A post by "Robby Kendall" Robby Kendall is a radio talk show host, based out of Southeastern North Carolina. He can be heard each day from 4:00-5:00 pm on WTXY 1540. Outside of the Myrtle Beach area, the station can be heard around the world at WTXY1540.com. He also co-owns and operates AudioSportsOnline.com, an internet streaming site, serving as the broadcast home to more than 100 sports teams across the country. Before making the move to North Carolina, Kendall hosted a nightly show out of Indianapolis, on FM-rocker WKLU 101.9. Robby received his introduction to radio by working in the Indianapolis sports market. From 2003-2004 he served as the producer of Indianapolis Indians Baseball (at the time the AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers). During that same time he was also hired as the producer and halftime show host of Butler University Football.

As a little kid, one of my favorite things to do was attend auctions. I absolutely loved it. Right in line with circus workers, carnival barkers and professional wrestlers, auctioneers are truly some of our country’s greatest entertainers. They are a throwback to the days of old, when men used their wit, wisdom, smooth tongue and a hint of showmanship to produce revenue.

I stopped spending time at auctions several years ago: primarily because I simply ran out of free time. Last week though I decided to attend one. I quickly fell back in love with the whole spectacle. The auctioneer making the call, prodding the bidder to pay more than they want, as he pits two men against each other in hopes of gaining the prize. It was fabulous.

At auctions there are what are known as Ringmen. A Ringman’s job is simple: Take an item up to the auctioneer, display the item for the crowd, then holler “Yep!” when a bid is placed. In entertainment terms: Scan the crowd, find the pigeon, and scream with enthusiasm as though you are very excited this person is deciding to spend more money on the item. The Ringman has no idea why you are bidding on the item. He does not care. He just knows you are bidding on it, it’s more money in his company’s pocket, and when he sees you make the sign he is supposed to blindly holler, “Yep!“

As I watched the Ringmen operate I began to think about how much our society has become a bunch of Ringmen, willing to defy common sense and logic, in the name of supporting a political party or ideology. Think about it. What has our country been doing the past decade? Our government has grown by leaps and bounds. They have stolen our liberty, depleted our treasure and refused to embrace basic traditions and ideals that have sustained us for the past 235 years. Yet we as an educated people choose to act like Ringmen. We don’t question. We don’t wonder. We don’t investigate. We simply see the metaphorical hand of the Republican or Democratic Party go up and we holler “Yep!”

President Obama chooses to print one trillion dollars. He gives no blue print as to what jobs will be created, how the money will be spent, or how to avoid the unavoidable blow back of inflation. Yet we as a society overwhelmingly hollered, “Yep!” Same thing with health care. No plan on how to pay for it. No evidence it will improve care. Nothing other than vague platitudes to appeal to people’s emotions. Yet 45 percent of the country still is blindly hollering, “Yep!”

Republicans were equally as guilty under President Bush. An education bill that spent billions of dollars we didn’t have, while managing to make kids robots and strip teachers of their local freedoms to best educate kids? “Yep!” A war in Iraq with no plan to win, no plan to leave, and no plan to keep the peace? “Yep!” Billions of dollars to thieves, crooks, and losers on Wall Street? “Yep!”

The list is endless for both sides. We as a society have become nothing but a bunch of Ringmen. You make the call Mr. President. And if you have the same name letter next to your name as I do mine, I will blindly obey and holler, “Yep!” I implore our nation to stop being a bunch of Ringmen. Look past the rhetoric. Start asking questions. Start holding BOTH SIDES accountable. D and R are just meaningless letters. U S A are the three that really matter. And if we keep saying “Yep!” because of the former, soon the latter won’t be worth saving.

A post by "Robby Kendall" Robby Kendall is a radio talk show host, based out of Southeastern North Carolina. He can be heard each day from 4:00-5:00 pm on WTXY 1540. Outside of the Myrtle Beach area, the station can be heard around the world at WTXY1540.com. He also co-owns and operates AudioSportsOnline.com, an internet streaming site, serving as the broadcast home to more than 100 sports teams across the country. Before making the move to North Carolina, Kendall hosted a nightly show out of Indianapolis, on FM-rocker WKLU 101.9. Robby received his introduction to radio by working in the Indianapolis sports market. From 2003-2004 he served as the producer of Indianapolis Indians Baseball (at the time the AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers). During that same time he was also hired as the producer and halftime show host of Butler University Football.

