My song has no melody, so I hope you like the words

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Make this week matter!

We will be exercising our greatest duty as American citizens one week from today. If you are not yet certain what the issues are, or which candidates you will choose to represent you, please take time this week to study your options. The following list of links is just a sampling of the wealth of information available to you.

I heard President Obama state at a campaign rally yesterday, “We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."

I don’t know about you, but I have no intention of sitting in the back of the bus. Voter turnout in this election will determine whether conservatives are further marginalized, or whether we can begin to restore our nation to its place as a shining lamp of Liberty.

Please prepare yourself, and exhort your friends, co-workers, neighbors and anyone else in your sphere of influence to vote between now and Tuesday, 11/2/10. It is easy to vote absentee in Delaware this week by just walking into the Department of Election if your schedule next Tuesday prohibits you from getting to the polls.

Walk, run, skip, or crawl to the polls; just VOTE!

Delaware Family Policy Council 2010 voter guide for statewide offices as well as State Senate and State House
http://www.delawarefamilies.org/index.cfm

Christian Coalition national scorecard of votes by current Senate and House members:
http://cc.org/files/13/2010Scorecard8_5x11.pdf

Positive Growth Alliance, a Delaware voter guide based strictly on economic issues
https://pgalliance.org/uploads/VOTER_GUIDE_2010.pdf

Christian Coalition voter guides by state, they have guides for 43 individual states, but not Delaware.
http://www.cc.org/voter_guide_download_center?sid=80834

This ResistNet site for Delaware has links to all kinds of state information sources like press outlets and blogs, as well as links to most campaign sites.
http://www.resistnet.com/notes/Delaware_Guide_to_2010_Elections_and_Campaigns

League of Women’s Voters has a very informative site on voting in general. Much of it is geared to 19-30 year old women, though not technically a voter scorecard
http://www.vote411.org/home.php

Liberty Counsel looks like an interesting resource for those in pastoral leadership. From the site, “To help you fulfill your high calling to fearlessly speak the truth, Liberty Counsel provides free information about what pastors and churches may do with respect to political candidates and lobbying.”
http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=16245

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A Request To My Readers

Apparently there is a glitch [how's that for tech-speak?] in posting comments to my blog. Even my dear hubby is only able to post them about half the time.

I think the problem is fixed, but I can't tell by myself. So, if you have a moment, please try to leave a comment here to this post. Thanks!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

O'Donnell - Coons debate at UD

I've posted a couple of links at Facebook about the debate, or you can watch it yourself at http://www.ums.udel.edu/podcast/watch?c=338

My quick take, since my son is home from college for a short visit and I want to spend my energy visiting with him:

Wolf Blitzer was so obviously biased in Coons' favor as the moderator that he should be embarrassed. Chris Coons came across as petulant, irritable and defensive - never a good thing for the presumed leader in the race. O'Donnell was upbeat, solid on her facts and positions. IMNSHO, she won the debate hands down.

A lot of noise is being made about her flubbing on a question about recent Supreme Court decisions, but only a part of that is being explained. The question came out of left field from Blitzer, during the part of the debate set aside for UD student questions. And, he considered the 1972 Roe v Wade decision to be 'recent'. She thought he meant within the past few years, especially since it was a setup for Coons to once again recite the Democratic line about the Citizens United case.

Coons quoted President Obama on that case, which I have always found disingenuous. Obama complains that money can be funneled to candidates anonymously, and says that is terrible Apparently he has forgotten the MILLIONS of dollars of campaign donations he received from donors named 'Mickey Mouse' and other Disney character names.

O'Donnell said that donors to her campaign are being harassed due to the requirement for disclosure. Her supporters are getting threatening phone calls, and Blitzer just shut her down when she was saying it was due to the current law.

O'Donnell is far enough down in the polls right now that she had nothing to lose. Coons lost ground, and looked like the political hack he is. He kept saying he had much to say, but he never said it. One of his last lines was in reference to an old article he wrote calling himself a "bearded Marxist". He said, "I am a clean-shaven Capitalist". Anytime the presumed leader has to end with that kind of defensive comment, he is losing ground.

Less than 3 weeks until election day - but I think the campaign direction is clearly in O'Donnell's favor. The question is, will 19 days be enough time to turn this around? If you can help in any way, please do! Prayers, literature drops, donations, phone calls; it all adds up, and there is something each of us can do.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Abandonment

My devotional calendar had this to say for today:
“One of the greatest fears we have is abandonment. When those feelings of abandonment come, rest on the promise’s of God’s Word.”

