They could have asked what she thought about her husband signing the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998, which made it the official policy of the United States "to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace the regime." Sounds like the Bush policy to us.
In December 1998, Clinton said: "Other countries possess weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. With Saddam there is one big difference: He has used them. The international community had little doubt then, and I have little doubt today, that left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will use those terrible weapons again."
Success is a State of Mind - - Tommy Bahama Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do. The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking their first small loss. - - Jesse Livermore The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the man of inferior emotional balance, nor for the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor. - - Jesse Livermore
They call it 'Semper Fi' By Kathleen Parker Friday, December 22, 2006 Send an email to Kathleen Parker
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WASHINGTON -- It all started with a Marine major general's widow, who wanted to donate her wheelchair to a Marine who needed it.
What would seem to have been a simple request became a daunting task. There were bureaucracies to navigate, regulations to untangle, privacy acts to plow through, and logistics to manage.
Leave it to the Marines to get the job done.
The wheelchair at the heart of this story came to my attention the day after Thanksgiving, when John Palermo, senior vice commandant of the Marine Corps League in Tamarac, Fla., e-mailed me for help finding a needy Marine. Palermo already had been storing the chair for three months and was bumping into military privacy restrictions that prevented his finding a recipient.
The chair had belonged to Jane Hanson, widow of Maj. Gen. Arthur Briggs Hanson. She wasn't using the chair and wanted to honor her husband by giving it to a fellow Marine. It wasn't any ordinary wheelchair, but a new Shoprider Medical Power electric model worth several thousand dollars.
Palermo's e-mail set in motion a search that has involved dozens of people, mostly Marines, and a series of frustrating fits and starts that would prompt most to surrender. There's no shortage of needy Marines returning from Iraq minus limbs, but military rules made it nearly impossible to get a name.
Moreover, the Veterans Administration, it turns out, does a pretty good job of taking care of the wounded. Most have wheelchairs and prosthetics made to order, though I've learned during ``Operation Wheelchair,'' as this effort came to be called, that the list of back-ordered prosthetics is long.
Cutting to the chase, I forwarded Palermo's e-mail to Russ Clark, about whom I've written before. Clark is a minister and former Marine who counsels veterans through Point Man International Ministries in Columbus, Ohio. He went to work.
For the next five weeks, Clark sent me periodic updates on what was beginning to seem like a futile search. Every day, he was getting closer, but then he'd hit a snag.
E-mails and phone calls crossed the country several times. I can't list the names of all who worked on this project, but the search eventually landed at Naval Medical Center San Diego (better known to veterans as Balboa Hospital), where a new amputee clinic recently opened.
The only one of its kind on the West Coast, the clinic is expected to serve about 50 amputees per year. The week before Christmas, recent arrivals included ``a new quad.''
That chilling phrase -- ``a new quad'' -- doesn't roll easily off the tongue, but Richard Williams has learned to say it without flinching. An attorney and former Marine, Williams coordinates the Marine Corps League-Injured Marine Fund in San Diego.
Amputees are part of his life.
They are also his vocation. When not practicing law, Williams raises money to help financially strapped families visit their wounded Marines at the amputee center.
Although the Marine Corps and other groups help families visit wounded veterans, most programs allow for only two family members for a limited time. Places such as Fisher House -- which provides temporary lodging for military families at major medical centers -- are almost always full and have long waiting lists.
Williams' group tries to fill the void. Significantly, they bring families out for second and third visits, not just when the wounded first arrive.
``That's when the Marine is getting depressed,'' says Williams. ``He left his unit in Iraq, his family is in Omaha or wherever. The poor Marine faces multiple surgeries and is left by himself again.''
Williams has been instrumental in getting Hanson's wheelchair from Florida to California -- no small feat. Because of FAA rules pertaining to things such as batteries, you can't just fly an electric wheelchair across country, he says.
After many calls and dead ends, a Marine recruiter was located in Delray Beach, Fla., who is picking up the chair and delivering it to FedEx in Fort Lauderdale for crating and ground delivery to San Diego.
Hanson's chair is expected to arrive at the medical center soon after Christmas -- a gift from one Marine home to another. It's not exactly a happy ending, given the circumstances, but ``Operation Wheelchair'' reveals yet again what semper fi means to the Corps.
Kathleen Parker is a popular syndicated columnist and director of the School of Written Expression at the Buckley School of Public Speaking and Persuasion in Camden, South Carolina.
