Thursday, Sept 5th - Hero: Ticos

This is what people in Costa Rica are called. Ticos.

They are lovely people, the second happiest people in the world.

If I was to try and say why, I'm not sure I could put my finger on any one thing really. Of course, the country is phenomenally beautiful. They have white sand beaches, black sand beaches, pink sand beaches, beaches made out of ground up seashells. They have Dry Tropical forests, rainforests, cloud forests, and just plain out jungles. They have swamps and mangroves, high desert and low desert, gulfs, cays, and wide open beaches that have waves big enough to draw World Championship Surf tournaments.

The wild life is amazing. As you drive down the road you see great big scarlet macaws flying around. Walking down a trail you will encounter sloths, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, deer that will walk right next to you, and every kind of lizard and reptile you can imagine. The hummingbirds are enormous and the most brilliant colors of purple and green and red imaginable.

Still, there are other brilliantly beautiful places on this earth whose people don't have that 'Tico' pleasantness. Could be their government, which doesn't support a national military and can therefore provide free education and free medical care to all their citizens. Might be the fact that their largest GDP is tourism and they deal with happy vacationing people most of the time. Their other large GDP is Agriculture (coffee, bananas, palm oil) so they are outside a lot.

Sure, sure. All that rolls up to equal happiness, but as we made several different treks through numerous small towns we were told that the 'center' of every town no matter how big or how small was the church.

AHHHHH...

God. At the center. Happiness. I see now.

All that beauty was just the icing on the cake! Kind of like the Angels having to cover their eyes with their wings at God's beauty as their bowing at his majesty...

Peace, Love, and GOD,
Tracy

Tuesday, August 5th - Hero: American People

Here's one that I didn't foresee ever posting a few years ago!

I have been watching the news the last few days and have been so proud of the Americans that have been showing up at the Town Halls the Democrats are holding around the country where they are trying to 'sell' us on Obamacare.

Well, it ain't going well for them. The American people are fed up. They are mad as hell and they aren't going to take it any more!!!

Of course, the Media has taken up the torch for their Messiah Obama. They are calling these 'orchestrated protests', angry mobs, and "stupid Republican gimmicks". They claim we are planted by the Insurance Industry. White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs even said these people were "less grass roots movement and more astroturf". Seriously, I couldn't make something that stupid up.

Here's a link to just one of these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-Bpshk5nX0&feature=topvideos. After looking at that one, you can view many others like it. This particular one is Arlen Specter and Kathleen Sebelius, who is just a delightful woman. Maybe after this bill passes she can have the 42 inch stick removed from up her anus...

Now, after seeing these videos I ask you; Do these look like angry mobs? Do these look like wild-eyed psycho people? Personally, they look like people I live next to, work next to, and go to church with. They look like AMERICANS.

AHHHHH. Now I see the problem. The Media and those in Washington? They can't recognize Americans. We look thoroughly alien to them. See, they have convinced themselves that Acorn, Americorp, SEIU - those are Americans.

It's about time we reminded them. BRAVA, America, BRAVA!!!

Peace, Love, and GOD,
Tracy

Tuesday, July 21st - Zero: Michelle Obama

***EDIT***WARNING***THIS WILL MAKE YOU CRAZY***
I just saw a news item where Obama was questioned during a townhall by a blogger about one of the revisions in the Healthcare Bill (1000 pages) and Obama ADMITTED that he wasn't familiar with that particular reform!!! This JACKASS is pushing to have this bill done and passed before Aug 1 and HE DOESNT EVEN KNOW WHAT'S IN THE FREAKIN BILL!!!! Once again, can anyone spell M-O-R-O-N????*******

This is going to be a rant about the audacity of this woman to stick her foot in the bottomless muck-pit of Government sponsored Healthcare reform.

Why now is Obama trotting the Missus out after keeping her in the shadows the last several months? Could it be that he's......desperate? That even he's starting to realize that the perfume is wearing off and America is starting to realize that they bought a huge stinking TURD last fall??

After all, if there's anyone the media fell harder for than Mr. Obama, it's Ms. Obama. So, let's bring out the GLADIATOR. Get her to help sell the Socialized, uhhh, I mean Universal Healthcare Plan. She WAS Vice-President of University of Chicago's Medical Center and developed a wonderful program there called the Urban Health Initiative.

You say you've never heard of this? Well, that's because there has been a very well executed plan to whitewash her name from the program. Because it stank - to high heaven. I finally found some credible sources that hadn't been completely erased. Take a gander...


The University of Chicago Medical Center has received a good deal of justly bad press over its policy of "redirecting" low-income patients to community hospitals while reserving its own beds for well-heeled patients requiring highly profitable procedures. Substantial coverage was given to a recent indictment of the program by the American College of Emergency Physicians. ACEP's president, Dr. Nick Jouriles, released a statement suggesting that the initiative comes "dangerously close to ‘patient dumping,' a practice made illegal by the Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act, and reflected an effort to ‘cherry pick' wealthy patients over poor."


