My whole body aches. My cuticles are torn apart and even my fingernails are sore.

My mom stopped the UPS guy that frequents her office building everyday and asked him, out of curiosity, how exactly a package that she gives him in the afternoon gets to wherever she needs it in one night.  Well let me tell you.

I woke up this morning at 3:30 am to be at work by 4:15 am. After stumbling around the house for 20 minutes wishing I could go back to sleep for 12 hours, I grabbed my gallon of water and headed to my first day of work at the UPS customer center in Yarmouth, MA. I went in side and gathered with all the other early shifters and waited for the morning to start. I stood their as the boss let everyone know yesterday’s numbers and gave us an even higher number for the day. Then it was time to begin. I started out with one of the other new guys in the loading dock grabbing boxes of all different sizes and putting them on a belt, sending them to the next guy who scanned and sorted them. These boxes ranged from about 1 pound to about 75 pounds, some even requiring me and my partner to both lift and send flying down a ramp into a pile of all other boxes too big for the belt. I felt comfortable lifting and figured it wasn’t that bad. Then I got called away.

The supervisor brought be to another part of the belt where these huge bags about the size of industrial sized laundry bags were being sent down. Inside these bags were several smaller boxes and envelopes. Each bag varied but on average weighed about 20-40 pounds…depending on the weight of the boxes inside. They were kept closed by a heavy duty zipper that did damage. If you’ve ever seen the Chocolate Factory episode of I Love Lucy, this was much like that, but instead of small chocolates, I was rushing to grab huge bags of packages off of the belt. My body was constantly twisting and lifting, twisting and lifting. I could feel my whole body doing work (son). I looked down and started to notice that my shirt was developing sweat marks that grew by the minute, and my face was beginning to look like a white Patrick Ewing. I don’t know if you understand this, but I never stopped! For two and a half hours straight I was working full speed, not once stopping, there were only two or three moments where I had time to barely take a sip of water but bags just kept coming.

When I would get the bags off of the belt, I had to open them up, reach inside and pull all the packages out, and place them on another belt with the bar codes all facing the right way, to be scanned by another worker. If the bags stopped, I had to go toss envelopes into their proper containers. At one point I looked down and noticed that two of my fingers, right at the cuticles, were bleeding. Not bleeding too bad, pretty standard cuticle bleeding. As the hours passed, My hands were becoming black like I was washing my hands using coal as soap. By the end of the morning, after just a 15 minute break to guzzle almost a full gallon of water, I noticed that not only was my shirt filthy and soaked in sweat, but my whole right arm was filthy as well.

I walked out of that building with a couple realizations. The first being that I have way too much to be thankful for. I’ve been fortunate enough to be supported more than I could ever imagine by my parents in times of need and I’ve also been blessed with more opportunity than a lot of kids my age. My next realization is that I’m working this job as a part-time, summer money making job. Most people there do this everyday for years, probably as a second job, just to barely get by and support a family. People, including myself, don’t realize how easy it is to become wealthy and to think you are “working hard” to earn what you have. There’s all kinds of hard work, and believe me I don’t discredit anyone who has worked their way up the corporate ladder with dedication and diligence. But you have to look at these jobs as eye openers. This one day has probably been the most hard work I’ve ever done in my life. I mean work as in heavy lifting and getting dirty. This is what these blue collar workers that you hear of so often do. They do grunt work that is painful and tiring and at horrible hours and a lot of them don’t get paid half as much as what a corporate big shot gets paid. Again, I’m not discrediting anyone, believe me, I’d rather sit in an office and make tons of money and never have to do this kind of stuff, and theres nothing wrong with that, those kinds of people work hard at having the smarts and determination and they battle through discrimination and all kinds of hardships to get to the top. I’m just saying that when put in perspective, I guarantee that anyone with an office job making loads of dough, if put one day in a situation like this, would agree that they actually have it pretty good. It makes you appreciate what you have.

And the last thing I want to say, that is probably the best part about all this, and kinda makes me proud to be a part of this, even if it’s not permanent. There are plenty of blue collar workers who wouldn’t trade up their jobs for any high paying corporate jobs. That’s a beautiful thing. These workers are the true heart of American labor. They get my respect. Big time.

