Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes

Are you an American Patriot?

Date: April 15, 2025

Author: Bobbi Holmes

An American patriot is one who supports and defends the United States of America.

An American patriot is not defined as someone who is a loyalist to Trump, no more than it is defined as someone who is a loyalist to Obama. An American patriot is not loyal to an administration. The administration is not the United States of America.

How does the United States of America define itself?

This should be an easy answer for any American who attended public school in this country. And I am not talking about what was taught in history or civics class. I am talking about the fact American children, from kindergarten on, stood up each morning, put a hand over their heart, and said the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag.

What did that pledge mean?

We said it each morning. Every conservative I know from my personal life has strongly supported keeping the Pledge of Allegiance in our classrooms. As American adults, we often say it before civic, professional, and public meetings.

Here is the pledge in its entirety, please stick with me, because I am going to break it down.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In the first part, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands” the person saying the pledge is acknowledging that the flag they are addressing is a symbol of their country AKA the United States of America, which is a Republic.

They are not worshiping the flag per se but see it as the symbol of the country they are giving their pledge of allegiance.

What is a pledge? It is defined as a solemn promise.

What is the person promising?

They are pledging their allegiance…which means loyalty.

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance is promising to be loyal, in this case to the United States of America.

The last part of the pledge gives a brief description of the USA.

One nation under God—This section was added to the pledge the year I was born, in 1954. Please note, it does not define whose God: Christian, Hindu, Pagan, Wicca, or whoever; therefore, I default to the First Amendment of the US Constitution to mean whatever God you believe in, including the absence of God.

Indivisible—the definition of indivisible is unable to be divided or separated. The pledge was introduced after the Civil War. I believe there are entities in our country actively trying to divide and separate Americans today.

With liberty and justice for all—this one, in my opinion, is the BIGGY.

Think about it, what does it mean……liberty and justice for ALL. It doesn’t say for all American citizens, or all white people, or all men, or all women, or all Christians, or all atheists, or all straight people, or all members of the LGBTQ community—it says ALL.

It’s inclusive, sort of like what the “I” stands for in DEI.

Liberty and Justice for all.

This is what Americans have been pledging their loyalty to their entire lives.

Was it simply lip service? An empty promise? An insincere oath?

It makes sense the Pledge of Allegiance didn’t become a thing until after the Civil War. How can one pledge liberty, which basically means freedom, during a time slavery was legal in this country?

And while America still have a lot of work to do before we fulfill the promise of the pledge, I hold onto the words from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution: “In order to form a more perfect union.”

America is a work in progress. And we laid out our goals some 250 years ago, and along the way aspired higher, which ended slavery and gave women the right to vote.

In this country, elected officials are required to take an oath of office to “solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

As patriotic Americans, it is our solemn duty to speak out and hold accountable elected officials who violate their oath to office.

American patriotism is not about being loyal to a political party, a politician, and not even to a president, especially if the political party, politician or president is disregarding the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Right applies to everyone in this country, not just citizens.

I suggest you Google the Bill of Rights, review them, and then ask yourself if the current administration has violated any of those rights. If so, that means the president has broken the oath he took when taking the office of president.

Journalists and mainstream media are not breaking laws by speaking out against President Trump. They are doing their duties as journalists and are supposed to be protected under the First Amendment.

Those prisoners sent over to El Salvador—regardless of their crimes—was in violation of their Bill of Rights protections. Non-citizens are supposed to be protected under the U.S. Constitution. Not only were they denied due process, a case can be made that sending them to that infamous hellish prison was cruel and unusual punishment.

America is not supposed to be emulating Hitler’s policies. My uncles fought in World War II and over 400,000 Americans died in that war, fighting against fascism and the inhumane practices of the Nazi regime.

Banning books and removing historical and academic information from government websites—that taxpayers already paid for—is a violation of our First Amendment Right.

This Administration making policies on persecuting people—citizens and non-citizens—because they wrote or said something the administration does not agree with or like, is UnAmerican. It blatantly violates the First Amendment.

Claiming you can get rid of birthright citizenship or that you can allow a president to run for a third term through an executive order, or a vote in Congress contradicts the U.S. Constitution. The only way to change either of those would be to add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would involve more than an executive order or vote of Congress.

I am an American. I am a Patriot. I am a Daughter of the American Revolution. I believe in the promise of creating a more perfect union. I believe in liberty and justice for all.

I oppose any entity—including government officials—who work in opposition to the U.S. Constitution and seek to deny liberty and justice to all.

Does money buy happiness?

Date: March 3, 2025

Author: Bobbi Holmes

Categories: Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes

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I recently left a negative comment about Elon Musk on a social media post, and someone responded that I was jealous of him because I didn’t have as much money as he does.

I immediately thought of something Big Bang character Sheldon’s mother said to adult Sheldon, that the kids didn’t beat him up when he was little because they were jealous of him.

And then I thought about the money thing. Is it true, money doesn’t buy happiness? The answer, in my opinion: yes and no.

Money can buy a modicum of happiness when it affords your family a safe and comfortable home. When you can go to the grocery store and buy the food you want without a struggle. When you can afford to go to the doctor’s when sick and can buy your children that expensive Lego set for Christmas.

