It's Not a Goodbye: It's Just, "See Ya Later!"

What an honor and a privilege it was for me to be named the Greater Mooresville Chamber of Commerce’s Businessperson of the Year for 2015 earlier this Spring at the Annual Dinner. It is so far the pinnacle of what has been a seven-year journey for me as I’ve striven to grow my printing and graphic design business into a respectable and successful venture for me and my family.

Five years ago, as I stood in front of those in attendance at our Chamber monthly luncheon and asked to be considered for a position on the Board of Directors for the Chamber, I honestly mentioned that my desire to be on the BOD was a selfish one. I explained that I wanted my business to grow. I wanted it to be successful and one of the ways to make that happen was to serve in a position that would allow me to help others make their businesses more successful. For me, and what I do, if other businesses prospered, they might need more of what I offer, and in turn, that would help me be more profitable.

Serving on the BOD helped me do just that. In general, being a member of the Chamber of Commerce offers businesses a wide variety of opportunities to network with each other and several avenues by which they can share their own business opportunities. Being on the board gives one a great opportunity to help plan those events — make them bigger and better — and come up with new ideas that can help Mooresville businesses grow and prosper.

Being a member of the Chamber helped me streamline my business, to make it the most efficient and helpful service possible. It helped me identify the businesses that would most benefit from my services — which tend to be small businesses — and it allowed me to tailor those services so they would most meet the needs of my clients.

When I started this business seven years ago, I did indeed have an eye on the future and the ability to be mobile with what we do. In streamlining and tailoring my business in such a way to best meet the needs of my clients, it has also allowed me the ability to do what we do from just about anywhere.

Which has now brought us to the next chapter in the lives of my family.

Many already know that we are in the process of moving out of state. Specifically, next to the ocean in Hilton Head, SC. There was a time in our lives we never dreamed we’d ever leave Mooresville. And please know that our desire to move now has nothing to do with wanting to leave our hometown.

Mooresville is our home. It’s all we know. It’s all we’ve ever known. My wife and I grew up here, went to school and married here, and raised our family here. Most of our own friends and family are here and will remain here after we leave.

But for a variety of reasons — none of which have anything to do with Mooresville — we have decided to move. Health concerns, our children living and going to school out of state, and the ever less desirable cold winter weather are just a few of those reasons. Some life-altering events also have factored into the decision. The loss of a some real good friends way too early and an unexpected flood also made us realize that if we’re ever going to pursue our dreams, now is as good a time as any, before we might not be physically able to do so.

So it is with a mix of excitement and sadness we have chosen to move and start a new life by the ocean. But I’m not retiring by any stretch. Thanks to the support of the Mooresville business community, and the Chamber of Commerce, I’ve positioned my business to be able to function from anywhere, and to be able to continue to meet the needs of my current clientele.

I intend to build a client base in our new hometown, but I also continue to serve the needs of my Indiana clients as well, who know that what they need from me is never more than a phone call or email away. Our goal is to make sure they all know I’m still available to serve their printing needs, and to know that even though we might live in another town, our hearts will always be in Mooresville.

All our current contact information will remain the same, and I will continue to maintain my Chamber of Commerce membership, and with frequent visits back to Mooresville, continue to stay involved in Mooresville events. For my Mooresville clientele, with the exception of seeing my goofy mug a little less often, nothing should change regarding your printing and graphic needs.

We cannot thank the people and businesses of Mooresville enough for all they’ve done, and all they’ve meant to my family. Perhaps we can convince some of you to come visit us by the ocean. We’ll have a guest bedroom available to anyone who wants to drop by.

For us, this is by no means a goodbye. It’s simply a “See you later!” We’ll send pictures!

Trump: Part 1

What a ride, huh?

It's a sticky wicket we're all in, us Republicans. By now, you've no doubt heard every argument possible from both sides of the issue about why you should or shouldn't vote for Donald Trump.

I've heard from the Trump fanatics who tell me we should vote for him because he's gonna change the world. I've heard from the #NeverTrump crowd (have I ever mentioned how much I detest hashtags?) telling me all the reasons I shouldn't. Christians are up in arms because we can't vote for a man so immoral.

What to do? What to do, indeed?

First off, here's links to two good articles from the Christian perspective. The first explains why Christians should NOT vote for Trump. The second explains why we, as Christians, SHOULD vote no matter who the choices are. I like both articles, as I think they both make valid points. And in the end, as a Christian, we're each going to have to make our own personal choice, through prayer and God's word, as to what we actually do come voting day in November.

But while it's been laid out there like its a simple black and white choice, it's not. And the truth is, I think it will do us all some good to try to grasp exactly why Trump is where he is, and discern, if we can, exactly what he stands for, especially before we simply state "I am," or, "I'm not." Because in reality, the GOP Establishment has yet to figure out why Trump has done so well, and Christians haven't done much better.

A couple weeks ago, I posted a transcript from Rush Limbaugh's show, where he states some of the same things I've been saying for the past few months. In the effort of full disclosure, I get quite a bit of my conservative news from Rush. Whether you like him or not, his take on what's going on in the world of Conservatism is usually pretty accurate, and long before Trump came on the scene, Rush was postulating that there is a huge conservative voting base out there that feels wholly disenfranchised from the Republican party they used to know. Moreover, Rush has stated for some time that there is a huge disconnect between the powers that be in Washington, and those of us "out there." And he's right.

