Good will prevail –

January 26, 2026

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words – Originally sent Dec 3, 2015

Picture of Jack Freed

“Don’t allow yourself to be overcome by evil. Take the offensive. Overcome evil with good.” (The Bible) I’ve been struck by the fact that so many shootings have happened at places or times where people were trying to help people…the disabled, planned parenthood, churches, schools. The response to terror, whatever that terror might be, is to overcome it with good. The Twin Towers were replaced with a building, even taller. If “helping places” are targeted, let’s take the offensive and be determined to make an even stronger effort to be “do-gooders.”;-)  Jack

I’m sure that Jack didn’t foresee what is happening in Minneapolis and in other places around America right now, but he could see evil continuing to exist in the world and the on-going need to overcome it with good. The evil that permeates and drives the actions of our current government starts at the top and quickly flows down through the cabinet level and ultimately to the brutish and lethally armed storm troopers on the ground carrying out the wishes of leadership.

Certainly both of our current political parties share the blame for the environment and situation that we find ourselves in as a country.  The Democrats championed the most incompetent President in the history of our country and presided over an unfettered influx of millions of illegal immigrants with absolutely no plan for what to do with them. The Republicans then championed the most narcistic, egotistic and vindictive leader ever elected (others like him usually seized power in coups) and then kowtowed to his every wish no matter how self-serving it might be. Few politicians on either side showed any moral courage to do what is right. It’s not so much that evil won as it is that cowardice and self-preservation prevailed.

There are few, if any, politicians on either side in Washington that deserve to be re-elected, based upon their actions over the last few years. They failed us and they failed themselves. Perhaps it is time to do what many states have done and enact term limits for federal-level legislators. There was once enough political will to enact an amendment to the Constitution limiting the number of terms that a President could serve. Now is the time to also limit the terms of our elected Representatives and Senators. Those who framed our Constitution envisioned citizens being elected to government service for a short time and then returning to private life. They did not imagine the rise of a professional politician cadre concerned more about staying in power that serving the needs of their constituents. Yet here we are.

How will good overcome this situation? The answer is found in the one safeguard that was built into our Constitution for just such occasions – the ballot box. There is an opportunity again this year for good to overcome evil at the ballot box; for sanity, fairness and honesty to prevail.  It is unfortunate that we will have only candidates from the two failed political parties from which to choose. We deserve better but we have to work with what we have. A good rule of thumb is to vote out any politician who has been in office for two or more terms. Just get somebody new in the office and don’t let the old guy just move up from Congress to the Senate – send them home. It’s probably also time to look at changing the terms for Congressmen from two years to four, since they currently spend most of their two-year terms just trying to get reelected.

Will term limits and real reform happen? Probably not, but what can happen is sending the current crop of professional politicians packing. So, get ready to exercise the one right that they cannot take away from you – get ready to vote this year. That is the most powerful way for you to protest what you see going on in our country right now. Good will prevail.

1 Comment | Inspiration, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Norm Werner

A Call for Moderation in Politics

January 20, 2026

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words – Originally sent Jan 18, 2016

“When you are right you cannot be too radical. When you are wrong you cannot be too conservative.” (MLK Jr)  Was King a conservative or a radical? Radical, in the sense that the civil rights changes he helped bring about were extreme. Conservative, in the way that change was accomplished…through peaceful marches. Too many permanently label themselves, conservative or radical, when certain situations call for a label that can be changed. In today’s world of conflict, we need to stop serving our labels and focus on serving our mission. 😉  Jack

The polarized condition that the country was in back in 2016 when Jack penned those words has only gotten worse. I saw the results of a recent poll in which respondents disapproved of the leadership of both parties. The case for the formation of a third party has never been stronger. The two major parties have coalesced at the extremes of the conservative-radial divide with no interest on either side in finding compromises. Fueled by hate on both sides the pendulum has been pushed to swing further out with each political change in power.