October is a tough month for me, because it reminds me of those very issues of abandonment and loss in my own life. I was grateful for this reminder that I am never really alone. A dear friend has been struggling with this recently as well, feeling like he is all alone. I have been trying to reassure him that he isn’t, because I know that will give him the courage he needs to act, but that assurance is not something I can force him to accept. It is up to him, and each one of us, to trust that God’s promises are true.

All I know is that when I was in the most distress, my loving Father stood with me, and gave me hope and courage to walk by faith. One of the verses I cling to when it feels like the world is against me comes from Isaiah 49, a chapter of prophecy about the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. This verse speaks deeply to my heart because my mother in fact abandoned me on many levels. The Lord knew all of that before it happened, and this truth from His word was there for me all along:

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.” Is 49:15-16

Dear Lord, please help my friend to accept your truth. Thank you for your mercy, for not abandoning us in our distress!

“When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.” Deut 4:30-31

Monday, October 11, 2010

Matthew 10:16

"I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

These were Christ's words when he sent out his 12 disciples to share the good news, heal the sick, and drive out evil spirits in his name. We were involved in a situation this weekend that left me crying out to God to please help us be as he commanded. Much like the man who said, "I believe, please help my unbelief!', I was pleading with God to make us and our friend more shrewd while at the same time avoiding sinful thoughts or behavior of our own.

It is a tough balance for us, and led to a late night talk tonight with one of our sons. How do we truly love those that God brings into our lives, without falling into the trap of enabling or excusing their sin? How can we know where our responsibility ends, and God's begins? How can we know who the other sheep are, and not be deceived by the wolves among us?

Just last week another dear friend shared how she has been focusing on 1 Corinthians 13, the chapter that defines love. I think that as Christians, it is easy to get confused and think that love requires us to be gullible, or at least tolerant. But Christ's words here convey something very different to me. We can grieve at the pain and brokenness we see all around us that results from sin, but we need to realize that not everyone wants to live in the light of God's truth. There are wolves in the world, and we are not called to sacrifice our own well-being to fulfill their desires. We need to be shrewd, 'street smart', or at least wise enough to recognize our own limitations and boundaries.

When we allow those wolves to continue their wolf-like behavior at our expense, we are no longer innocent as doves. We wind up stained by their sin, and taking it on ourselves. We can bring light to the dark places, but if our loved ones prefer to remain hidden in the shadows, we aren't doing anyone any good by joining them there.

Food for thought, God's command in Micah 6:8 "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." is not always as easy as it sounds.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

10/6/10 Delaware Representative Candidate Debate

Henry and I were able to attend this debate last night between Glen Urquhart and John Carney, moderated by a UD professor named Nancy Karibjanian. You can watch the full debate yourself at the UD website, or read an article at the delawareonline.com website, or keep reading here for my synopsis...

Carney has been a professional politician for many years, and it showed. Urquhart was very nervous at the beginning, but quickly hit his stride and spoke in detail about the issues. Where Carney stayed consistent with general statements of the Democratic Party platform, Urquhart was specific and energized about changes he would make.

Carney referred to himself as a “loyal Democrat” and smugly repeated the tired line, “I am a tea drinker, not a Tea party” candidate when asked. In his opening statement, he mainly focused on his time spent traveling around the state talking to residents who have fallen on hard times, citing the 6,000 home foreclosures in Delaware last year.

Urquhart stated that he was an independent jobs creator who had run against the establishment in the primary, and said that although he did not claim to be a Tea Party candidate, he was concerned like tens of millions of Americans that government debt is crowding out private investment. He gave a nod to Glenn Beck by saying he believed that “Faith, Hope, Charity and Trust” were vitally important. He said he would “peacefully and vigorously” work to restore the American Dream, and referenced the fact that his great-grandfather had come to this country as an indentured servant, and that he himself is the first member of his family to attend college.

For the most part, Carney talked about bringing people together by finding like-minded individuals. His solution to the economy is providing more government funding through programs like the recently passed $30B commercial bank fund. He also spoke about ‘green technology jobs’ and cited the wind turbines being built off the Delaware coast. He got quiet about that program after Urquhart revealed that Carney had personally taken a $1.5 million dollar federal grant to start his own wind turbine company. Funny how all of these green jobs promoters seem to benefit by the federal largesse is that area, isn’t it?

