This past few months have been quite interesting. I have become quite a fan of the online networking site, FaceBook. It seems every day or so I find or am found by someone out of the past, people I never thought I would hear from again. People that I had completely lost contact with and had no idea where they were or what they were doing.

I’ve always wondered about the beginnings of Ground Hog Day so I decided to do some research to see what I could find. Of course, Google is god in research these days and as I didn’t fancy traveling to the library on such a rainy day as this, the internet wins out again. Long live Google.

Maybe I’m the only one that didn’t know this but today while looking through the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of the Kentucky Historical Society Chronicle, I was surprised to find that Lincoln was actually born in Kentucky.

I bought a wallet yesterday on the way home from work. It’s not something I do very often, not that I don’t enjoy the act of going through my old wallet and finding all those things I’ve stuck in there since the last time.

But this changing of the wallet was kind of different, I hadn’t bought a new one for almost nine years. The old one was still quite sturdy, still held all of the things I need with me. All the different forms of identification I’ve acquired over the years, credit cards and library cards. All the business cards people have given me, half of which I have no idea why I have them. All the things that I will continue to carry, probably for the rest of my life.

There are also a couple things that won’t be going in the new wallet. A couple of things I worked hard to get but don’t really need anymore. I guess you could say they’ve outlived their original usefulness to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very proud of the accomplishment of acquiring them, they are still priceless to me, but they don’t belong in my wallet anymore and they don’t mean the same thing to me as they once did. They used to prove who I was, or at least a part of who I was but now they are a tribute to tenacity I didn’t know I possessed. Now they remind me of something I should have never even dreamed but in the end, something that I accomplished, none the less.

I know it probably sounds a little like I’m bragging and I guess in a way, I am. I am proud.

The reason I’m changing wallets is because of a letter that came in the mail the day before yesterday. It was one I knew was on its way. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it until it was in my hand. I didn’t really need to open it, I knew what it said, it was my doing that sent it on its way. It said that a part of my life was over, a part I worked hard for, a part I can be proud of. I never really took full advantage of what I had accomplished and there were lots of complicated reasons for that, not the least of which was a back injury that happened very early on. I used to be angry about that and a few other things that all but kept me from what I had been trained to do, but I was blessed, and that anger passed.

The whole experience has taught me an unfathomable amount of wisdom. It has helped me see what’s important in life, or in my life anyways. It taught me that nobody can tell you what you can’t do, they don’t know. It taught me why I was put on this Earth, that there are those of us that can’t stay away when something is happening, that can’t walk away from something that needs doing. Those that don’t care whether they look stupid or weak, as long as nobody gets hurt and it all turns out all right in the end.

Man, this makes me sound like quite a guy. The truth is that I am quite a blessed guy. I’ve had the chance to accomplish things I may never have accomplished if there hadn’t been roadblocks put in my way, because it was those roadblocks that gave me that tenacity that I needed to overcome.

The great part about all this is the fact that it may have been a badge that helped show me all the things that need doing in this world but none of us really need a badge to accomplish most of it. We just need to stand up and be counted, we need to remember that it’s always the right time to do the right thing. We need to put ourselves in someone else’s place and realize how we would feel if we needed help and people just walked away because it wasn’t their problem, because they just didn’t want to get involved.

Sorry, I’ve been away. Not away as in on vacation but away as in reordering some of my priorities. There are a whole bunch of things that just weren’t much fun anymore.

Have a Happy and Safe Fourth!

Most Americans know the history of the Fourth of July but just in case, I thought I might hit the high spots.

If you tried to  visit our site in the last couple of hours, you probably experienced all kinds of strange results. I’m learning as I go and the last couple of hours proved that I haven’t learned quite enough. Sorry for any inconvienence.

Now, let me tell you about how I got the site back up.

Most of you know that I just switched hosts and what happened this afternoon would have been a whole lot worse without the help of Ralph and his team at Top Class Host. They literally saved me hours and hours of rebuilding everything from the ground up. They are not only “Top Class Host” but they a “First Class Hosts”!

If you’re shopping for a new host please give these people a try. You’ll be glad you did.

Thank you again to Ralph and his crew plus a big apology for causing them so much work.

www.topclasshost.com

-Traveler

I’m not sure what I expected Friday night when my wife and I arrived at the Reitz Union on the University of Florida. We got there early, which is normal for us, we like to find a good seat and get comfortable.

