Christmas and New Year's have come and gone. With minor exceptions, the decorations have been taken down and stored in their respective places.

Like Billie and myself, most of the decorations are showing their age. But each one holds a special place in our hearts.

The most important thing about the new year is the fact that we have been given a brand new piece of white paper with no markings or writing on it at all. We can fill it in any way we please. It can contain whatever we choose, but we need to remember that never again in our lives will we experience another period of time exactly like the one just passed.

I have told you before that I do not waste time making New Year's resolutions. Many years ago when I did make some, I never kept them anyway. For the most part, I would want things to remain pretty much the same, year in and year out.

If you have been listening to any of the political candidates during the last few weeks, you are aware that each one of them has indicated in their speeches the need for change. I certainly agree wholeheartedly with this statement.

I still find it difficult to understand the tremendous amount of financial support each candidate uses for his own election. I heard one commentator make the statement that one candidate spent in excess of $15 million campaigning in the state of New Hampshire alone. There is no way under the sun this is reasonable. Do huge amounts of money such as this come from the private sector or large corporations?

A person can't help but wonder how middle class America benefits. I remember a boy in my school who never had a nice pencil with No. 2 lead. A No. 2, of course, was the best pencil. His was always a penny pencil that the poorest had to use. I can still see the poor fellow who had to go barefooted on those cold winter days. He wore the thinnest dungarees money could buy, but he was always fun to play with.

I know there will always be the poor among us. However, conditions like my old classmate had to endure should not exist.

My conscience still bothers me deeply. I could have given this boy one of my pencils, but I didn't.

If I could elect the person I felt would be the best president, it certainly would not involve giving away our birthright to a group of shiftless individuals. I want a president who knows the importance of hard work and will work hard to make life better for every American.

Lest we forget ...

T&D Columnist Rinehart Chewning is a longtime resident of Holly Hill. His column appears every Saturday. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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