~Following Him!!!~

It is that time again to recap the past year, so I went back and looked at the first post of every month and provided a link to them below with a little commentary.

January - The University of Michigan started of the season with a dominating victory over the defending 2006 National Champion Florida Gators and the Heisman Trophy winning Tim Tebow. Unfortunately, that was the lone highlight for Michigan in 2008.

February - I posted about Three T’s. They were tired, Twitter and TV.

March - I talked about some Personal Triumphs that I had at the gym in running.

April - I asked the question What Movies Have You Seen? and I was shocked to see that I had seen 34 of the AFI’s Top 100 movies. How many have you seen?

May - I posted from my mobile phone my son’s Big Fish Story. I am still in shock that he caught that big of a fish in my dad’s canal. May was a crazy month in which we remodeled our bathroom and took a trip to Colorado in the middle of the project.

June - We got our bathroom closer to completion and it was nice to finally being able to go to the bathroom inside our house instead of in a outhouse, and to take a shower at my house.

July - July always starts off up north in Manistee, Michigan and we took a special trip to Michigan’s Adventure on the 4th. I also ran in my first 5K while we were up north.

August - With the political season heating up I had quite a few blog posts about the election and this one was about how I felt that John McCain Had Gone Too Far. I am so happy that the election is over. Anyone else?

September - Youth Specialties released a video promoting Youth Worker Appreciation Day and so I asked the question, Why Do You Do It?. And that was an excellent follow-up to a post from a few days before about why I love doing student ministry.

October - I reminisced about how we were celebrating 70 Years of the Winged Helmet and what great icon for the University of Michigan.

November - I once again had the honor of going to the National Youth Workers Convention and I finished an entry that I had started a few weeks before after being inspired by Andrew Marin’s talk. Basically, I said that As A Christian I Am Sorry and I will let you read it to find out why.

December - I asked the question, “Can Atheists Do Good Works?”. I was inspired by an article I had read in the USA Today. What do you think?

2008 was an interesting year and I am really nervous as to what 2009 will hold for me. I could possibly be laid off from my job or have the company I work for shut down all together. It is really scary and the economy in Michigan is so bad. But my trust is in God and I know that no matter what happens I will have my family and my faith in God, so I am not too worried. However, I would be lying if I didn’t say that I wasn’t scared.

Michael Phelps has been dubbed the greatest Olympian ever after winning 8 golds in a single Olympic games as well as 14 golds lifetime. That is more than any other Olympian and quite an accomplishment for someone who has at least one more Olympics to go.

And since he is a Michigan Man, I am all the more happier to have seen him win those golds. There was only one race I missed on the TV, but I got to see it online, and it was the first relay race when the team came back at the end. Everyone of his races had me cheering and the best had to be his .001 win in the Fly. It had me cheering right along with him and I loved his families reaction. It was as the MasterCard commercials say “Priceless”. It was a truly historic moment and it fulfilled a dream that Michael had since he was young.

However, that is not what this post is really about, but I wanted to mention it because it was historic in it’s own right. But what I am talking about is the nomination of Senator Barack Obama as the first African-American to a major party.

I don’t care what side of the aisle you sit on or even if you sit on the fence. You have to admit that what happened last night, and even tonight with his acceptance speech, that it is great to finally see that race barrier starting to fall even more. Heck, even the fact that Senator Hillary Clinton had a serious run at it as well was also a great thing to see. You don’t have to like them to at least respect those things happening.

I honestly thought that the Republican Party would be the first to nominate an African-American candidate and not the Democratic Party. Not sure why, but just a feeling I always had.

I find it very fitting that Senator Barack Obama is accepting the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech, because it is a significant step towards seeing that dream achieved. I am looking forward to hearing Senator Barack Obama’s historic speech on this historic night, because as someone who still considers himself undecided I want to gather as much information as I can.

The sad part about all of this is how people are trying to use race as an issue in this election. What I respect about Senator Obama is that he has chosen to try and leave race out of it for the most part. I have yet to see him play the “race card” as some people have claimed him for doing. Mostly it is people looking for it or even race baiting, in my opinion.

What bothers me the most is that while people accuse Senator Obama for using the “race card” I see no one blaming Senator John McCain for using the “victim card”. I have really struggled with even blogging my thoughts about this and before I do let me say that I respect the sacrifice that Senator McCain has made for our nation. He suffered horrible things at the hands of his captors and served his country with pride.