Along comes Donald Trump, who recognized that disconnect and was able to tap into it. It really isn't a lot more complicated than that. I saw his appeal right away. Not that I was taken by him, but rather I saw why so many others were. But it's also important to understand why that disconnect was there in the first place, specifically within the Republican party.

Ronald Reagan was the last great Conservative, although George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. were no slouches. But George Bush Sr. got shafted by a 3rd party candidate in 1992 (sound familiar?) and George W. was sabotaged by a rabid, increasingly Liberal media that incomprehensibly was able to convince an uninformed public that it was somehow wrong to fight back against evil people who shamelessly attacked and killed 3000 innocent American citizens. But more on George W. later.

Stuffed in there was eight years of our first modern Liberal President, Bill Clinton, who actually did some smart things financially for the country (which was to sign bills into law that were coming out of a Republican congress) but who's Liberal agenda started us down a path of not only moral degeneration, but of social dependence on the government. The American public, after eight years, saw that this was not a good path, and voted a Conservative back into office, but George W. -- who did not campaign as a wartime President -- had 9/11 dropped into his lap, and that pretty dominated his entire two terms, forcing him to back burner some other issues that could have helped get some things back on track. (Mark my words -- George W. will go down in history as one of the truly great Presidents. Save this blog, so you can refer to this when that finally happens!)

For reasons only God can ascertain, the GOP ran the most moderate candidates they could find in the next two Presidential elections (just like the media said we should... hmmm...) and they promptly got their butts handed to them by a black man with a Muslim name who NOBODY had ever heard of prior to 2008. And who also happens to be so Liberal, he makes Bill Clinton look like Mickey Mouse.

Out of that frustration of not having a viable and electable candidate in those Presidential elections, the American public then handed the Democrat party the two biggest beatdowns they have ever suffered in the Midterm elections of 2010 and 2014. By landslides, they elected Republicans and Tea Partiers to majorities in both houses of Congress with the specific mandate of going to Washington to oppose the absolute moronic Liberal agenda of the Obama Administration. They promised to do just that in their campaigns, and we bought it and elected them.

Needless to say, they have failed in that mandate. But it's far worse than failure. They absolutely refused to put up a fight! The GOP Establishment has backed down at every turn, unwilling to make the tough decisions needed to turn around the Liberal agenda that's demoralizing this country. Unchecked, Obama's policies have been implemented without barriers, and even though they vowed to stop them, the GOP has done absolutely nothing to oppose him, which is what we elected them to do. (All that talk about getting along is hogwash. Neither side elects their officials so they'll "get along" with the other side. That's just media fodder.)

So, that's where we stand today. Enter Donald Trump.

Of the 17 candidates who jumped in the GOP Presidential race, only Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina were truly outsiders of the political scene. Ted Cruz is not a Republican, but rather a Tea Party member, with a voting history of opposing the GOP Establishment in Washington. So, he really was the outsider before Trump took that role.

To begin with, the Establishment candidates didn't stand a chance, not after 2010 and 2014. But Trump was able to tap into that disenfranchised base in a way that Carson and Fiorina couldn't. Sadly, Carson was too nice. Great guy, he really is, and one of my top choices. But for right now, in this climate, the base was looking for someone not only willing to fight, but PICK a fight, and maybe fight nasty if need be. Ben Carson is not that guy. Perhaps in another time and place, Carson could rise to the top. That would be nice.

Fiorina just couldn't connect, for similar reasons. Our side is looking for a bulldog, and we don't want that person to be a woman. We just don't. Someday, a woman will rise to the top of the Conservative ladder, and she'll do so for the right reasons. With grace, and skill, and purity. We just don't want to throw a lady into the depravity of Hillary Clinton, and watch them duke it out. That's probably a good thing.

But that's where Donald Trump thrives, and from the very beginning, he knew what he had to do to win. And that's get down and dirty, and not take any crap from anybody, including the media. It's what we've been begging our reps to do for years now, with no takers.

Meanwhile, the voting base was screaming "THANK YOU! FINALLY!" Somebody not only willing to fight, but willing to pick a fight, and willing to tell the media dopes to shove it, and to finally stop caving to all the PC nonsense.

So it's easy to see his appeal. He simply tapped into that disconnect Rush has been speaking about, a LARGE group of voters who were simply waiting for someone to come and get them. Trump did.

And the Indiana primary voting numbers prove this. In 2008, John McCain won the GOP Indiana primary with just over 330k votes. In 2012, Mitt Romney won with nearly 430k votes. Now get this: in this year's primary, Ted Cruz garnered almost 406k votes, nearly matching Romney's winning total from 2012, AND LOST! Trump nabbed 590,000 votes! Cruz got more votes than either Hillary or Bernie on the other side, but Trump almost matched their COMBINED totals with nearly 600k votes! There were over 1.1 million total Republican votes in this year's primary, an all-time record. In short, Trump got nearly 600k votes that haven't existed for years!

