Old People Are Out of Touch....Not!

By my senior year of high school, I thought I'd figured out the course of my life. It was the middle of the hippie generation and Elvis had been relegated to the 'oldies' and the Beatles were experimenting with LSD. I assumed that my education had provided me everything I needed to know to succeed in life, and that the advice and admonitions of my parents and other adults were no longer relevant to my generation. After all, man had already walked on the moon; when my parents were my age they were still riding in horse and buggy. The big vinyl records my parents bought had been reduced to more mobile cassette tapes that could be play in cars or boom boxes. Technology had made obsolute the world my parents knew, and the rules that worked for them no longer mattered in the modern age of my youth.

Fast forward thirty-nine years: I'm 40 years older than my youngest child - just as my parents were in their 40s when I was born. The math I learned in high school is being taught in middle school today. I struggled to learn how to use a typewriter, and elementary school kids are typing on computers and wiring electronic devices for their parents. Where I was taught two years of a dead language, my daughter has learned four years of Spanish - a good thing since there's so many Hispanics in our country today.

My daughter can argue (not that she has, but she could) that the values and experiences I had growing up are no longer relevant to the world today. She can assert that her world provides nuclear energy, computers that calculate at light-speed, cell phones, the Internet which makes it possible to communicate with people on the other side of the world, missle defense systems, satellites that can bounce television signals or can zoom in and find a mountain goat standing on the side of the Himalayas. Where we only put a man on the moon, there's now a space station orbiting our planet. People today can text and twitter and blog and webinar, and never have to affix a stamp and wait on snail mail.

My parents wouldn't recognize the world I live in today. It has advanced so far in my own life time. But here's the thing: My generation didn't build the rocket that took the first man to the moon. We didn't invent the cassette player or electric guitars or any of the modern conveniences that I enjoyed.... It was my parent's generation that created those things! And the things that my daughter takes for granted today were built by my generation, not her own. Every generation has created so that the next generation can enjoy more from life than what they were given.

Who knows what great advances in technology lie ahead for my daughter's generation? What she will learn, given time and experience, is that the principles that guided man to the moon, to the space station, and ultimately to space colonization are relevant to every generation. It is vision, courage, compassion, love, faith, discipline - those intangible things that are inherent to human beings created in the image of our Creator, that makes us always relevant to all humanity. Certainly greed, hatred, pride, jealousy and lack of compassion are present in all generations, but even children know the difference between right and wrong. By choosing to limit ourselves and putting others first, we accomplish great things that improve the world. Conversely, by seeking power over, and ignoring the needs of others, we make the world a more terrible place.

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments upon which mankind would live in relation to Him and to one another, one of those commandments was this: Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother, so that thy days shall be long upon this earth. God said that His wisdom is passed from one generation to another, and that man's longevity on this planet is assured only if we tap into that wisdom.

It is incumbent upon the next generation to determine what they will do for future generations. They can choose to go it alone, but they do so at their own peril. After all, I love my daughter and I want her life's experiences to be better than my own. I can live without ever traveling beyond the earth's ozone, but I leave her to reach for the stars. Like my parents, and the generations before, I pray for God's wisdom for myself and my children and for future generations.

Down on Main Street

My father ran a hardware store in downtown Oxford. On one side of his store stood a pool hall and on the other, Jones Drug Store. Across the street was Morton-Sherman hardware, a slightly larger and better-lit store than my father's, and both owned by George Morton. Both stores had their own loyal customer base. Morton-Sherman attracted the tradesmen - painters and carpenters; Morton's drew the farmers. I often recall my father hefting one hundred pound sacks of feed onto each shoulder and walking it out to a farmer's pickup. Dad believed that service was included in the sale.

During the winter, when there were no crops to tend, those farmers who knew the guitar or banjo or autoharp would spend the days around the coal-fired pot bellied stove, playing bluegrass and spitting into empty coffee cans. My dad could play with the best of them. Customers were seldom in a hurry and the store was often full of people enjoying the music.

Some days, when things were really slow, my dad would pull out the barrel with the checkerboard and he, in grey work shirt and a farmer in bib overalls would slap the board, mumbling "King me". Dad always played the red checkers and won more than he lost.

