought on both sides. It was quite interesting. I researched it the best I could. The owners of the company it actually been out for some time in Oklahoma. They're moving into Texas, alabama. There's a couple of other states that are interested in Oklahoma, I think it they want to go into Kentucky. It's quite interesting the concept that they're they're looking into. It's an ID system and credit card system. You have to have a valid ID and a credit card. It will be inside of buildings, not outside three-layered steel buildings anchored in the concrete. They're doing, I guess, the best Safety-wise they can.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm not endorsing the company or knocking the company.
Speaker 1:No dog in the fight.
Speaker 1:I'm just giving information.
Speaker 1:I don't want to sound like I'm a critic or endorsing.
Speaker 1:I'm just giving information and I just want you to be informed.
Speaker 1:That's all. That's all, and that was going to be my topic and my only topic for today. I want to talk about that first because it was interesting to me and, like I said, that was before the shooting. So I want to start with that because I find it to be an interesting topic and as I was researching that, there was things I didn't I didn't know because I said, okay, this is going to be a heated, heated subject. I said a lot of people are going to be riled up about this. I thought, and then I got to looking into it and I go well, this is interesting, but if some people are going to be mad about being able to buy ammunition and machines and grocery stores because that's where they want to go they want to go and that's where they are now is in grocery stores the people are going to be mad about this. This is going to really make people angry. And did you know that any kid now can say that they're 21 years old and order 2,000 rounds of ammunition over the internet? Now it's very possible to do that. You can lie about your age and order ammunition off the internet right now. Very easy to don't know.
Speaker 1:I didn't know if you were aware of that I was doing my research for on this subject. So if you're all wound up about this one, you should get more wound up about that. At least these guys are trying and, like I said, I'm not supporting one way or the other, but at least they're doing a little bit of safety. So you might want to do a little bit of research on things before you get too worked up. So there's that. On the other hand, I'm a product of the 70s. I can remember cigarette machines and I remember what we did with cigarette machines. We got rid of them because people didn't like it. So I kind of wonder why we're bringing ammunition machines back.
Speaker 1:I also see I talked to some gun owners and then I looked at some of the answers that I got back off of Facebook and I found it quite interesting from some of the gun owners, some of the gun owners that I've known for a long time the hunters and their answers were the ones that surprised me. Those were the ones that didn't like the ideas of them being in grocery stores. Those were the ones that thought that they should be in hunt clubs and ammo store. I mean not ammo stores, but gun stores and shooting ranges, places like that and that made sense to me. That kind of made more sense to me. But there again, like I said, I'm you're not asking for my opinion, I'm just I'm just giving information. I understand why people who have had, who are the parents of victims, people who have been victimized law enforcement might be wary. I understand all of that. I understand why they might be concerned about the types of ammunition that might be carried. I understand why certain gun groups might be leery about having to give your ID and stuff.
Speaker 1:But we have to have some kind of regulations. I know we're a country where people don't like regulations, but we have to have safeguards definitely, and we're about gun safety. I mean we have to be. If you're going to be a gun owner, you have to be a safe gun hunter. I mean we must agree on that, don't we? I mean don't we?
Speaker 1:Moved to Louisiana? Louisiana is a very big hunting state. They teach their kids I mean hunting at a very early age. You know what they taught us in school at a very early age in Louisiana Gun safety. That was in school. Gun safety was in school. That's what they taught you. I remember that and that was important. You know it's like why wouldn't it be? I remember that I believe it was. It might have even been the NRA and I'm not saying that I support the NRA or that I do support NRA, but I believe groups like that came in, you know, or Ducks Unlimited or something like that. They came in and worked with the kids. I remember watching documentary films like back in the 50s and 60s they actually had like rifle clubs for kids and teenagers in middle school that taught safety and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Like I'm not a proponent or you know, there again, don't call me, you know, sitting on the fence or a tree hugger or anything like that. I'm just giving information and letting you think about you know what you wanna do with it. With it you chew the curd, as my mom would say. Chew the curd, okay, that was that's where I was starting at today. And then you know what happened. Everybody knows what happened and we're not talking politics, we're not going to talk written book, we're just not going to do that. But it's weighed heavily on me this week. It's weighed heavily on me because I believe in patriotism, I believe in my country left I mean right or wrong.
Speaker 1:No matter who the president is, you have to support the president, no matter who's in office. And what happened that day was wrong, as wrong can be. If you don't like that man, then don't like that man, okay. But he was our president at one time and he's running for president again, and that did not deserve to happen. No matter what the jokes and memes are out of character and out of taste, no matter what. We are Americans. We set the standard for the world, no matter what, what, no matter what. It's time to stop the joking. It's time to stop the screaming. It's time to stop yelling at each other's faces. I'll tell you what it's time for.
Speaker 1:Right after Trump got shot, the man that's going to be his vice president was accusing the other side of it. It's like that's wrong too, and I'm still not playing party politics. You don't blame each other for this, okay, and I admire Trump, because Trump even said that the president called him. They had a great conversation and and he was he was going to give a speech of unity. I admire Trump for that. I truly believe Trump was, was truly scared. I believe that I have no doubt in my mind who wouldn't be. Who wouldn't be? I don't believe that. I would want to continue to run under that, but he is. And I didn't say that I'm supporting the man or not supporting the man. This is not about politics to me. Okay, I have no dog in this fight either. I am not giving my political views one way or the other. This podcast is not about political views, but I do believe in patriotism.