Dear Sen. John McCain,

Summer is well underway, and you are not President. Therefore, your Gas Tax Holiday is clearly not happening. Not only is it not happening because you’re not the President and frankly can’t put it into action, but also because you don’t have enough support behind it. Why is that? Because it doesn’t save anyone enough gas money to truly make an impact. When I say Impact I mean this. Truckers won’t be able to stay in business because they save 18 cents a gallon for 2 months. Get it?

Sincerely,

Brian Guilmette

Dear Sen. John McCain’s Supporters,

See Above.

Sincerely,

Brian Guilmette

Dear Media,

If you’re going to ask different analysts everyday if there was sexism in the Primaries. One, ask yourself this, “Are the primaries still going on?” And two, why don’t you ask these guests to state examples of this? And I’m talking about real examples by Barack Obama and his Campaign staff. Not Surrogates or everyday supporters.

Also, I think Americans who watch your programs are aware by now that neither energy plan, by either candidate, is really going to lower gas prices. You don’t have to bring on a new democrat and a new republican every day to answer that question and then spin their response into restating their candidate’s energy plan. Get it?

Sincerely,

Brian Guilmette

Girls in Gloucester High School are getting themselves pregnant. On purpose. Here is the story from CNN.com: Pregnancy Pact.

I’ve seen coverage on this on a number of news organizations in the past couple of days and it seems as though most of the guest speakers are clueless. They complain about the lack of contraceptive distribution rights to the kids at school. In fact two health center workers at the school resigned out of protest because of this. Three of the headlines on the Gloucester Times website have to do with a push for birth control. One headline only suggests that health education cuts “may” have contributed to this pregnancy boom. This past school year, the school had given 150 pregnancy tests out to students. There are 1200 students at this school.

Open your ears and eyes here people. These girls wanted to get pregnant. They made a “pact” to get pregnant. Do you see what I’m getting at?

I’m not a certified sex doctor, but I’m someone with a good amount of common sense. First of all, I’ve never heard of a High School that is so concerned with administering pregnancy tests. Second, why be more concerned about providing a service for children to confidentially learn if they are pregnant, but not offer contraception? But most of all, where is your health education, and why aren’t parents more involved in this? You don’t have to break confidentiality agreements to let parents know that their kids might be getting pregnant. In my high school, if there was a problem that was growing throughout the student body, a letter would be sent home to every parent. No names would be given but every parent would be made aware of the problem at hand and urged to talk to their children. If this does anything, it will probably make any parent ask their children who in school is pregnant. There is your start. Parent/child communication. Even if it starts as gossip. I can’t think of any parent who isn’t locked in his or her room with a heroine needle stuck in between their toes that wouldn’t be concerned that maybe her kid might be a part of this pregnancy binge.

I can’t think of any other reason that a young girl would want to have a baby than a severe lack of love in their life. Or a lack of strong education. Health education isn’t just about sperm, eggs, testicles and ovaries. It’s not about condoms, its not about sexually transmitted diseases. It’s about teaching young people about responsibility. This is not responsibility for money or for time management or schoolwork. This is about responsibility of another life. It’s about teaching young people about what their future can bring to them. It’s about giving them a basic understanding of life’s structure. It’s about showing them a world of work out there. Working with them towards scholarships and community services. Getting their mind on good things that show them that they can do good in the world. I’m getting too deep into my own opinions right now but this is reality.

It’s important to teach children that a family is a wonderful thing. Having a baby isn’t a bad thing. But it’s a life changing responsibility that should not be taken lightly by anyone.

Not everyone has a model family. I understand this. This is why it’s important for schools to be family for these children. A good family doesn’t skip the lesson and deal with the problem. For example, my mom and dad wouldn’t skip teaching me about sex and responsibility of a family and just go out and buy me a pregnancy test or a condom. Schools need to take responsibility for their children.

There are people blaming the movie “Juno,” and the movie “Knocked Up,” for “promoting teen and unwed pregnancies.” Are these kind of arguments going to get old at all? When I was in elementary school, my parents had willingly let me see movies like Point Break, which included killings, bank robberies, sex, nudity, and heavy cursing. They’d let my sister see movies like Pretty Woman, a movie about prostitution, or Dirty Dancing, a movie containing unwed sex and an abortion. But somehow these movies never influenced me to do any of those things. Because my parents never let me see anything or go through anything without a lesson attached to it.

