Editorial About the Candidates

America was built upon a nation of fortuitous principle and a humble attitude of unconditional everlasting servant-hood.  In Middle America , there has been a slow turn away from the verisimilitude of action in a heartfelt morally right direction.    The simple act of voting will accomplish true change and I hope to preview for you the young candidates attempting to stake their claim in politics.

                Beginning at the most local level, Nicholas Ibarra is a candidate for Zone 1 City Council in Springfield .  He is an Iraq War veteran and father of two with a strong and supportive wife by his side.  Family is priority, children are pure inspiration and protection of citizens is Nick’s most highly valued platform position.  Nick is a man of his word harkened to the value of transparency in government, fiscal accountability and public safety.  Freedom is his destiny and taking care of First Responders his priority.  “We must strive to hand our community to the next generation as a place that is at least one step better than that which we were given.”  Strip away labels and false hope   to unveil Nick, a most humble and deserving servant of Northwest Springfield .

                Lincoln Hough, known to many as a hard-working and charismatic dairy farmer promises responsibility and accountability.  He is grounded by strong relationships and the heart of a true leader with fairness, freedom and careful observation.  He promises to eliminate wasteful county taxpayer spending, knowing the derivation of funds and the efforts that were wrought for them.  He knows there is no solution in compromise and states: “This proves my generation is willing and able to do the job and we have the tools necessary.”  He is running for Associate County Commissioner for Greene County against Roseanne Bentley and is geared to be wise and effective.

                Jeremy Cady is similarly ready to claim his inheritance and is wary of what lies ahead.  He has championed a mission to improve the present and enrich the future.  He is a Project Manager at General Pet and is proficient in time and money management, always ready to help another.  “We live in a Republic and our priority ought to be the protection of the individual, of Liberty and of the power to act willfully for independent living.  While our lives are deeply vested in the Heart of Conservative America, Jeremy notices that our incumbents do not uphold Conservative Principles.  He states, “I forsee that changing with his election to office of 138^th District State Representative.”

                A second candidate for 138^th District Representative is Michael Goodart.  His primary focus as candidate will be to appeal to Conservatives, regardless of the R or D behind their names.  He is an advocate of fiscal Conservation, efficient smaller government and preparation for life through education.  Raised on a farm, Michael has Conservation at heart and truly values hard work, family, friends, liberty and property.  The Founding Fathers are a great group of influential people to Michael and he holds that people should vote their conscience, not just party lines.    He stands for the people and for fewer entitlements, more hard work and careful thought.

                Eric Burlison is the candidate for 136^th senate seat Representative.  If his name sounds familiar, that is with good reason.  Eric’s Uncle, Doug Burlison, is a Springfield City Council member with maximum impact.  I have reason to believe Eric’s principles of governing are every bit as upstanding.  A Business Analyst at Cox Health, with a beautiful new baby and passionately supportive wife, Eric holds God, family and truth as central values.  He desires to reduce healthcare costs, improve patient satisfaction and maintain low taxes while spurring growth in Missouri .  He has often looked to Norma Champion for wisdom and strategy.  He is a humble individual and takes an active role in this community to ensure a great quality of life for all citizens.  That active leadership would translate to greatness at the State level, where Eric’s influence would have profound impact on accountability and statewide productivity.

                Derek White, running for Springfield City Mayor, is focused on creating tangible change in Springfield Municipal Government.  He desires to eliminate city debt and emphasize personal responsibility while saving  the citizens money by creating a position of a salaried Mayor and eliminating the office of City Manager.  A key factor in Derek’s campaign is to re-establish and develop Public Trust.  He is frustrated by the lack of active motivation and political scapegoats being burdened with failures.  Derek states his biggest challenge as being “The act of finding proper balance as a citizen, candidate and leader.”  As a fiscal Conservative, he lends himself to liberal ideals of equality and opportunity, in a position to find the balance between political ideas and social philosophy.