Speaker 1:Joe Biden is our president.
Speaker 1:I believe you need to support Joe Biden right now. He is our president. Whoever is in the office is who you support and pray for, because he is your president, no matter what. You always support the oval office, always because that is your president. No matter what and like always, you will survive. They always say, oh, you're not going to make it, this is the end of the world. It's simply not true. We always survive.
Speaker 1:We're America. That's what we do. We've seen hard times. We'll continue to see hard times. We see recession. We see good economic growth. We see trends. We're America. It's what we do. We're stronger for it. We'll get through America strong. We made it through 9-11. We made it through Pearl Harbor in 41. We'll just continue to do it. It's what we are. It's who we are.
Speaker 1:My God, I've never seen this country get tore apart the way it's being tore apart now. It makes me want to cry sometimes. We're human beings. Let's be human, let's be kind. Sometimes I can't even talk to my own brothers, you know, because of our political views. It saddens me. It saddens me that the people that I hold dearest in my life, I sometimes I wonder. It's like, how could we have been raised in the same home when our political views are so different? It's like it can't be. It just can't be. But you know what? We're all human beings. At the end of the day, we're all created in His image. Let's do what we're supposed to do Be kind to one another. It has to be this way, guys. It has to be. We brag so much about how great this country is. Well, we're only great if we show how great we are. It's not just words on a t-shirt, okay, it's not a bumper sticker. You can't just say it, you've got to be it. It's that simple. If you want to be good, you've got to be good. It's just that simple. It really is, guys.
Speaker 1:I don't mean to get on the soapbox, but this week has been an emotional rollercoaster for me personally. I've had ups and downs. The old Patrick the Alien is going to be going into Area 51 for a tune-up. They've got to take some parts out of the old skeleton, do a little bit of rehab and got a shutdown for a little bit. I don't know how long I'll be out of commission. Hopefully it won't be too long. I have a little bit of a clean up I'd like to do, because my memory is so bad. My hand shakes from time to time, so I apologize for those that are watching me on the video feed. I've been meaning to do this for some time.
Speaker 1:We now have listeners in 11 countries, which are the United States, canada, ecuador, india, germany, Colombia, denmark, saudi Arabia, bangladesh and Australia. We are heard in over 76 cities. I did not count the states. I apologize. No shocking surprise that Florida leads. I'm going to go through this as fast as I can.
Speaker 1:Here we go City Palatka, deltona, gainesville, jacksonville, sanford, high Springs, altamont Springs, apopka, mount Dora, satsuma, eustis, summerfield, glen, st Mary, ocala, astor, ormond Beach, tavares, palm Coast, west Palm Beach, miami, fernandina Beach, bellevue. Believe it or not, I have been to every city that I just said, that tells you how old I am and that my dad was a truck driver and we moved around a lot. That covers Florida. And then we have continuing to the south Fayetteville, georgia, macon, georgia, spartanburg, south Carolina, fayetteville, georgia, macon, georgia, spartanburg, south Carolina, charlotte, north Carolina, monroe, north Carolina, jackson, tennessee, johnson City, tennessee, maryville, tennessee and Ashburn, virginia. Then we have Brim and Kentucky, carmel, indiana, milwaukee, wisconsin, detroit, michigan, denver, colorado, gardner, montana, san Diego, california and Los Angeles, california.
Speaker 1:What else do we have? And then we got to cover New England. Can't forget my relatives and friends up there Leinster Mass, fitchburg, mass, dracut Mass, gulfstown, new Hampshire, manchester, new Hampshire, concord, new Hampshire, gilord, new Hampshire, gilmanton, new Hampshire and Wickersham, maine. And then we have way up north, chatham, ontario, and I'm going to butcher this one because I'm not good with French La Mabouille, quebec, I know they're laughing at me right now. And then Trenton, new Jersey, hopewell, junction, new York and New York City.
Speaker 1:What else do we have? Oh, and then our overseas friends. This is one I really butcher. This is one I really butcher, paolo Paolo, longcaston, tasmania, mirapur, gazapur, riyadh, valbury, capital Region, palmar del Varo, alantico, calcutta, west Bengal. And I believe that covers it. I think I got everybody. So that was for all my shout outs.
Speaker 1:So I, if I missed you, I apologize. I'm going to try to keep it going. Like I said, I have to go in for surgery and rehab. It's going to be a little rough this time so I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep up with the podcast for a while or not. I'm sorry about the ranting.
Speaker 1:I promise not to get political, but, my God, I love the place that I live in. I hope you love it too. I love my state, I love my country, I love my world. I love everything. I love my community.
Speaker 1:I love being alive. I'm grateful to be alive. I shake, I walk with a cane, I can't turn my head very well. I'm in pain most of the time and I'm still. I'm very happy to be alive. I hope you are. I hope you count your blessings every day. I hope you know how good it is just to be alive. If you're not sure of it, walk through the Children's Ward of a hospital sometime. You count your blessings. Just know that if you wake up every day with a roof over your head and that you ate dinner last night, you were better off than 50% of the world's population. That's a cold hard fact. I didn't just make that up, so you're doing pretty good. You know, my brother's birthday is today, so happy birthday, jack rabbit. I know I'm mad at you right now. Yeah, I am still mad at you, but I love you, no matter what goose. I love you too. We all have our demons, folks. I have mine, you have yours. Let's try and get through them. Until next time, be good to one another.