Why is he winning so big? How does a complete outsider, a man who had no political background, no campaign management to speak of, funded his own campaign and did no fundraising, and is as off-the-cuff as they come, beat the absolute best, most experienced politicians the GOP can throw at him? And they used every political tool they could to beat him -- still trying, in fact -- and he just keeps winning bigger and bigger.

How does that happen?

The Establishment can't figure it out because they are trying to put Trump, and view his campaign, in the traditional political box they all know so well. And Trump doesn't exist in that box. Never has. And he's not trying to reach the people that live in there so comfortably. He’s an in-your-face, say-what’s-on-his-mind, not-afraid-to-tick-someone-off, and not-back-down-from-a-fight kind of guy. With any other faults, he’s connected to the void, the base that's "Out There," the wild-card that no politician has had to deal with for a very long time. Sure, he’s pulling from some traditional GOP voters, and he's also pulling from some traditional Democrat voters as well, but the bulk of those nearly 600,000 votes mentioned above have come from voters who haven't been voting in a while. THAT'S why he's winning.

In the end, the Republicans AND the Democrats have nobody but themselves to blame for Donald Trump. The Democrats need look no further than the last eight years. I mean, if Obama has been so great, why would someone like Trump rise to the top and be so popular? If pandering to transgenders and people who want to kill policemen and burn down cities, and limiting people’s legal right to protect themselves is so great, and if gay marriage, growing the deficit, Christian-bashing, open borders, and Obamacare are such positives for America, then why in the world are so many people fed up to the point they’d support a candidate like Trump? Make no mistake, his appeal isn't just with Republican voters. One of the knocks on him by Conservatives is his past connections with Democrats. He's as popular with Democrat voters who realize the mistake they made in falling for Obama as he is with disenfranchised Republicans.

And Republicans have been screaming for someone to stand up and fight. And they found him. Quite frankly, I'm surprised there's as much backlash as there is. Both sides have been yakking about ousting the incumbents for the last several years. Now they have a candidate who looks as though he can get that done, and they're freaking out. Fickle kids, those voters.

There’s much more to consider here about Trump, and if you stuck with me this far, feel free to check out Parts 2 and 3, where I share why I believe not only why he’ll win big in November, but what I think we, as Christians, should do concerning the election. More to come….

And the Madness Continues...

So I was sitting in a restaurant today at lunch. I was by myself, just eating and checking emails on my iPad.

I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I could not help overhearing a conversation between two young men sitting in front of me. There was a TV on in the restaurant, and it was tuned into some news channel that was covering the aftermath of the Istanbul airport bombing. These young men were watching the coverage.

A young, well-dressed, and well-spoken African-American male (with a mohawk) was explaining to his buddy, a young white male, who was a worker at the restaurant, that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions that the airport bombers were ISIS members. He explained:

“You see, the problem with the Orlando shooting was that the shooter wasn’t a member of ISIS. He pledged ALLEGIANCE to ISIS, but he wasn’t an ISIS MEMBER. I mean, why would someone who is already ISIS pledge ALLEGIANCE to ISIS?”

Go figure.

The young white male was nodding in agreement absent-mindedly, although I couldn’t decide if he actually agreed with his buddy, didn’t care, or couldn’t articulate an argument. In any case, it didn’t take me long to discern that the young black male was a classic victim of today’s liberal ideology.

What he was saying, in essence, was akin to saying, “I’m not a Christian, but I pledge allegiance to Jesus.”

How stupid is that?

But that is indeed what many — especially in the media — want us to believe. I’ve heard many, and read many on social media, who have made the argument that not only can we not jump to conclusions when yet another radical muslim kills a vast majority of people, but that we cannot also assume that these radicals represent all the other “peace-loving” Islamists.

The problem is — and this is where we usually get ourselves into big trouble with Liberals — Islam is not, by it’s very nature, a peace-loving religion. A cursory reading of the Koran clearly reveals that it is the desire of the religion to eliminate anyone who doesn’t comply. Even to the point of killing off dissidents. Sorry, but that’s what the religion teaches.

Most of us, however, know one, a few, or even many Muslims who are not interested in blowing up airports, shooting up gay bars, or hi-jacking planes and flying them into buildings, all in the name of Islam. So we assume that most Muslims are a peace-loving folk who just want to be left alone. But that doesn’t change the fact that Islam is NOT a “peace-loving” religion.

And while the argument that every religion has it’s radical fringes is true, the problem lies in the response to those radicals and their actions by the larger, overall religion base.

Let me explain: Christianity, by nature, is indeed a “peace-loving” religion. By that, I mean that nowhere in the Bible does it advocate it’s followers to kill off those who don’t believe like them. (Don’t confuse this with going to war to protect our beliefs, freedoms, property, family, etc. That’s a different matter.) The truth is that we are taught in the Bible to love our enemies, and to pray for them that they might someday come to know the redemptive love of Jesus. Nowhere does it say we should kill them if they don’t come around. Final judgment is left to God Himself.

That’s why each time a nutbar “Christian” goes on some rampage and bombs an abortion clinic, leads hundreds of the cult followers to kill themselves, or otherwise breaks the law and causes harm to others in the name of God is roundly denounced by the larger Christian community as a whole. Those of us who know what the Bible really teaches are quick to publicly denounce those on the fringe, and stand up to show that these are not true, Biblically-sound Christians. (The weirdos at Westboro Baptist Church would fall into this fringe category!)

