Lions and Eagles

 It's over! We can all rejoice! Political ad season is finally over! If there's one thing voters on the left and right can agree on, it's this: We can't wait to be rid of the ads. Truth be told, we were ready to be done back in November. But because a senator decided to retire mid-term instead of at the end of his last term, and because a podcasting veteran who solicited and spent no campaign money at all managed to take 2.3% of the vote in a three-way race against two incredibly well-funded large party opponents, we’ve been swamped with ads in our mailboxes, on YouTube, robocalls, loaded surveys, even “get out the vote” Christmas Cards. On top of that, trust in both the voting machines and absentee voting is understandably low. Sure, we might be able to work out reforms and improvements in time for next November, but has anything gotten better this time around? Are we in for a miniature repeat of the recounts and challenges that we’ve seen with the Presidential electio

We have yet another election coming up in our area this coming Feb. 9th, this time for Griffin Circuit District Attorney. Again, to try and be a more informed voter, I sent an e-mail to each of the candidates with some questions. Here's the reply from Dexter Wimbish, the challenger:

We have yet another election coming up in our area this coming Feb. 9th, this time for Griffin Circuit District Attorney. Again, to try and be a more informed voter, I sent an e-mail to each of the candidates with some questions. Here's the reply from Marie Broder, currently appointed to the position since the previous elected DA was appointed to a judicial seat:

"I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." ~ Gandalf (J. R. R. Tolkein ~ The Hobbit There's an old anecdote about a Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. I think it's safe to say many feel that these times are more "interesting" than we might like. Pandemic, economic uncertainty, racial issues, and all of this in an election year no less! What can we do? I would like to suggest kindness. Intentional, radical kindness. Let's be good to each other. Let's take masking, for example. These pieces of cloth have become very contentious. I have friends on either side, and I have advice for both. Masking friends, you will not persuade others to put masks on with humiliation or intentional shaming. You don't make friends with "you just want people to die". But a friend, if you stay kind, just might put on a mask for you, even if they don't wan

In the spirit of the day, I thought I'd share a few book and movie recommendations. I found these to be very good to read back when my wife and I first started dating. The first one we found by accident in a bookstore, the second two she recommended, and I loved them. I hope you enjoy them.

Dear Friends, I very much enjoyed the Beer Summit on Racial Understanding last week, and I was honored to be able to attend and meet so many wonderful people. I am sorry to say that I will not be able to make tonight’s Second Summit, though my thoughts and prayers will be with you all. I have had a question on my mind to ask. It is a difficult question, and I hope you will give me your thoughts. This comes from a place of having people around me on different sides, in different camps, who regard each other as enemies, even though I believe they could be friends. You see, it looks to me like that there may be actually two things that people may refer to when they say Black Lives Matter. There is a movement, and there is a particular organization that acts in the name of that movement. I am 100% on board with the movement. With the organization, that group that owns BlackLivesMatter.com, I have much agreement, but I don’t want different ideas that we may have to hurt the places where we