The Gloucester community has a good deal of work ahead of them to fix this problem. And handing out condoms or birth control pills is not the answer. But this is a big problem. This goes beyond accidental teen pregnancies. And it doesn’t stop in Gloucester. It’s a shame because problems like this are way more important in our country but have (rightfully so) had to take a back seat to things like gas, energy, money, and war.

When commercials come on I change the channel.  Commercials are meaningless to me.  Aside from pretty much every Sonic commercial I’ve ever seen and a few here and there, I pretty much think all commercials suck.  I apologize if its your job to come up with them.

These freecreditreport.com commercials are some of the worst commercials I’ve ever seen.  First of all, the jingles are horrendous.  They are not catchy.  From first listen, they are ear piercing and beyond annoying.  Don’t get me wrong now, I love Pirates.  But man, I’ve never seen a commercial that I can tolerate less than these.

I know commercials work and attract lots of consumers.  But I have to say, no commercial has ever sold me on anything.  The products in the commercial, sure.  But never because of the content of the commercial itself.  I really think they could literally put up a picture of the product with its name and sell just as much.

I know marketing majors are hating me right now, but I assure you all that the only time anyone I know ever pays attention to commercials is on Super Bowl Sunday.

Oh and by the way, the commercials this past Super Bowl sucked.

So I bought a .44 magnum it was solid steel cast
And in the blessed name of Elvis well I just let it blast
‘Til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet
And they busted me for disturbin’ the almighty peace
Judge said “What you got in your defense son?”
“Fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on”

The first time I heard Bruce Springsteen, I was in the car with my dad listening to the radio. I didn’t hear “Born to Run” or “Glory Days” or “Atlantic City.” I heard the song “57 Channels (and nothin’ on)” from the album Human Touch. Not exactly his most famous song. But at the time, I couldn’t help but enjoy it because at the time, my TV cable box had just about that many channels. A pretty out-dated song by now though. Some days later I would see the video for this song on MTV.

I can’t say that hearing that song made me an instant Bruce Springsteen fan, but it was another song that really captured me, and that’s “Glory Days.” It was this song that made me really appreciate him. I grew up in the perfect household to keep familiar with his music because my parents are both huge fans. But familiar was all that I really stayed. I never became a super fan…and I don’t think I ever will be.

There is one thing, though, that I must say about this man. And that is that he never ceases to gain my respect. I’m gonna talk about three things that really stood out to me.

The first being when I saw the DVD from New York City, specifically the performance of the song “American Skin (41 shots).” This is a song that caught a ton of heat because of it was clearly inspired by the shooting of Amadou Diallo. In the beginning of the song he told the crowd, “we need some quiet.” And that is what they gave him. Complete silence in Madison Square Garden. Bruce is a guy that puts real American-made passion into everything he does. In this song, he sings in anger, he sings in fear, he sings in pride, and he sings in sympathy. Here are the lyrics so you can get an idea of just how well this man can write to get a message out. And here is the video from the DVD. Please watch it…the whole thing. I promise you that you will feel this passion.

The Second being when I tuned in to the America: A Tribute to Heroes broadcast. For those of you who don’t know, this was a benefit concert on September 21st, 2001 where about 20 artists performed songs and other celebrities took calls and spoke powerful words. What made this interesting and even a bit sad was the fact that there was no audience. There were no cheers after these songs. I’m singling Bruce Springsteen out here, but really everyone who performed is included as well. But Bruce performed the song “My City of Ruins” that night. A song he wrote about Asbury Park that, like many songs around that time, took on a whole new meaning. When you look at these artists performing, you see sadness in all of them. You see the pain. Neil Young having trouble getting through John Lennon’s “Imagine” without crying just brought him back to reality. Seeing these stars who are supposed to be super human or something, but for just this night they were the same as me and you. They were Americans, and they were mourning. But Bruce has this way of taking a moment like this, and making you just feel like you’re up there singing with him. This is a guy who has been singing songs about the American way for his entire career. This is a man who represents an every day American with a dream made possible. When you listen to this song and you hear him say “This is a prayer to our fallen brothers and sisters,” and you see the E Street Band standing behind him all holding hands, you can’t help but be overwhelmed with a sense of power. The power to stand strong as an American. Again, here are the lyrics, and below is the video. Watch it. The whole thing.