But that doesn’t happen with Islam. When was the last time you saw or heard Muslims publicly go on the record as denouncing these ever-growing number of terrorist attacks?

As I’m sure many do, I watch much of the news coverage, from different outlets, following these terrorist attacks. But I’ve been listening for something, and I haven’t heard it. In fact, I watched very closely the press conference the morning immediately following the shooting in Orlando last week. The normal officials spoke — law-enforcement, emergency responders, etc. — and then they invited the highest-ranking Muslim leader of the city to speak.

He said all the normal things: They don’t want people to jump to conclusions, they want to love people of all religions, and they hope people don’t retaliate against other Muslims. But not once did he say he denounced what the shooter did. I watched for it, and he didn’t say it. He never said something like, “Hey, this guy is a nutbar, and doesn’t in any way represent other Muslims. He’s crazy, and we don’t believe in killing people.”

Never said it.

And they never do. What we DO hear every time an attack of this nature takes place is cheering in the streets. Not here, in the States, of course, because that wouldn’t be prudent to their overall safety. But certainly overseas. And we see signs that say, “Death to America!” and “Down with the Infidels!” And we watch them pitch homosexuals off of rooftops. We watch them burn alive women who somehow embarrassed their husbands. We watch them behead Christians, and anyone else, for that matter, who they feel disparages Islam.

All the time. And you never hear a Muslim official stand up and say, “Sorry, but this is just wrong.”

And I’m not sure what we’re trying to protect here anyway. First of all, religious freedom, at least how our founding fathers envisioned it, is just a myth. It doesn’t exist anymore. The amendment that was written to forbid government from stopping the free exercise of any religion has been, by a court that was never created to make law in the first place, bastardized it into preventing anyone from exercising their religion unless the government says it’s OK. Which is not often.

A clause that doesn’t exist anywhere in our Constitution has been created out of thin air, its sole purpose being to avoid offending anyone. (And to avoid lawsuits.) Putting a nativity scene in the public square doesn’t establish anything, any more than putting up a statue of Stonewall Jackson makes people be racists. But that’s what today’s Liberal has brought us to, and somehow claims we’re all better for it.

And for what? Name me one Islamic Humanitarian organization? Name me one Muslim Relief organization? Name me one Islamic charity?

Anyone?… Bueller?… Bueller?…

Every — and I mean EVERY — significant Humanitarian, Relief, or Charity organization in the WORLD is either run by a Christian, or Godly faith-based group, or has it’s foundation in a faith in God. Did the local Islamic Society of North America send any help at all in the form of money, goods, or people to aid the people of Orlando? No? The Red Cross did. Other local charities did. Local firefighters held a blood drive. What did the Muslims do?

This is not a hate column, although I suspect some readers may have already checked out and are in the process of outing me as a hater, bigot, Islamaphobe, or whatever other nonsense they can conjure up. Rather, I’m just making a point. The reality is what it is. Every major terrorist attack in the last 20 years has been carried out by a Muslim, or a group of Muslims. That’s just the truth. And the more we try to play it off as something it’s not, the more we try to downplay the end goal of Islam, and the more we limit the message of Jesus, we do so at our own peril.

Remember, they’re not REALLY killers, they just pledge their ALLEGIANCE to them. No worries.

Sadly, the young black man (and his mohawk) in the restaurant today is in for a rude awakening someday.

Our Little Bear: A Trip Down Memory Lane

I was asleep.

I don’t recall whether I was dreaming or not, but I was sleeping well. While it wasn’t too late in the morning — around 9am or so — since I was working nights at the time, I hadn’t been asleep for more than a few hours. What I do recall is that I awoke to my wife’s frantic cries.

“Get up! My water just broke!”

For some couples expecting a baby, that might be a happy, even welcome occurrence. For us, it was not. My wife was just a few ticks over 26 weeks pregnant. And even though she’d just had a good checkup with the Doc a few days earlier, we knew this was bad. And certainly unexpected.

Our first child a couple years earlier had been a handful for my wife. She had suffered pre-term labor beginning at 26 weeks, and though her water never broke, she endured labor pains roughly every 15 minutes for the last 10 weeks of the pregnancy, on bed rest the whole time, finally delivering our oldest son at 36 weeks. He was four weeks premature, but relatively healthy, and home with us after a short, three-day stay in the hospital.

Because of this, our OB Doc was watching my wife very closely this second pregnancy. Considered an “at-risk” pregnancy, she was being checked every week, and after some small, very early-term issues, she was doing well and everything was proceeding normally with no problems.

Until this.

We were in a new home, and less than a week earlier had just finished remodeling our new bedroom. We’d been sleeping on the couch and in a chair up to then. That morning, as I slept in our new bedroom, she had wakened earlier and was sitting in my recliner reading a book to older brother when it broke loose. No labor pains, no trauma: it just broke.

In my recliner… but more on that later.