Of course, it is easy to think that I might be biased by the age of these young candidates, when truly, I find their platforms inspiring, their communication effective, their compasses directed upward, their consistency refreshing and their intellectual capacity astounding.  I can easily envision each gentleman seeking higher office, but for now, they are hardly of Presidential age.  The use of our Freedom and Liberty , as clutched by the candidates under 40 is held near and dear.  They are a group of dynamic leaders, ethical employees, businessmen, fathers, brothers, friends and servants to the community.  I can understand any apprehension about young people as leaders, with less experience.  These particular candidates are not only exemplary and capable, but eager to learn.  They have energy, resources and the wherewithal to stand behind truth and justice.  My generation has to carry the future and if we never have the opportunity, we will not be able to hone our leadership and improve the State of Our Nation .  Please consider this as you head to the polls, both Primary and General, but please research the candidates for yourself and decide with your head and heart.

www.nick4council.com

www.lincolnhough.com

www.ericburlison.com

www.jeremycady.com

www.michaelgoodart.com

www.derekwhite.us

About Kansas Treasures and Another Reason for Gratitude

A dialogue between my insurance agent and I today :

Hi Cherie, just thought I would shoot you and email to say hello and let you know that I recently drove through Goodland, KS this past week on our way out and back from Colorado.  If I remember correctly that is your hometown.  It seemed like a nice town while passing through. 

Hope all is going well.

 

So good to hear from you.  I’m glad you and your family got to take a trip to the greatest and most scenic state in the U.S!  I LOVE Colorado!  You’re close….Goodland is abotu 60 miles north of my stomping grounds (Tribune) but I have been missing it this summer.  I mean, it’s no problem to keep busy….did the Concreteman Triathlon this past weekend and I travel all over the U.S.A. of late….but I was aching in my heart and soul for the smell of Harvest, the baked wheat in the hot summer sun and the wind that seems incessant and persevering….but you got the better end of the deal…..Colorado!  I hope you had a FUN time.  There’s so much to do and see out there and I hear the River Rafting has been like none other this summer….class V in many places!  Goodland is a fairly cool place.  They have this great grease joint restaurant/sports bar and the highest point..Mt. Sunflower.  You’re also close out there to the Largest Ball of Twine (Oakley, Kansas) and Burlington, Colorado across the border has this majical little merry-go-round out of some Doctor Seuss book.  Great memories from childhood and oh so many days I wish I could be there again!  But, as it goes, life is great here.  I know your wife started teaching so let her know my thoughts and prayers are with her for a GREAT school year ahead and to you and your kids, as well!  By the way, Jean, your temp secretary is the absolute sweetest lady I have ever met!  She was so much like my Grandma, I wanted to sit there and talk with her all afternoon last week

 

I didn’t realize Oakley was the place that had ball of twine, I saw a sign for yarn and button store in Oakley but missed the one for the ball of yarn.  We did drive by Prarie Dog village at mile marker 70 witch has the largest prarie dog in the world.  I really wanted to stop but everyone wanted to keep pushing along.  I’m kind of a sucker for the touristy things along the highway.  We did stop in Abilene and ate at the Brookfield Inn and had their family style fried chicken dinner, and if you’ve never ate there you should, it was really good.  Yes, Jean is great.  We love having her here with us and will miss her once we get a full time secretary hired, but she’lll still fill in for us in the future.  Have a good rest of the summer and you can count on my donation toward the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Oh, yes, Oakley.  That is a smallish town chock full of history!  Acutally, about fifteen miles south of there, between Scott City and Oakley, there are also these old shale formations from eons ago (allegedly epr your beliefs) that are of limestone that has been weathered.  I have pictures somewhere….will have to bring them in to show off sometime, but it is like a Midwestern Stonehenge!  The prairie dogs, that takes me back.  Zach (my younger brother) and I used to make entire Sunday afternoons of war-gaming with prairie dogs at an abandoned farmstead up the road.  The whole experience was mildly amusing, to say the least.  We were disgusted to find out one day that they are actually domesticated, vaccinated for bubos and sold for over $300 on the fair market!  Argh!  Nothing wrong with being touristy and so long as you go through Kansas, at least there’s not much fear of meeting the restless natives.  I will say that highway 400 is a nice drive, across Kansas and most of Colorado…..highway 54 in MO becomes 400 in KS which becomes 50 in CO.  You can stop through Greensburg on that route, though the only thing left standing is the largest hand-dug well and pieces of a meteorite.  Oh, and Abiliene, the home of the Eisenhower Marathon (I do like Ike!) has THE BEST full-course meal.  You made a very wise choice.  I experienced it once, but that food is top-notch as far as down-home cooking goes.  I do appreciate your donation, sincerely, because my heart and soul are in making life better for other people…especially those who suffer.  It really makes you put life in perspective to see someone like that.  All through Med Tech school, I had no idea what that was really like.  But I’ve come in contact with people and their families, entirely racheted by chemo, children who should have had sixty years to live and change the world, moms and dads who never got the chance to take them to Disney World or Colorado for the weekend.  I hope to have kids some day, but til then can put all my eggs into the basket of investing that energy in another way for the same end result.  It’s powerful stuff.  I ran the St. Jude marathon last December in Memphis, wouldn’t think twice about it, but I’ll go back….at the end of the torture on foot…it was a hilly course….I broke down and cried because when we crossed the finish line, there was an army of bald, overmedicated little tykes so proud and clapping and smiling.  It shattered me into a million pieces and there was no pain, just absolute awe that they had such gratitude, but that they had such spirit and such a zest for life.  That is the really good stuff in life…..nothing like making a child THAT happy.  They even hugged us, all sweaty and stenchy!  It still gives me goosebumps.

