Multiple Celebrations- Happy Birthday Hunter

Dear Friend,

We are celebrating a couple of great things around here today! The first one and of course most important is the 17th birthday of this great young man. My oldest grandson carries both maiden names of his grandmothers (poor kid) but they do make a great name for this good looking guy. Hunter has so much knowledge tucked under that curly mop of red he absolutely astounds me. He is the family book of knowledge, spell checker, and go to for computer "what did I do wrong". Hunter has a great sense of humor and being the big brother to the other two, a ton of patience. Also, if I pay him enough, he does a great job of vacuuming my car.

Happy Birthday Hunter, you're a wonderful grandson-I love you!

It's also President's Day. When I was in school we celebrated George Birthington's and A. Lincoln's washdays seperately, and now look at us-the Fed & the Post Office are closed, so we get the day off! That makes me a happy camper.

Well, now that we have made it a day of recognition for all the presidents I can add another couple of my favorites. I am truly grateful that these men are a part of our nation's history. Their wisdom and sense of duty truely defined our government and our freedom. So, George, John, Thomas and Abraham, thank you so much for all you gave us.

All that being said, I want to share a first-hand account of a small encounter that really is bothering me-maybe because I have been hearing echos of this from other sources but this happened to a friend of someone very close to me. You decide...

Recently, a group meeting here (non-sectarian, non-political) was doing a little exercise of getting to know each other-the question was posed, "name a wish you have that will not be fulfilled" or something along those lines. The "friend" stated her wish was that John McCain had won the election. Several days later, the "friend" received a mailed letter-several pages long, accusing her of being rascist, non-christian and intolerant. The author of the letter included several bibical scriptures. I will not go into some details of the letter-sender but you are probably correct about the genetic connection involved here.

I know that everyone has the the constitutional right to free speech, my question is this (and an age-old one at that!) are we looking at the next 4 to 8 years of never being able to express our political views for fear of being accused of something that has nothing to do with the above mentioned labels?

Leaving you this epistle to quander the significance of with love,

Jan