My father dropped out of school in the fourth grade. He was needed on the farm. He grew up with a love for the soil and an appreciation for the farmer. Dad learned math on his own. He maintained a ledger in which he wrote how much seed, fertilizer, and canned goods he loaned out to farmers on credit. At harvest, the farmers would sell their crops and come pay their bills. If my dad knew they'd had a tough year, he forgave much or all of the debt. That's how he and other businessmen treated their friends and neighbors when I was growing up.
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Saturdays were the busiest days at the store. My brother and I would walk the four blocks from our house to the store. We'd look at the candy jar and our dad would nod his OK for us to take a peppermint or horehound stick from the jar. Sometimes we'd help out by weighing and bagging nails or filling glass jars from the molasses barrel. Usually my father would give us movie money for a matinee at the Orpheum Theater. If there was any money left, we'd buy bubblegum, candy and comics at Roses Department Store. Across the street from the Orpheum was the fire department and the court house. In front of the court house was a news stand called The Blue Dot. The Blue Dot was run by a blind man. As children we were always amazed that he could make change from paper money just by the way it felt.

Oxford's downtown consisted of one block of stores on Main Street, another block of stores on College Street, and two blocks running horizontally in either direction from Williamsboro and Hillsboro Streets. The east end of town was anchored by a couple of service stations, one a Texaco and the other Esso; the west by a Chevy dealership. To the north was the Methodist church, and to the south was the First Baptist Church. In the dead center of town were two barber shops - Basement Barber Shop where I got my first haircut, and City Barber Shop where the good barber worked. Within those six commercial blocks were businessmen, bankers, judges, deputies, and ministers, and all knew each other by first name. Six days a week, these people passed each other with a wave or finalized a contract with a handshake and a promise; they tipped waitresses, checked the oil and washed windshields, fed parking meters, rang up sales and wrapped packages.

On Sundays, downtown Oxford was quiet, except at the Methodist and Baptist church ends. Awnings were rolled up and the blue law enforced as the townspeople worshipped and rested from six days of labor. Those were truly Happy Days for me; simpler, friendlier times when my dad made a decent living for his wife and sons. Certainly things weren't perfect back then, but people like my dad lived as good a life as they knew how. The lessons I learned have stuck with me and I strive to live up to my dad's example. I wish my children could experience the childhood I enjoyed.

Hope For Our Young Generation

A week ago Friday, 17 year old Danny was playing basketball with his dad. For perhaps only the second time in his memory, Danny won. His dad boasted that that would be the last time Danny beat him. It was. The following day, Danny's dad passed away.

A few months shy of graduating from high school, Danny found himself planning and paying for his father's funeral. He chose the music, found a pastor, and made the arrangements. On Saturday, Danny eulogized his dad, referring to him as his best friend.

On Sunday, Danny visited with us in Creedmoor at The Carpenter's Shop, which meets at Jon & Jill's Restaurant on Main Street. He listened to Jimmy talk about using our God-given talents to help others, as Jimmy has been doing for the folks down in New Orleans. Following church, Danny came over to our house for lunch. I'm very impressed with the character of this young man.

Danny recently joined the N.C. National Guard and will ship off to Ft. Benning, Georgia for basic training in June, followed by advanced training in air traffic control at Ft. Rucker, AL. Danny hopes to attend college so he can become an Apache helicopter pilot. He chose the National Guard because he wants to be close to home to help his mom raise his two younger brothers and a sister. Chances are that in a couple of years Danny could find himself serving in Afghanistan or wherever his country needs him.

When he's not in school making good grades, Danny is working sometimes two jobs to help provide for his family. When his father passed, Danny stepped up to the plate in spite of the pain of his dad's loss. Danny is a young man of excellent character and courage. He is already on his way to becoming a good leader.

Danny gives me hope for America's future. He understands sacrifice and duty to family and country. He doesn't demand someone else bear his burdens; he mans-up and does his best. I'm proud to know this young man and I pray for him, that he will realize his potential for making his part of the world better.

I Know Ma Ratts!

Relatively few Americans today devote attention to preserving and protecting the democratic principles we take for granted. Like the frog who's slowly boiled to death in a kettle, Americans are being lulled into accepting more and more government control over their lives. Each successive generation surrenders personal liberties in exchange for not having to preserve them. In my own lifetime, America has gone from the greatest force for good on this planet to a nation of ineffective, lazy socialists. As a result, there is a rise of evil regimes torturing and killing millions of innocents because they no longer fear the United States. We must reclaim our national virtue and morality and lift America back to its place of significance in worldly affairs, but first we need to reeducate our own citizens.
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We begin with an understanding of the principles upon which our Founders based their vision. These great men and women rejected the European theories of government and believed that a free citizen could create prosperity for himself and for the nation. In our Declaration of Independence, the Founders declared that "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, --"

The Founders then went on to identify those rights in the Bill of Rights. It was their intention to provide equal rights for all; but what does it mean when they say that "all men are created equal"?