 

Anyhow, I do appreciate your help and will be in touch!

 

Thank you!

The prior-ities

The prior post had little to do with the Olympics, but let me just say that, though I do enjoy the sports, there is a most ever-present political element to the games this go-round.  While Americans are on the brink of disaster in politics, and while Europe will soon begin its slow and steady crash in economics, and while Africa remains a nation of wasteland and untapped resources for fear of disease and war outcroppings….while the Middle East wages its millennia-old world wars and religious wars and territorial wars…..while Russia and China (Gog and Magog) stir contention with one another and plot furulous efforts to disembargo the Free Nations…while the UN, NATO, IAEA are all adept to change at the whims of OPEC and THE FEC…..

Here is something I thought interestingly about the speech Obama gave in Berlin last week.  (Now, I hear he’ll be in Springfield Wednesday and I will go because I want to se what everyone else claims to….actually, I rather want to be there to witness the fulfillment of prophecy….and act as one of the 144,000 if that is God’s will)….but I read these items yesterday and gave them careful consideration:

First on the ANTICHRIST:

1.  The secret power of “lawlessness” will intensify (2 Thes 2:7) and that essentially means that the evil powers at work will be unearthed, but no longer seem so evil in the eyes of citizenry…it will increase in violence until there is a demand for “change” and the souls of men grow cold while the faithful remain faithful….Eph6:11 is a good reference

2.  The rebelling of people is really a departure from of falling away of truth and righteousness.  This is when atheism becomes startlingly pronounced and the church will begin to act as a marketing organization rather than a place of truth and sacred serentity and salvation.

3.  Moral, doctrinal, spiritual and theological apoptosis (cellular biology term) will occur. FALSE LEADERS will offer salvation and CHEAP GRACE while forgetting to separate themselves from immorality and Godly standards.  (Matthew 24:5, 10-13,24; 1 Timonthy 4:1; 2Timothy 4:3-4)(2Peter 2:1-3, 12-19_ Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 23:25-28. 

4.  Because the church and history warn people both to be aware and to not let go of principle, this can be taken out of religious context and said that there will indeed be fierce opposition to God and the Will of God; people will seem empty, aimless, and full of wrath and malice.  The ultimate “triumph” is God’s when he has to finally intervene because the breadth of humanity has become too stricken for its own good. 

5.  A particular event will occur after a series of events, though none are really too certain when or where these things will be ascertained.  But….it is written in 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3 that there will have to be someone “taken out of the way” of soemthing which restrains or boxes up lawlessness and this is one who holds back from the people, but who is also being held back.  Once then the lawlessness is really present, God will send a deluding influence to those who refuse love and truth and society will finally degenerate like never before (THIS is coming, just not quite yet….wait til November!!!)