The last thing I want to talk about happened today. I was watching MSNBC’s coverage of Tim Russert’s memorial service. If you don’t know, Tim Russert was an important journalist but more importantly, as I learned in the past week, he represented an American much like that of Bruce Springsteen. A true American. I seriously was in tears this entire service. Colleagues and friends all spoke, as well as his son Luke. Each one of them with a story that would touch anyone who heard it. At the end of the service, Luke and Tom Brokaw introduced Bruce Springsteen via satellite from England. Tim Russert was a huge Springsteen fan and a friend of his as well. I wasn’t surprised at all that Bruce would do this. It just solidified that he is well beyond most famous musicians as a down to earth, genuine person. He didn’t just sound like any old celebrity looking for a new way to promote his work, but like a fellow American who lost another brother. Please, again, lyrics, watch this video. The whole thing.

When I listen to Bruce Springsteen’s voice I hear something special. I hear something that everyone can learn a lesson from. No matter who you are, no matter what you do. If you’re a musician, an actor, a politician, a farmer, a construction worker, or a nurse, get lost in what you’re doing. When Bruce was singing that song in New York, he was lost in what he was doing. He forgot that he was holding a guitar and playing a show. For that moment he was in his own words and he was defending the rights of a brother. At the tribute concert, the same was true. He wasn’t playing music, he was an American standing with us all in prayer. And at Tim Russert’s memorial service, he put his guitar down and he was just being a friend, a brother, a fellow American. In everything you do, put that amount of passion into it. Don’t ever do something that doesn’t mean something to you. And no matter who you are, famous or not, if you want to say something, say it. Sing it, write it, paint it, show it. Just put your heart into it.

These are the things that make Bruce Springsteen an important figure of our time.  A true American, a down to earth, good hearted, proud and humble celebrity.

Before 9/11, I took the American Flag for granted.  It wasn’t a historical symbol of freedom for me, it was just a toy, a picture, just a way for people to recognize America.  But that’s not what it is.  It’s a symbol of our Birth as a country.  It’s bright.  It reminds us of the first 13 colonies that fought for their freedom from British rule.  According to George Washington,

We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing Liberty.

I’ve never seen people come together so closely until September 11th, 2001.  Watching other countries burning our flag, it made us want to show our pride more than ever.  People went out and bought flags and hoisted them up on their cars, on their mailboxes, some even installed flagpoles in their front yards.  For once I felt like I was a part of something great.  For once the American flag meant much more to me then it ever did.  I hung an old American Flag up in my basement where I had my music gear set up.  I went out and I bought an American Flag strap.  I remember my friend Eric performing a song he wrote about that day at a vigil in the front yard of our High School.

For once everyone in America had one thing in common.  “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.”  We were united.

But then something happened.  I don’t know if this is the same for anyone else, maybe it’s just me.  When we went to war, the country started to become divided.  Those who opposed the war started to protest (to no surprise).  This was the start of the division that would grow in our country to where it is today.  By the 2004 election, we were a country split right down the middle.  What happened to the way it was just 3 years ago?  We started to lose sight of what 9/11 meant to us as a nation.

Not to seem so cliche, but I think it’s safe to say that this war in Iraq can be to blame for this.  Or to be clearer, the Bush Administration.

I remember early on in the War, I was at a Pearl Jam concert with my dad.  Pearl Jam has been known throughout their career to be a rather political based band.  Eddie Vedder especially, has been taking stances since as long as I can remember him.  For example, on SNL in 1992, he wore a shirt that said “No Bush ‘92.”  So it was no surprise when this war started to take shape that the band would start using their stage as a venue to express their opinions.  To those who wanted to see a rock show, this could be disappointing.  But to anyone who has known Pearl Jam, it came as no shock.    Probably the biggest deal was made when Ed first came out wearing a G.W. Bush Mask during their song “Bushleaguer.” Of  course the crowd went nuts until he took the mask off and impaled it on his mic stand.  A big deal was made when a small number of fans left the show.  I wouldn’t necessarily call them “fans” because like I said, they should know what they were getting into going to a Pearl Jam show in the midst of a war.

