Wow....I started this blog just over a week ago. It was originally intended as a personal forum for my own thoughts. I never really intended it to be anymore than an academic exercise in honest reflection for me personally, but with technology and time, my thoughts have spread to people all over the country and the world.
I did not intend for this blog to be entirely political, but instead a blog about sincerely engaging with the important issues of our time. Instead, keeping with the theme of "then it hit me", I realized as this blog has rapidly become more popular, that I really do care more about this upcoming election in 2008 than I had personally acknowledged and let on. For example, for the first time in my life, I bought a political candidate's book and read it, almost overnight. I have carried that book around and had other people read excerpts, all the while saying, "You see what a great candidate Mike Huckabee is?" People everywhere nod their heads in unison.
Now, lets be real, I don't even know Governor Huckabee. I am 21 and I have no real reason to spend money I should be saving for tuition and car payments on donating to a presidential campaign. Yet, I believe for the future of a country I love so dearly, I can sacrifice to support a man who I pray my fellow Americans will help me elect as the person who can and will lead us forward as a proud nation. As the importance of my donating has sunk in with me, all of this has "hit me" again.
I am so encouraged to know I am not alone. You read posts on newspaper sites and blog sites, you hear people respond on talk radio, etc. and everywhere you hear people say that they, for the first time in their lives, wholeheartedly believe in a candidate and are invigorated by the process because of Mike Huckabee. The reason for this is that Mike Huckabee speaks to these people. His message hits home with the people in our schools, in our communities, and undoubtedly, in our churches, regardless of one's denomination. As it "hit me", I realized that as a future teacher, Mike Huckabee speaks to me because he not only talks a good game on education, but his record follows strongly in suit. I believe that Mike Huckabee understands the profound importance of educators presently and in the future and that he will go to bat for me, and more importantly, my students, as I search for and hopefully attain a job within the coming year.
That is just with me, however. Governor Huckabee's message speaks to more people and professions than teachers alone. I challenge those that visit and read this blog to visit his web site, to go to YouTube and watch clips of what he has to say. If, and when, you do, you may just find that Mike Huckabee speaks to you too.
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4 comments:
Stopped by to say "Welcome To The Huckabee Blog Roll".
This is a very informative blog, keep the great posts coming!!
Will,
At 57, I'm old enough to be your father, but we share the same enthusiasm for Mike Huckabee and his campaign to be the next President of the United States.
I'm a bit of a political junkie, having followed politics for nearly 50 years (I was a big supporter of Nelson Rockefeller for Governor of my native state of New York back in 1958 at the tender age of eight!).
In recent years, I've grown pretty cynical about the sincerity of politicians on both the Right and Left, but Governor Huckabee has rekindled the idealism of my youth.
You say you don't even know Governor Huckabee. As I mentioned in a comment to an earlier post, I'm proud to say I've had the honor of shaking his hand and speaking briefly with him back on July 23 when he preached in Amarillo, Texas. There's something so genuine about this humble man that even those who don't share his political beliefs are impressed with him.
I recently shared my enthusiasm about Governor Huckabee with my brother, a dyed in the wool Democrat who still lives in upstate New York. Even he was impressed by him, which says a lot about his crossover appeal and potential for being a uniter.
Keep up the faith, Will. It's an uphill battle, but come January 20, 2009, we may be witnessing the inauguration of Mike Huckabee as our forty-fourth President.
When I left Korea in April, 1951, I told the Lord that when I get home I would tell the Pastor of my chosen church,(Fred Judson at Trinity Baptist in Santa Monica, CA) that I knew there was something that needed to be done there and that I would see that it got done. While I was continuing my education for a career as a commercial artist, I went to see Pastor Judson and told him what I had told the Lord. He was pleased and said what he needed more than anything was a SS senior high school TEACHER! I was shocked! I thought I might be mowing lawns or cleaning toilets on Saturdays. He said, "Did you mean what you told the Lord?" I said, "Yes sir," and took the class.
After teaching that class for 3 years, I completely lost my interest in becoming a commercial artist and, instead, burned with a desire to become a TEACHER! My wife agreed and together we worked to complete my 4 year college education as a teacher.
I had assumed I would teach secondary grades but as I drew closer to the classroom I realized that my calling was not to "subject matter" but to teach foundational principles and character values. The upper elementary grades included the fastest accelerated rate of normal learning in a human's life, the 10th year, 5th grade. In California, the 5th grade social studies are American History! I taught school for over 30 years and in the early years wrote a civics workbook (Gr. 5-8) based on God's answer, "Man Defined: Earth's Choicemaker," to His own question, "What is man...?" and Jefferson's D of I, "endowed with Liberty." It won a number of awards and was placed in the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, KS, by "Ike" himself.
When I retired in 1986, I began a series of lay missionary short-term trips to Central America (4), Russia (2), and one each to South Korea and Israel. Today, my major effort is posting my main message on websites all over the world - especially throughout the Middle East countries - where man-made religions and humanist philosophies prevail. Their ideas measure human value and non-value by the collective group, not the Individual - and reject 'choice' as a definitive in our human nature.
(Similar to the teechur unions in the public schools!) During 10 of those years, I also taught Observation Drawing, Oil Painting, and the Nature of the choice-making Creative Process, in two Adult Schools, two nights a week. Loved it!
vincit veritas
YOU are absolutely on the right track for a productive life!
The Hands of the Teacher
After 30 years in the classroom I am
convinced that the personal example the
teacher sets before the student is the
single most important reason learning
occurs. Example offers a behavioral
definition of character that may determine
a student's perception of his own value,
the value of others, and reciprocal rights
and responsibilities. Since emulation is
both an early and an on-going learning
method and because everyone passes through
the hands of the teacher, the example of
the teacher-leader is, I believe, funda-
mental to the successful human paradigm
experience.
When standards and principles are personalized
and manifest in teacher conduct, the student's
perception of other criteria for measuring
other values and options prior to decision-
making becomes more and more comprehensible.
Such a comprehension may be considered
critical to the student's personal ability
to anticipate consequence of choice and
ensure survival and progression.
Because decision-making is the proper
domain of the mind in the hierarchy of the
individual person (spirit/mind/body), it
is essential that enlarged opportunities
for observation and awareness be encouraged
and available. Such opportunities go far
toward raising the qualitative level of
selectivity on the part of the student.
Additionally, because selection occupies
the fulcrum point of the creative process
in the individual, it is essential that
criteria be available to the intellect of
the student in order that evaluation and
progress will occur.
We are reminded that the unique individual
person is the basic unit of value and a
prime source of social values in a free
society.
Consistent with a criteria concept and
personalized value definition, the
individual student should continually
experience high levels of challenge,
expectation, and goal orientation,
eliciting and reinforcing standards of
excellence. Such a conceptual environment
teaches, encourages, and reinforces valid
individual self-esteem.
It is thus that the teacher completes the
appropriate fulfillment of his/her role of
enabling the student to become a self-
directed, creative, responsible, paradigm
choice-maker in Freedom.
Jim Baxter
semper fidelis
vincit veritas
http://www.choicemaker.net/
"I'd take HUCK in my rifle-squad - anytime! Today, he has no competition for my Vote for my Presidency!"
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