Oddly absent from most of the unflattering press coverage of UCMC's patient-dumping scheme is any mention of the role our new First Lady played in devising the program. A laudable exception has been the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported last August that "Michelle Obama -- currently on unpaid leave from her $317,000-a-year job as a vice president of the prestigious hospital -- helped create the program."


On the rare occasions when other "news" media have bothered to connect the Urban Health Initiative to its glamorous creator, they have attempted to whitewash this tawdry program. Typical of such disingenuous coverage was a story in the Washington Post, which described it as "an innovative program to steer the patients to existing neighborhood clinics."


But no amount of journalistic lipstick can hide the reality that Mrs. Obama's initiative is a patient-dumping scheme. Such "cherry-picking," as Dr. Jouriles accurately describes it, was, at one time, fairly common. Prestigious institutions like the University of Chicago Medical Center routinely "dumped" Medicaid, uninsured and other unprofitable patients on less mercenary community hospitals. Many patients suffered needlessly, and more than a few actually died, as the result of this practice. So, in 1986, President Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act (EMTALA) into law. EMTALA made such "redirection" illegal, but many high profile hospitals still chafed at being forced to treat poor patients. Enter Michelle Obama, UCMC's "Vice President for Community and External Affairs."


Mrs. Obama first hatched the UCMC program as the "South Side Health Collaborative," which featured a gang of "counselors" whose job it was to "advise" low-income patients that they would be better off at other hospitals and clinics. The program was so successful in getting rid of unwanted patients that she expanded it, gave it a new name, and hired none other than David Axelrod to sell the program to the public. According to the Sun-Times, "Obama's wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center's board, backed the Axelrod firm's hiring." Axelrod helped the future First Lady formulate a public relations campaign in which the "Urban Health Initiative" was represented as a boon to the community actuated by the purest of altruistic motives.


The resultant PR campaign was a study in Orwellian audacity. Chicago's inner city residents soon began hearing that UCMC's patient dumping program would "dramatically improve health care for thousands of South Side residents" and that the medical center was generously willing to provide "a ride on a shuttle bus to other centers." Likewise, the people who ran the community hospitals to which these unwanted patients were being shuttled began to read claims in local media to the effect that the Urban Health Initiative was good for them as well. Dr. Eric Whitaker, the Blagojevich crony who succeeded Mrs. Obama as Director of the program, repeatedly assured gullible reporters that the financial impact on these hospitals would be positive: "The initiative actually is improving their bottom lines." The CFOs of those hospitals were no doubt relieved to learn that treating Medicaid and uninsured patients is profitable.


But you just can't please some people. In one of the few frank passages of the Post article, we discover that many members of UCMC's medical staff believe the program is nothing more than an "attempt to ensure that the hospital retains only affluent patients with insurance." And another association of emergency physicians has joined ACEP in denouncing the Urban Health Initiative. The Chicago Tribune reports that Dr. Larry Weiss, president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine is unhappy about UCMC's failure to consult its own ER physicians before initiating the program: "Not including emergency-room physicians ... would be analogous to changing the way surgery is performed in an operating room without involving any surgeons." Dr. Whitaker assures us, however, that such critics are merely "opposed to change."


Presumably, he would be similarly dismissive of Angela Adams, who brought her son to the medical center's ER after his lip had been partially torn off by a pit bull. As the Tribune puts it, "Instead of rushing Dontae into surgery ... the hospital's staff began pressing her about insurance." Unfortunately for Dontae, he was covered by Medicaid. So, all he got from the UCMC emergency department was a shot, some antibiotics, and instructions to "follow up with Cook County." Angela had to take her son across town to John Stroger Hospital, where he was immediately admitted for reconstructive surgery. Like doctors Jouriles and Weiss, Angela is having trouble seeing the community benefit of the Urban Health Initiative.


Meanwhile, the program's parents, Michelle Obama and David Axelrod, have moved to Washington. As the First Lady and the President's closest advisor, they wield enormous power. If these two characters were willing to betray their Chicago neighbors -- the South Side's most vulnerable citizens -- with a disgraceful program like the Urban Health Initiative, what sort of havoc do you think they have in mind for us rednecks of flyover country?

Monday July 6th - Hero : The Declaration of Independence

I don't know how many of you have read this amazing document, or if you have how recently, but I thought maybe it was time to read it again:



JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
(Sound a little like delivering 1300 page bills to Congress at 3am and demanding a vote on it a 9am the next morning?)

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
(Sound a little like having a criminal organization like ACORN performing the US Census that draws congressional districts?)

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
(Take a look at the new Cap-n-Trade bill - there are penalties and incentives based on where you buy a home - incentive for urban areas, penalties for rural areas).