Anyway so I was at a show with my dad, and Ed came out to “Bushleaguer” as usual wearing his Bush mask, as well as a shiny blazer too.  He was dancing around and then proceeded to impale it on his mic stand again.  He then started going into some protesting.  Suddenly, a small part of the crowd, my dad included, started chanting “USA, USA, USA…”  This is where the American Flag, and Patriotism in general began to become exploited, in my opinion.  Is this what it came down to?  Patriotism started being used as a way to say you were “Pro War” or “Pro Bush.”  I became embarrassed for the colors Red White and Blue, and the American Flag.  Patriotism isn’t about going to war.  It’s not about supporting your President.  It’s about being proud of your Country.  It’s about recognizing our founding fathers and appreciating the land that we have inherited from them.  Patriotism is about standing up for something you believe in.  The American Flag is a symbol of how you can stand up against a war, because you have been given that freedom.  To speak out against something you feel wrong is your RIGHT.  And in no way does that mean you don’t love this country.

For the rest of their tour, Pearl Jam would hear those chants and Ed started to get confused.  He would say “yeah, I agree, USA!”  And Ed would go on to explain that this is why we love America.  Because we can have different opinions.  And he wanted to hear from people who disagreed with him.  It was only fair.

By now though, we are even more divided then ever.  Even each of our parties are divided.  Your hard rights and hard lefts have almost become two new parties.

Of course I support Barack Obama for president.  But I have to say, while he seems to want to really make some changes in the way Government works, neither candidate really has the right idea.

They don’t have the right idea because we are too proud of our differences.

But look at it this way.  Point blank, if you ask every candidate for President over history what they wanted to accomplish, you would hear all the same stuff.  A booming economy, little or no poverty, better schools and opportunities for all Americans, high wages, low costs, affordable health care for everyone, etc.

If you ask all Americans, they’d probably say they want all those things too.

The problem is, we have this division in American as far as getting to this point.  Every candidate has a different way of getting to point B.  We talk about “uniting the parties.”  Thats great but what about “uniting the country?”  Each candidate claims they will cross party lines, but let’s be real.  That won’t happen.  We don’t need a President who is going to just “cross party lines.” We need a President who doesn’t care about their reputation as a Democrat or a Republican.  But someone who just wants to get to Point B anyway they can.  If Obama thinks expiring the Bush Tax Cuts will improve, than thats fine, like I said, I’m behind the guy, but if it doesn’t work, then what’s the harm in him trying someone else’s idea?  Same goes for his policies on gas prices, and health care, etc.  Our President should try what they think is best for the country, but unlike this current Administration, if it doesn’t work, they need to start putting their egos away, and maybe try something else, even if its a conservative idea.  This doesn’t stop with the President either, obviously Congress needs to get behind this too.

But things are just too messed up right now for this to happen.  Everyone wants to stand by their views, even if they know they don’t work.  Everyone wants to please those they are working for.  I really hope Obama is able to change the way Washington works.  Maybe the country will move closer to this idea of Democrats and Republicans working together to find the right path to point B.  I think all Americans will agree that they don’t care how it happens, as long as the economy is in good shape, and they have jobs and health care.

Regene, I expect you to weigh in on this, because I know you probably be able to tell me where I’m wrong or right and maybe provide me with some more insight?

To get back to my point about the American Flag though.  The moment Obama clinched the nomination, I think the American flag started to reset for me.  It’s a moment that all of America should be proud of, for we’ve come very far as a nation of freedom and equality.  Not just Obama though, Clinton too.  I think this is a very historical election for more reasons than usual.  It’s time we give ourselves a reason to be proud again.  Let’s get back to where we were in September 2001, but let’s display our flags without having to lose thousands of lives.

A couple weeks ago I was deep in thought about how any Presidential candidate would really fix the problems happening in the world right now.  I was thinking about how much money has way too much control over our lives, even people like me who really, genuinely, don’t like it.  I was thinking about the people who find it necessary to steal, kill, cheat, and lie.  Politics aside, in my eyes, the world is becoming more and more of a disgusting place every day.  So as I was sitting there thinking about how these things can be fixed, I came to the conclusion that it won’t happen.  It got me thinking that what we need is a clean slate.  We need to start over.  The only one who can pull something like this off is God.