They understood the difference between equal rights and equality. It was their intention to provide equal opportunity, but not to expect equal results. Take for example our nation's policies on education: We provide, at tax-payer expense, a free secondary education for all (including non-citizens). Granted, there are disparities in the quality of the teachers and the way the school systems divide up the funds, but overall, every child is given the opportunity to learn the basics of what it takes to succeed in life. Because some students do not put forth the same effort, they don't make the same grades as those who put forth more effort. Equal opportunity, but not equal results. Where our school systems fail however is when we lower the standards so that under-achievers can have the appearance of success. In an effort to be sensitive to some, our educational system has stifled the potential of all. America's educational system stacks up poorly behind less affluent nations, and we've lost many high-tech jobs to other countries as a result.

In fact, I believe that failures in our schools can be linked to the quality of the leaders we're raising up. Our Founders were all men who read and studied philosophy, theology, and politics. They were learned men who understood human nature. Our politicians today were taught by the radicals of the 60s and 70s who wanted to trade democracy for an unrealistic utopia. Where our Founders learned from history, our leaders today are taught revisionist history. Our education system has also failed to produce visionaries like our Founding Fathers. Our politicians today spend most of their time blaming the other party and the rest of their time taking more and more taxes to pay for things the government was never intended to be involved in.

The current efforts of the President and Congress to 'stimulate' our economy is another example of where our public servants fail the American people. President Obama believes that it is permissable to take from the more successful citizens and redistribute it to the less productive. Our Founders believed, correctly, that every citizen is entitled to equal rights but not equal possessions. It has been proven over and over that some people can lose fortunes and regain them while others can gain them and turn right around and lose them. What was important to the Founders is that every citizen be afforded the right to pursue prosperity for themselves and their kin. When the government decides to penalize the entrepreneur to subsidize another class of citizen, they violate the law by violating the rights of the affluent. Some may think that's OK, that the wealthy (a subjective term), can afford to lose (have stolen) their possessions and money; but when the government is given that sort of power from the people, they can choose to exercise that power over all citizens. This is why it is important for all citizens to protect and preserve our rights by voting out the greedy and power-hungry politicians.
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Alexander Hamilton said that "Inequality would exist as long as liberty existed...It would unavoidably result from that very liberty itself." Our Founders understood that the citizens "cannot delegate to the government the power to do anything except that which they have the lawful right to do themselves". (Dr. Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap) It is illegal for my neighbor to take something from me simply because he doesn't have it. So too, it is illegal, according to our founding documents, for the people to expect the government to take what is not theirs and give it to someone else. This is communism, and it hasn't worked in other nations - which is why so many foreigners attempt to immigrate to America.

Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and now President Obama have advanced the welfare state philosophy in violation of their oaths to protect and defend the Constition of the United States. Our Founders never intended for the government to have power over helping the 'less fortunate'. Responsibility lies with the individual citizen first, then with the family, the neighbor, the church, the county, and then the state. No federal authority to provide for the welfare of our citizens was granted or deemed necessary - yet every four years politicians win elections by promising the people what it does not have the legal right to give; and they deliver by stealing from other citizens.

Get Into the Pool

The following must be credited to Louie Giglio, associate pastor of North Point Community Church.

In my studies of America's history, I've been introduced to ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things. Some were unwilling, some believed passionately in a cause, some were in the right place at the right time - or the wrong place at the wrong time. The thing is, that out of hundreds of millions of Americans - citizens of the greatest nation ever on planet Earth, only a tiny fraction have stood out.

We've made heroes of people who've accomplished something in life. Americans used to look up to Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Alvin York. Today we look up to entertainers like Mylie Cyrus and Olympic athletes like Michael Phelps. See the difference?


