Bye Dawg

Many of you may not be aware but a seminal figure in the life of all Georgians is no longer with us. That is right Uga VI has gone to the great football field in the sky. As you may not be aware all the Uga's are buried at Sanford Stadium and so will this one. Here are some of the more memorable moments in his life.

I know, I know many of you are saying what's the big deal it's just a dog. Well, that is where you are wrong he is not just a dog he is a DAWG! Those people in the Bulldog Nation understand this, he was an example hard work, being a winner, grace, and good sportsmanship. I mean who else would invite a hundred thousand of his closes friends over very Saturday to his house, and make no mistake it is his house, for a great football game. So here's to you good sir I wish you the best and look forward to meeting a new member of your family in the fall.

Liberty!!

As today is the day of the establishment of the greatest experiment in freedom in the history of Man, I felt it necessary to remind us of some amazing thoughts about government and the need of the people to be forever vigilant. From some of the greatest minds in history I quote:

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
Ronald Reagan

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
Thomas Jefferson

It is no dishonor to be in a minority in the cause of liberty and virtue.
Samuel Adams

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
Clarence Darrow

Coercion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him
Ronald Reagan

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Edward Abbey

And let us not forget the words that started it all:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
The Deceleration of Independence

In the end this is the country that stands as a beacon of light on the hill for all to strive to become and as citizens we should not choose to be like those that have failed and are still failing, but show them the greatness that has come from our decision to trust in our fellow man. When we promote individual choice and the responsibility that comes with that choice the need for an over reaching government disappears. I will wrap up with this:

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"
Thomas Jefferson

Fatherhood

Here I sit listening to my baby cry and recovering from a day of the year set aside for fathers, I think about what it means to be a father and I don't simply have the words for it, maybe it is because I am neophyte in the realm of fatherhood or perhaps my vocabulary lacks the punch to say what I mean, but I can say that I know this for sure - being a dad ain't easy! I mean sure I could sit on the couch and order my wife to "take care of those kids" or better yet "can't you keep them quite!" or I could do what I'm doing now and wait over the course of the next 30+ plus years to see how I did. I feel like I am doing a good job and honestly I like the idea of a 30 year grading curve, so to all us fathers keep doing what your doing, just don't screw them up! They look to you for more and you should be more.

That's my opinion and I don't care about yours!

Really!

Really, REALLY!?! There are times where you must ask that question and the sad part is that by the time you ask that question the situation has already passed and you were caught with your pants down. I say this looking at how things are shaping up on many fronts political, spiritual, work, family, finical, and on and on. Where did the world get so crazy and why is it that the world today is considered so much better than the world in the past. I enjoy tradition and that is unfortunate because at the risk of trying to be politically correct and keep up with the Joneses I fear that this country is committing cultural genocide to any aspects of the American culture that it finds distasteful, some call it revisionist history. It is a sad day in America where we are more concerned with burying the past or keeping the past blazing at such a high temperature that history becomes a joke, a myth, misunderstood, or worthless. I mean lets be honest if you were to call a person a Benedict Arnold today would they even know why that should be an insult? At the end of the day ladies and gentlemen the point is that history should be kept in its proper context and we need to stop changing it to suit the present and face the reality. Is it historic that Barack Obama is the democratic nominee and John McCain is the republican nominee sorta, but we must as Americans who want to live up to the words of the Constitution and Martin Luther King Jr. must remember that not only is this country here so that all people regardless of all their faults are to be treated equally and as Dr. King so eloquently put it that we become a nation that, paraphrasing here, judges a man not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character. I hope as we as a people remember that critical evaluation of an person, nation, or race is not bigotry or racism it is just good practice for making good choices in this world. Character matters and so does the lack of it.

So Ends the weekend

I sit here looking around my home and I ponder the last few minutes before I trail off to bed and start a new and I think about how wonderful it all was this weekend. I had a wonderful time with the family and I watched by children play and laugh and pretend...they fought it one more time...and what is it they fought (while unaware) growing up! They stayed small for one day more, but tomorrow I know they will grow up just a little more and I am glad I have these times to absorb them. I made a commitment to my family a long time a go and I hope that they understand I want them to seize the day...and then throttle it!!!!

It's Saturday

It's Saturday and as I walk around my small town's downtown it occurs to me...my "small town USA" is not such a small town. It makes me laugh after living in towns that were just a map dot that you come to my humble medium sized "small town" and you have some people that act like Henry Ford just delivered his first horseless carriage and others act like the new Long Horns restaurant was about 15 years overdue for our ever expanding mini-metropolis. As a native son of the state, but an outsider looking in on my new medium sized "small town" I just smile in amusement. I think things are at a cross roads for my town. The paper read about 2,500 new development coming soon so do we still qualify as a small town? People still walk down town, go to the parks, have a sense of community allegiance and commitment to personal betterment does that make us a small town? I don't know what that word means after all my years on this earth, but I will say this - When I used to live in map dots and mighty metropolises I know that as long as the people think of their town as a small town it will always feel warm, cozy, and home.