The Master Has Come

The Master hath come, and He calls us to follow
The track of the footprints He leaves on our way;
Far over the mountain and through the deep hollow,
The path leads us on to the mansions of day:
The Master hath called us, the children who fear Him,
Who march ’neath Christ’s banner, His own little band;
We love Him and seek Him, we long to be near Him,
And rest in the light of His beautiful land.

The Master hath called us; the road may be dreary
And dangers and sorrows are strewn on the track;
But God’s Holy Spirit shall comfort the weary;
We follow the Savior and cannot turn back;
The Master hath called us, though doubt and temptation
May compass our journey, we cheerfully sing:
“Press onward, look upward,” through much tribulation;
The children of Zion must follow the King.

The Master hath called us, in life’s early morning,
With spirits as fresh as the dew on the sod:
We turn from the world, with its smiles and its scorning,
To cast in our lot with the people of God:
The Master hath called us, His sons and His daughters,
We plead for His blessing and trust in His love;
And through the green pastures, beside the still waters,
He’ll lead us at last to His kingdom above.

-Sar­ah Doud­ney, 1871

American Recovery Act Spending in Ohio

This morning I read about how American Recovery Act Spending in Minnesota was reported by the government to be going to non-existent congressional districts. So I decided to check out the website for myself and look at spending in in my own state of Ohio. Here is what I found...but first of all you must realize that Ohio has 18 congressional districts numbered 1 through 18 using the old math.

No jobs have been created in the following congressional districts in Ohio:
00, 21, 99, 87, 85, 49, 54, 20, and 56

The corresponding amount of money used to stimulate jobs in these non-existent districts total:
$5,303,915

You can check this out for yourself: http://www.recovery.gov
You may want to check out the spending for your own state.

The question is, where did this money really go? One of the purported purposes of the website is "for the reporting of potential fraud, waste, and abuse." It's time for Americans to wake up and demand that the federal government explain where this money is going.

On Veteran's Day...

On this Veteran's Day it is our duty to once again thank the men and women who have sacrificed so much that we and people around the world may be free of tyranny and oppression. The man shown on the left is Lt. John P. Balzer, USMC, my grandfather who during World War II helped to secure the highly fortified Pacific island of Iwo Jima. He never talked much about his experience and the little that I did learn about his time there came mostly through third parties. I'm guessing that part of this was because of the difficulty of facing death all around and the trauma that this creates in one's soul whether the fallen are friend or foe (I'm guessing he saw both.) I also believe that part of his silence was a result of humility. We hail these men as heros and rightly so, but I think for many of them, they merely rose up and did what they had to do when evil was on the rise in the world. These men rose up when their families and the nation they loved were at risk. Thank you, grandpa, for your example of service and Semper Fi.

It is on this Veteran's day that I fear that we are losing the values that made our country strong in the past exemplified in the lives of men like Lt. Balzer. These great men never asked for an easy life and they never waited on anyone else for handouts. They knew that it was up to them to live and work and fight when necessary to accomplish goals and promote values that were greater than themselves. What we are seeing now in our country would make many of these heros role over in their graves. We seem to be living in a country where we are afraid to stand up for the values of freedom and liberty for fear that we might "offend" someone. We want to assume that no worldview is necessarily right or wrong and that everyone, no matter who they are, is entitled to their opinion even if they are Muslim radicals. Where are the men with backbone who are willing to call a spade a "spade"? Where are the men who will selflessly stand up and speak the truth when no one else is? Where are the patriotic young Americans who will step up to the plate and lead this country where it needs to go?

On this Veteran's Day, I call on young men and women in this great country to think about how you will live. Are you going to take the path of least resistance? Are you going to wait around for others to stand up or are you going to take the initiative and be a leader as everyone around you is asleep at the switch? There would be no greater salute to our veterans this day than for the young people of this country to take up the mantle of the "Greatest Generation" and begin to sway the balance of power in the Land back toward those who value virtue, freedom, and liberty.