Hi, I’m Forrest Newton, director of Better Life Coaching of Winnemucca, Nevada and no, I’m not talking about some mystic look inside yourself that you can get to by humming. Although if that helps you to relax fine.

However, what I’m talking about are those things that you want to accomplish some day, but some day never arrives and sometimes it seems further and further away. For those people who have reached that point in their lives maybe it’s time to move on. By move on I am talking about taking some steps toward your goals.

Sometimes the reason we don’t ever reach our goals is because we fail to take that first step. There are several reasons why we don’t.

President Obama this week mentioned seven Republican Senators who cosponsored a bill in the Senate but when the President came out for it, they voted against their own bill. Obama seemed to be mystified at their duplicity and dishonesty. But I’m sure he knew more than he let on. He is not stupid. He can’t say what he knows to be the problem.

All the pundits, all the newspapers, all the TV programs are skirting the real issue here, because they are afraid of the ugliness underneath. But someone needs to shout out the truth. We are at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. This is no less than a battle between barbarism and civilization.

WINNEMUCCA — I intended to write about Haiti and how fortunate we are to live in a country with such a strong infrastructure.  Then I remembered in the US our bridges fall down for no reason whatsoever, except benign neglect, so I thought it best not to be so hoity-toity on the topic.

Instead, I’m addressing a question recently posed to Sarah Palin who was asked, “Who’s your favorite Founding Father?”  To which she replied, “All of them … because they were so diverse.”  Unfortunately she continued.  Palin went on to note she admired the Founding Fathers because they found a way to come together and compromise on the issues despite their differences.

This caused howls of laughter from students of history around the country.  “Diverse?” they snorted contemptuously, “Diverse as only a group of rich, white men can be.”   

Oh, sure, they had differences.  For example, some of them believed it way okay to own black people while others believed it was not okay.  They compromised on the issue like this:  the Southern Delegation said, “You will let us continue owning our black people or we will give you opportunity to fight a Revolution all by yourselves.”  The Northern Delegation replied, “Oh. Okay.”

This method of diplomacy continued until 1861 when the Southern Delegation said, “You will let us continue owning our black people or we will leave the Union.”  To which Abraham Lincoln famously retorted, “Wanna bet?”

WINNEMUCCA — I find myself in a rare and unsettling event:  I agree  with something George Will said. He said that Harry Reid’s comments on Obama’s skin color shade and ability to speak without “Negro dialect” had “not a scintilla of racism” and also were “true.” I salute George’s perception and honesty.

It’s interesting but sad to see that many people can’t see any difference between a person expressing longing and nostalgia for Jim Crow segregation, which Trent Lott did,  and Harry Reid’s realistic expression of Obama’s political advantages, even if he used an archaic and disfavored term for African-Americans. Lott’s words revealed his racism -- Reid’s words revealed his age.