As a by-product of this anger and hate-driven environment politics has become so nasty that people who aren’t radical one way or the other have decided to avoid getting involved. The so-called moderates have been driven out of both parties by disgust or fear or both. The past year has seen the exit of some of the last few moderates in Congress who became frustrated by the inability to get anything done that wasn’t a part of the radical agenda of either side of the aisle. Instead of “reaching across the aisle” to find compromise.

Todays politicians choose to stay in their trenches and lob hand grenades at each other in the media. The two sides seem to be totally focused on undoing whatever the other side has done without any real plan (or policy)  to replace whatever it is with a new solution.

This polarized political environment provides the perfect setting for the creation of a new political party in the middle, a party without the baggage of hate and division of the current parties. Such a party could quickly rise if it had the right leader – a leader who could clearly and forcefully articulate a moderate path forward.

There are answers to the issues facing America but our current politicians have stopped looking for them as they fight with each other. A moderate leader would be able to acknowledge the issues/problems that are at the core of the current political divide but also offer a new solution, rather than just throwing out the old in anger.

Unfortunately, this will probably not happen. In the current political environment there is too much big money behind the extremes on both sides. Even strong moderates will stay out of the mudslinging fray for the good of their families. Things have already gone well beyond just muckracking, with death treats becoming the norm and even politically motivated (or encouraged) killings in the news.

Is a new party of moderation needed? Yes. Is it likely to happen? Unfortunately, no. What can we do? Well, there is another election coming up and another opportunity to swing the pendulum back the other way. Maybe you think that it won’t be any better at that political extreme than where we are right now. You are right, but there may be a brief moment when the pendulum swings back through the middle that the few remaining moderate politicians can get some good things done. Hope springs eternally.

Leave a Comment » | Inspiration, politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Norm Werner

Don’t throw it away…

August 1, 2020

A couple of quotes that I’ve saved from the Jack’s Winning Words blog seem to go together and provided the inspiration for this morning’s post here.

“Although we can’t stop the world around us from changing, some things are precious enough to preserve.”  (Linda Kast, Editor Reminisce)

-and-

“There’s an old saying about those who forget history.  I don’t remember it, but it’s good.”  (Stephen Colbert)

It is unfortunate that Colbert’s quote is spot on in terms of our society’s current feelings about history. We have largely become a “throw it away” society with things, with peo0ple and with our history. I am a Board of Directors member of the Milford Historical Society and past president of that board. Like the thousands of other small town historical preservation groups across the country, the Milford Historical Society has as its mission to collect, preserve and make available to the public the history of our little Village and Township. We operate a small museum, The Milford Historical Museum, in downtown Milford, which houses memorabilia, pictures and documents from the Milford area’s past. We also feature a second floor that is set up and furnished to provide an experience like one might have had in a Milford home in the late 1800’s. We provide docent guided tours of the museum.

Like most other small-town museums, mainly volunteers run ours. We have a paid, part-time Museum Director. In addition, we run a program for local high school  students which awards them a scholarship at graduation, after they perform a number hours of duties as docents (guides) in the museum. Our hope is interest them in history a little through that experience as well as to help them in their further education.

The Milford Historical Museum is usually open during the summer and fall months from May until November. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have remained closed and all of our normal activities have been suspended. Those suspended activities include the things we usually do during the year to raise funds to operate the museum. When the museum is open we get donations from visitors. We also collect dues from our membership each year.  We normally hold a rummage sale called Granny’s Attic in July and a Home Tour of some of Milford’s historic homes in September. The Home Tour normally contributes about 75% of our annual budget. Neither fund-raising event is being held this year and with the museum closed, we are not getting donations from visitors.

We have made an appeal to the local businesses that usually support our Home Tour, with some success, but not enough to make up for the loss of Home Tour revenue. Unfortunately, the bills didn’t stop when everything else did. We must keep the building environment controlled to avoid damage to the historical contents, so air conditioning in the summer and heating in the colder months must continue. We must still pay to keep the landscaping up and this year we had to have the exterior painted to avoid deterioration of the 100+ year old building that houses the museum.

