Proud to be an American. The price is worth it.

Tomorrow, January 20, is a day that makes me truly proud to be an American. No, this is not another gushing review of President-elect Barack Obama. No, this is not another notification to the world that we will swear in the first African-American President. No, the day marks one of the things that makes this country truly great. The peaceful transition of power from one elected official to the next - I could not be more proud of this legacy that our country leaves to the world.

If you have read any of my posts on the election you can see that I am no fan of our future President. I disagree with virtually everything he campaigned for on the basis of ideology alone - I make no judgement on the man himself as I do not know him. That being said - beginning tomorrow he will be my President and I will stand behind him, if called to do so. Elections have consequences but as a citizen of this country, I have a responsibility to support and defend her and that starts with support for our president. I have not been a big fan of the political leaders in our country over the past several years but as a citizen - I do support them. I also support the citizens of this country by voicing my opinion (even though I do not do it as often as I should).

President Bush will not go down as my favorite President but he will be remembered, by me, as a man of character and as a selfless man that did for the world what he believed he was called to do. Any person that stands on principle, regardless the cost, is a man worth remembering and modeling (atleast a small amount) in your own life.

I used to speak to high school kids about succeeding in life and one portion of the talk was about 'who is the most successful person you can think of'. The idea of the talk is to define success in your terms and not be trapped in to the traditional view of success. As the kids would throw out all the big names that you expect (Gates, James, Jordan, Manning, Woods) they would eventually start calling out parents, brothers, clergy .... The point of having them call out names was to prove that there is no one definition of success. President George W. Bush is one of those people that I would bring to their attention today. He is a man that, on principle, took on the world. Ridiculed at home. Despised around the world. He stood on principle that those with the ability to affect change, have the responsibility to do so. THANK YOU Mr. President for your service.

To our soon-to-be President. I wish you well and I offer you my support. I will stand and defend you and our country. I will support you both by defending and disagreeing with you. I only hope that others will do the same.

Who are you?

I feel compelled to share a bit more about how I came to be the person I am and characterize this blog by what is really behind it. Some who are reading this may think I am a strong McCain supporter. You could not be more wrong. John McCain was not my choice - no, he is far from the representative that I was interested in electing to the office of President. That being said, he is the strongest candidate for that office at least on the areas that I care deeply (national security, the sanctity of life, individual rights, responsibility) about. Again, I said he is the best still standing.

The media in this country took away my chance to vote in the primary for the candidate that I thought would be best for this country. How? Why? They did it by backing John McCain and Barack Obama and by the time it was my turn to vote .... well, the choices had been dwindled down. Yes, the media did it. So why would the media back John McCain and Barack Obama? And what happened to that support (at least for McCain)? Quite simply put - John McCain was the closest thing to a Democrat that the Republican party had to offer and they saw this as the closest to an acceptable outcome as possible. Once the rest of the candidates were run off - the press' true colors came through and they showed that even an 'isle crosser' from the Republican party would not be acceptable. Why Obama? Because he is the most liberal candidate to ever step forward ... in the history of this great country. The press loves this and is the sole reason they continue to block and tackle for the candidate as he inches closer to the most powerful and most prestigious job in the entire world.

Why does any of this matter? If you have children you already understand this. Take the position of parent as you watch your child or children grow. When they are small you encourage them to take steps, you follow behind to pick them up when they fall. When they are taking steps on their own, completing sentences without your assistance and beginning to find and make friends your job as parent takes on another role. Now, you are looking out for who/what will interact with your child and you do things help to shape who your child is. I am specifically referring to monitoring and at times controlling who your child interacts with. We all know the 'Do not talk to strangers' part of this, but what is even more important is the investigating that we all do to know who our children are associating with. Who do they play with on the playground? Who do they eat lunch with at school? What are their parents like? What circle does my child run with?
This continues throughout the life of your child. Why? It is the associations that we have in life that make us the people we are. We all have found good and bad in people and we make judgement calls as to whether or not to continue the relationship. As a child we can't understand why we are or are not allowed to play with certain kids. As adults we understand that we are 'the company that we keep'. Character matters and part of that character is understanding who we should and should not associate with.

Back to politics .... or did we never leave. Barack Obama's associations are not ones that I wish for my children to have. To that end, they are not associations that I wish for my country to have. To many - comments such as these would be considered negative but the inverse could not be more true. It is simple honesty and innocent report of facts that should measure the tenor of the commentary.We need to grow up and be the parents. We need to stand up when we see something that is wrong in our society. We need to find ways to fix what is broken. We need to participate to insure we have the opportunity.

God Bless the United States of America!