We scrambled ourselves together quickly. I honestly do not remember what we did with our son, but he was secured somewhere, and we rushed to the hospital. I remember our car had a problem with a tire that I had planned to get fixed that day, but instead we were breaking the speed limit on the way to the hospital, fighting a significant tremor in the steering wheel because of the tire.

We check in and get ushered back to a room. The wife was not having labor pains, that was the weird part. We simply didn’t know what to do, or what to expect. The doctor comes in, and explains that if it were just one week earlier and we’d had the baby, we would actually have the choice of just holding our baby and allowing it to die, or asking the doctors to do what they can to save it. We’d actually be given the choice to allow our child to die. But since we were at 26 weeks, they were mandated by law to deliver the baby and do whatever they can to save it. And then, I will never forget what he said next. I remember it verbatim:

“But you don’t want to have this baby today. If you have this baby today, you’re gonna have problems.”

All well and fine, I say, but what does that mean, since her water has broke? He explains that given her condition, she is at risk of infection, and so they are gonna take a “hands-off” approach to her, and while they won’t do anything to prevent labor should she go fully into it, they will give her muscle-relaxers if she simply has labor pains. They’ll put her on meds to help the baby develop more quickly, but that’s about it. He then tells us that’s she’s gonna lay in that bed there in that hospital until she delivers.

“When will that be?” I says. He says, “98% of women who’s water breaks go into labor within 48 hours, regardless of when their water breaks. However, I’ve seen some woman like this carry to term.” That’s 40 weeks, I say. Does that mean she might have to stay in the hospital for the next 14 weeks?

“Yes,” he says. “She’s not leaving here until she delivers.”

And so we wait. The next week goes relatively smoothly. She lays in bed in the hospital. I go back and forth to work, to the hospital, to home with the son, bringing him up periodically to see Mommy. The following week, not so well. She begins to endure regular labor pains, and as a defense, they keep her drugged up on muscle relaxers. The final three days, she’s in a constant drugged stupor.

I finally go to the doctor with concerns that such a state can’t be good for her health. I explain clearly: “I want my baby to be well, I really do. But I will sacrifice the baby in a heartbeat to make sure my wife is OK. So you need to do something.”

He breaks down and does a physical check of my wife and discovers that our baby has decided to stick his foot out of the birth canal, and she’s ready to go. I say “she” because we were absolutely convinced we were having a baby girl. We hadn’t confirmed it officially, but all indications were it was a girl. And there was no evidence of a boy. We hadn’t found out the gender of our first son, and we didn’t want to find out with the second either. But we were speculating. We hadn’t gone as far to decorate the baby room for a girl, but we were virtually certain our oldest son was going to soon have a baby sister. Little Tori Michelle was on her way — early, apparently.

“It’s time to take this baby,” Doc proclaims.

A C-Section is scheduled immediately, and I ask if I can go in and watch and be with my wife. And here is where he tells me the other thing which I remember verbatim. He get’s right up in my face and says, “Dude, if you go in that room and pass out on me, or cause me any other kind of problem, I’ll kill you myself after I’m done.”

The marching orders being firmly set, I assure him he won’t have any problem with me. From that moment, they had my wife prepped, in surgery, and our baby delivered within 30 minutes. 

I’ve heard stories about women scheduling C-Sections like they might a simple dental appointment, and they make it all sound so easy. I was surprised to find out just how vigorous a C-Section is. And while I’ll spare you the details, I’ll just say that it isn’t a mild, minimally-invasive procedure. I watch the whole thing from the head of the bed. The wife is awake, but totally numbed and feels nothing below her chest. In the end, our baby was delivered.

And it was a boy.

We’re stunned, yet still thrilled. 2 lbs. 11 oz. Apparently it wasn’t Tori Michelle who was in such a hurry, but rather a little baby boy. After he’s disconnected from his mother, we don’t get to hold him. Rather, he’s whisked away to some unknown place and we’re told we’ll be allowed to see him at a later time after he’s stabled. They begin to put my wife back together, which was a fun scene to watch, but a story for another time. After 10 minutes or so, the door opens to the room and in walks a nurse holding our new son. She brings him to us and says, “Would you like to hold your son for a few minutes?”

Of course. And we do. Well, Mommy does. I watch, because I am genuinely afraid of breaking him in half. He’s SO tiny. Tinier than I’d ever imagined. Apparently, he’s doing well. After just a couple minutes, the nurse says she’s needs to take him back, and she’s gone again with our son in her arms. I ask the Doc how often do they bring preemies back into the delivery room for the parents to hold? He replies, “He must really be doing well, because I’ve never seen them do that.”

What followed was an eight-week emotional roller coaster, the likes of which I would never wish on anyone. Not due until the end of January, our baby was born October 22, a full 11 weeks premature. At under 3 lbs., he barely fills the palm of my hands. He’s given baths in what is essentially little more than an average sized cereal bowl.

Even though he’s tiny, he’s generally well developed. The problem is his lungs. His lungs are so small, and so little developed, that he has trouble breathing on his own. I can barely hold him. He’s so small, I’m afraid of him. But his Mommy and the nurses aren’t afraid at all, and they move him and shift him and turn him over like it’s nothing, despite all the wires and tubes attached to him. None of which makes him happy at all. When they’re so little, preemie babies like that can’t cry yet. So our baby grunts and growls whenever he’s unhappy. So much so that we begin to call him “Bear” and his Big Brother picks out a little white teddy bear from the gift shop and gives it to him. “Little Bear,” as the toy becomes named — not more than 5 or 6 inches tall — is placed in the incubator with our own “Bear” and dwarfs him in size.

