Quiet hero

Tallahassee (Florida) Police Department (TPD) Sergeant Mark Peavy recently donated  three German shepherds to the TPD. He bought and personally trained the K-9s. A newspaper article said the dogs cost about $10,000 each.

What a great Christmas gift from Sgt. Peavy to his coworkers and to his community! Police dogs contribute great things to law enforcement work, and in our post-Sept. 11, 2001, era with heightened security concerns, their work is even more critical.

Thank you Sgt. Peavy for your gift and for caring for your city.

Her kitchen resembled mine

I saw a news story yesterday – Thanksgiving Day – about a woman in Colorado. She was preparing Thanksgiving dinner for 30 or so strangers. People who responded to her www.craigslist.com ad. She said she didn’t even really know how to cook but wanted to help others because she and her family had recently made it through some rough times.

It was her modest kitchen and her noble intent that made me cry. Her kitchen was small, really no bigger than mine. Cooking for 10 in my kitchen would be a challenge. Three times that seems impossible!

And I’m not a bad cook, but I’d be a nervous wreck cooking for a crowd that size. Not her. She was calm, humble and seemed to be looking forward to it.

In the same weekend when yet another band of terrorists are killing innocents in India, it was so nice to hear about this good woman. An ordinary woman, with a kind heart, doing good for a few folks. We need more of her. God bless you.

Refreshing change of heart

Gannett Co. Inc., media mogul, announced this week that its CEO is taking a pay cut. All the staffers’ pay will be frozen, and Craig Dubow’s cut amounts to only $200,000 of his total annual compensation of $7.5 million with bonus and stock awards.  But still…I find it refreshing and inspiring.

Imagine if all corporations did that now, in even larger amounts. (Dubow’s cut was 17 percent.)  What if all senior level leaders took just a 5 percent pay cut? Wouldn’t that help their operating budgets considerably, and ideally spare the rest of the staff from harm?

I would even go so far as to say that most of us – at any level – would take a pay cut over a job loss in today’s economy. We can all tighten the old belts a bit more, but if your job and income disappear, desperation sets in. Especially now.

I hope more leaders will follow Mr. Dubow’s lead.

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/11/03/daily38.html?b=1225688400^1727480&ana=e_abd

It’s over

From www.foxnews.com:

“I was born in the civil rights time. To see this happening is unbelievable. We’ve got the first black president. A black president!” said Mike Louis, a 53-year-old black man who got teary-eyed as he watched the election results on a giant video board in Cincinnati’s Fountain Square. “It’s not cured now, but this is a step to curing this country of racism. This is a big, giant step toward getting this country together.” [emphasis added]

Mr. Louis, your optimism seems to point the wrong direction, I believe. I think the election results show that whites are not as racist as blacks want everyone to believe. Americans – black and white – banded together to elect Obama president.

So in another historic moment in America, blacks now need to let go of the perception of racism. This country is not about white against black, and really hasn’t been for quite some time. If you truly believe this is a step in curing racism, please believe that the responsibility now rests largely with blacks. Whites let it go some time ago.

Sen. Obama I have two words for you…

Stop talking!

I am sooooo tired of hearing and seeing you every other minute on T.V. I know you’ve spent millions trying to win this campaign, ergo the continual advertising.

If it works for you, I will be devastated. Not only because you win, but because you will have bought the presidency. Here in the land of democracy that should not happen–and should not be allowed to happen.

But please, with less than 48 hours to go to election day 2008, stop talking!

Before you vote, watch this

Invest less than two minutes and watch this video, please. Before you vote!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8

Share this with as many people as you can because it tells us – on a very personal level – why we need to vote for John McCain for U.S. President.

If you like the freedom to vote how you want, say what you want, live where you want, buy what you want, worship as you want, we need to keep Barack Obama out of the White House. There are way too many unknowns with him and when the brave men and women who fight to preserve our freedoms don’t support him, the rest of us need to pay attention to their lead.

He may be a good president sometime down the line. But not now, not today. We don’t know enough about him and his affiliations. There are too many connections to terrorists to give me any peace of mind that he will protect our homeland security.

And while the economy matters, that matter very little if our country is not safe from terrorism. Remember 9-11, and watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8

Forget the clothes

Am I the only one tired of hearing Democrats whine about the money spent on clothes for Gov. Palin? Really…compared to what Sen. Obama is spending on advertising, that $150K (or less) is a drop in the bucket!

Let’s not even talk about the fact that he changed his mind about accepting all that money in the first place. Nothing like trying to buy your way into the White House.

BTW, Michelle, most of us average Americans can’t really afford to shop at JCrew either. I’m happy when I find something on the clearance rack at Target. So please don’t pretend that you are living just like the rest of us common folk. It ain’t so!

Don’t elect a terrorist – please!

How many more stories do we need about Sen. Obama’s connections to questionable people throughout his career before we recognize his judgment is weak…perhaps even self-serving?

Now we hear that the LA Times is intentionally suppressing a video of Obama at a 2003 banquet where he spoke of his friendship with Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian scholar and activist. Maybe the rumors about what’s on the tape are false; if so, then why not put it out for the public? Remember LA Times, you’re the media, self-proclaimed “watchdog of America.” You should be an open book to the public.

Let us see it, before election day, so we can all make informed decisions. Obama may be a great guy, maybe he’s changed his ways, but in my opinion he has certainly shown bad judgment over the years that say to me he is nowhere near ready to lead this great country.

And when I think about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, I know without question that I do not want a president in office who has even a hint of friendship with terrorist-types. And I am pretty sure most Americans, all of us “Joes,” do not want to experience another attack where thousands die. No single person can stop that, but someone with direct links to people who have done heinous things, should not gain the power the office of U.S. President holds.

Please Americans – do your research before you vote. Make informed decisions. Do not cast a vote simply based on color or age. We may need change, but we need wise, thoughtful change. Change simply for change sake may not be in our best interests.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month poem

The color of strength

 

We color you pink to deplete

            the power you only think you have

Suicide bomber,

health terrorist hits

our mothers’ lives, our sisters’ lives, our BFFs’ lives

 

We color you pink to prove you are

spineless and weak

Pink is love, it is hope

it is all that we are

life-carrying, life-nurturing, caretaking us!

 

We color you pink for who we are

            young breasts and old

Pink is breasts cancer-free

it is those who we know

Sheryl and Laurie who whooped your sorry hide, Tani still in the fight, and Donna K. who let you win your ten-year siege

 

We color you pink because we can

take control

Pink penetrates your evil gray

with brighter hope for the day

when you perish, breast cancer.

 

 

© 2008 L.W. McDonald

Poor Joe

I wish mainstream media understood that its total lack of regard for privacy is invasive and quite frankly, unpleasant. Unfortunately presidential candidates sometimes fuel the fire.

Case in point: “Joe the plumber.” This poor Ohioan wanted a straight answer from Barack Obama…which I don’t believe he ever got.

Instead McCain and Obama dropped the imposed nickname for Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher from Toledo countless times during the last 2008 presidential election debate, followed by reporters and cameras camped out on his lawn. Don’t know about the rest of you but that sort of makes me never want to ask a candidate a question.

In a democracy (which seems to be quickly melding into something else), shouldn’t the voters be able to pose questions to candidates? If not, then there is no need for them to spend millions of dollars on the campaign trail. But more importantly, how about the media stay out of our faces – the face of “Joe Public” – when we try to get straight answers.