But does the level of happiness increase as your bank account increases? If true, it would mean Elon Musk is not only the richest man in the world, but he is also the happiest.

I don’t believe more money means more happiness.

I’m exceedingly happy with my current place in life. I’m earning enough money that when I sit down to pay my bills each month, I’m not stressed. I remember a time when sitting down to pay the bills each month was hell—because there wasn’t enough money and something inevitably went unpaid.

Quite honestly, I thank the powers that be daily for the success of my Haunting Danielle series because it has provided a comfortable life. Not an extravagant life, but I don’t want or need an extravagant life.

When someone accuses me of envying Musk for his money, I cringe. There is absolutely nothing about his life I envy, and quite frankly he looks miserable.

Taylor Swift, who is also a billionaire, and who is someone I respect (unlike Musk), I don’t envy her either. I wouldn’t want her life.

Having enough money can enable us the freedom to find our happiness—maybe in the time we spend with family and friends, traveling, or simply relaxing in the garden reading a book. We can freely do those things because we are not worried about paying the rent or buying food.

Having too much money can replace our freedom with responsibility. Now we worry about our children being kidnapped and held for ransom, so we need to hire security. We can’t take a simple trip to Disneyland, because it is too dangerous for someone in our position. We no longer can tell who really likes us—or wants something from us.

No. I’m not jealous of Elon Musk. And frankly, I don’t understand why anyone would envy that man.

What Mom taught me about the internet 57 years ago.

Date: February 15, 2025

Author: Bobbi Holmes

Categories: Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes

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This morning while drinking my coffee I absently scrolled through some TikTok videos. One caught my interest, which is why I am writing this post now.

In the video the woman is talking about a hateful homophobic comment someone left on one of her prior videos. She made a video response to the hateful comment—the type of video response that puts a screenshot of the comment she’s responding to at the top of her video. By doing this, even if the hateful commentor decides to delete what he wrote, it doesn’t remove the comment from the internet, because it is now on the top of someone else’s video, along with the hateful commentor’s profile information and picture.

There are countless internet vigilantes capable of finding real life personal information about someone by just a snippet of a public profile, even when that user doesn’t use a real name or photo. I’ve seen it happen countless times. It can be awkward when the hateful commentor’s employer or mother receives a copy of the inappropriate comment, along with information showing the identity of its creator.

In the video I watched this morning, the woman said the commentor had sent her a private message, asking her to please remove her video. He had removed the comment, and he really didn’t want it out there on the internet. I think it was too late for him, she—and other vigilantes—had already identified not just him, but his family members.

So, how does any of this have anything to do with what my mother taught me 57 years ago? Did she tell me, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all? Advice that would saved the commentor all this trouble?

No. Although my grandma did often say that. However, one definition to nice is agreeable, and I obviously do not aspire to always be agreeable on the internet. If you’ve read many of my posts, you will know that.

So, what advice did Mom give me?

I was in eighth grade at the time, thirteen years old. That age when a girl can be rather dramatic and in her soap opera stage of life, if you know, you know.

We had recently moved from our suburban home in Covina, California, to a remote location on the shores of Lake Havasu. The nearest community was Parker Dam, twelve miles away from Havasu Palms, where I lived. Most of those twelve miles was over a dirt road. There were no phones at Havasu Palms, except for my father’s mobile phone in his truck, that had a party line, with those sharing the party line primarily being farmers in the Parker, Arizona area.

I had left behind the friends I had known my entire life in the middle of my eighth grade. Going from a junior high school to an elementary school where our teacher was also the school’s principal was a cultural shock.

Not only didn’t I have a phone, there was no internet in those days, so I couldn’t text message or email friends back in Covina. There would be no video chats. But I wrote letters—many letters.

The school I attended was in the community of Parker Dam. In essence, Parker Dam was a company town, housing the employees from Metropolitan Water Department. It included the school, company owned houses, a baseball park, small market, and a tiny post office, where we received our mail.

During that year my sister, Lynn, who had graduated mid-term from high school to join our family on our new adventure and would be returning to Covina in the fall to start college, was the one to drive me over that dirt road each day so I could attend school. Mom always drove with us.

The highlight of every school day was picking up the mail at the post office. My friends were great about writing—and I always wrote them.

On this one day, when Mom and Lynn picked me up, Mom had an odd expression. When I got into the truck with them, I soon discovered the cause of her expression.

I had recently sent one of my friends a letter that was intended for her eyes only. I assumed she would be the only one to read it. It was not a letter a 13 year old would want parents to read. However, for some reason my friend’s mother got ahold of the letter, and she was not happy. She immediately wrote to my mother, including the letter I had written.

Did I get in trouble with Mom?

No. I didn’t. Mom understood how a 13 year old might write what I had written. She also understood that some things we think—or write about—are not things we want the world to know.

Mom used it as a teaching moment. Her lesson to me that day was basically, never write something down you would not want everyone to read. There is never a guarantee your words will only reach their intended target.

Mom was right. And it applies to what we write on the Internet.

Another way to look at this, be prepared to own your words.