Now is the Time!

Editor's Note: This is my response that I promised in an earlier posting to the election issues here in Lee County.  It is addressing one citizen in particular.  But we all need to look at ourselves and how we conduct our daily life!

There comes a time when, if we are listening to our inner spirit, and trying to do the right things in our life that we have to confront someone and tell them if they continue on the path they are going, only destruction and  mayhem will come their way while they are attempting to destroy others.  It's our duty as friends, parents, and citizens.

We must stand up and say enough. 

That time is now.  It's never comfortable to confront perceived bullies.  It was, whether I want to admit it or not, a bit shaky to confront Bobby Etheridge.  But I did.  And I won't stop.  That being said, I wholeheartedly say the words below to one of our citizens.  Actually I say these to any of you who are acting this way and think you can just continue to be dishonest.

Dear Keith
(and those like him):

You have done more damage this election cycle to personal lives and families than Obama has.  You claim to have taken the Beck 40/40 pledge.  I beg to differ.  You may have uttered the words, but did they really make it to your heart?

The 40/40 pledge is pretty specific. It's based on Faith, Hope, and Charity. Not once does it call for violence or malice. Not once does it say to lie.  It says to get the lies out of your life.  Well read below to see what it does say.

From the pledge:

"Hope...hope comes from truth. You can't have hope based on lies. If you go to the doctor and you're in the early stages of cancer, but the doctor tells you that you just have the sniffles...that's false hope, and it won't help you, in fact, it would kill you. So, we have to have honesty, to have real hope. So, I will stop all lies for the next 40 days. That includes lying to myself. I will establish a pattern of honesty and make it become habitual. I will question with boldness...everything...even the things Glenn Beck tells you every night...I will do my own research...and then pray for my own confirmation on the things I have learned. I will find out what is true in my life."

However, you are allowed to do this because of the First Amendment. 

People died for this right.

I am thankful you gave me a forum to begin my "hobby".

 But I am more thankful I had the wisdom and the guts to start my own blog. 

It would bode you well to stop and read the poem excerpts below.  We are the ones who cause ourselves to self-destruct.  And it doesn't have to be that way.  We choose to do it.

I'm not one of those in this county who are afraid of you.  Retribution from certain individuals and those in power will not deter me.  A  higher power guides my life.  And I have privately warned and pleaded with you over and over to please stop.  That's what friends do.  But alas, it's to no avail.

My friends are not liars. My friends don't spew slanderous remarks.  They tell the truth and they don't do dirty tricks to sway elections.  That's fraud.

What my friends and I will do, however, is pray for you. And pray diligently that you actually will look deep in your soul and find out what's there. Because what's on the surface we see is nothing that I want.

Here read the few verses  I have copied here.  The tapping on your door is to tell you to wake up. Stop.  You are the only one who will be permanently damaged from the hate and discord you shovel out.  I know.  I have my own misery that I deal with daily because of the choices I have made and the people I have hurt.

So I say enough is enough. None of this is meant with malice towards you. It is to show that no matter what you do, we still will lift you up each and every day in our prayers just like we do Congress and our President.  I will admit Bobby E corrected me on one thing during our conversation outside of the courthouse at the forum.  He told me President Obama is OUR president. And that he regrets not showing President Bush the respect of the office. Somewhere in Bobby's heart, there is some honesty.  Only God knows the rest.

Please open the door! Open the door to forgiveness and peace. I and my friends will shower you with it. Yes, I believe my GOP friends have you in their prayers. But YOU are the one who has to open the chamber door. 

The Raven

by Edgar Allen Poe

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-

Only this and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the lost Lenore--

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

"'Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door--

Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;

This it is and nothing more."

I'm sorry you've chosen this path.  It doesn't have to stay that way.  There is so much that our country and city could benefit from with the research you do and the love you seem to have for America. 

 But it is all naught if the way things have been continue to be.
Sheila