We believe that the history and heritage of the Milford area is precious enough to preserve and to share with future generations. We hope that you do too. If you would like to make a donation of any size to the Milford Historical Society to support our mission, please send your checks to The Milford Historical Society, 124 E. Commerce St, Milford, MI 48381. Thank you for your support. Come by the Museum when we are able to reopen and take a look at Milford’s history. We didn’t throw it away, we preserved it.

Leave a Comment » | About Milford Michigan, fund raiser | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Norm Werner

We should learn from history, not just ignore it or try to change it

April 22, 2019

There was an interesting quote on a recent post to the Jack’s Winning Words blog – “One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.”  (Golda Mier)

I recalled that quote while watching the news on Easter Sunday. One of the news stories was about the so-called “Slave Bible”. The story concerned the efforts that slave owners made to change the Bible that they gave to slaves by removing any preacher-pointingpassages that they felt might ferment rebellion. The result was a Bible that was about ¼ the size of the actual Bible and one in which slaves were advised to mind their masters in Peter 2:18 “Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.”

That story reminded me also of modern attempts, mainly in the South and somewhat successful, to remove the racist history of the South from school history books. Also conveniently erased from many school history books is the very poor treatment of Native Americans over time, including most references to the enforced marches to arrogant“reservations” that took place. These are ugly scars on our history, and some would just remove them from our school history books, in an attempt to protect our children from the ugliness of the truth.

Instead of just erasing or covering up those times in our nation’s history, we should be using them as teaching moments with our children to help them understand the tremendous negative impact of racism and bigotry and to make sure that history does not repeat itself. There are many examples through our history as a nation where hatred or fear drove the country’s leaders to make decisions that upon reflection were wrong. The internment of all citizens of Japanese descent during World War II was another example. The McCarthy “witch hunt hearings” to try to ferret out Communists in our midst was another.

The Civil Rights Movement in modern times provided many vivid examples that many people would like to sweep under the carpet and have us forget – but they happened and many were broadcast right into our homes on the nightly news. Today we have the “border crisis” and the plight of asylum seekers and   would-be immigrants. The pain and suffering of families torn apart at the border cannot and should not be ignored or predjuiceswritten out of our history. We also have intolerance and bigotry against those whom we somehow judge to be “different” – the LBGTQ community, those who are mentally or physically challenged, or those look or speak differently. We cannot write them our of our lives and our history.

We judge nations and the people in them using many standards, not the least of which is how they deal with inconvenient truths. Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia are two examples of nations with dark pasts that many in them would just as soon forget or re-write. There are many example today in the Middle East, South America and elsewhere of nations living through eras that someday they will wish didn’t happen.

But, it did happen. It is happening. There is/was suffering and death. We cannot just ignore it by writing it out of our history books or refusing to teach about it in our schools. Rather, we should use these unfortunate historical events as teaching examples of what not to do as a people with our children. We cannot erase the events of history. Much of the history of our country might not fit the present, but that does not change it. Some we may even have trouble explaining (or rationalizing), but we must try and we must point out what went wrong in order to teach what is right.

Leave a Comment » | faith, Inspiration, politics | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Norm Werner

History lived through has more meaning…

January 15, 2018

I started thinking this morning that Martin Luther King Day for me and others that lived through the events that are being honored today somehow has more meaning than it MLK image over DOwntown MIlforddoes for those who have just read about it or watched old new footage of the events leading up to his death. Thus who were alive in those days remember the context of the events that we now memorialize. We remember the nightly news casts showing black protest marchers being attacked by police dogs and being dragged away by police officers.  We remember the speeches and the great gathering on the Washington Mall. The memory of Martin Luther King being shot  at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968,  also provokes memories of where we were and what we were doing five years earlier on the day that President Kennedy was shot, Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas. It also will be forever linked in our minds to the fatal shooting of Bobby Kennedy just two months later. Those were tumultuous times.

