From time to time in this column I feel somewhat obligated to explain myself, what I am, what I believe and what I am attempting to do by writing the things I write.

It seems that as we acquire new readers there is some misunderstanding of what the soapbox is all about, so here we go again.

First of all, this column is a series of essays made up of my personal opinion, my experiences and my beliefs. I don’t claim that the essays in this column represent anybody but myself.

As far as the intellectual content is concerned it is being written by a man with limited formal education and the grammar, punctuation and spelling may from time to time leave something to be desired, but I will however, get my point across.

I happen to believe very strongly in the things I write about, from the point of a private citizen who happens to love his country and its people and wants what he considers best in the national interest.

My articles will range from the profound to the ridiculous, the sad to the humorous, the informative to the inane. It is not meant to be a news column and I'm not good at remembering dates and names.