I'm Baaaaack

I originally started this blog in late November 2006. At the time its primary purpose was to track the anti-constituent voting record of Rep. Tom Reynolds and to serve as a voice advocating his defeat in the 2008 election. As it turned out Reynolds decided to leave on his own, declining to run for re-election. When Reynolds lost interest in maintaining his seat in Congress, I lost interest in maintaining my blog.

Well a lot has happened in the past year and a half and I think its time that I start writing again. This time around I will likely find myself commenting on a wider range of issues than was previously the case. I will continue to maintain a keen interest in the NY-26 Congressional district and on Reynold's successor Republican Chris Lee, but I will also be focusing my words, my concerns and my opinions on issues beyond just those effecting Western NY.

I have deleted all of my old posts. Most were dated and many now irrelevant. These is one exception though, one old post that I have decided to keep. It was my second post ever, one dealing with JFK's Rice University speech in 1962 (see below). I am inspired by these words every time I hear them or read them. The idea that we should CHOOSE to take positive action toward achieving our goals and solving our problems has never been more relevant.

Much has happened in this country over the past year an a half - some good, but mostly bad. We are faced with critical problems that demand strong, swift and effective action. But we must CHOOSE to act. We can't wait, we can't be distracted, we can't rely on someone else to fix things for us. We all have a role to play and we will all need to make some sort of sacrifice or take some sort of action. But we must CHOOSE to do so and we must choose to do so, as JFK said not because it will be easy but because it will be hard. The challenges await us.

More to come...

Remembering JFK

I was five years old when John F. Kennedy was elected, eight years old when he was assasinated, 34 years ago yesterday. As young as I was at the time I still have vivid recollections of JFK, particularly his inspirational eloquence. Although it is his "Ask not, what your country can do for you..." Inauguration address that has been quoted most often, the speech that has always resonated most with me is his 1962 speech at Rice University about the "Space Race":

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

This is the sort of leadership that is so sorely needed today. Take out "go to the moon" and insert "attain energy independence" or "deliver universal health care" or "solve global warming" or any of the many difficult challenges facing us today and try to imagine our recent leaders in Washington - of either party - rising to the moment with this type of leadership. Hard to imagine huh?

We avoid solving these issues precisely because they are not easy, they are hard. We the people must DEMAND that these issues be addressed. I truly believe that we as a people are up to it and would embrace such leadership. We cannot allow Republicans to distract us with phony "values issues" that have nothing to do with values, nor can we allow Democrats to pursue the path of least resistance. Like JFK we need to accept these challenges and be unwilling to postpone them.

"Johnny, we hardly knew ye"

Full text of the JFK speech can be found here:

http://www.rice.edu/fondren/woodson/speech.html