As it got closer to the 6:30 P.M. time of the screening of “Jessie’s Dad“, a documentary that chronicles some of what Jessica Lunsford‘s father, Mark Lunsford has experienced since his daughter was abducted and killed, it became apparent that it would be a packed house. There were to be two other documentary’s screened that night but the first seemed to be the one that most of the crowd was there for.

I felt sorry for the other filmmakers because they would have to follow what was and still is a very emotional story that most anyone that was in this state in 2005 remembers seeing on the nightly news.

On February 24th, 2005, Jessica Lunsford was abducted from her home in Homosassa, Florida by a neighbor who lived across the street. He raped her and kept her hidden in his bedroom closet for three days and then killed her by burying her alive inside two plastic bags in a hole in his back yard, while the neighborhood and local law enforcement searched for her.

At first the public didn’t know what to make of Jessie’s dad, Mark Lunsford. He wasn’t as polished as Marc Klaas or John Walsh, two other fathers of slain children who have become activists, but he was down to earth, and when I listened to him speak I could hear the emotion in his voice and see the pain on his face. He made me feel that what I was seeing and hearing was exactly what was going on inside of him.

He was gracious enough to shake hands and have a couple of words with Lori, my wife, and I Friday night at the film screening. In fact, I noticed that he stopped and talked to anyone who asked for a moment of his time, in between being interviewed by a couple of members of the local media.

I found Mark Lunsford to be, in person, the same as I had seen him numerous times on television. He was friendly and talkative but seemed, at heart, to be soft spoken and quiet. He appeared calm and thoughtful, with the personality that made me feel like I already knew him.

Lunsford has traveled across the country to champion “Jessie’s Law” to politicians and the public in general, urging the public to let their voices be heard and the politicians to listen and pass some form of the law in their respective states. To date, 33 of those states have enacted various versions of “Jessie’s Law”, directly due to Mark’s traveling, speaking and persuading.

from the Jessica Marie Lundsford Foundation Website:

Mark Lunsford:

I have four main goals:

1. To educate legislators why we need tougher legislation
   
2. Provide a grassroots awareness and continuous support base.
   
3. Search, locate and help law enforcement apprehend absconder pedophiles
   
4. To be with Jessie again

Boaz Dvir, co-director of the film, “Jessie’s Dad” was there Friday night and even introduced several of the principles of the film that were in the audience. Fridays screening was a rough cut version of what will eventually be a 50 minute film, Dvir hopes to sell, not to the highest bidder but to the network that will do the story justice.

The link below is to a 10 minute trailer of the film:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/jessies-dad-preview/270909646

Please take a little time and watch it but don’t think that this ten minutes is even close to representative of the remainder of the film. Even the rough cut version shown Friday night was much more powerful and emotional than the ten minute clip. If this documentary makes its way to broadcast television, don’t miss it.

The story of Mark Lunsford is very moving to me because he’s somebody who could have just faded back into the wood work after the tragedy of the rape and murder of his daughter, Jessie. He does not come across at all as the attention seeking, media chasing victim. He comes across as somebody who survived a terrible tragedy and turned it into a positive campaign to make this country safer for the rest of the children. He has persevered where a lot of us would have just packed it in and headed home. He took some of the anger and pain that he felt and used it to motivate him to make positive changes in this country that will benefit each and every child. In the end, his work will reduce drastically the number of convicted pedophiles on the streets. It will certainly make a difference in the ‘revolving door’ way that our judicial system treats the people that rape and murder our children.

So Mark, thanks again for stopping to share a couple of words with us Friday night, it meant a lot to both of us but especially to Lori. If you ever need help with your cause in the Gainesville area, look us up, we’d be honored to help. Oh and Lori says to tell you that Jessie would be very proud of her dad.

Please take the time to visit the Jessica Marie Lundsford Foundation site. And maybe you could buy a copy of Toby Bradley’s CD that this song is on, proceeds go to the foundation:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/when-you-come-home-jessies-song-video/3720801262?icid=acvsv1

It was a warm January evening in Williston. The Jenkins family was watching television in their living room. Shelby the family dog, was kicked back, enjoying his regular place at the end of the couch. Shelby was the only member who felt the low, rhythmic rumble, which was the only warning of the impending danger. He wandered from room to room, looking for the cause of the vibration as the rest of the family, engrossed in the T.V., hardly noticed his search.