The Antichrist will be a ruler who will make a COVENANT WITH ISRAEL

http://www.sodahead.com/blog/3706/,  http://www.jewishjournal.com/thegodblog/item/iran_israel_and_an_anxious_greeting_for_obama_20080721/

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/06/bolton-obama-wi.html

He will also declare himself to be God.  He will demonstrate great signs, winders and miracles and propagate “counterfiet miracles” that decieve people ultimately..

Good news if you’re on the right side, though…..Christ will return at the end of the reign of the Tribulation (Daniel 11:$5, Revelation 16:16) and destroy the Antichrist.  So then comes the Kingdom on Earth……very interesting, make sure you know where you stand! 

I think there is a lot of speculation on either side of the “fence” about Obama.  Quite frankly, I will have to abstain from further evaluating the situation, but remain a speculator and a skeptic.  I think there is a great possibility that Obama could be the Antichrist, they way he has suddenly emerged, the way he is young and charismatic with little known about him other than the fact that he is in favor of chage and trying to re-craft the speeches given after Gorbachev and the Cold War…

He is a disgrace to America.  He is a leftist-marxist and a purulent error to any American idealism, but this is also the change we deal with as a result of the destruction and moral decline of America.  If I had some twenty-something dancing for me, with a wife and kids already, I’d be humiliated and embarassed…He embraces it.  I guess there’s no room for dignity in politics.   He also subscribes to a sub-prime and sub-optimal faith and devotion to God and Country…the likes of which I’ve never seen before.  I will keep my comments at that, but I do not think Obama will lead to the destruction of America and its Constitution (NOT a living document!) …. I think the peoples’ lack of concern, lack of awareness, lack of sensibility and forthright stock in anything anyone promises [us] without strings will be the ultimate fault of none but our own…….

The Olympics

Beijing seems to have problems of its own, but how much of it is a surprise?  When you listen to the news today, and over the course of the next several days, you will likely hear tale after tale of the extremely hazardous air quality in urban China.  IT should be no spurprise, with such spurulous growth and economic fervor over there.  I often wonder how much of the events like these are punishment, rather UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, of human action.  I mean, if you want a gross analysis of the situtation, I’d venture to say that we’ve brought it upon ourselves.  Now, I’m not going to get all green, but there is a carrying capacity, a threshold, a breakpoint at which we can no longer support such massive burgeoning of population and mad rampage of the resources we are supposed to be GOOD STEWARDS of. 

I think it’s a little unfair that we, that our atheltes, will have to suffer the UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, but we are all to blame.  We, as Americans, are to blame because we no longer support domestic purchasing and economic growth.  We are guilty of letting this go on as it does.  We buy and import goods, services, commodities from them, so we, too, demand their higher production.  They are a workaholic people, but it is because they have overtaken our fiscal and economic growth.  Watch, because Mexico is next.  It’s already on the rise, but if the elections go the way I forsee them going, we WILL STAND A CHANCE OF BEING Mexico….scary thought!

If that occurs, and I’m not trying to dramatize, we will see the end of much of what we enjoy here today.  The end of civil goings-on, the end of stable financial markets (despite their recent plunder!), the decline of morals further than what we already know.  The increase in crime by the massive infiltration of a corrupt society that has plundered the gifts they were given, only to save face and seek a “reclamation” of “their land”. 

Hmmm, I could be wrong…just food for thought.

And on the next post…..

Definition

 emphatic

 

 

1. Expressed or performed with emphasis: forceful, resounding.
2. Bold and definite in character: assertive, forceful, insistent.

Just What It Seems, A Perspective

I think often about what happens in life and why.  I might have some incredible opportunities in th every near future, but lately, so have all my friends!  Today was very relaxing, and I have done something very uncharacteristic-taken a nap!  I feel like my head is back on a level….the Concreteman Triathlon sort of knocked it off-kilter  

It was a GREAT race and the best part of all was to see my many friends….makes one realize how amazing life is when at every turn, every time you pass a person, you know who they are.  I love life here….what if it has to pick up and move?  Well, I guess then, the sense of adventure ensues….I love adventure, am keeping an open mind and looking forward to what is ahead, my eyes and heart fixed on God.  Today, the rest of it, what’s left, is going to be a meditative time…I need to focus my heart on God, find my center again and write SO much in the next week about things that are critical for you to know—only the best.  My life is rich, I am loving fully, and living a dream.  Sometimes, it almost seems surreal. 

