"The twenty-four-hour news cycle brings the issues facing America to the forefront every single day. Author Blair Stevens sees parallels between many of these issues and his own life experiences. He offers his unique take on them in I Made My Choice-Have You? A husband, father, and businessman, Stevens discusses several of the most pressing concerns facing Americans today. He explains how working in Mexico City as part of his job shapes his observations on illegal immigration and reveals some possible solutions that America can take to stem the tide. When Stevens' unwed daughter became pregnant, another hot-button issue-abortion-landed right on Stevens' front doorstep. With warmth and honesty, he shares how the family navigated his daughter's decision to keep the baby and opens up about his views on the right to life. In addition, Stevens discusses other important topics including drug abuse, teen suicide, education, and racism, all within the prism of his experiences. Down-to-earth and engaging, I Made My Choice-Have You? seeks to help you look at today's current events in a different light"

I Made My Choice—Have You?

One Man's Thoughts on Issues in Our National News and Possible SolutionsBy Blair Stevens

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Blair Stevens
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-5892-8

Chapter One

Who am I?

I was born on August 30th 1950 in Glendale California and went home from the hospital three days later with my parents to a small suburb in southeast Los Angeles County that is today known as Pico Rivera. This area was previously a farming community and after World War II, it was subdivided into a medium sized community of inexpensive two bedroom homes that were very affordable for many veterans and young families just starting out in life. Life here was good as the area was pretty much like a television show of the day. There were young families in just about every home with a working dad and stay at home mom and all seemed fairly happy. There was an endless supply of things for young people to do as well. Scouting, little league, new schools, and farming that was still actively going on in the area as well as a few spots that made us young folks think we were living in a wilderness with lots of wild critters to catch and places to explore.

Growing up here for me was great. I wasn't inclined to be athletic like most of my friends as I was then pretty much a 98 pound weakling but scouting suited me fine and I liked catching many of the local wildlife and trying to make pets out of them. Nothing too exotic, just the usual kid stuff like frogs, toads, lizards, birds and jackrabbits among some others were there for the taking. I even had a cousin that wouldn't come to my house because he was convinced I had snakes hidden under my bed. Of course I'm not talking.

Education was available to all up to a two year college for free as well as lots of jobs of all sorts. This was such a good place to grow up, I didn't even leave until my wedding day twenty two years later and I still live just five miles from where I grew up. No complaints, life was good and I still see many of the kids I grew up with on a fairly regular basis. Along with my parents and friends, I also have an older brother, a younger brother that died at two years of age and two younger sisters. And of course the requisite dogs and a cat to make the perfect childhood seem apparent. In fact, there is really not too much to write about here because aside from the usual bumps, bruises, stitches and broken bones there just wasn't much going on. Of course my parents had all of the usual arguments and stuff that couples go through and I know there were many rough times for them like there have been for me in my adult life. Overall, childhood was probably not much different than most kids had in the 1950's through the 1960's in this country.

When I was in High School, it became fairly evident that I was not going to be in the top of my class. In fact I was always teetering on the brink of failure. I can't really say why I was at best slightly below an average student but I did find out by tenth grade that I was a person with a fair mechanical aptitude so I entered the auto shop class and did quite well. In fact, this all seemed to work so well for me that I bought my first car the week after my sixteenth birthday. It was a 1927 Ford Model T and a complete pile of trash. The only thing my father said about it was; "well, you just threw away an entire summers worth of work in a car wash on a car that will never run." But for me, this was the best day of my life so far. It took me three years to pull it off but I managed to completely restore it and I still own it and drive it forty six years later. Maybe this car was my clue as to how my life would work out. I found a car that I loved and I will likely still be the owner of it on the day I die. Well, I later on found a girl I love and I feel like we will be together until the day I die too. In fact, this experience worked so well for me that I have owned many antique cars, mostly Fords, and now have a small business repairing them for others. Most of the other cars have moved on but my first car and my first love are still part of my life.

Of course since then I have had many things happen in my life and many of them I could easily say have been the happiest of my life. The birth of my two children is certainly at the top of the pile and of course the birth of my seven grandchildren is right up there too. I even had the unbelievable gift from God to be able to witness the first breath of both my children and two of my grandchildren. I was also given the honor of chauffeuring both of my kids and four of my grandkids home in an antique car. It just seemed to be a cool idea for these people to someday tell the story to their great grandkids that the first car they ever rode in was a Model T Ford. However, should anyone ever ask; "what was the absolute best day of your life?" I would have to answer that it was, still is, and probably always will be my wedding day. After all, without it, all of the rest, with the exception of the old car, would not have happened and my life would have been somewhat without challenge and joy. What was the worst day of my life? The death of my daughter's best friend Amy, which I have written about in these pages, is without second the absolute most terrible thing I have had to live with so far.

While my growing up should be left for another book to be given to my children, many of the things I learned and attitudes I inherited are what this little bit of reading is all about. How I feel about many of life's issues and our nation's problems today as well as how I have dealt with them are pretty much what is on the following pages. I hope you enjoy these thoughts but I am pretty sure most today will want to scream at me as to how wrong I am on all of it. Such is life and I have been far too worried about what others thought of me to express my feelings up to now. Most of what I have written is contrary to anything you might hear on the streets or in our various types of news media. Well, at nearly sixty two years of age, it is time to man up and share my feelings about these few subjects for my family to have. Much of it will be upsetting to them and any others that might read it. I do hope and pray that they will forgive me because I am not writing this in some lame attempt to have them follow me. I am merely writing this so that they might know what might have been passing through this mixed up mind of mine for these many years.

I have been to probably hundreds of memorial services of family and friends and too many of them have been short emotional services that left one wondering; who was this person? I have also been to a few that made me feel as though I had been in the presence of greatness without even knowing it. Wouldn't it be nice to at least leave something in between for the people you loved and left behind?

Chapter Two

Where are you from?

There has been a lot of noise on broadcast news and in print lately about illegal immigration, amnesty, border security and the cures from all of the experts. Much of this noise has been about the many options being considered to stem this tide of humanity crossing our international border with Mexico. Not being an expert but merely an average American with an opinion that I have been afraid to express forever, it is time to write a few words about how I feel on this subject. The general consensus on this subject seems to run down two streets that differ greatly in direction. One street feels that a very large fence manned by our military along our southern border with Mexico is the...