I was driving through the great state of North Carolina yesterday, when I came upon an interesting sign on the highway. It was a sign relaying that there was work ahead. But the sign didn’t indicate a need for caution, to slow down, or drive carefully. Rather it touted the project’s financial backers: The United States Government. The sign stated “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Putting Americans Back To Work.”
Fair enough: Finally proof of our stimulus money hard at work. But then that sign got me thinking about a few things:

1) I saw no actual work being done. For the next several miles, where one would assume the work would be happening since there was a sign indicating as such, I saw nothing. No workers, no cranes, no bulldozers, no shovels: Nothing. Which has to make one stop and wonder why? Why would there be a sign and no proof of work? Was the work already done? If so that didn’t create too many long term jobs. Or will the work be done in the future? If so, that’s not putting any immediate money in any normal American pockets (the purpose of the bill). If that area was any indication of the amount of people being put back to “work” I think the government may want to rethink their strategy.

2) The project the money was going to was not identified. How do I know if that was a good use of taxpayer dollars? Was the work being paid for legit? Was it for vital road improvements like fixing a bridge or filling in cracks and potholes? Or was it just money being handed out to friends of those who have supported the right government officials? I would think the government would be far better served on the sign to actually identify what the project is. That way the public can judge as they drive by, if a “stimulus” is really occurring.

3) The signs themselves seem to be questionable. How much did that sign cost? Multiply that sign by the number of signs posted across the country. That seems like a lot of money. Money that could have gone to put food on the tables of the families the government says they want to help through the “stimulus.”

4) Finally, I asked myself this question: Do I know even one person who has been hired, and upon being hired, was told is was only because of this “Stimulus Bill?” The answer is no. And I would be willing to take a guess that you, the reader would have a hard time answering yes to the question as well.

So a half year after the stimulus was signed into law, I am beginning to question its effectiveness. Where are the “shovel ready” jobs? Who is being hired for the “shovel ready” jobs? Certainly not my friends. A coincidence? Perhaps. But I have a feeling that they aren’t your friends either. Or your friends, friends. I would like more open dialogue from our elected officials on where the money is going. Who is being hired and what are they being hired to do? Because those signs that are supposed to be providing clarity, just left me with more questions.

A post by "Robby Kendall" Robby Kendall is a radio talk show host, based out of Southeastern North Carolina. He can be heard each day from 4:00-5:00 pm on WTXY 1540. Outside of the Myrtle Beach area, the station can be heard around the world at WTXY1540.com. He also co-owns and operates AudioSportsOnline.com, an internet streaming site, serving as the broadcast home to more than 100 sports teams across the country. Before making the move to North Carolina, Kendall hosted a nightly show out of Indianapolis, on FM-rocker WKLU 101.9. Robby received his introduction to radio by working in the Indianapolis sports market. From 2003-2004 he served as the producer of Indianapolis Indians Baseball (at the time the AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers). During that same time he was also hired as the producer and halftime show host of Butler University Football.

The other day I was watching a clip from the wonderful 50’s Western “Gun Smoke.” You may remember it. It was set in the days of the Wild West. There were two very clear things I noticed about Gun Smoke: One is that the good guys always won. Good always triumphed evil. No matter how great and powerful evil was, good always found a way to overcome. Secondly (and more important) there was a clear definition of who was good and was bad. You knew it from the moment the credits rolled. You didn’t need any explanation, clarification, or justification. Good and bad were defined by your own eyes. Your own common sense. No one need narrate who you should be cheering for.

I began thinking about what a microcosm Gun Smoke was of the way our country used to be in regards to our own citizens and how they understood our place in the world. Let’s get one thing clear: In regards to the rest of the world, America is the good guys. We always have been. We always will be. If we were a character on Gun Smoke, we would be wearing the white hats. We would be the ones riding triumphantly on the horse as the closing credits begin to roll.

In our amazing (albeit brief) history, America is responsible for creating more freedom, more liberty, more happiness than the rest of recorded civilization combined. For 235 years we have stood on the side of the individual being able to create and fulfill his or her own greatness and destiny. From the basis of our founding revolution, to the Civil War, to the ouster of Hitler in World War II, America has always been the good guys.

Today is no different. Unfortunately, there are some in the United States that don’t see us as the guys in the white hats any more. They believe that we now wear some sort of grey hat. Or worse, maybe that we are even the black hats. To which I must ask why? What have we done in the past 50 years to make us now the ones on the bad end of the bullet?

Was it our quest (unfortunately unsuccessful) to protect of South Vietnamese in the 1960s and 70s? Was it our undying dedication to see the freedom of millions of Eastern Europeans as the Soviet Union collapsed? Was it our liberation of Kuwait in the first Gulf War? Or the eight million Iraqis who now no longer face the torture and rape chambers of Saddam Hussein?

Keep a running tally of all the amazing things America has done in just the past 50 years. It is incredible the amount of liberty and freedom, peace and prosperity we have been responsible for. I am so proud of my country. I believe we are the good guys. We wear the white hats. And I wonder how anyone could look at the evidence and not agree?