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    I Made My Choice—Have You?: One Man’S Thoughts on Issues in Our National News and Possible Solutions
    I Made My Choice—Have You?: One Man’S Thoughts on Issues in Our National News and Possible Solutions
    I Made My Choice—Have You?: One Man’S Thoughts on Issues in Our National News and Possible Solutions
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    I Made My Choice—Have You?: One Man’S Thoughts on Issues in Our National News and Possible Solutions

    By Blair Stevens

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    About this ebook

    The twenty-four-hour news cycle brings the issues facing America to the forefront every single day. Author Blair Stevens sees parallels between many of these issues and his own life experiences. He offers his unique take on them in I Made My ChoiceHave You?

    A husband, father, and businessman, Stevens discusses several of the most pressing concerns facing Americans today. He explains how working in Mexico City as part of his job shapes his observations on illegal immigration and reveals some possible solutions that America can take to stem the tide.

    When Stevens unwed daughter became pregnant, another hot-button issueabortionlanded right on Stevens front doorstep. With warmth and honesty, he shares how the family navigated his daughters decision to keep the baby and opens up about his views on the right to life. In addition, Stevens discusses other important topics including drug abuse, teen suicide, education, and racism, all within the prism of his experiences.

    Down-to-earth and engaging, I Made My ChoiceHave You? seeks to help you look at todays current events in a different light.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateNov 12, 2012
    ISBN9781475958935
    I Made My Choice—Have You?: One Man’S Thoughts on Issues in Our National News and Possible Solutions
    Author

    Blair Stevens

    Blair Stevens, a machinist and auto mechanic, lives with his wife of thirty-nine years in Whittier, California.

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      Book preview

      I Made My Choice—Have You? - Blair Stevens

      Copyright © 2012 by Blair Stevens.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-5892-8 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-5894-2 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-5893-5 (ebk)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012920908

      iUniverse rev. date: 1/07/2013

      Contents

      Introduction

      Who am I?

      Where are you from?

      Let me live

      But it feels so good

      I’m too young to die

      I need to get smart

      Are you really different?

      Keep it clean

      Get to work

      Wanna go to the game?

      The last word

      Introduction

      11.jpg

      About three years ago, while having lunch with a friend whom I have only known for a few years but admire immensely, the conversation came up about writing. I mentioned that I enjoyed writing but found little time for it. He is a mid-eighties WWII vet and told me that he wrote a book and had it published but only had a few copies printed. When I asked why only a few, he replied that his book is simply an autobiography about his life and while most people wouldn’t care too much to read about just an average working guy, he felt that it was an important work to leave behind for his children and grandchildren so that they would understand him, his life and his choices. To this I thought what a wonderful idea and gift and I might like to do something similar for my kids and grandkids. When I asked him how he started, he said to merely begin telling a story about the earliest memory he had and continue to remember through his life to the present. So this I began to do and found too many boring details for this first attempt at a book even though I still think it to be a great idea. Instead, as I thought more about the book, I came upon the idea of writing about myself and how I feel about so many subjects that are of concern to our modern society, current events and me.

      As I sit and begin this effort, I have come to realize that my family doesn’t really know too much about me. Yes, I have many stories of small events in my life that I have shared with them for many years sometimes only to receive loud yawns and yeah, yeah’s from them. But what I often fear is that after I am gone, they will only remember the little stories and how some may have been fun while most others were quite boring. I also fear even more that they may remember only some of the ugly things that happen in life as they grew up and began their long journey in adulthood. Instead, I would rather want them to know how I felt about life and the many decisions we all have to make which make us who we will become and what will become our legacy.

      So for this purpose I shall dedicate this little work to my loving bride of 39+ years so far, the two children she gave me and the seven grandchildren that have come along as life’s greatest blessing so far. As I sit here late one night in my office where it is quiet, I must mention that I am currently 61 years old and a guy with a fairly thick shell. By that I mean that I rarely offer much emotion like most guys for the unrealistic fear that those in my family that I am always trying to protect might be vulnerable and in need of a strong, I can handle it all kind of guy at all times. Pretty lame but this is just the person on the outside of the shell that I am. Inside of the shell is a sea of emotion and a never resting mind on constant patrol for dangers and life’s setbacks.

      With this little assortment of essays, I hope and pray that my family will at least understand the person inside of me as well as know and recognize that person outside of the shell. While it would be nice to think that someone outside of my family might find these words useful and perhaps even influence a life, it is not really the motivating factor. Wouldn’t that be cool though?

      I should also note that even though some of this may sound familiar from some news or other source, these words are merely thoughts as they come out of my mind. No research has been done, I am not a writer by trade, and any similarities to other works are purely coincidental. After all, I am only a machinist and auto repair nut that was kicked out of school. And yes, I deserved it.

      Who am I?

      11.jpg

      I was born on August 30th 1950 in Glendale California and went home from the hospital three days later with my parents to a small suburb in southeast Los Angeles County that is today known as Pico Rivera. This area was previously a farming community and after World War II, it was subdivided into a medium sized community of inexpensive two bedroom homes that were very affordable for many veterans and young families just starting out in life. Life here was good as the area was pretty much like a television show of the day. There were young families in just about every home with a working dad and stay at home mom and all seemed fairly happy. There was an endless supply of things for young people to do as well. Scouting, little league, new schools, and farming that was still actively going on in the area as well as a few spots that made us young folks think we were living in a wilderness with lots of wild critters to catch and places to explore.

      Growing up here for me was great. I wasn’t inclined to be athletic like most of my friends as I was then pretty much a 98 pound weakling but scouting suited me fine and I liked catching many of the local wildlife and trying to make pets out of them. Nothing too exotic, just the usual kid stuff like frogs, toads, lizards, birds and jackrabbits among some others were there for the taking. I even had a cousin that wouldn’t come to my house because he was convinced I had snakes hidden under my bed. Of course I’m not talking.

      Education was available to all up to a two year college for free as well as lots of jobs of all sorts. This was such a good place to grow up, I didn’t even leave until my wedding day twenty two years later and I still live just five miles from where I grew up. No complaints, life was good and I still see many of the kids I grew up with on a fairly regular basis. Along with my parents and friends, I also have an older brother, a younger brother that died at two years of age and two younger sisters. And of course the requisite dogs and a cat to make the perfect childhood seem apparent. In fact, there is really not too much to write about here because aside from the usual bumps, bruises, stitches and broken bones there just wasn’t much going on. Of course my parents had all of the usual arguments and stuff that couples go through and I know there were many rough times for them like there have been for me in my adult life. Overall, childhood was probably not much different than most kids had in the 1950’s through the 1960’s in this country.

      When I was in High School, it became fairly evident that I was not going to be in the top of my class. In fact I was always teetering on the brink of failure. I can’t really say why I was at best slightly below an average student but I did find out by tenth grade that I was a person with a fair mechanical aptitude so I entered the auto shop class and did quite well. In fact, this all seemed to work so well for me that I bought my first car the week after my sixteenth birthday. It was a 1927 Ford Model T

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