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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Inspirations & Happy New Year - Jan., 1, 2010

Inspirations for Fri., Jan. 1, 2010

We can think of no greater inspiration for today than to acknowledge another year of life, look forward to hope for the future, and share that hope with family, friends, and associates.

Happy New Year to YOU!

Henry & Dianne Ford

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Inspirations for Thur., Dec. 31, 2009

Inspirations for Thur., Dec. 31, 2009

VISIONS – Jan-Feb. 2010 is available on-line at http://visionsnewsletter.blogspot.com/2009/12/visions-jan-feb-2010.html.

Please share this message with others, and share your thoughts. Also, remember, we need YOUR STORY!

**

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 30, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 30, 2009

The following quotes were taken from Twitter
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When your dreams turn to dust, vacuum

Desmond Tutu

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The thoughts we choose to think are the tools we use to paint the canvas of our lives

Louise Hay

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You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.

Beverly Sills

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For the Hip-Hop Generation – Check out: http://www.urbannewz.com

**

Monday, December 28, 2009

Inspirations for Tues, Dec. 29, 2009

Inspirations for Tues., Dec. 29, 2009

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THANKS for Karen Morrow for sharing this one:

When the voice & the vision on the inside become more profound, and clear and loud than the opinions on the outside, you've mastered your life.

Dr. John Demartini

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In work, the greatest satisfaction lies - the satisfaction of
stretching yourself, using your abilities and making them expand, and
knowing that you have accomplished something that could have been
done only by your unique apparatus. This is really the center of
life, and those who never orient themselves in this direction are
missing more than they ever know.

Kenneth Alsop (1920-1973)

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My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories.

Bjorn Borg
Professional Tennis Player

**

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 28, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 28, 2009

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The future exists first in the imagination, then in the will, then in reality.

Robert Wilson

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When you argue for your limitations you perpetuate them.

Orrin Woodward

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The principles we live by, in business and in social life, are the most important part of happiness. We need to be careful, upon achieving happiness, not to lose the virtues which have produced it.

Harry Harrison

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Not a great surprise, but a confirmation to the doubters: Students Who Blog or Use Facebook Have Higher Literacy Levels:

http://techxav.com/2009/12/03/facebook-children

**

Friday, December 25, 2009

Inspirations for Fri., Dec. 25, 2009

Inspirations for Fri., Dec. 25, 2009

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Thanks to Michael Hughes for sharing the following:

Gift Suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent,
tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To every child, a good example. To
all, charity. To yourself, respect."

Oren Arnold

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From Dianne & Henry

Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays) to all, and to all a Good Day!

**

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Inspirations for Thur., Dec. 24, 2009

Inspirations for Thur., Dec. 24, 2009

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One day at a time - this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone: and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.

Ida Scott Taylor
1820-1915, Author

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There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down,
the other is pulling up.

Booker T. Washington

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Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in private and public life have been the consequence of action without thought.

Bernard M. Baruch
1870-1965, American Financier

**

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 23, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 23, 2009

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It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected
of him.

John Steinbeck
(1902-1968) American Novelist

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Our real duty is always found running in the direction of our
worthiest desires.

Randolph S. Bourne
(1886-1918) American Writer

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You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone, which can become a watered-down, occasional hope that you'll get to tomorrow. Intention without action is useless.

Caroline Myss
Author of Entering The Castle


**

Monday, December 21, 2009

Inspirations for Tue., Dec. 22, 2009

Inspirations for Tues., Dec. 22, 2009

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A minute of thought is worth more than an hour of talk.

Author unknown

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Opportunity is sometimes hard to recognize if you’re only looking for a lucky break.

Monta Crane

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The virtues which keep this world sweet and the faithfulness which keeps it steadfast are chiefly those of the average man.

W. Russell Bowie

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Every man has an obscure respect for courage in others, especially if
it is moral courage, the rarest and most difficult sort of bravery...
It makes the very brute understand that this man is more than a man.

Passage from Life of Christ

**

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 21, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 21, 2009

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Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Helen Keller
1880-1968, Blind/Deaf Author and Lecturer

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Patience does not mean indifference. We may work and trust and wait, but we ought not to be idle or careless while waiting.

Author unknown

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Reality is not the same to the doer as it is to the sayer.

Haki Madhubuti

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled
by, And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost
(1875-1963) American Poet

**

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Inspirations for Fri., Dec. 18, 2009

Inspirations for Fri., Dec. 18, 2009

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Your future is awaiting the burial of your past.

Pat Mesiti

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Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Author and Publicist

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A life without purpose is a languid, drifting thing; Every day we
ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves: This day let me
make a sound beginning, for what we have hitherto done is naught!

