May God bless America, I know we're not a hopeless case

Every year (at least every year since I've had a blog), I struggle with what to post on 9/11. Make no mistake, I will always try to post something because I want to do my smallest, littlest part to make sure my tiniest handful of readers here at Steph's Other Space don't forget either. I know it's been 8 years now and in our relatively immature American history, that probably seems like an eternity. Patience (nor remembrance) is hardly an American virtue. I think that's what drives me the craziest about our country as a whole... our inability to collectively remember our most blessed history and give thanks to God the Father from whom all blessings flow while simultaneously forgetting to thank those mere mortals who act as His Hands and Feet here on earth.

So I post this in the spirit of eternal thanks to all those heroes from 9/11/01 and to God our Father who gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, so that death--even death in an incendiary fire at the hands of demonic forces-- is defeated forever through the cross. Truly, what was intended for harm was used for good by God to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20)



PS: My suggestion as a perfect remembrance for 9/11 would be to donate blood today. You will save lives, maybe even someone you know and love. And if not, well then you've paid it forward the way so many heroes did on that day.

These kind of stories so DO NOT help...(Updated)

Let's play a game where I recap the news stories I've seen so far today while you read along (so it's not really a game per se but it does sound like fun, doesn't it?):

Well, I think it's pretty common knowledge that my father was a policeman and I was raised accordingly. (I think I even remember that he occasionally received threats on his family, maybe? Feel free to clarify, P-Paw.) Anyway, what others deem "paranoid," I call "informed." I grew up knowing the world is not always such a wonderful place and I intend to empower my children with that same information. Point being, I always lock my doors, we have an alarm, yada yada, all of which is usually enough to ward away The Boogie Man but this story just blows all of that out of the water. I mean, what are you going to do if 8 armed ninjas bust down your door in broad daylight? That story bothers me on so many levels that I'm not sure if I should follow it closely in hopes of making some sense out of it or if I should just pretend it never happened since ignorance really is bliss. Do you remember this case in Idaho? Yeah, that bothered the crap outta me too because I do NOT need to hear about pedophiles with night vision goggles. But then I heard that the adults in that situation were meth users (who died with illegal drugs in their system) so I felt marginally better about my own ability to protect my children. But this case out of Pensacola? I just don't think I'm ever going to read anything that will make me feel better about my family's safety. In fact, I'd place a wager that Mr. Billings was probably armed himself and went down in a blaze of glory so it's not like I can cling to my guns, either. (However, I will cling to my "religion," Mr. Obama!) And working surveillance cameras covering both inside and outside the entire property? Wow, that's a family after my own heart but a lot of good it did them. The upside is that while the cameras didn't prevent the crime (which is always my ultimate goal), they dang sure make it an open-and-closed case for the DA. So I guess we should chalk up a small victory for the good guys and lock our doors anyway...

**Updated to say "DUH!"

PS: The 3rd major aviation crash in about as many months? And Southwest (who has been fined recently for not inspecting their planes and also happens to be the airline of choice for my in-laws)? Yeah, that ain't helping either, folks.

So it begins...

From the same folks who introduced you to Julio Jones last summer...

it's Getting To Know Greg McElroy.

So, it'd be kind of nice if I could make a habit out of introducing you to The Next Big Thing at The Capstone year after year but for now I'll just take it one season at a time.

PS: What's that you say? Greg McElroy looks vaguely familiar? Well, you might remember him from this... The Good Lord knows I do.