Hi! I’m Dave, and I was born in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1960. Unfortunately, we moved to Cleveland when I was very young, so instead of being a proud fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 70s, I ended up rooting for the Cleveland Browns. We stayed in Parma Heights, a suburb of Cleveland until I was twelve years old and enjoyed a lower-middle-class lifestyle. In 1972 we moved our family of ten to Southwest Florida. (My Mom was an excellent Catholic and had eight children in nine years, I was number three.) Florida really sucked in 1972 and had virtually no infrastructure designed for families. It was a far cry from Parma Heights, with its parks and recreation within easy walking distance.

When an area lacks infrastructure for children and teenagers, they will find other ways to entertain themselves. Recreation in Florida consisted of a bit of fishing and a lot of drugs and alcohol. Things spun out of control when my parents divorced in my early teenage years. My Dad soon moved to Canada with a woman he met at a club, and Mom took on the responsibility of eight children.  I look back on those days as the days of what I refer to as “rotating utilities.” Sometimes we had electricity, and sometimes we had water, and it was the good times when we had both. The refrigerator was kind of bare, but we rarely went hungry. Thank God for food stamps, friends parent’s refrigerators, and the Salvation Army for providing meals for the holidays.

Eventually, my Mom was unable to keep the family together. The four oldest kids (17, 16, 15, and 14 years old) moved out to fend for themselves, while my four younger siblings ended up at the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch, a group home for at-risk children. They were able to stay together for a while at the Youth Ranch, but funding issues eventually caused them to go into the foster care system for a couple of years until my Dad got custody and relocated them to Canada.

I stayed with friends in their parents’ partially finished garage as I was trying to make it through the tenth grade but ended up quitting school around the middle of my tenth-grade year. My high school had a policy that stipulated that you could lose your credits if you had too many unexcused absences. I was brought to the office and informed that I would lose my credits if I missed any more days. With almost three months to go in the year, that seemed like an impossible task. I quit school, despite having all A’s and B’s and one F in biology. (The biology teacher was a dinosaur and made the subject as dull as possible.)

I was no stranger to working since I had been working part-time since I was twelve and had no problem finding full-time employment. The pay wasn’t great, so I jumped at the chance to go to Gillette, Wyoming, where my friend Bruce had moved with his parents some months earlier. I waited till I was sixteen years old since I knew I would have better job prospects, and then just days after my birthday, I hitch-hiked to Wyoming. I spent three years going back and forth from Florida to Wyoming but eventually realized that the party lifestyle in Wyoming was not a good plan for long-term survival. So, I ended up staying in Florida, where I met and married my first wife. I like to call her my ex-ex-wife because we got married twice – and divorced twice!  I got my General Equivalency Diploma when I was twenty years old—having to make up one day of testing because my first son was being born.   At twenty-three, I went to school to become a Radiologic Technologist ( The fancy name for an X-ray tech.) I then chose to specialize as a Cardiovascular Technologist for thirty years, first in Florida and then for almost twenty-six years in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Donna, my bride of twenty years, and I still reside in South Dakota. Between us, we have four children and eight grandchildren scattered throughout the midwest.

We are both Christians and share a Biblical Worldview.  That means that we are followers and disciples of Jesus that believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and the guide or map necessary to make sense of this life and live it to the fullest. I know what life was like before Jesus and what it has been like after Jesus, and there is no doubt that life is much better with Jesus in my life. He keeps me company as he guides me and helps me stay on track. Sometimes the road is narrow, and sometimes we come to forks in the road; it can be hard to know which way to go, so having a guide is necessary.

I share my history to dispel the notion advanced by many on the left side of the political spectrum that those on the right are entitled silver spoon people of privilege. I had to do some nasty jobs to make a living, and it was not easy. One of the reasons I lean more to the right is because I realized that through hard work and sacrifice, there are possibilities to improve your situation in the United States that are not available in socialist and communist nations which lean to the left. Why do you think that people from all over the world want to come here?

I hope you enjoy checking out my website. I am always open to discussion and reasoned arguments, but please keep things civil and hold the profanity out of respect for the younger members of my audience.

Big Blessings,

David