Good Morning America, your King of Simple News is on the air.

While no one ever accused old Mountain Mike here of being a left wing liberal, they also never accused me of being a right-wing-died-in-the wool conservative. I’m one of the troubled sorts that are mostly referred to as a G.D. Independent.

Hard core Independents mostly comprise of people who actually think rather than being directed. You know the drill, “Hey Charlotte, you wanna stick your tongue in the electrical panel and see if it’s hot?” If Charlotte were not a hard line follower her response would be, “Say what, do you think I’m nuts?”

If Charlotte were a hard line follower, her response would be “HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS, I THINK IT’S 240 VOLTS!

I have great hope that fewer and fewer people are blind followers and instead ask, “Where are we going so fast and why are we in this hand basket?”

There is evidence that the numbers of Independents are growing. If not, the two major parties are wasting a whole lot time and money pandering to a non-existent entity; emphasis on “pandering.”

My writing appears on many sites, some Liberal some Conservative and some so hard up they publish my stuff out of shear desperation. While I have always felt that I leaned toward the Conservative side, I’m never given up on the majority moving toward the middle.

But maybe, just maybe, there is a whole new category of Independents out there, not from the right, not from the left, but dug in and realizing that those folks who have been leading us…are lost! More people seem to be getting the message that all is not well under the current and proposed leadership.

In a flattering review of my book “The Biggest Lie Ever Believed” (and one that I didn’t even ask for), Victoria Stewart, Editor of Issues and Alibi’s magazine had this to say.

“I put off reading Folkerth’s “The Biggest Lie Ever Believed” because I just didn’t want to read another end-of-the-world-and-all-good-things diatribe. I have no patience with writers who demand the return of the American middle class, less than no patience with those who express a voyeuristic glee at anticipated suffering and experience a very un-Zen rage when I read yet another privileged professional exhorting the “workers” to change the system. I just didn’t want to read this book.”

“Imagine my surprise then, to discover that the book was not anything like the other books and articles I had forced myself to read. Not only was Folkerth witty and funny, he was smart and-most importantly-he was saying exactly what I believe to be true: The old days are gone. We have to change the way we live.” (Can you believe she was talking about me?).

Victoria went on to say, “There are many differences between Mike Folkerth and everyone else who is writing or pontificating about the economy. He doesn’t condescend. He isn’t an “expert” instructing the great unwashed. He understands the daily struggles of ordinary people because they have been his struggles. He recognizes that we might have some responsibility to our children and grandchildren. And he believes that we, that Americans, might actually be able to change, to fix this mess we are in. And he has some advice for doing it.”

I can’t thank Victoria Stewart enough for her kind words, but the most valuable thing that she gave me was a greater perspective of my own writing! “The old days are gone. We have to change our lives.” However, that change doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Live simple, live well, live long.