Anyhow, I will be keeping all informed, but there are some amazing things moving under my feet!

Reason to believe

It’s 5:21 a.m. and I woke not long ago to the news.  Bleh!  Nothing but bad, and it had me concerned about waking up alone in the dark.  Had me thinking that a bigger apartment or house and roommate might be nice, but then I’d wonder….can you trust anyone?  The story about the instant death of a man at gunpoint of an officer on Elm street…in Springfield!  I’m SO grateful that at least our Law enforcement have the right to Defend and Protect!  I am also aware that I cannot live in a country where Obama presides as Chief Executive Officer…..because then we might have NO guns and I’m not comfortable with THAT reality!  I suppose then I was spurred on to do my homework and though I sit here, needing to get to the gym, I’m oddly red-hot..like a firecracker.  About several things. Dolly and oil prices.  I’ll be damned if they will hike the cost of my gasoline…I will write lengthy letters in opposition and to every leftist Senator, Congressman and House Representative that is against domestic drilling.  To tell them what IDIOTS they are!  And I will probably lose a significant amount of sleep doing so.  But I am a taxpayer, a citizen, a voting body and I will NOT let this crap keep happening!  I am tired of feeling robbed blind!  When does the madness stop?

I suppose other things that bother me are the debate last night between Kenny Hulshof and Sarah Steelman.  Though I am about the least bit a fan of Sarah’s speaking lack of skills, I am concerned about some of Kenny’s policies and ideals.  I am also aware that the MRA backed Kenny early in the primaries….rare.  But I need to research that, ask questions…yeah, in my spare time  (ha!)

So, then, what on earth is so wrong with honesty, truth, integrity, prudence, temperance, accountability, chartering real legislation, holding true to REAL moral values?!?!

I also wanted to address the fact that I may be young, may be stupid sometimes, but I am AWARE what is going on in this world!  I care, but what can I do?  I have to work and so I cannot be as much an activist….liberals, they are the ones living off the broken systems that are a result of their own fabulously crafted lies of principle and misled economic understanding….that have time to sit and protest for hours.  All I can do is write a letter or two at midnight because I am only a voice.  I’d love to be IN the menuche, but I don’t want anyone telling me how to think.  And that is what’s wrong with American politics!  They tell you what to think, how to believe, what to do, who to know and where to go….as an insider. 

It also bothers me that Obama is taking foreign policy into his hands so early, that Condoleeza Rice has posted reservations about some Conservative Principles which I so highly respected her for standing up for.   It bothers me that my family farms for a LIVING and may at some point have to forego what they LOVE because it is no longer an affordable occupation…..occurring only at the same rate that the American Society declines morally and economically.

Globalism bothers me, abortion really bothers me, Gay Rights disgust me.  Gas taxes infuriate me.  Lies make me sick to my stomach, quite literally.  Taxes turn my mind upside-down.  Lack of accountability astounds me.  Apathy by my generation makes me want to shake the stupid out of what should be the salt-shakers.  Financial forecasts make me suddenly realize that all I can do is voice my opinion, but what can I do!?  I’m a small voice. But I care tremendously.  No more NEFARIOUS LEFT-ICATORS (a term dubbed yesterday).  Where do we go from here?  Ever read the story of Soddom and Gomorrah?  (SP???)

I guess that’s where I have to leave off.  It’s 5:40 and I REALLY need to hit the road, and think about positive things like the CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR OFFICE that I have been impressed by—-all under 40, most under 35, with every ounce of stature and fortitude to take care of SOME of the things I mentioned.  Pay attention to who gets elected and where your vote ends up……this is a year in which EVERY VOTE COUNTS!

Saving Face

What I hope to learn about more……with SO much going on, wanting to be a part of it ALL!  I need to continue to catch up reading, but some interesting developments have occurred in my life and I will divulge them to you..slowly!!!