Well, I've heard of someone who gained fame not for being the best athlete, but for being the worst in their sport; but in my view, he's a hero. Eric Moussambani, a native of Equatorial Guinea, was given the opportunity to participate in the 2000 Olympic Games. Only eight months earlier, Eric had never swam. He learned in a 20 foot hotel swimming pool - not the regulation 80 foot pool. On the day he was to compete, Eric found himself in the last heat. There were only two other competitors; one from Niger and the other from Tajikistan. Both of these swimmers were disqualified for false starts. Only Eric stood poised to dive when the buzzer sounded.
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At this point, Eric could have looked around at all the fans and tried to explain how he'd just learned how to swim a few months ago. He had seen how fast the swimmers were in the previous heats and knew that he had no chance of beating any of them. He could have made excuses and tried to prepare the fans and judges for what he knew would be an embarrassing performance, but Eric didn't do any of these things. He simply jumped into the pool - he didn't dive like the other athletes, but jumped - and he started dog paddling his way to the other end of the pool. Eric moved his head back and forth as other swimmers had done, although his head remained above water the entire time. When he got down to the end of the pool, he didn't do a nice flip and push off for the return leg, he grabbed onto the edge of the pool, caught his breath, and started swimming slowly back to the finish line.

By the time he was half way back, Eric was struggling. Even members of the media were removing their jackets and preparing to jump in to save him from drowning. But Eric pressed on, paddling his way to the finish line in one minute and fifty three seconds, a minute and four seconds behind the winner. Pieter van den Hoogenband.

When Eric finished his lap, he had the biggest grin on his face. The fans and media were cheering for him. A few laughed at his efforts and remarked that he should never have been there. One reporter wondered if Eric's home town of Malabo even had a pool if this was the best they could send to represent their country. Yet for Eric, he set his own personal best record and the national record for his country. Most importantly, Eric jumped into that pool and finished what he had started. Four years later, Eric had dropped a minute off his time, but was denied entry into the 2004 Olympic games because of a visa mistake. Still, his name will go down in history; not for being the best at what he did, but for doing his best with what he had.

In a culture that is enthralled with celebrity and with being close to exceptional people, how many of us choose to jump into our circumstances and give it our personal best? We are, afterall, human beings, not has-beens.

We were created to be passionate about life. Specifically, we were created to be passionate about God's life and our relationship with Him. The disciple Peter lived, ate, and learned from Jesus, but he's remembered most for walking on water. Sure, Peter sank when he took his eyes off of Jesus, but Peter understood that Jesus had something he wanted. He wanted to experience Christ, so he got out of the boat and into the sea. We should all desire to live above our circumstances and experience life as God created us to share with Him.

We should all be like Enoch of the Old Testament. Enoch was seventh in descendance from Adam and all before him had lived into their sixth, seventh, eighth and even ninth centuries. Enoch's son, Methusulah, lived longer than any other man since Creation. Enoch, however, only lived a little over 300 years - a young man in ancient times. But scripture tells us that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years. Enoch had an intimate relationship with God. He talked to God, walked with God, he spoke to his people for God, and scripture tells us that one day God took Enoch - he didn't die, God just hugged him a little closer and Enoch woke up face to face with his Creator.

Most of us cannot picture ourselves being so devoted to God that He just reaches out and takes us home, body and all. We can't even imagine walking on water like Peter or caring for thousands of lepers like Mother Teresa. We might know a lot of facts about God, but perhaps we've never experienced Him personally.
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However, we can do what Eric Moussambani did - jump into the pool and give it our best shot, with the knowledge that at the other end of this life is a reward with a Father who's been waiting for the opportunity to give us a hug and a high-five for finishing our life's race.

Founders

Recently I've been studying our founding fathers; those men who envisioned and equipped America to become the greatest nation on Earth. They were remarkable men, and women; yet at the same time they were ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. These patriarchs of our nation came from diverse economic and social backgrounds, yet they worked together to create a better world, and there is no doubt that America has been part of the best human experiment man has ever undertaken....despite the apologists who wish to rewrite our history.

I have often imagined living during the formative years of this nation. I envision there was a lot of excitement and passion for the cause of liberty. I ask myself, could I stand steady in battlefield formations as cannon and musketballs shredded the men on either side of me? I can only imagine the agony of marching barefoot along roads that consist of frozen, muddy ruts, or facing starvation and disease as part of an ill-equiped army. What motivated these people to risk everything for something they'd never experienced? What prompted farmers and merchants to set aside their livelihood and follow men like George Washington against a better organized and experienced enemy?
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Certainly there have been great Americans since our country was founded, yet their achievements have been individual rather than for the collective good. We've benefitted from Thomas Edison's inventiveness and Henry Ford's business savvy, from the philanthropy of Andrew Carnagie, the invention of powered flight by the Wright brothers, the prose of Emerson and Longfellow...and the list goes on - but none of these risked as much for so many.