I’m not trying to say that those who weren’t there can’t have an appreciation of the events, the people involved and the consequences that followed; just that they will forever see it from a different perspective from those who lived through those times. It is less abstract and more personally meaningful, if one can recall how it affected us at the time.

History is also full of great breakthroughs and inventions that can leave one wondering how we ever got by before those things were available to us. Some diseases that were a fact of life back then are almost unheard of today and medical science has advanced so much that survival of what were life ending events is now possible. Even as we take these things for granted today, it is possible to look back and wonder about “the good old days.” How did we make it through those days?

Our nest big parade of the year in Milford is the Memorial Day parade in May. I have watched from my spot in the Viet Nam Veterans group of marchers as the ranks of WWII and the Korean War thinned over time. I have few, if any, personal memories of those days, although I was born during WWII. I do recall Harry Thurman and Dwight Eisenhower as the first two Presidents, of whom I was aware. I remember the glow of the short-lived Camelot Presidency of Kennedy and the turmoil of the Viet Nam War years. Those years provided the backdrop for the emergence of the civil rights movement and the leadership role that Dr. King played in that movement. They led up to my own time serving in Viet Nam at the turn of that decade.

So, Martin Luther King Day for me brings back a torrent of memories and images and emotions from my past. The day does not pass quietly by, unnoticed. It is not something abstract to me; it is something that I lived through and that has more meaning. I will go MLK Day parade in Mlfordto the MLK Day parade in Milford later today. It will be cold, as it always is this time of year. As I march, I will be reliving the memories of not just a day; but, of an era in our history at once brilliant in the ideals that it sparked and sad in the aftermath of the attempts to douse those hopes and dreams. Yes MLK’s dream is alive, but so too are the dreams of JFK and RFK and the many others of that era who envisioned a brighter future in America for all of its citizens.

Maybe I’ll see you there.

Leave a Comment » | Inspiration, Local Events | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Norm Werner

The Milford Historical Society Endowment Fund

September 26, 2015

The Milford Historical Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1973 with the mission of collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the Milford, Michigan area. We are an educational organization with theMHS Endowment Fund Logo Milford Historical Museum in Milford, Michigan serving as the primary vehicle for our efforts to educate the local community about the history of the area. An important part of or mission involves engaging local high school students to share the area history. Students volunteer at the Museum as docents (guides) over their final two years in high school. Those who complete 100 hours of service as docents by the time that they graduate are awarded $1,000 scholarships. We usually award 2 or 3 scholarships each year.

The Milford Historical Society has created a dedicated Endowment Fund which will be invested to provide income for these student scholarships, as well as supporting the operation of the Milford Historical Museum with any earnings beyond that needed for the scholarships. At the current rate of return on conservative investments, we estimate that a fund of $60,000 should be sufficient to provide for the annual scholarships. We have also provided for the naming of each scholarship on behalf of the donors, should any single donation be made at a level of $30,000 or more. Scholarships may be named for individuals or for corporations. Scholarships are awarded at the end of each school year to the graduating seniors who have completed their service requirements at the Museum.

Milfortd Historical MuseumThe Milford Historical Museum is located at 124 E. Commerce Street in Milford, Michigan 48381, and is open from 1 – 4 PM on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The museum displays historic  memorabilia that has  been donated by area residents as well as featuring a second floor that is furnished and decorated just as a turn of the century hoe might have been in Milford in the late 1800’s. In addition, the museum staff provides history research for those doing genealogical work or who want to know the background of the Milford home. The Milford Historical Society maintains at the Museum an archive of every issue of the Milford Times news weekly since its beginning in 1871 and also has an extensive photo collection of historic photos and sells reproduction prints of selected photos.

We have established a crowd funding site for this endowment fund on the Crowdrise.com web site – https://www.crowdrise.com/themilfordhistorical

Please consider supporting our mission.

Leave a Comment » | About Milford Michigan | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Norm Werner