However, if I have to hear him say one more story about his time as a POW, I think I may puke. I swear that during the Saddleback Civil Forum that he talked about his time as a POW after just about every question. Don’t get me wrong I respect his service to our country, but if Senator Obama can’t bring up his race, which has had a major influence in shaping his own life, then why should Senator McCain be allowed to bring up an experience that shaped his life ad nauseum? And someone else isn’t allowed to bring up theirs which just as much shaped their life and still continues to shape it to this day, because it is an ongoing experience. I know that people will label me “un-patriotic” or “un-American” and that just simply isn’t the truth. I am just merely pointing out that it should go both ways for both guys. The comment button is below so go ahead and fire away.

I have made no secret that I will not be voting for Senator John McCain. But I will change my mind if he declares that not only will he get rid of frivolous spending on things like studying the DNA of black bears in Montana, but that he will also not take a salary while he is President or make tax payers pay for the catering service in the White House or maid service or gas for Air Force One, etc. After all, the guy has a wife who is worth $100 million dollars and has more homes than some small countries. So I think he can afford to help out the country for 4 years by doing that. He will then have my vote. So, Senator McCain, if you are listening and want my vote then that is what you wil have to do to get it. Otherwise, you can keep on living in your myriad of homes and dream of living in the White House.

But for now I just want to focus on Senator Obama helping our country achieve the dream and shape history.

Some of you may have seen the response that Paris Hilton has to Senator John McCain’s attack ad against Senator Barack Obama titled Celeb. However, just in case you haven’t, here it is for your entertainment. It is pretty funny. At least Paris can poke fun at herself.

Senator John McCain has gone too far in his attempt to win the Presidency. First of all, I am sick of seeing all of his negative ads, but not he has come out with a new one entitled “The One” and as a Christ-follower I am appalled and offended. His attempts to win the White House this way, I believe, are going to back fire on him. I hadn’t planned on voting for him before I saw this ad and it has all the more sealed it in my mind that there is no way I would ever vote for him now.

Watch the video below yourself and see what I mean. It is bad enough that people are calling Senator Barack Obama the messiah (note the lower case “m”), but now Senator John McCain is painting him as the Messiah or possible even the anti-Christ. I don’t know his intentions but he is painting himself even more clearly as the person I do not want running our country.

I have been leaning towards Senator Barack Obama, but for the most part I would still classify myself fairly undecided. I would like to see who he chooses for his running mate and I would also like to research out some of the third party candidates and explore their views as well, such as Bob Barr.

HT to Matthew 25 Network. You can sign a petition here asking Senator John McCain to take down this disgusting ad.

I am happy to see that Mike Huckabee has finally dropped out of the race this past Tuesday, which is something he should have done several weeks ago when he had no chance of winning the nomination. Instead he insisted on wasting millions of dollars, because McCain hadn’t officially locked up the nomination. I guess Mike never took math because it was pointed out that if he had won every primary including the four this past Tuesday he would still have been about 200 delegates short. I wasn’t impressed with Mike before and I am even less impressed now. He should have ended his campaign when it was impossible for him to win and given the money to a charity or something.

Seriously, he wasted millions of dollars campaigning for nothing and even appeared on Saturday Night Live, which was mocking the fact that he could not possibly get the nomination and that he still was in the race. I just don’t understand his logic and I figured that a man who used to be a pastor would think about the waste of money and how it could be used for something so much better, like bringing clean water and basic sanitation to third world countries, or to help end hunger somewhere, etc. But instead he campaigned right through Tuesday and quit after McCain secured the nomination.

I first registered to vote in 1991 and my first Presidential election was in 1992 between George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and I voted for then President Bush. That was the first of several Republican Presidential candidates that I would vote for, I even registered as a Republican when I registered to vote.

With John McCain obtaining the nomination for the Republican party in the Presidential election I will for the first time in my voting history not be voting for a Republican candidate. I do not feel that John McCain has what it takes to be President of the United States, so I can not in good conscience vote for him. Plus, when I reflect on my list of the things I am looking for in the person to whom I want to be the next President I don’t see John McCain fulfilling enough of them to my satisfaction. In Michigan’s Primary I voted for Ron Paul, because I felt he was the best candidate that I could vote for.

So in this year’s election I will be looking for someone to vote for and cast a Presidential ballot for someone that is not a Republican. I will end up doing lots of research into third party candidates and if Barack Obama gets the Democrat’s nomination I will be looking into him as my possible choice.