Respect

With every day that goes by, it seems the idea of respect in our country and communities is dwindling to a lost art form.

• Respect for ideas that are different.
• Respect for people who are different.
• Respect to EVERYONE in public discourse.
• Respect without judgement for those who are down on their luck.
• Respect for our Elders.
• Respect for the ill and infirm, no matter how they got to that point.
• Respect for Life in all forms.
• A healthy respect for our enemies.
• Respect and regard for our bodies, keeping them clean and wholesome as well as healthy. Respect for our own privacy...why are we sharing every detail of our personal lives with the world at large, instead of with treasured people in real time and in person.
• Respect for thoughtful, intelligent commentary instead of media sensationalized sound bites.
• Respect for the wisdom of experience.
• Respect for God and his word, whether you agree with the belief or not.
• Respect shown in the form of common manners and foul language left in the locker room.
• Respect shown by turning your cell phone off every once in a while and noticing the people around and across the table from you....and talking quietly when you DO have to be on it.

Much of the tension in our country could be solved by "just saying YES to respect!"

Thank you, President Bush

Dear President Bush,

I want to thank you and your family, including your brother Jeb, your father and your mother for years of dedicated service in trying to protect and defend what is right about America.

We are a very young country in the midst of what might be compared to a late 20's rebellion if we were talking about a person. We want to tell our parents that they don't know anything about the way the world really is and we want to change it to suit us. Really we want to change it so that we are just like the "cool people" instead of remaining the shining individual that God made us.

Thank you for standing up in the face of the onslaught of "me-ism" and "isolationism" to say we don't have to agree with or please everyone and for taking up your primary responsibility every day with vigilance...to protect the people of the United States from attacks from without and within.

Thank you for being an honorable man, a faithful husband and a good father through it all.

You indeed will be able to look in that mirror in the new house in Texas and be pleased with what you see. Did you please everyone? No. Is God pleased with you? Yes. And He is the only one that matters. The creator of the universe has more work waiting for you.

PS - I hope Jeb will reconsider a Florida Senate seat or some other leadership down the road.