The "great pillars of human happiness" By Rebecca Hagelin Friday, December 22, 2006 Send an email to Rebecca Hagelin
In his 1971 song “Imagine,” John Lennon asks us to envision a secular utopia. There’s no heaven, no hell. Peace and harmony reign, and a global “brotherhood of man” flourishes. Amid this blissful state of affairs, of course, we find “no religion.”
Lennon was a talented songwriter, but when it came to theology, he was 180 degrees off. A world free of religion would certainly have no heaven. But there would be plenty of hell -- and right here on earth.
This isn’t simply the opinion of a lady who takes her faith seriously. A large and growing body of social science research shows what a huge difference religious faith makes in our everyday lives. It’s no overstatement, in fact, to say that religion makes civil society possible. Without it, just about every indicator of human misery would be off the charts.
For a concise yet comprehensive catalog of just how bad things could be, take a look at a startling new paper by Pat Fagan, The Heritage Foundation’s premier social-science researcher. In it, he sifts through countless studies that show the remarkable effect of religion on marriage, divorce, childrearing, drug/alcohol abuse, out-of-wedlock births -- even mental and physical health.
Start with an area near and dear to my heart -- family relations. My husband and I have raised our three teenagers in a loving, religious household. Our faith in God has sustained us in good times and bad, and it has been a steady source of inspiration, comfort and encouragement. So I was particularly pleased to read the following in Fagan’s paper:
“Compared with mothers who did not consider religion important, those who deemed religion to be very important rated their relationship with their child significantly higher … When mothers and their children share the same level of religious practice, they experience better relationships with one another. For instance, when 18-year-olds attended religious services with approximately the same frequency as their mothers, the mothers reported significantly better relationships with them, even many years later … Moreover, mothers who became more religious throughout the first 18 years of their child’s life reported a better relationship with that child, regardless of the level of their religious practice before the child was born.”
The same holds true for fathers:
“Compared with fathers who had no religious affiliation, those who attended religious services frequently were more likely to monitor their children, praise and hug their children, and spend time with their children. In fact, fathers’ frequency of religious attendance was a stronger predictor of paternal involvement in one-on-one activities with children than were employment and income -- the factors most frequently cited in the academic literature on fatherhood.”
Couples are far more likely to stay together if they’re religiously active, Fagan found. Indeed, the risk of divorce more than doubles for couples who stop practicing their religion. Religiously active couples also report greater happiness and satisfaction with their marriages. The incidence of domestic violence drops, too. Men who attended religious services at least weekly were more than 50 percent less likely to commit an act of violence against their partners than were peers who attended only once a year or less.
How about adolescent sexual behavior? Good news here, as well. Fagan notes that traditional values and religious beliefs were among the most common factors teens cite to explain why they are abstaining from sex. And religion affects out-of-wedlock childbearing: Compared with those who consider themselves “very religious,” those who were “not at all religious” are two to three times more likely to have a child outside of marriage. In addition, the use of cigarettes, and the abuse of alcohol and drugs, drops significantly among those who are religiously active.
Religious is also a great help to those who never marry or have children. “A review of the research shows that religion significantly affects the level of an individual’s happiness and overall sense of well-being,” Fagan writes. “In the vast majority of the studies reviewed, an increase in religious practice was associated with having greater hope and a greater sense of purpose in life.” In addition, people who are religiously active are at a much lower risk of depression and suicide. They also tend to live longer.
None of this would surprise our Founding Fathers, who knew that no people could be self-governing without religion. In his Farewell Address, George Washington referred to religion and morality as the “great pillars of human happiness” and noted: “Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
As you head to church this Christmas -- and, I hope, in the weeks that follow -- remember the indispensable role that religion plays in free society. We’ve been told by the highest authority, after all, that if we seek first the kingdom of God “all these things will be given to you as well.” In a way, Jesus was telling us -- almost 2,000 years before John Lennon wrote a single note -- how to achieve a true “brotherhood of man.” Imagine.
Rebecca Hagelin is a vice president of The Heritage Foundation and author of Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture that's Gone Stark Raving Mad .
God and man at Harvard By Paul Greenberg Friday, December 22, 2006 Send an email to Paul Greenberg
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Even the Ivy League schools seem to have noticed: Their students are not only arriving biblically illiterate but leaving pretty much the same way.