Certainly, there are no great visionaries leading our nation at this time. They try to tweak and improve on the foundations laid by others, but the mark they leave in this life will pale in comparison to the likes of our Founding Fathers. There is no shortage of pride and confidence in our public servants today, but what is missing and what the Founding Fathers had, was courage and faith. Courage to do the right thing regardless of the consequences, and faith in the Creator and the wisdom found in His Word.
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Many of the things that our founders feared would threaten America's liberties are being borne out today as Americans surrender our freedoms in return for comfort and not having to be responsible for something greater than ourselves. Fortunately, there are a relative handful of Americans who understand and appreciate the sacrifices of our Founders and who themselves are willing to risk it all to preserve the Republic. We are on the brink of the next American Revolution where men and women will debate, exhort, and reason among themselves, and fight - if need be, to reclaim the vision that was America. It is possible that these patriots will be looked upon by their own countrymen as law breakers and extremists, but they must try and restore the principles upon which democracy really works. Otherwise, America's greatness and the good it means to the entire world will soon be a thing of the past.

Freedom vs Democracy

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." President John Adams, Oct 11, 1798.

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." President Thomas Jefferson. "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."


"There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent an sudden usurpation." President James Madison. "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

"They that would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

"Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." John Quincy Adams


"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom -- go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!" Samuel Adams

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom." Patrick Henry

"The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of Almighty direction, and will find His Word in his greatest darkness, a lantern to his feet and a lamp unto his paths.' He will therefore seek to establish for his country in the eyes of the world, such a character as shall make her not unworthy of the name of a Christian nation...." Francis Scott Key

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." Thomas Paine

"If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him....Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." William Penn - founder of Pennsylvania

"By removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime." Benjamin Rush - signer of the Declaration of Independence.


"There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from anothe quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men and become the instruments of their own undoing." Daniel Webster"I shall stand by the Union, and by all who stand by it. I shall do justice to the whole country...in all I say, and act for the good of the whole country in all I do. I mean to stand upon the Constitution. I need no other platform. I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my country's, my God's, and Truth's. I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this with absolute disregard of personal consequences.What are the personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country's fate? Let the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country."

"The brief exposition of the constitution of the United States, will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government; and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion. Noah Webster


Of the 56 men that signed the Declaration of Independence, those closest to the British forces paid the most dearly for signing the treasonous and illegal Declaration of Independence. All 56 signers faced death by hanging.

Francis Lewis had his home and estate plundered. His wife was captured and brutalized, later dying from the effects of bad treatment.

William Floyd and his family were unable to return to their pillaged home for seven years.

Philip Livingston was forced to leave his family and died alone in 1778.

Lewis Morris and family spent the entire war in exile, their vast estate and fortune destroyed.

"Honest John" Hart left his dying wife and 13 children behind, hiding in caves and forests. Years later he returned to find his wife's grave, his 13 children gone. He died alone, a broken man in 1779.

Richard Stockton was brutally beaten upon capture, and mistreated in prison. He died in 1781 a despondent 51 year-old.

Robert Morris lent his vast fortune and credit to the cause. He died broke in 1806.

William Ellery had his home and property looted.

Thomas Lynch Jr. sought vacation to aid his failing health, dying in a shipwreck.

Thomas Heyward, Edward Rutledge and Arthur Middleton lost their vast fortunes while in prison. Mrs. Heyward died while her husband was imprisoned.

Thomas Nelson Jr., despite failing health, served as a commander in the militia, and spent his personal fortune on the cause. At the battle of Yorktown, he ordered his own home destroyed by cannon fire while it was occupied by the British.

Abraham Clark was notified his two sons were captured and being brutally tortured while in prison. The British offered Clark his two sons freedom if he would renounce his signature on the Declaration of Independence. With a heavy heart he answered, "NO."

A Life of Significance

My friend and best selling author, James Pratt, has a great post on his blog where he relates the story of a homeless man he met and befriended. Go to the link above or to www.jmprattcom.blogspot.com and read 'About Life and Camelot, Cory and You'.

Then, go to my pastor and friend, Jimmy Chalmers' blog and read about his experiences as he helps families in New Orleans. Jimmy chronicles a month out of his life that he's devoted to helping victims of Katrina. www.jchalmers.blogspot.com.

Both James Pratt and James Chalmers lead lives of significance, and the world is a better place because of them. These men are the sort of citizens our Founding Fathers envisioned Americans would be.

DloggieBloggie

Check out my new blog with a view from a canine perspective.