As you know by now, after avoiding religion and just being confused about it, I have started to grow a bit.  I’ve had time away from the ideas and fear that I believe was put into me by going to Sunday School when I was little.  I was done with the idea that I had a belief in God only because my Sunday School teacher told me that if I didn’t, I would go to Hell.  I was now old enough to find my own place for faith in my life.  With the help of some music as well as the help of some friends, I was finding my own way.

So here I was, deep in thought, and beginning to feel ready to start reading the Bible.  I wanted to know where these feelings were coming from.  Now, and although I may change my mind in a year or two, I don’t believe you should read the Bible as a text book on leading a good life.  But I think, at least for me, it is important that I had recognized some of my strongest values to be in line with much of what is found in the bible.  So I wanted to start to read it.

It was then that I decided to call my dad and ask him what he thinks about all this from a religious point of view.  “This” being my thoughts on the state of the world.  We ended up talking about how I was ready to read the bible and, as he always does, told me a story that happened to him, one of the many stories he has that just proves his faith.

My dad was bike riding that very morning, early, right around the time when my mom was getting ready for work.  He noticed as he was getting further out that he was getting more tired than usual so he decided to shorten his trip.  I’m not sure how far he was when he decided to turn around but I want to guess it was anywhere between 8 and 12 miles.  When he turned around he realized the time and that one of the crossroads on the trail is also one of the roads that my mom takes on her way to work.  He figured he’d be getting back right about the time when she was on the road and thought “wouldn’t it be nice if I got to that road at the same time she is there, maybe I’d see her.”

So he was on his way back and again was noticing that, on top of the fact that the way back is mostly uphill, he was still more tired than usual.  Because of this, the thought of seeing my mom kinda got lost in his mind.  But when he got to this crossroad, he reached the other side of the road, and just as he was across, he suddenly remembered that he had hoped to see her, so he just happened to turn his head quickly to look down the road.  About 200 feet away, he saw my moms car stopped at a stop sign, at the intersection right before where the trail crosses.  My mom eventually passed but did not notice my dad.

My dad was excited and new that God had a part in this.  He knew that there are no coincidences in life and especially none like this.  The probability that he would feel tired in order to shorten his trip, then be tired on the way back enough to time his ride just right to get to the crossroad exactly when he had hoped, when my mom was on the road, was just too low.  Had he not been tired, he probably would have went further, and even if he turned around when he did, he would have been going faster, resulting in missing my mom.  So out of excitement he immediately emailed my mom when he got home to tell her the story.

What makes this story just a little more special is this…

What my dad didn’t know, was that same road was exactly where my mom says her prayers in the morning on the way to work.   She usually says the Lord’s prayer and then some individual prayers for her family.  But on this morning, knowing my dad was out earlier than usual, she chose her first prayer to be about my dad and his safety while riding that morning.  While my dad was passing by on his bike, with my mom on his mind, on the same road as each other, she was saying a prayer for him.

Now, my parents know that I’ve been struggling with the position of God in my life. And because of this, it’s on their mind everyday and they are constantly trying to find ways to help me out.  So after my dad told that story and we talked a little more about how I was feeling ready to start reading some books in the Bible, my mom got on the phone.  She said, “you know Brian, that morning I also said another prayer.  I asked Grandma Nedda and Poppy Dick (my dad’s parents) to help you.  As you know they were very religious.  So I asked them to help you find your faith.  And what do you know, you called today with an interest in taking a new step in your life.”

I hung up from my parents that night and immediately my eyes filled up with tears.  It’s amazing how things work out sometimes.  It’s the things like that that make me know I’m not alone.  It makes me know I have God, as well as my grandparents with me at all times.

I think putting a kid through Sunday School is a bad thing for parents to do.  It seems like the right thing to do at the time because you want your kids to grow up with a knowledge of God and Religion.  But as I felt years later, and how I’m sure many people feel as well, it puts faith in the wrong perspective.  Kids grow up believing based on fear alone.  This is not to say that there are not kids who enjoy Sunday School and learn to love God and not be fearful.  I was asked by my parents to attend Sunday School, but as I got older I resisted it, and my parents were definitely not too strict and were nice enough not to force me to go.   So I was taught to lead a good life through example of my parents, not through example of religion.

