As a young kid I was disassembling, repairing and modifying flashlights. If a battery leaked in one of my dads flashlights, I was the one cleaning the battery acid, lightly sanding the contacts and doing whatever it took to make it work. Sometimes, they weren’t worth the effort, but I was always fascinated with these very simple devices.

Technology has progressed since those old cheap incandescent flashlights. 3 D cell flashlights that looked bulky and heavy and looked like it might take both hands to aim it. Even as a security guard in a major amusement park, we used Maglights. Big aluminum tubes that took 2 to 3 D cell batteries and looked more like a club than a flashlight. Now, LED flashlights use much less energy and produce a much brighter beam. As a technician, I really only need one good flashlight, but I have 3 mini Maglights converted to LED, a Streamlight, two CREE lights and probably three cheap LED lights in my glovebox in my truck. We can see farther for longer with new flashlights.

It is amazing what can be exposed by light. If you have ever lived in a place with cockroaches, you will notice that they scurry away when the light is turned on. Rodents too scurry when exposed by light. The dark can be scarry and having a good flashlight can put your mind at ease.

Be honest, have you ever played with your flashlight in private? Making shadow puppets with your hand and the flashlight is not just for kids, is it? I remember my first flashlight. My first flashlight was a ‘Spiderman’ flashlight my mom bought me at a Toys-R-Us store, and at night I made shadow puppets with my hand on the ceiling. I could almost see my bones in my hand by placing the bright light under my fingers and look at the top of my fingers. Those shadow puppets, no matter how clever or funny, were nothing more than a shadow. It had no substance and nothing more than an empty image created with a hand and flashlight.

Playing with shadow puppets with no substance makes me think of another type of ‘puppet’ with no substance. You may have deduced that I am a Reagan conservative. A true ‘maverick’, he confounded both established republicans and established democrats. And he did more for this country and it’s citizens than any President in recent history. Which is why I am angry at the current leadership of the Republican party. These leaders have not fulfilled any of their promises in well over 8 years which means they have no substance. But a puppet is controlled by someone or something other than themselves, and I wonder who is the puppet master controlling the Republican leadership. Fear is one element. Fear of loosing power, fear of what others might think of them. Fear of loosing the prestige of Washington D.C. and all the perks, the parties, the press, the glitz and glamour. Disconnect…. being in the heart of politics means it is easy to be disconnected from reality. Do you really think they, the Washington elite, know the cost of a gallon of milk or care that the real unemployment is closer to 25% not 5 or 6% like our government likes to report?

But the American people, especially the ones that lean to the right, are angry. Angry at the very people that begged for their votes to take control of the Congress and the Senate and yet did and still do nothing. European style Socialism has grown in America. Government has become fat on the work of the American peoplewith no end in sight and these people have put their faith into an outsider like Donald Trump instead of listening to yet another political insider. But someone close to me reminded me that we need to pray for our country, pray for our President and put our faith in our God instead of another man or woman.

So remember to shine a light on the scarry things in the dark. Meaning we need to tell the establishment Republicans that they are responsible for Donald Trump because they feared loosing power in Washington and stopped fearing the citizens who put them there. While Donald Trump was not my first or even my second choice, he will be a better choice than Hillary Clinton. So I will support Trump because the Republican leadership needs a 2×4 across their heads to knock some sense into them. Like roaches or rodents, the light of truth will cause them to scurry for cover, so lets not allow any area of darkness. When we, the citizens are more involved and prevent the elite from creating an upper class and bloating government even more, that is when we can relax and play shadow puppets without worrying about the other type of shadow puppets.