Thomas A. Kempis

**

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Inspirations for Thur., Dec. 17, 2009

Inspirations for Thur., Dec. 17, 2009

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We were not created to be eaten by anxiety, but to walk erect, free, unafraid in a world where there is work to do, truth to seek, love to give and win.

Joseph Ford Newton
Author

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The purpose of an education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

Malcolm Forbes

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The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They
believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to
correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself.

Wang Yang-Ming (1472-1529)
Chinese Philosopher

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 16, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 16, 2009

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Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of
courage and true progress.

Nicholas Murray Butler

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The first virtue of all really great men is that they are sincere.
They eradicate hypocrisy from their hearts.

Anatole France

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Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

Lance Armstrong
Cancer Survivor and Athlete

Monday, December 14, 2009

Inspirations for Tue., Dec. 15, 2009

Inspirations for Tue., Dec. 15, 2009

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When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.

Catherine Ponder
Author of The Dynamics of Prosperity

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Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had
wonderful things happen to you.

Mary Tyler Moore
American Actress

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Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt
1859-1919, 26th President of the United States

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 14, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 14, 2009

--
Thanks to our friend Kim Leonhardt who shared the following with us:

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.'

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

And if you don't send this to at least 8 people - who cares?
But do share this with someone.
We all need to live life to its fullest each day!!


Worry about nothing, pray about everything!!!!

**

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Inspirations for Fri., Dec. 11, 2009

Inspirations for Fri., Dec. 11, 2009

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Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.

Bruce Lee
1940-1973, Martial Artist, Actor and Author

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The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.

Pearl S. Buck

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If you have achieved any level of success, then pour it into someone else. Success is not success without a successor.

T. D. Jakes

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Inspirations for Thur, Dec. 10, 2009

Inspirations for Thur., Dec. 10, 2009

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Who supplies another with a constructive thought has enriched him forever.

Alfred A. Montapert


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If you have the courage to step outside of your comfort zone, you will not only be amazed by the marvel and sights of the world, but also with the wonders that lay deep within yourself.

Rosanna Ienco

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Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in
your humdrum routine, as perhaps it may be thought, the true poetry
of life.

Sir William Osler (1849-1919)
Canadian Physician

**

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 9, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 9, 2009

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Thanks to our friend Staci Jordan Shelton for sharing the following:

"Do what you were created to do. Period. A flower doesn't ask: 'What's in it for me?" before it blooms!"

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Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

Napoleon Hill
1883-1970, Author of Think and Grow Rich

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If a man be gracious to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen of
the world, and his heart is no island, cut off from other islands,
but a continent that joins them.

Francis Bacon

Monday, December 07, 2009

Inspirations for Tue., Dec. 8, 2009

Inspirations for Tue., Dec. 8, 2009

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When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way you will command the attention of the world.

George Washington Carver
1864-1943, Scientist

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May we know unity--without conformity.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

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The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish defy it, the wise judge it, the skillful direct it.

Madame Roland

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There is abundant testimony that if we choose love rather than self, we gain immeasurably.

Federico Fellini

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 7, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 7, 2009

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THANKS for the following information passed to us by Terri Lynn Taylor - FOR FYI: Jobs Available with The Census Bureau. Office jobs, field jobs, managerial jobs. Call 1-866-861-2010 to take the government test in your area. The practice test can be found at http://www.census.gov.

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Someday, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process.

Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
American Bishop

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Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference.

Nolan Bushnell
Founder of Atari

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 7, 2009

Inspirations for Mon., Dec. 7, 2009

--

THANKS for the following information passed to us by Terri Lynn Taylor - FOR FYI: Jobs Available with The Census Bureau. Office jobs, field jobs, managerial jobs. Call 1-866-861-2010 to take the government test in your area. The practice test can be found at http://www.census.gov.

--

Someday, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process.

Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
American Bishop

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Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference.

Nolan Bushnell
Founder of Atari

Friday, December 04, 2009

Inspirations for Fri., Dec. 4, 2009

Inspirations for Fri., Dec. 4, 2009

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The real test of a man is not how well he plays the role he has invented for himself, but how well he plays the role that destiny assigned to him.

Jan Patocka

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If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.

Rabbi Harold Kushner
Author of When Bad Things Happen To Good People

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The space in a needles eye is sufficient for two friends, but the whole world is scarcely big enough to hold two enemies.

Solomon Ibn Gabirol

**

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Inspirations for Thu., Dec. 3, 2009

Inspirations for Thu., Dec. 3, 2009

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Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

Kahlil Gibran

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Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.

Thomas Huxley
1825-1895, Biologist and Educator

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Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.

