Walter Patterson Herald ColumnistSometimes we end up in places we do not want to be.
I enjoy spring turkey hunting, and shortly after season had opened, I set out on a hunt.  I had decided to hunt on our home place and on our neighbor’s place because I already knew where an old gobbler was roosting.  To get into position to kill this bird, I developed a plan.  
This plan was not sophisticated or something that I had written in an essay and submitted to Miss Judy for approval.  It called for me to enter the woods at a different place than usual, follow a long ridge, and then slowly descend into a bottom where this turkey was known to court the ladies.  I arrived long before daylight.
To help me make my way through the dense woods and over the fallen obstacles I was sure to encounter, I carried with me a small flash light.  When it is so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face, a flashlight, no matter how small, is a wonderful thing.
Remember, I was hunting in a place where I had grown up.  My brother and I had explored these hills and hollows from our early childhood until we were grown.  I thought I knew every square inch of this place including where the best trees were to harvest squirrels or the trees where turkeys roosted.  I had walked about 30-yards down this ridge when my light flashed across something white.  Curious, I held the light on the object and walked over.  When I reached the object, to my surprise, I saw three more “white objects” nearby, one of which was lying near a large oak tree.  They were tombstones.  I had walked into a family burial plot that dated back to the late 1800’s.  I had never seen these tombstones before, but I did pause to set one fallen tombstone back where I thought it belonged.  I must admit, however, that I had a strange feeling come over me like someone was watching.  I felt better when the fallen tombstone was upright.  But I had never been to this place before, and to tell you the truth, I wish that I had stumbled across this cemetery during daylight hours.
Today, America is stumbling through the woods leaderless and without a flashlight.  Since World War II, America has been the recognized leader of the free world, but no more.  What happens in America affects the rest of the world, Europe in particular, and what happens in Europe affects America.  
Let’s be honest with each other.  Europe has had a free ride.  Most of the countries in the European Union have either small armies or no army.  Germany, for example, has a large contingent of American forces stationed there.  America is the defender of Europe.  Without American taxpayers and the American Army, any third world dictator could march in and seize many of the EU states.  So it would seem that since the expense of defending oneself is shouldered by another country, Europe would be an economic engine where prosperity is not only “around the corner,” but well in hand.
Mismanagement, corruption, socialism, Marxism, and ignorance of the basic laws of economics have taken their toll on Europe   French President, Nicolas Sarkozy said last week, “Allowing the destruction of the euro is to take the risk of the destruction of Europe.  Those who destroy Europe and the euro will bear responsibility for resurgence of conflict and division on our continent.”
These are words that must be taken seriously, even though they come from a weak leader.  Yet, President Obama and Vice-president Joe Biden are more interested in blaming Republicans for the economic mess the Democrats have created than exercising leadership in world affairs.
We are now at a place we do not want to be.  Sarkozy and the French are exercising more leadership than America. At least, they are beginning to recognize the errors of their ways.  If America continues on its present economic course, we will be as hapless and as dysfunctional as Europe, and all of this is completely unnecessary.
President Obama and Vice-president Joe Biden continue to demand passage of a “Jobs Bill” that has already been rejected by the Democrats in the Senate.  What kind of leadership is this?
Joe Biden is worse than incompetent.  He is an embarrassment to all Americans and to the rest of the world.  Last week, “he warned that more people would likely be raped and murdered if President Obama’s jobs bill is not passed.”  The American people can already see through what Biden is saying.  There is no “Jobs Bill,” only a “raise your taxes bill.” Yet Biden passes for a great leader in the Democrat Party.
Unfortunately, America’s present leaders have put us at a place we don’t want to be.  If rapes and murders increase as Biden has proclaimed, then I already know whom to blame, and it isn’t George Bush.