I’m Dreaming of a Polite Christmas

Last week marked the official beginning of the Holiday Season, starting of course with Thanksgiving. If you’re one of those Americans who feel they need to burn those Thanksgiving calories, perhaps your method is getting up early and hitting the stores on Black Friday. Take for example the eager shoppers who stood outside a Wal-Mart in Long Island in the early morning hours. They were so excited to run into the store they didn’t seem to care about the Wal-Mart employee they were running over. I hope the Tickle Me Elmo, iPod, etc. was worth it…wait no I don’t, they killed the employee.

Reports say that dozens of store employees fought their way out to help the man, being trampled by the crowd in the process. Witnesses say that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers entering the store simply stepped over him. The AP spoke to Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede. Cribbs said shoppers were acting like "savages."

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."

Thanksgiving, the day were we’re supposed to talk about the things we’re, get this, most “thankful” for, you know family, friends, a home, food, things like that. Christmas gifts, 50% off sales, we shouldn’t put them above what’s more important, especially when it comes to a human life. A man is dead because a crowd of people just had to get those discounts. It’s amazing how in a crowd of 2,000 people, there was a group who just couldn’t realize what they were doing.

You know the media is right when they say how this will be one of the worst Holiday shopping seasons, look what happened.

You know, I’m dreaming of a polite Christmas.

Don't Vote for Your American Idol

So here we find ourselves on Election Eve of 2008. Hopefully, when casting your vote you voted, or will vote, because you care about the issues. Voting can’t be about political parties, race, or personality. And you shouldn’t vote based on talking points. You’ve had plenty of time to research, to watch the candidates and find out who they are and what they really stand for, and hopefully, the kept to their beliefs.

I’ve blogged about flip-flopping before, and like I said then, flip-flopping is only a problem when it becomes a change for the worse. If a candidate supports something they didn’t support long ago, don’t vote based on the past. And speaking of the past, if the past years have been so terrible do you really know why?

When it comes to change, change can come from either side. If the past 8 years have been bad, than it is possible to learn from our mistakes and fix them. Every political candidate is an agent of change, and agents like that have been around for a long time.

So come Wednesday, I hope America will have chosen the best person for the job, and not because they're considered a maverick or the face of hope- and this is assuming the election doesn’t go 2000 on us. So do what’s right for the country, and don’t vote for your American Idol.

Trust, But Verify - a.k.a The Presidents' Conversation

Imagine if you will a small room, a sort of meeting hall. There are windows running down the length of both sides of the room, in the center of the room a rectangular conference table. There are eleven chairs, five on each side, with one at the head of the table. The doors open behind the head chair and in walk eleven men, figures of American history. Each take their assigned seats, and quietly converse. The men are eleven of America’s presidents.

Private conversations go on for some time until Thomas Jefferson begins to speak. Folding his issue of today’s newspaper he says, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” Nodding his head, Gerald Ford states, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.” “The people are the government, administering it by their agents; they are the government, the sovereign power,” says Andrew Jackson. “Man is not free unless government is limited,” adds Ronald Reagan. From the end of the right side of the table, Abraham Lincoln speaks. “The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them,” he then adds, “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.” Turning from Lincoln, Andrew Jackson faces the rest of the presidents and says, “Fear not, the people may be deluded for a moment, but cannot be corrupted.”

The topic shifts to the state of the government and the economy. “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little,” states Franklin Roosevelt. Lincoln turns to FDR and says, “You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” “A wise and frugal government, shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government,” says Thomas Jefferson. “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery,” adds Calvin Coolidge. “Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States,” says Ronald Reagan. Andrew Jackson faces his successors and predecessor, “The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer... form the great body of the people of the United States, they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.” “The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life,” states Teddy Roosevelt. With a small smile coming across his face Ronald Reagan says, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.” A few more smiles appear amongst the presidents as Reagan adds, “Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

Some more time passes, the issues are discussed, and final statements just two days before the 2008 election are stated. Not resisting Teddy states, “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.” Gerald Ford smiles as he closes saying, “Even though this is late in an election year, there is no way we can go forward except together and no way anybody can win except by serving the people's urgent needs. We cannot stand still or slip backwards. We must go forward now together.” From the head of the table the current President states, “Our nation must come together to unite.” Kennedy raises his hand, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future,” he then adds, “…ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Shaking his head Lincoln says, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” “No man will ever carry out of the Presidency with the reputation which carried him into it,” says Jefferson. Ronald Reagan turns to Jefferson, “Trust, but verify.”