Hyman Rickover


**

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 2, 2009

Inspirations for Wed., Dec. 2, 2009

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Like to Text While Driving? Click on http://www.events.successisyou.org/page069.html for SPECIAL OFFER!

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Do you realize that your life at this very moment is the result of everything that you have ever thought, done, believed or felt up until now? You can start right now to consciously and deliberately attract whatever you desire in this lifetime.

Jack Canfield

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Relinquish the need to defend your point of view. In defenselessness, you remain open to all points of view, not rigidly attached to one of them.

Deepak Chopra

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Hard things are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our
courage and strength.

Anonymous

The Power (and sometimes the Poison) of the Pen

The Power (and sometimes the Poison) of the Pen
By Henry Ford

It is reported that in the year 1712, along the banks of the James River, a man by the name of Willie Lynch gave a speech to Slave Owners telling them how to control their slaves. The speech promoted creating and expanding divisions with the slave community. Today, nearly 300 years later, the Willie Lynch syndrome has been given yet another breath of life and truth in the form of a caricature published in a most surprising place, Cleveland’s black owned newspaper.

A recent issue of the Cleveland Call & Post contained a caricature depicting State Senator Nina Turner as Aunt Jemima. For those unfamiliar with the image of Aunt Jemima, she is a painful reminder of America’s preoccupation with the systematic degrading of Black Americans. It is bad enough that racists used the image to degrade black people, but it is even more tragic when the image is reincarnated and used by the victim, against the victim.

Senator Turner’s “crime” was being on the side of a political issue opposite from the area’s powerful black politicians and the Call & Post newspaper. Imagine the “nerve” of the Senator to not agree with what is, the “nerve” to have a dissenting opinion. I am reminded of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being “out of touch” with local leadership in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. I am reminded of his unpopular stance against the Vietnam War, a war that eventually became unpopular with the majority. Imagine the results had Dr. King joined the crowd simply because it was comfortable and convenient. This conjecture could lead to debating the right and wrong of an issue that has already been decided by the voters. That however is not the issue this article addresses. Common decently and respect are the issues before us.

I believe the newspaper has every right to editorialize, but also the responsibility to do so in good taste. Had the same depiction appeared in a white owned newspaper, the telephone lines would be ablaze with protests. What gives those in the position to educate and inform, the right to degrade and dehumanize? What entitles them to perpetuate images that for so long have plagued the black community. This is the year we elected a president based in large part on his vision of building bridges and mending fences, yet some choose to continue on the path of division.

My concern includes the young people of this city and this nation. What we do and say impacts the minds and hearts of the young and the not-so-young among us. What lesson did they learn from seeing a State Senator depicted as Aunt Jemima? Isn’t one of the issues we have with young people the lack of respect they have for themselves, their parents, and in the end the entire society? Do we want them to apply caricatures of Aunt Jemima and other images of disrespect to those who might not agree with them? Do we want them to become less tolerant of others? Do we want them to be afraid to have an independent thought, for fear of being “labeled?” Before considering those questions as irrelevant, reflect for a moment on some of the “reasons” you’ve heard for the senseless gang violence that is killing our young people and destroying our families. Many of these tragedies are rooted in intolerance.

Also for the larger community and the world, the level of respect others have for African-Americans is directly related to the level of respect we have for ourselves and our brothers and sisters. If we think it is permissible to degrade our own brothers and sisters, what treatment then do we expect from others?

This article is not about politics, it is about common decency and mutual respect. I have a great deal of respect for many of the political leaders who were in opposition to Senator Turner’s views on Issue 6. In fact, I too was in opposition to the Senator’s position. Whether that was right or wrong is not the issue. The issue is now that the battle is over, do we continue the war or do we sit down at the table?

I quote the last part of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s words “we are all in the same boat now?” What do we do going forward? Do we seek to destroy Senator Turner’s career, and if so, what will be accomplished? I would suggest that if anyone wants to “get even” with the Senator, that they emulate her talent, her passion and her determination, and challenge her on a level that calls each of us to the greatness that we have within.

My prayer is that the Call & Post will rise toward its potential greatness and print a retraction and apology to Senator Turner. My request to the Call & Post Readers in my audience is that you let me know if that does occur, because after following the newspaper since childhood, I find the need for something less objectionable and more inspiring to the human spirit.

Those who possess the “Power of the Pen” and the blessing of an audience need to insure that they use that power in a way that educates, inspires and empowers. While a picture is often worth a thousand words, some of those pictures along with their insinuations belong in the distance past.

You may reply to Henry Ford at successisyou@yahoo.com and please, no caricatures!