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
(Can anyone say Czar??)

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
(Stimulus, TARP, ObamaCare, Cap-n-Trade...)

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.


Oh man, it gives me chills to read. These guys wrote this knowing that they were basically declaring war on one of the strongest armies in the world. But they didn't care. They preferred that to the intolerable future of servitude that their grandparents and great-grandparents fled from in the first place. That many of them gave their very lives for in order for them to not suffer under.

That's what we are about to leave for our kids and grandkids - a future of unbearable servitude and slavery. Our Spirit of Independence is but a mere glimmer of what it once was. Our Creator did not create us to live with a spirit of fear, but of one of HOPE and LOVE and JOY.

LET'S TAKE IT BACK!!!!!!

Peace, Love, and GOD,
Tracy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA

Saturday, June 27th - Zero: The Czar of Czars

It's been a couple of weeks since I have blogged, because first the TOP of my HEAD exploded when the Pay Czar was appointed (the 18th YTD). Once that was fixed (through my free choice employee provided health care doctor) the new $1.6 Trillion (or is it $3 Trillion) Health care plan was announced and my HEAD popped COMPLETELY OFF MY NECK!
Got that fixed, and along came the announcement that the Cap and Trade program is passing the House has caused a curious BLEEDING FROM MY EYEBALLS!!!!

Can I just say it out loud finally? Obama is the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew he would be, but the speed that he has accomplished this moniker has astonished even me. Folks we are rats and he's the Pied Piper and there is a cliff in our immediate future if we don't WAKE UP.

For any of you out there saying "Well, sure he's making some mistakes but, but, but what about Hoover or, or maybe Jimmy Carter?"

Here's why Obama is worst than them: Hoover was, at heart, a patriot who really wanted America to succeed. He tried everything he could to bring America out of the Depression without putting Americans on the 'dole'. It didn't work, true, but not out of any malice on his part. Jimmy Carter was a disgrace as a President, of course, but he was just a complete and total idiot. Total nincompoop.
Obama on the other hand is brilliantly sly, clever, and is doing what he is doing ON PURPOSE. He wants the current way of life in America TO FAIL. He hates the idea of Free Market Capitalism and loves the idea of Marxist Communism.

It is past time for us to lose the 'PollyAnna' attitude of "that can't really happen here, it's America! We're the land of the Free". Sorry folks, but that is crap. You can stick your head in the sand all the way up until the point they show up at your house and take your cars, guns, and your kids.

For example, anyone else noticed the fact that Obama has appointed 18 (maybe more by now) CZARS? These range from Car Czar to Great Lakes Czar to Health Czar to Border Czar to the latest - PAY Czar. These Czars report directly to the president and no one else. They have Executive privledge which means they have special prosecution protection and don't have to answer for their actions to Congress. This is directly against the United States Constitution.

The Constitution specifically laid out three branches of the government as a system of checks and balances so that no one office would have too much power. Even some of the Democratic Senators have begun to complain about this unprecedented 'power grab'.

This is just the beginning of our conversion to a Marxist society. The Czars are in charge of Trillions of dollars of budget and as we all know - the Golden Rule - he who has the gold makes the rules. Scared yet? Think about this. The Pay Czar? Obama has asked him to review the Pay levels of ALL Executive pay of corporations in the US. Not just those that are on the TARP program - ALL of them. The other item in this guy's "to do list"? To evaluate if there needs to be a government forced "Savings Account" for people who choose not to participate in 401k plans at their employers. So, they will decide if you are saving enough and if not, they will take it from your pay and 'save' it for you.

Has your eyes started bleeding yet??? That's right. ANOTHER SOCIAL SECURITY plan. You know, the plan that is GOING TO BE BANKRUPT BY 2017!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And there's not a flippin thing you can do about it. You want a job, you have to participate. Still feel like you live in the land of the free there, polly????

UGGGH. I gotta go do some yoga and pray. God is our only hope. He saw this coming, and He knows what will get us out. I know without a doubt, though, that He wants us to increase our knowledge. Our brains are our best weapon.

Don't be complacent, do some research. Look up the Cap and Trade bill and see just how much money it is going to cost you in your utility bills. Then, look up Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and see what it is that is driving Barack Obama. That book lays out his vision for America.

Then get involved, write your senators and congressmen. Vote for the right candidates. I pray every day that we can somehow get out of this 2 party system that we are held hostage by. We NEED some Libertarian candidates out there.

May God have mercy on our country!

Peace, Love, and GOD,
Tracy

Saturday, June 6th: Hero - My Dad

It's a little early for Father's Day but I just wanted to say a little something about my dad that I have been reminded of through this whole experience of my daughter purchasing her first home.

When children are born some dad's are in the hospital waiting room and some are in the delivery room. Some can't be there but wish they could and some are scumbags that choose not to be.