It’s here that I have to make an honest disclosure. Relatively-speaking, our baby was pretty healthy. There were lots of babies that came and went during the next eight weeks who had real problems, far worse than ours. We saw it physically, and we knew it instinctively, but it didn’t make our ordeal any less scary to us. One minute he’d be doing really well, the next he’d be moments away from going on a respirator and being rushed off to the far more serious Riley Hospital. We’d go home one evening with him breathing great and feeling well, only to arrive the next morning to find the nurses scrambling to get him stabilized again.

Every day, up and down, back and forth. For eight weeks.

Finally, with a mandate that he could not leave our house except for Dr. appointments until the following Spring, on December 23 — two days before Christmas — he was allowed to come home and be with his Mommy and Daddy and Big Brother.

I tell you this story because this past Saturday, our “Cody Bear” graduated high school. He’s grown into a stunning young man, both intellectually and physically. Aside from some asthma issues in his early years, you’d never know today that he was ever a preemie, or ever so tiny.

He’s smart and witty and handsome and stubborn and a handful. The past 18 years have been fun, exasperating, adventurous, exciting, frustrating, and ever so wonderful, and I could not be more grateful that our miraculous little 29-week preemie pulled through. He’s known what he wanted ever since he stuck his foot out the birth canal. And he’s grunted and growled his way into a Godly young man we couldn’t be more proud of. He is our proof that God answers prayers.

Oh yeah, about my recliner. It was dried and cleaned. It survived. No worries.

Harriet Tubman and the Sad Saga of the $20 Bill.

Let me start by unequivocally stating this: I’m all for honoring Harriet Tubman. She’s a great American worthy of our recognition. I don’t even mind that its being done on a currency bill. In fact, I think it might have been better served if a new bill had been created specifically to honor her, such as when a new silver dollar was created to honor Susan B. Anthony all those years ago. Perhaps a $25 dollar bill, or something of that sort.

But in this instance, replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, right now, at this time, is just dumb. And it certainly isn’t going to achieve what they are intending it to achieve. In fact, it’s going to do the opposite.

About a year ago, when the Treasury Department starting floating the idea of replacing Jackson or Hamilton on the $10 or $20 bill, I told my wife, “Mark my word, they will be replaced with a black woman. Count on it.” There was no question the intent was never to actually honor someone deserving. (Not to say Tubman isn’t deserving.) Instead, it was blatantly obvious what the intent was.

This is pandering at it’s worst level. At this moment in our history, when race relations are at an all-time low, thanks to our black President, we have virtually every segment of our society, especially every government entity, going out of its way to prove to everybody we’re not racist.

It’s precisely why Obama was elected in the first place. He didn’t win in 2008 because he won the black vote, or the Latino vote, or even the women vote. A good portion of those segments are already liberal Democrat and would have voted for Obama anyway. Rather, he won because a significant portion of white people voted for Obama BECAUSE he was black, and virtually no other reason. Of course, many of the blacks, Latinos and women voted for the same reason. They all wanted to prove to themselves — and everybody else — that they’re not racist. You remember… if you made it known you weren’t voting for Obama, you were immediately labeled as racist.

In 2012, when everyone realized he’s actually a lousy President, millions of people who had voted for him previously only because he was black decided to not vote at all, which still made them feel better about themselves. That’s why his vote total dropped by over 3 million votes from 2008.

Unfortunately, it’s that same mindset that’s at play here with Harriet Tubman, and, quite frankly, almost every other anti-racism venture you see on the news these days. It’s not about doing anything of any substance to actually fight racism, but rather throw out some symbolic measure that does little more than keep the issue of racism in the forefront of everybody’s thoughts.

Years ago, the actor, Morgan Freeman, did an interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes. Freeman was asked how we can end racism in our society. His response was simple: “Stop talking about it!” Look it up on YouTube. It’s pretty fascinating.

He’s absolutely right. While I believe that because of sheer human stupidity, we will never really end racism for everybody, I do think the best way to get there is to simply stop making it an issue.

Which is exactly what this Tubman thing does. It will do nothing to curb racism and instead fan the flame that keeps it alive.

First of all, NOBODY, and I mean nobody, cares about our currency. Nobody cared about Andrew Jackson, or Alexander Hamilton, or Abe Lincoln or George Washington, for that matter. And the only people who care about Jackson now probably only do so because someone on the news told them they should care.

Meanwhile, you can honor Tubman. She’s certainly deserving. But to what end? There’s no direct family left. (Even one of her descendants says there’s no point to this.) There’s no black people around who actually felt the sting of slavery. The truth is, this is so pointlessly token and pandering, black people ought to be offended. I mean, what are we really doing for them?

And moreover, all you’re going to do is bring every moronic, racist redneck out of the woods to hear them scream about how they’re never going to use the $20 bill again. AND you’ll push the value of Jackson $20 bills through the roof for collectors in the future. It is already becoming a debate in the media. NOBODY looks at this and goes, “Oh yeah, maybe we ought to treat black people better.”