There are other kids though, who, like I said, enjoyed Sunday School and had a self-interest in religion and stay that way through life.  Others don’t have any kind of religion on their life and find it later.  Then there are those who have very strict parents.  All of my friends who were forced to go to Church and weren’t able to choose the role God played in their life, ended up rebelling later in their teens.  Specifically around the time they were going away to college.  When you get forced to do something for years, as soon as you are no longer forced, your instinct is to do the opposite, to do all those things you wanted to do but never could.  Sometimes this could be some really bad stuff.

Because of this, I find it important that the concept of God and Religion is told to children by their parents at a young age.  If the child wants to embrace it, then fine.  But if not, they should be free to make their own choices.  When they are old enough to understand these things much better, the right choice will be made.  Of course, I would imagine there would be less Religious people this way.  But those that are, like my brother is, and like where I am headed, will be fueled by love and not fear.  The choice to be good and not to rebel.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a proposal or an idea on how I think the world would be a better place.  This is just my opinion on how parents should introduce Religion into their child’s life.

I am grateful for my parents and the lessons they have taught me.  I am grateful that I can talk to them about any problem I’m having.  Look, I understand some people aren’t fortunate enough to have family like this.  That’s ok.  The important thing is to find someone you can talk to, and start talking.  This whole blog was written, and my faith reached another level, all because I knew I could pick up the phone and tell someone how I felt that day.

Thanks,

Brian

For the past two weeks, I’ve been without a computer, unable to write any blogs. Just because my computer has shut down, doesn’t mean my mind has, so I have been building this string of posts in my head, anxious to get to a computer.

When I got home to New York tonight at around 10 pm, my parents greeted me with smiles, hugs, and a tour of the newly renovated rooms that my father has been slaving over for the past month or so. It’s been an ongoing renovation, necessary for my parents to sell the house and get down to North Carolina, where they have been wanting to move to for quite some time now.

I had just started to go into the bathroom and my mom stopped me and said “did you hear the news?.” On the computer that line looks rather dry. But out of my mom’s mouth it came soft and somber. When you hear this out of someone, it’s hard to imagine what it could possibly be. I knew it wasn’t something too serious, or should i say seriously related to our family, or my mom wouldn’t have delivered it the way she did. But nevertheless, I knew I was about to hear something I didn’t want to hear.

“Tim Russert died today of a heart attack.”

When you hear something like that, it’s strangely equally as shocking as if it were someone close to you because it seems so random and unexpected.

I’m not going to pretend like I know Tim Russert. I don’t. But as many of you know I have been deeply in touch with politics for the past five months. For those of you who may not know, Tim Russert is the moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He has also been a staple in journalism, particularly important in political coverage. That’s about as much as I knew about him. Sure I’ve seen him giving his opinion on just about every story being told on MSNBC, but I never really knew how important he has been in journalism.

I quickly turned on the television to find Keith Olbermann, red in the eyes, emotionally drained, a passion in his face much different than his usually anger towards Bill O’Reilly or Hillary Clinton. “Remembering Tim Russert” was the title of his show tonight. Every news channel on had coverage, tributes to someone I knew so little. It took the man’s death for me to see tribute after tribute and really learn more about him than I probably ever would have thought. I began to feel like he was my favorite journalist in Television. It’s like learning about a Grandfather, or father who has passed before you got to know them. Hearing stories and wanting to have the opportunity to be a part of it, but realizing you will never be there. I learned about his dedication to his family, how much he loved his father and called him “Big Russ.” I learned about his son Luke, how he just graduated from Boston College. I learned that he wrote a book called “Big Russ and Me,” with an Epilogue in the form of a letter to his son Luke. Videos upon videos of him with his father and son. I instantly began to see the impact that his passing has on his Wife, son, and father, as well as the colleagues of his that looked up to him with such admiration.

I learned that not only did he help make Bruce Springsteen famous, but The Boss was Tim Russert’s favorite rocker. They started a video tribute with some of Bruce’s songs playing in the background, and I started to cry. All this coming on the Friday before Father’s Day weekend.

Tim Russert didn’t teach me how to be an important journalist, he didn’t teach me how to give an interview. He didn’t play catch with me when I was little, and he didn’t take part as a role model in my life. But what he did do is go away on the same day that I came home to New York, on Father’s Day weekend. If Tim Russert gave me anything, tonight he gave me the reassurance that I love my dad and I cherish every day I have with him and will never take any day I have with him for granted.

Goodnight.