Thoughts from Tuesday night

I love when thoughts flow so freely.  It makes me want to sing, dance and laugh simultaneously with verisimilitude. ….word of the day.  It makes objectivism a little clearer, the sunrise a little sharper.  Tastes and smells so much more brilliant and vivid.  As I’m sitting here, Kevin plays his guitar and it is a compilation of sound that teases my ears and makes me want to applaud loudly.  Hard to contain this sometimes. 

Okay, I suppose this all started with the rain this afternoon.  I can tell when the weather is going to change…you know, how cattle and birds are relayers of barometric variance.  Well, in my body and mind it is much the same.  I get incredibly restless.  Last night, I did not sleep, just laid awake waiting for daylight.  Wishing I were in another place and time, reveling, but at the same time relishing that I was at this place and time…..right where I need to be.

When I woke, it was 4:42….a slight bit later than I had planned, but 4:31 seemed a little too early.  Never mind the hour I finally got to bed the night/day before.  But someone was a little disturbed at that thought today.  My only excuse was the weather, the time and season.  I do believe that there is a time and a season for everything.  And I believe that my youth is, at least for now, a reflection of that.  I believe in so much, stand for so many things and am trying to make it every day without stumbling.  This is what I thought about in the rain…this and how to find success and hopes and dreams and make them all realizable.  I want to tell the whole world exactly what is in my heart because it is so rich, so full, so teeming with life.  I can’t help it.  But it does make rationality difficult at times. 

So, getting through work after a nice fast run, bleacher workout and bike ride this morning was fast….the time really did fly, and I munched on snacks over the course of maybe four hours.  I thought about going to Denver with Kevin, river rafting and the fact that I can appreciate his willingness to succumb to my insanity and that he has a sense of humor, sense of adventure and solid sense of self.  I also thought about home…..thought about how much I ached to give my family some gigantic hugs from the depths of my soul.

It’s a good thing to be here because I’m having to be an adult when it is much easier to be a child…when all I want is sometimes to be caudled, held, loved and lavished….but finding that it does not always work in that favor.  I’m learning to find satisfaction and that same gratification in nature and in service to others  in every way possible by virtue of my time and energy and youth…..what a gift that I know it is, but have no idea how to fully embody and cherish!

As the rains began to come falling down, the clouds hustled in and the sky grew increasingly somber, yet carried a wave of untamed fury and revered themselves in pompous virility.  They moved swiftly and carried an air of cold likeness, wanting little more than to relieve the hot bedrock and topsoil.  I waited to be pounded with a few drops and moved to a slight bit of shelter so as to smell it.  I could smell the rain coming last night—-in all restlessness.  It was divine.  I wish that I could have slept during the storm, but it also stirs my soul.  And I become a bit of a poet for a moment, a mouse in God’s closet while He brings the blessing.

I think rain is symbolic of so many things but that it, too, reminds us of the need to be refreshed.  I thought at that moment how I could use a refresher….a clean slate for the day, but I do not like to relive or regret or hold out on anything…and so I just let the rain fall and continue the thoughts I may never squeeze out of this head for the sake of telling you that I love Missouri rain!

 

Links to racing

Before I get to writing about politics (erk!) I want to disclose a few websites of personal interest:

www.omrr.org (check out this week’s pic ‘o’ the week!)

www.seeKCrun.com

www.psychowyco.com

www.trisports.com

www.redmantriathlon.com

www.xterra.com

Come out this Saturday for a good show….I won’t let you down!  It’s the annual Concreteman Triathlon.  This year, I finally feel confident enough to tackle the long course (1000 m swim, 23.5 mile bike, 5 mi run) and I am HUNGRY for a taste of victory.  In spite of a malefficient bike….I’m HUNGRY!  I can’t stand being second and third place ANY LONGER!  So, kudos to Brent for bearing with my ride course tonight…..he’s got heart and is going to be a great first round rookie.  I am hoping for more than a finish, but to get in the ZONE the next two days, build tolerance, pain threshold, eat well, sleep more, stress less and get fired up.  Like I said, a good show..feel free to watch   7:00 a.m. Fellows Lake north of Springfield.  Photos, food, good, no…GREAT, people, and plenty of teeth, sweat, grit and heart & soul.  You will not be disappointed!