Happy 6th Birthday to our Great and Grand Madi Girl!

Today is Thursday, January 6, 2015. That's a special day each year for us. It's the day we celebrate the arrival of our one and only great and grand Madelyn Joy. Madi is six today and we pause to offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for her as well as asking God to watch over her as she continues her journey here. Like most kids she has gone through this phase and that phase. Right now she is reflecting a combination of enthusiasm and joy. She typically doesn't like photos that show her missing teeth but I do like her expression in this one and it is, after all, my blog. Happy Birthday to our Madi girl from Great Grand MiMi and Poppy. Amen.

Nothing gets folks stirred up more than the mention of 2nd Amendment rights. That's the one that gives us the right to bear arms. You can get Facebook and Twitter turned upside down with the mere mention of anything related to this constitutional provision. The President's speech on what he is going to do with executive orders to try and tighten the rules regarding the eligibility to purchase a gun got it all going again. I suppose we all have issues that are important to us as individuals. This one happens to also have some political capital associated with it. You can stomp and scream about any change whatsoever regarding guns and that pretty well gets you a certain percentage of the vote. Period. Then we have the financial interests. The gun lobby. And, the anti-gun lobby. They are real and some of their motivations regarding the subject matter are certainly connected to the monetary component. In the case of the gun lobby it would be the sales of guns. In the case of the anti gun lobby it would be the continued support from donors. These people do this stuff for a living. This is how our system works. Loud voices, money, ranting and raving, threats and counter threats. Folks will come out of the woodwork when someone makes a statement pro or con. Interestingly enough, I see so many who make impassioned pleas that essentially have copied the exact words used by one of the special interest parties. Maybe it was so much aligned with their own thinking they couldn't resist. Maybe. Or maybe the special interest wins again. Either side of the argument. They usually do. In case you haven't noticed. My reading of it all at times makes me think that what purports itself to be a debate becomes mostly a debacle. Too bad this level of passion is often missing when dealing with issues that relate to the plight of hurting people. Just my thrown down observation. And, just so you know, while I support folks being able to own a firearm, I have no interest in currying favor with any and all sides. Just me. Feel free to respond as you see fit.

My sharing of those comments will not make too many of those on either side happy. But, we all are entitled to our own opinion. I think President Reagan used to say that he knew he had the policy close to being right when neither side was particularly happy with his proposal. I actually think folks who spend so much time trying to analyze the President's tears as to whether they were sincere or not miss the point. He was talking about little kids being killed. Many of those children's parents were in the room with him. If that moved him to tears then so be it. That doesn't mean I would agree with his approach, but his tears are not the issue to me. They sure are to a lot of folks who comment about this subject. They sure are to people who host radio programs. I don't support him or any President acting outside and above the powers granted to them by our Constitution. At the same time I am not the one that can even make that call. That's why we have the third branch, our courts. I would think that's where much of this will be decided. And, just so you know, I have been known to disagree with the findings of the courts as well. (Like confirming the legality of Obamacare by interpreting it as a tax when it was never presented in the law as a tax.) Disagreements like that are our privilege in our free society. In general, I do not support the disobedience to the laws of our land but I do recognize there are times when individuals must make decisions based on their devotion to God and their conscience. Okay. Today's blog will not be made a part of the Congressional record. But, it is a part of my library so I do hope you receive it in the positive manner in which it was intended. And, may I add for all our consideration the official motto of our nation: In God We Trust. Amen. .....More later.