Carney frequently referred to the UD science and technology jobs that are being created, and stated that we need to deal with job creation immediately and put off dealing with the deficit as a ‘long term” goal. Somehow he missed the irony of going further in debt to create public sector jobs rather than reducing federal debt and allowing the private economy to grow and produce private sector jobs.

This was the most drastic difference between the candidates. Urquhart kept going back to debt reduction and private economy job creation, even pulling out Reagan’s quote “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."

Both candidates recognize the need for jobs in our state. With a current unemployment rate of 8.4%, there are about 35,000 unemployed Delawareans as I write this. When asked by the moderator for specifics, Carney said that government is responsible for ensuring that small businesses can thrive, and must supply the capital. Urquhart took a very different approach, saying that all of the thousands of pages of regulations are creating a “culture of compliance” where entrepreneurs are unwilling to take risks to succeed. He firmly believes that deregulation is needed, but not across the board. He specifically highlighted safety regulations as an example, and reiterated his point that government does not create jobs; its role is defense and protection.

Carney stated that the economic collapse is entirely due to risky Wall Street investments, while Urquhart equally blamed the government regulations that demanded quotas for high-risk mortgages and made millionaires of the government appointees who forced those quotas on private banks.

They discussed the current Dodd Frank bill several times, and Carney snidely suggested that Urquhart had not read the bill and that he himself had read the summary. I almost broke the silence rule at that point, because Urquhart is such a numbers wonk I am certain he read more than just a summary! Unfortunately, Urquhart missed the opportunity to respond. That bill devastates the Delaware financial industry, by nationalizing what had been Delaware’s unique corporate climate that has allowed the state to generate 20-25% of its state budget from corporate fees.

On health care, Carney said the current legislation is “a work in progress”, and that the solution is better management and electronic records to control costs. Urquhart called the current plan “government tax care” and mentioned the recent announcement by McDonald’s that it will no longer be able to offer healthcare to its employees due to increased costs of compliance. He believes that competition across state lines, and State managed high risk pools are a better solution than the current plan that mandates nationalized provisions demanded by special interests.


There was much more, so I will stop here and report the rest in my next post.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Just Smile!



My son just shared this with me and I loved it so much I had to pass it along :-) He saw it at the Mt Sophia Culture Creator Workshop this weekend, and we're passing the smiles along.

Just SMILE!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Today’s Rally in DC

If you’ve read anything I’ve posted here about politics, you know I feel strongly that we are trading our freedom for the false security of government-controlled handouts. I have shared with you statements by the writer’s of our Constitution that make it clear the entitlements that are driving our nation into bankruptcy have no place in this free Republic.

That is my opinion, and you are entitled to yours. You may agree with our President that “spreading the wealth around” is a good thing. You may even agree with the policy statements of the website quoted below. One of the speakers today, the president of the SEIU, said that instead of bailing out the wealthy corporations we should instead start bailing out the union workers. I’m not quite sure how another misguided financial policy is going to help, but she is free to say that as loudly as she wants.

That said, I have at least two major problems with the rally held today in our nation’s capitol. The first is that the organizers lied, and the second is that one of their spokesmen just stated on national television that I am apparently not a “real American.”

The organizers of the event are now saying their rally had nothing to do with the Restoring Honor rally organized by Glenn Beck, but I had previously read exactly the opposite at the Young Communist League website at www.cpusa.com. After a very defamatory description of the 8/28 event, the website said this:

“…he [Glenn Beck] should have known that the masses would not allow it to go unanswered. That same day [8/28/10] the One Nation Working Together rally was announced."

Now they are trying to claim their rally had nothing to do with Beck's event. I think it is because even with over 400 organizations representing labor unions, civil rights activists, gay rights activists, left wing political groups, environmentalists, etc. they drew a fraction of Beck’s crowd for their rally today. They PAID people’s bus fare to come, and used all of the persuasive abilities of their various groups to get people to attend. “...organizations from around the country most notably including the AFL-CIO and the NAACP [who] have put millions of dollars into providing transportation and assistance to get the word out.” [again, from the YCL website] You decide where the truth is between these different statements. Either it was or was not a response to the 8/28 event.

Now it gets even more personal. I just heard Al Sharpton say that today's rally was for "real Americans", insinuating that those who attended 8/28 were not actually Americans.
Hey, Al - what does that make the 650,00 or so of us who stood together and prayed on 8/28???? I have no problem with protesters; I’m one myself. But the commentary tonight was too much for me to bear silently. It saddens me that a peaceful gathering of people joining together to pray and seek God’s guidance would be met with such hostility and ad hominem attacks. Our nation deserves better.