Just about anybody over the age of 20 can remember the United States Army’s slogan, “Be All You Can Be”. Some of you just read those words and the catchy jingle is in your head right now. “Be…all that you can be…in the Arrrrrrrrrmmmmmy!” That slogan was so good; the Army didn’t change it for 21 years. If your life had [...]

The past two weeks the “Thought of the Week” has been drenched in a message of patriotism born from my passion for conserving and protecting our nation’s democracy how and where I can.  It doesn’t help that Labor Day and the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 were within a week of each other…those events just supplied the soapbox for me [...]

Ten years ago our world was different. There was no Transportation Security Administration (TSA). There was no Department of Homeland Security. There was no ‘War on Terror’. Terrorism wasn’t a household word and if I said, “We’re orange right now, you’d only think of the color, not your safety.” It took very little time to get through security at an [...]

As the ticket agent handed me my confirmed seat on the Chicago bound flight for which I had been standing-by, I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of getting home an hour earlier than planned and actually getting a full night’s rest! I was thinking, “No alarm clock tomorrow! It’s Labor Day!!” However my one man ‘hallelujah’ personal praise [...]