When a child is laid in their father's arms for the first time, the father looks down at the child and many emotions will run through their hearts and souls; love, wonder, amazement, joy, pride, fear. They will look forward to the things they will teach the child and all the experiences they will have.

One thing that I know for certain that my Dad looked down at me and pledged from his heart to my heart was that he would be there for me no matter what, that he would take responsibility for me as a father should. That should I ever lose my way, he would be the one to find me and bring me home. Over and over again if needed, and with patience that only Job would understand.

And what I have discovered in the past few weeks is that this pledge that speaks from his heart to mine is spoken between him and my daughter, as well. As a mother I can't even begin to tell you what this amazing gift means to me.

My dad is a quiet man who doesn't require any attention or praise. He's never wanted riches or adoration. But he has more respect from the people who know him that any other single person I know. He's a man of tremendous integrity. His yes means yes and his no means no. So the fact that he's proud of me and thinks that I have done a good job in my life blows my mind.

Erika was pretty unluckly in the dad department, but won the Grandpa lottery. My Dad has shown her what quiet strength, work ethic, being true to your word, and responsibility is all about. Her Papa Dennis has shown her affection, kindness, gentleness, shared a love of animals, and given her a good example of how a man should love a woman.

We're some lucky girls!

Peace, Love, and GOD,
Tracy

Sunday, May 24th : Happy Memorial Day

Tonight I want to wish a Happy Memorial Day to everyone. We have been having rain here so the campers may have mixed feelings, but I have enjoyed it.

My husband, Bobby, is on the road in Indianapolis and his kids are camping. Which leaves me in a rare position of being alone for several days. I have been reading a new book by Douglas Preston / Lincoln Child called The Cemetary Dance. If you've never read any of their books, they are amazing. I have all of the Agent Pendergast series, and I would be happy to lend them to you!

So, earlier this afternoon I was sprucing up the back deck and as I was standing on the step ladder, hanging these really cool japanese lanterns I found on clearance at the World Market I realized that I have a serious addiction.

Hello, my name is Tracy and I am addicted to Flowers. Real or silk, doesn't matter. Annuals, perinneals, grasses, trees, doesn't matter. Flower beds, vases, window boxes, pottery urns, you name and I will plant something in it. I love them. I have always been awed by how much beauty God gave us through these creations. But still, I may have a little bit of a problem. I'll post pictures some time and you guys can decide for your self..

This being Memorial Day, I wanted to list a few of my favorite memories of the veterans in my life:

My Grandpa Curtis:
Papa was larger than life to me. He was my daddy's dad and that was part of what made him so awesome, I think. He also was incredibly playful. He would get down on the floor and play and he never got tired of playing puzzles with us. I remember that he took naps a lot, and I only recently found out that it was because he was suffering from a bout of cancer when I was young. I know that he quit smoking then, and took up sucking on coffee candy. He always had them, always. He also always had on his blue maintenence shirt with his name sewed on to an oval patch.
Maybe because of his fights with illness, Papa felt a special empathy with me. I was born with a joint dysplysia that had me in casts, then braces on my legs. One of my earliest memories at about 3 or 4 was of him putting his hand on my head and looking me in the eyes and telling me not to worry that I would be riding bikes and running the fields too, he promised. At the time, it felt like God Himself was promising.

My Grandpa Smith:
Poppy was my example of what a spiritual leader of a family was. Not because he was dominant or held the power. Because he loved my Grammy more than I have ever seen any man love any woman before. He loved her the way Christ loves us - with wild abandon, with no regard for his own needs, with a true and complete sacrificial love. His greatest acheivements in life, the things he was proudest of, were his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
I remember him playing Saxaphone records for me on Saturday night and I would dance around the living room. And watching Hee Haw and Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Another big memory is of him when we would go camping. He was always piddling around and fixing something.
Another thing about Poppy was that he had such a soft heart for kids and animals. Poppy had such a soft spot for the neighborhood cats. If there was a cat in the neighborhood, he would feed it and invite it in for 'visits'.

I was so blessed to have both of these men in my life, I thank God that they lived through WWII so that I could meet them. Papa Curtis was in the Army, and received a Purple Heart. Poppy Smith was in the Navy in the South Pacific.

Before I sign off, I want to acknowledge the other men in my life that have served in combat:
My Dad - Rex Curtis - the Army - Vietnam War
My step-brother - James Robinson - Army National Guard - Iraq Gulf War
My Father-in-law - Bob King

Thank you to these men, and to any of you (and your loved ones) out there that have served. It takes extraordinary bravery and sacrifice to commit to serve in a way that may claim your life. 90% of our population will never ever understand what that's about and won't come close to truly appreciating it, but you do it anyway. I thank God for you.

Peace, Love, and GOD,
Tracy