The year 2009 has been a winner and loser. It's all a matter of how you look at it.

Here it is 2010, and I'm still here. Who would have ever thought it? That is good for me and some of my folks, and not so good for others. Even better, my "first wife" is still here. It was just a few weeks ago that she just didn't look like she would be among us. That is one tough lady. She has to be to have stayed married to me. We will celebrate 54 years next Friday.

As one of my best friends and I always agree, we both over married. We both did much better than we deserved, and the girls could have done lots better.

Who would have thought that I would have been here in Colquitt, Miller County, in 2010 after graduation from MCHS in 1954? No one, including my folks, and especially "ye scribe" would have ever guessed that I would be running the Miller County Liberal, or it would have been running me.

Looking back, there are a few things that I would change, but they are so few I can't remember what they would be. I've gotten old enough to realize that I should try to change the things that I can for the better and not to worry about what I can't change.

I'm afraid that we might be in the mess that we are in by not trying to stop the bad and help the good, even if we are just one.

I was listening to a preacher last Sunday talking about trying and failing. He was under the impression that if you haven't tried and failed, you really haven’t lived.

We human beings have a tendency to think the grass is always greener in someone else’s yard. I've seen a few of my friends that I thought did better financially than I did, but I have never known one that I would want to trade places with.

One of my black friends asked me, "Mr. Terry, did you ever think that a black man would be president of the United States in your lifetime?"

My answer was, a half black and half white man was elected, and so far, I don't like the black or white side of him in almost everything he has done to change this nation. That's just my opinion.

Maybe I am getting older and set in my ways. I have known a U.S.A. that I have always been proud of, and I don't like for anyone to tear down and ruin what so many have fought and died for in our past and in our present to build.

I have faith that the people of this nation will see what is happening and get together and reclaim our nation as a republic. We have, in my lifetime, always had to fight to keep what we have. I don't think that has changed. I just hope we can get it back.

I pray for our leaders every night that they may look to our Maker for answers to our nation's problems. If they don't, I pray that He will help us find leaders who will lead instead of ruin.

Again, we are the most blessed nation on earth because the majority of us are "One Nation Under God." There are some patriots that are available to lead us out of this mess we are in.

In my 74 years of being a citizen of this great nation, certain things have not changed and will not as long as we are a free people. Thirty-three years ago, Betty Jo, my first wife, gave me a plaque with these words that I try to live by:

“I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon...if I can. I seek opportunity...not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, this I have done. All this is what it means to be an American.”

This was written by By Dean Alfange, American statesman.

Our nation will continue to become a welfare state and debtor nation, or become a world power with the leadership that we choose in the future.

These are extraordinary times that require extraordinary actions by the people of this great nation.

The choice is ours to make. We Americans know that where we are and where we are heading is not where we must go to become the government of and for the people instead of a people for and by the government. Someone said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. “