Thought to Ponder

- Zig Zigler

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Thought to Ponder

- Catherine Pulsifer 

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Thought to Ponder

Sorry, I forgot to add this yesterday.

-Arnold H. Glasgow

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Thought to Ponder

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Thought to Ponder

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Moving Forward

Tomorrow is one of the reasons that America is the greatest nation to ever grace the face of this Earth. Just a little over 4 years ago President-elect Obama was a little known State Senator in Illinois. At noon tomorrow he will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. How amazing is that?

His rise to power is truly an American tale. No matter if you are a Republican or Democrat tomorrow is a great day for America.  When Barack Obama proclaims the oath of the President tomorrow the United States will solidify its place in history as the greatest nation. If you had told the “Greatest Generation” 40 years ago an African-American would be elected President they would have called you crazy. While I do not agree with Obama’s policies I am proud to say that I will be apart of history. I even thought that I would never see anyone other than a white man elected to the highest office.

With Barack’s election I hope that we can begin to put old wounds between the white and black community behind us and we can look to the future to build a stronger country for our children and grandchildren. They say time heals all wounds; tomorrow we can peel the band-aid off the wound and start anew. 

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Thought to Ponder

                  Photo Courtesy of QT Luong / Terragalleria.com

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Time to Say Goodbye

On January 20, 2009 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol eight years of George W. Bush will come to a close at noon. For some the last eight years have been seen as a stolen presidency and they never gave President Bush the respect that all U.S. Presidents deserve from the people of this nation.

 

I guess I need to be straight forward and up front with you before you read on. I am from Texas, I voted for GW for Governor in 1998 when I was 18. I in turn voted for him in 2000 when I was living in Tallahassee, FL, and I was one of the hundreds of people that were outside the capital building as the recount continued for days. Then in 2004 I again voted for Bush because I believed he was doing the right thing in the War on Terror.

 

It is an overstatement to say that George Bush will be seen as a good President anytime soon. I am sure there are plenty of people out there right now that would rank him up there with the worst of the worst. As if he has personally wronged them or ran their dog over with his car. I am not saying that he did everything the way that it should have been done, but I am also not going to sit here and judge a man that I have never met personally. The job of President is something that only a few select men have ever known. We will never be able to understand the daily pressure that must come with the job. The fate of a nation and millions of peoples lives rest on the decisions that these brave men make daily if not hourly.

 

What will be the major events that will shape the second Bush’s legacy? First and foremost it has to be September 11, 2001. That is a day that will stand the test of time and be something that my grandkids will read about just like we all did with Pearl Harbor or the Alamo, for those of you that were lucky enough to be raised in Texas. Second, he will be judged on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The decision to go to war is never made lightly or without much debate, or at least we all hope that is the case. Finally, the financial recession that now has its grasps firmly around the neck of this country. Again, this is a matter that is too complex for any one person to full understand. All of these events have a different meaning to each and every once of us. We can all share stories on how we have been affected by these three events. That is what makes us human and individuals.

 

You might not agree with the way that the President handled things throughout his eight years, WE still can call our nation the United States of America!

 

We all remember where and what we were doing the morning of September 11, 2001 as those planes full of innocent people slammed into the sides of the World Trade Centers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and that field in Pennsylvania. You could hear the country crying as the towers fell and the death toll began to rise. We all walked around in a daze, afraid as to what might happen next. That all changed on September 14, 2001 when the President visited the rumble that once was the site of the Twin Towers. In one defining moment the President woke the nation out of the slumber with words that still ring true to this day. As the president was talking, one of the construction workers yelled out, "We can't hear you." And the president said, "Well, I can hear you. The whole world hears you. And pretty soon those evildoers will be hearing from us." From that moment we knew that we could overcome that tragedy and start to rebuild. Those words lead us to the fight on terrorism which has us currently fighting to preserve our way of life in two different countries, in far off places that we only see on TV and in newspapers.

 

Yes, American men and women have died in the line of fire for this country in a war most feel should have never taken place. While it is the Presidents job to make the decision to send our sons and daughters to war, we all know that that decision must be made to preserve our way of live. The reasons for going into Iraq may have been undeserving of American lives, none the less it had to be done. The world is and will be a better place with a free Iraq. If you feel that the war in Iraq was wrong do you feel the same about the one in Afghanistan? We were told that weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq and that we needed to remove Saddam before he could use them on us or our allies. While no weapons were found, we did free a country from an evil man that had killed thousands if not hundreds of thousands of his own citizens. How is not the right thing to do? What is the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan?

 

I am lucky to have a job right now as I write this, and I do feel sorry for those of you that have lost your job or soon will. It is a horrible feeling knowing that people are struggling to find a job that will pay enough to put food on the table and a roof over your head. I can remember when my father lost his job in the oil meltdown in the mid 1980s. I remember going to D.C when he was looking for a job. I was too young to understand what was going on, but I knew something wasn’t right. That leads me to this. We will survive, we will over come, and we will be on top once again. I am not sure how much the current President is responsible for the current economic situation that we are in. We are all responsible in some form or fashion for the problems will all face now. We are all guilty of spending too much money and not saving enough for a rainy day. That is were we are right now. We are in the middle of a rainy day. Economics is not an easy concept to understand or to figure out what went wrong when and how to fix it. Are bailouts and stimulus packages the right way to go? I am sure that the President feels that to a degree they are the right direction to go, but only time will tell. This is not a problem that can be solved over night. We all need to be patent and allow the silent hand of the free market work. For those who are struggling that is hard to do, but if we all tighten our belts and work a little bit harder American can weather the storm.

 

I am not trying to debate the events or even if things could have been handled differently because we all have our own opinion on them, and that is a good thing. If it wasn’t for those opinions we would not be sitting here in this nation as Americans counting down the hours till George Bush leaves Washington. As the time comes for him to leave office I wish that all Americans, not just the few that support him will wish him luck as he transitions back to a private life away from the cameras and briefings and stress. Why? Why should all Americans thank him for his service? To me it’s a simple answer, because 112 million Americans voted him as the President of the United States of America. Only 44 men have ever had the honor to be called President. As Americans we all have the right to disagree or even to dislike who ever serves from that office. Again, we have the right. Right, being the key word, the word that makes this nation great. How many men and women have died for us to have that right today? For those that have paid the ultimate price for this country we all should stand as one and thank President Bush for his time as the leader of our great nation. As the cheering fades as George Walker Bush heads back to Texas we must stand together to cheer for Barack Hussein Obama as he is sworn in as the most powerful man in the world. His decisions will shape the nation we are becoming and he will be the one to guide us forward as a nation. He will be the one that will help those that need help the most, he will be the one that will keep this nation strong and he will be the voice that we will follow. So, thank you George Bush for your service to a grateful nation and welcome President Obama, may God bless you.

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View of the Moon

Last night the Moon was at its closet point to Earth in its orbit around the planet. Here is a shoot that I took about 2am once all the clouds had cleared out of the Houston area. You can read more about why the moon appeared so big in the night sky here.

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I want this!!!

Chumby

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