We will never end racism with token moves like this. It’s not even a step in the right direction. It’s just plain stupid. There’s absolutely nothing good that can come from it. Tubman is a great patriot, deserving of recognition as a historical icon. She’s certainly worthy of her place in our history classes in our schools and universities, and there’s great museums, such as the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati, that do a fantastic job of highlighting her place in history.

But this move will, and already is, doing the exact opposite of what they claim they want, which, of course, is somewhat laughable, because one can question if they — in this case, the government, and, more specifically, the Obama Administration — really want to do anything at all. In light of their response to events in Ferguson and Baltimore over the last couple years, and the ongoing, absolutely absurd Black Lives Matter movement, and they’re continued war against our police officers, its apparent Obama doesn’t want to end racism, but rather pander to it to exploit it politically, and profit from maintaining the racial divide.

And that’s a shame, because Harriet Tubman deserves better.

Don't Like Your Baby's Race? Kill It!

Fundamentally, I am unabashedly pro-life. That being said, aside from being a symptom of the overall decline of morality in our society, I do not believe abortion is the #1 problem our country faces. I believe our legislators have far more pressing issues with which they should be concerned, and they spend a disproportionate amount of time on the problem.

In fact, back in 2012, I wrote a blog wherein I premised there actually could be cases, albeit a minute few, in which abortion might be a viable option.

But I want to weigh in on the most recent abortion issue here in Indiana, namely Senate Bill 313, which you can, and should, read here. Despite all the hubbub all over the news, it's really not very long. Just a big paragraph.

I want to say unequivocally that I stand with Indiana Governor Mike Pence, and applaud him on his unwavering stance in protecting the lives of innocent unborn children.

The problem I have is that there have been few other issues that have highlighted the hypocrisy of the left more than the Liberal response to this bill.

First, to break it down. Upon reading the bill, you will find: 1) There is indeed a provision wherein a woman can get an abortion for a lethal fetal anomaly, provided she receives proper counseling and is provided with options for perinatal hospice care. 2) A woman cannot get an abortion for the sole purpose of race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, or because the baby has some disability, specifically Down Syndrome. 3) Anyone attempting to do so, or performing an abortion for these reasons, is subject to prosecution. 4) Lastly it provides language regarding the proper and illegal usage of fetal tissue.

What's important is that there is no language whatsoever in the bill regarding a decision about an abortion when it involves the health of the mother. What that means is that this bill does not in any way prevent the ability to receive an abortion when the health of the mother is at stake, and specifically provides options for an abortion when the health of the baby is at stake.

So, what is the problem? That's the million dollar question.

And it is here that the hypocrisy of the Left comes into play. Their rallying cry in opposition to this has been that this bill puts the health of the mother in jeopardy, but upon reading the bill, we see that's not the case. So what are they complaining about?

The only logical conclusion is that they want the ability to kill their baby if they don't like it's color, or race, or ethnicity, or sex, or if it has Down's. She wanted a boy, and it's a girl? Abort it. She wanted her baby with her black husband to be white, and it's black? Kill it off. Down's baby? Blind, or deaf? Get rid of it.

Is this not the party of Black Lives Matter? Is this not the party of gender equality? Anybody should be able to use any bathroom they want? Compassion for the poor, and immigrants, and refugees, and the needy, like the disabled? Civil rights?

Do you see what I see? Are you getting it? The same people who tell you Black Lives Matter want to be able to kill off their baby because it's black. (Not to mention that black people are killing off their own through abortions in truly astonishing numbers.) The same people who want you to believe each person should be allowed to decide their own gender want to be able to kill off their baby because it's not the gender the mother wanted. The same people who are admonishing us for not taking in refugees (and who protested Gov. Pence for halting the unfettered acceptance of refugees in our state) want to be able to kill off their baby if it is Latino instead of Caucasion.

Sounds absurd, yeah? But what other conclusion is there? The rallying cry that we're putting the mother's health in jeopardy just doesn't fly.

Go figure.

And letting the argument get bogged down on the issue of rape and incest is pointless. Because, as my previously-mentioned blog above notes, abortions in the case of rape or incest are less than 1% of all abortions. It's such a small percentage of the big picture, it's moot.

Of course, in the absence of standing up and making some sort of logical argument, they have resorted to the deplorable and vulgar exercise of the "Periods for Pence," an effort that doesn't even warrant my justifying an explanation, and which I'm ashamed to say has garnered the support of nearly 40,000 women. Only the liberals.

I'm proud we have legislators and a Governor who are willing to take a stand and not give in to political and societal pressure, but rather remain steadfast in doing the right thing.

Of course, what does it say about our society that we have so many who are so willing to kill off babies?

RIP: Sharon Raymond

My Jr. High school choir director, and my high school choreographer, Sharon Raymond, passed away recently. Sharon and her husband Gene, who was the high school director, had founded the Mooresville Spotlighter show choir back in the mid '70s. It was one of the very first show choirs in the Midwest, and has gone on to become one of the premiere show choirs in the country over the past 40 years, and is still nationally known today.

