Alysha is our foreign exchange student from Roundup, Montana.  As it is only about 40 miles from our house to her homeland in Musselshell County, language and cultural conflicts have been minimal.  Just before Thanksgiving, she finished her oil painting of the Red Sea for her art class at Laurel High School, but anticipating some last minute tweaking, she stored her picture, paints and canvass in her bedroom.  So far so good. 

Thanksgiving Day, Tim, Meagan and their eight mini-Kimmels drove down from Great Falls.  The chaos of eight grandchildren exploding from a cramped Excursion and swarming a home typically inhabited by two old people and one 18-year-old foreigner is something everyone should experience.  Cash, our Border collie, spent the holiday hiding under our bed.   

Because everyone was dressed in their holiday finest, Meagan corralled Tim and their eight wee ones for their annual family picture.  While combing the burrs out of the hair of the middle two, Meagan counted heads and discovered she was missing Cora, the three-year-old and John, the two-year-old.  A quick search found Cora in Alysha’s room creatively adding turpentine highlights to Alysha’s Red Sea painting.  John was mostly an innocent bystander, not because of his keen sense of right and wrong, but because there was only one paint brush and he was patiently waiting his turn.  Sharing is a survival habit developed from having six older siblings.  A thick, “oh crap” silence filled the living room as Meagan revealed the damaged picture to Alysha. 

On closer examination of the altered painting I spotted John’s two bare footprints in the middle of the Red Sea.  “Submit the painting as it is and say it portrays the crossing of the Red Sea by Syrian refugees,” I offered trying to lighten the mood.  No luck, as even Cora knows the Syrians are avoiding all their southern Arab neighbors, choosing instead to invade Europe and this brings me to my point. 

The recent slaughter of innocent people in Paris and San Bernardino, California, means all Americans should be armed at all times.  However, even before the blood had clotted in the wounds of the final victim, Democrats capitalized on the crisis by publically screaming government must disarm the unwashed.  In utopia, only the ruling class and their security forces will carry guns.   

Because there are insufficient votes in Congress to actually repeal the “Second Amendment,” President Obama will decree common sense gun control by executive action.  Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley are all on board.  This move to render the little people powerless will be mislabeled as common sense gun control and veterans, NRA members, pro-lifers, and Christians will magically find themselves on the government “no-fly list.”    Demonstrating a blind allegiance to party, expect every elected Democrat at every level of government to rally behind their president on gun control just as they did by supporting his Syrian refugee invasion.  Progressive Republicans will publically whiz and whine, but will ultimately compromise with the Democrats.   

In this upcoming election cycle remember this:  (1) Democrats are the party of firearm confiscation.  (2) Establishment Republicans are the party of compromise.  (3) America’s only hope of survival lies with a handful of Republican patriots who will honor their oath of office to “support, protect and defend the Constitution.”  If the distinction between the three isn’t clear enough, I’ll have Cora paint you a picture.