My grandfather, Andrea’s Christian Olson Hoel, was born in Tromso, Norway, in 1860. He came to America with his Father Ole, mother Johanna, and brother Gideon in 1890. Johanna died giving birth to their son Olaf in 1890.
They made their first home in America at Calumet, Michigan, where Ole worked in the copper mines. The boys also worked there as soon as they were old enough.

Grandfather Andrew left Michigan and went to Northern Minnesota to work in the iron mines. He met and married his wife, Minnie Wirta, at Bovey, Minnesota. He continued working there until their daughter Alice was born. Andrew and Minnie, with baby Alice, moved to Dakota territory. Uncle Simon came to America and settled near Lake Poinsett Dakota Territory it 1873. He and his wife spent their first winter living in a Dugout on the side of a hill southeast of Lake Poinsett. The following year a sod house got built. Simon’s uncle Ole helped him build a stone house in 1880, part of that house is still standing. Andrew came to the Dakota territory to help his uncle Simon on the farm as Simon didn’t have any sons. He had five daughters.

Andrew and Minnie rented a farm near Simons, where they made their home for the next 40 years, and their son Frank, my father, was born, and they had another daughter named Elma.
They lived in a sod house first. It was later covered with wood, creating walls two feet thick. Their income from that small farm was not a large amount of, money from selling cream and eggs, a few pigs in the fall, or calves. They usually traded cream and eggs for groceries in town and sold a small grain each fall.

When the stock market crashed, and the banks closed, my grandfather lost all the money that he had saved in the Bank. He was a proud Democrat and incredibly pleased to be an American citizen. It is somewhat ironic that the bank president who locked the doors and kept Grandpa’s money was a Republican. He was also a friend of grandfathers. Those were different times; some democrats and Republicans considered themselves friends and could talk and work together. We cannot say the same thing today as our society has become hostile and hateful.

In 1929 the Wall Street Stock market was making some people rich. It looked so good it was said, “even the shoeshine boy was putting his money in the stock market.” When it crashed, overnight all that money disappeared. It must have gone in someone’s pocket?

Grandpa must have been a forgiving person because he and the banker remained friends. Grandpa didn’t put money -in any bank for a long time.
A little cloud hung over their friendship after that. Grandpa had recently sold some cows. He put the check in the Bank the day before the banks were all closed. Did his friend know advanced knowledge of that closing date? Could he have warned Grandpa, don’t put your check-in this Bank? Grandpa being the forgiving and loving person he was, always gave him the benefit of the doubt. He often said, “human greed” destroyed many people.

The controllers of the nation’s wealth may have been planning our future of credit card spending after the banks closed. They now have almost everybody buying with credit cards and we became their slaves. People depend on credit cards for daily existence. Big money actually killed the work incentive in this nation with EZ credit for low-income people. It is going to be hard to get that old work ethic back.

I believe my grandparents got put on this Earth to spread God’s love to all the people they met. Wherever they went to visit, they always brought something with them to give to the neighbors. They greeted everyone with the words “Gods Peace.” They understood and lived to love thy neighbor.

My dad told me about a new neighbor moving into the area one time. The stranger asked Grandpa, “What kind of people live around here? Grandpa asked him, “what kind of people lived where you came from?” The man described different people all had problems. Grandpa said, “You will find the same kind of people here.”

You might say I love my neighbor, but I hate his politics. You can say that and more because you live in America where you enjoy FREE speech. The new Trump slogan is” Rather be Russian than a democrat.” That means you don’t want freedom, that makes you a traitor! Have you served the United States in the military? If you have, you would never make such an idiotic statement. If that is your real feeling, you should not be living here. You should be living in Russia or another country with a dictator, they will tell you what type of politics you will have.

If you live in America, you have the choice to decide which way you want to go. No political party has all the right answers; we must work together for the good of all citizens. Calling each other names belittling others lying about others is tearing the country apart. We must all work together if we expect to have a free society where all men are created equal.
Our forefathers would be disgusted with the childish ways and mess that has been created after all the suffering and sacrifice they endured.

The Republican party has Played Dirty politics for decades. They’re running out of tricks in their playbook. They are now trying to scare the voters into believing the Democratic party will turn this nation into a socialist state.

It appears to me that’s what the GOP goal is, control over everything. It’s not the Democratic Party that refuses to work with the other side.

It is a two-way street, but the Republicans have played it is my way or the highway for 40 years. They vowed not to help President Obama get anything done! I feel it is time for those my way or highway Boys to hit the road. Let young people in to run the government, people who will work for the nation’s good, not just the top wealth holders.

The wealth can only trickle down if the greedy loses their death grip on it.

More thoughts for the voters.

There was little or no income in the USA agricultural community in 1929. Credit was not used to buy things. People saved, and every extra Penny they had was in the bank to get saved for a rainy day. Most of these pioneers had nothing when they arrived, so they treasured everything they acquired. You made your way in this world. You did not look for handouts.

The powers-that-be created the Wall Street Crash that closed the banks. The little bit of money the hard-working people had saved got taken away. The GOP still believed you pull yourself up by your bootstraps even after they took your boots. You should; do the honorable thing stay home and die if you get sick or do like the ancient Eskimo tribes. When you get too old to be productive or bring in food. You should walk out alone and sit there until you freeze to death.

In our part of the USA, if you had no money or home, there were poor houses in the 1930s where you could stay. They had no Bathrooms or running water. They maybe had one faucet so people could get drinking water. The smell of human waste was overwhelming and bed bugs were everywhere. My dad used to say people living there lived longer because they remained active, killing bed bugs.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt thought the condition of our senior citizens was bad. He devised the Social Security plan. The Republican party fought against it. They did not believe we should have a social system of any kind in this country.

The Republicans also fought against the Medicare system, but after it became law. They passed a bill ‘in the middle of the night’ that would make trillions of dollars for the drug companies.

We need some new blood, young people with common sense to take control of the Helm of our ship of State. It’s about ready to crash into a rock pile.

The way the Republican Party acts today, they would like to see us join Putin’s Communism they want to control everything. Now they’re using the new flip flop platform. Turn it around, have voters believe the Democrats will turn us into a socialist country. If they flip flop the same lie long enough nobody will know it.

The Republican party has a long track record for the use of dirty political campaigns. I will enclose a quote about one of their young early professional poop peddlers, Lee Atwater.

“In 1988,” Mr. Atwater said, “fighting Dukakis, I said that I ‘would strip the bark off the little bastard’ and ‘make Willie Horton his running mate.’ I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second because it makes me sound racist, which I am not.” Reputation as ‘Ugly Campaigner'”
“Since being stricken last year, the 39-year-old Mr. Atwater has apologized on several occasions for many of the campaign tactics he once employed and for which he was criticized. But rarely has he spoken in such detail or with such candor as in the interview for the first-person Life article.”

The GOP party leaders giving the marching orders today, spreading lies, rumors and hateful division make Lee Atwater look like a quiet, little Sunday school teacher.

The GOP’s hope.
“Voters quickly forget what a man says.” —President Richard Nixon.

The Republican Party and the Religious Right is positive God has sent Donald Trump to save this country from the terrible Democrats.

I find that hard to believe unless God and the New Religious Right operate by spreading hate through lies, fear, and intimidation.

I have always thought God does his work through love.