I was a member of the Spotlighters for 3 years in high school, as both a guitarist and a performer. And I have had the privilege of serving as the emcee for the annual Spotlighter Invitational since its inception in 1993, an event they had dreamed of starting, and was ultimately launched a few years after they left Mooresville.

They had lived out of state for many years, but upon her passing, her family had decided to hold a memorial service for her back here in Indiana. They were kind enough to allow me to say a few words, as one of her former students. Here is what I offered at the service:

Like many of you, I met Sharon Raymond in 7th Grade. Initially, in my under-developed, adolescent mind, if you had asked me what I thought about her then, I would have told you that she wasn’t my favorite teacher in the world. She was loud, and brash, a little bit scary, and not in any way afraid to let you have it when you weren’t doing things as she would like them done.

But it didn’t take long, even at that young age, to begin to appreciate her love and passion for her job, and for her students. And for some reason, she saw a talent in me that I’m not sure I even knew I had at the time. By the next year, she had placed me in the select choir in 8th Grade at Paul Hadley — PH Factor. She gave me my first solo, a number during which I was supposed to sing and shimmy, like Elvis.

Prior to performing our first show for our parents, we performed that show for the rest of the students at school during lunch. I was ready — I shimmied up to the microphone stand, grabbed the mic like Elvis would do, and promptly smacked myself right in the teeth with it, causing the sound system to screech as though it had frapped out. I don’t know how many of you here today might remember that, but as I do not embarrass easily anymore, I can assure you I remember it well.

My freshman year, I met Gene for the first time. I was in the Freshman choir and found out soon enough that not only did Sharon teach at the Jr. High, but she choreographed all the choirs at the high school. Like most Freshman, after I saw the Spotlighters for the first time, I knew I wanted to be in that group.

My sophomore year, I joined the group as the guitar player. Some of you might not remember that, because I wasn’t very good at it. But I was the only Sophomore male to make the group that year. I felt pretty cool. Until, that is, I had to go to my first Spotlighter class and sit next to Tony West and Mike Bridgewater. THOSE guys were cool, and I was instantly humbled.

The next 3 years were some of the best years of my life. Being in Spotlighters, and spending my junior year in Gene’s music theory class provided me with some of the best memories of my teenage years. And as I’ve continued to earn at least a portion of my income over the years as a musician and entertainer, the lessons I learned from Gene and Sharon during that time have been invaluable to me as an adult.

Being in high school, we obviously spent more time with Gene than we did Sharon over those years, seeing her only on the few days she would come to class during the day to teach us our choreography, and again at our evening practices and our performances themselves.

Most of my memories from that time center around the interaction I had with my friends and fellow Spotlighters. I could probably share with you 20 or 30 stories about Sharon, and probably have forgotten 20 or 30 more. But here’s something I think we all remember:

She was a crier.

Not a wailer, or a bawler, mostly just tears and sniffles. But she would cry at the drop of a hat. She’d cry when we did a particularly good performance, and she’d cry when we stunk up the place. She’d cry when she had to yell at us for something, or she’d cry when we nailed our ballad. She’d cry when she talked about her kids. She’d cry telling us about a song she’d heard, or a movie she’d watched that moved her to tears. I can still remember the day after she’d seen the movie Dirty Dancing for the first time. She came to class raving about the dancing and choreography in the film. She told us all to go see it right away. And she cried the entire time she told us about it.

You could carry on an entire conversation with her, with tears streaming down her face, and her sniffling away.

Most often, we, as students, have to grow up, graduate and move on before we are able to see our teachers as the humans they are, before we realize the love and the passion they have for what they do, and to see how cool they really are.

I was fortunate to have a close relationship with several of my teachers, that was able to reach beyond the barriers of the normal parent-teacher relationship. Gene and Sharon weren’t just my choir teachers. They were my friends. But many of you in this room today had that same type of relationship with Gene and Sharon that I did. Because it is what they allowed us to do. They invited us into their lives and shared with us that passion they had for the perfect song, the perfect move, the perfect performance.

We CALLED them Gene and Sharon, for crying out loud. How many teachers did you address by their first name? I don’t remember many of us at all calling them Mr. and Mrs. Raymond. But then, maybe we should have after all.

All those tears Sharon used to cry… we all saw it pretty quickly. It was her passion. That’s really what we’re all here to celebrate today. A life FULL of passion. And she passed that on to all of us. Look around you. We’re not here because of some great dance move she came up with. We’re all here because she placed something into each of us that we’ve never been able to shake.

I’ve seen Gene and Sharon maybe 3 times since they moved away. Only the few times they’ve come back to serve as judges for the Spotlighter Invitational, an event I’m so thankful I get to be involved in every year. I bet some of you haven’t seen them for 30 years or more.

And yet, here you are. Why? Because she means something to you. She means something to all of us. She instilled something in us — her passion and her love for what she did — and that will be with us forever. We will never forget it, and we will never forget her.

I’m thankful they were my teachers. I learned and trained under the absolute best. But I’m even more proud to call her and Gene my friends. To all her family, I’m so sorry for your loss, and my wife and I offer you our deepest sympathies. Thank you all for allowing me a few minutes to honor such a wonderful person. Like you, I will miss her.