So a faculty committee at Harvard has considered making a course in religion part of the school's core curriculum.
The course would deal with "reason and faith," and touch on topics like the relation between religion and American democracy. Goodness, why not just have the students read and discuss Tocqueville's "Democracy in America"? Nobody's ever done it better. Except maybe Daniel Boorstin in "The Genius of American Politics."
But that would be too much like studying history for what it can tell us instead of for what we can read into it. It's not as if the past had an existence of its own apart from what we make of it. A usable past, that's what's we need, right?
God may not matter all that much to Harvard's well-gated community, but He seems to matter a great deal to a lot of us out here in the grubby world. Therefore, if America's oldest university is going to turn out graduates who'll be able to communicate with the rest of us, even lead us, they'll need to be religiously knowledgeable. At last religion would be usable.
There's an old name for this approach: profanation.
A more tactful term for it is instrumentalism. And it's not limited to academicians. People who consider themselves defenders of the faith have been known to justify theirs by pointing out all the worldly benefits of religion, from strong families to charitable giving to the work ethic, aka the Puritan ethic.
It's all enough to bring to mind what Edward Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall," said of religion in another empire: "The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful."
Harvard is scarcely alone in substituting what is relevant, that is, transient, for what is permanent. Reading a comic romp of a novel a friend gave me the other day, "The Family Markowitz," I was proceeding blithely along from one amusing chapter to the next when I came upon a description of "mass-produced undergraduates processed through seedy lecture halls where, under flickering lights, they slump with their knees up and take in lectures as they might see movies. Where the familiar passes into the wide pupils of their eyes and the rest dribbles down the aisles to collect with the dirt and candy wrappers at the professor's feet. And the graduate students. Hasn't he seen them at Princeton clustering around the office doors? Young Calibans eager for praise. They tear open the Italian Renaissance before lunch, strangle a Donne sonnet and crush its wings, battering away with blunt instruments. As for the older scholars - like students at a cooking school, they cook up Shakespeare, serve him up like roast goose, stuffed with their political-sexual agendas, carve and quarter him with long knives. These are the scholars in the journals now. They are at war with the beautiful; they are against God and metaphor."
Hey, this was supposed to be a comic novel, not a diagnosis of the higher education at our better - or, rather, more prestigious - universities. The least this author, Allegra Goodman, could have done was put up a road sign before taking us around this curve: Caution. Slow. Truth Ahead. Falling Rocks.
At last report, that faculty committee at Harvard was backing away from the idea of making a separate course in religion part of the school's core curriculum.
That's understandable. Such an innovation could prove dangerous. A professor might slip up and make faith interesting, even imperative. And some student somewhere out there in the dimness of a lecture hall might get religion.
The great Christmas night raid By W. Thomas Smith, Jr Friday, December 22, 2006
Continental Army General George Washington’s celebrated “Crossing of the Delaware” has been dubbed in some military circles, “America’s first special operation.” Though there were certainly many small-unit actions, raids, and Ranger operations during the Colonial Wars – and there was a special Marine landing in Nassau in the early months of the American Revolution – no special mission by America’s first army has been more heralded than that which took place on Christmas night exactly 230 years ago.
Certainly the mission had all the components of a modern special operation (though without all the modern battlefield technologies we take for granted in the 21st century): “A secret expedition” is how John Greenwood, a soldier with the 15th Massachusetts, described it, as quoted in Bruce Chadwick’s The First American Army.
If nothing else, all the elements for potential disaster were with Washington and his men as they crossed the Delaware River from the icy Pennsylvania shoreline to the equally frozen banks of New Jersey, followed by an eight-mile march to the objective – the town of Trenton.
The river – swollen and swift moving – was full of wide, thick sheets of solid ice. And unlike the romanticized portrayal of the operation in the famous painting by Emanuel Leutze (the one with Washington standing in his dramatic, martial pose; his determined face turned toward the far side of the river), the actual crossing was made in the dead of night, in a gale-like wind and a blinding sleet and snowstorm. Odds are, Washington would have been hunkered down in one of the 66-ft-long wooden boats, draped in his cloak, stoically enduring the bitter cold with his soldiers, some of whom were rowing or poling the boats against the ice and the current.
WASHINGTON’S STRATEGIC CONCERNS
The decision for the crossing and the subsequent raid on Trenton was based on Washington’s belief that he had to do something. Otherwise – as he penned in a private letter – “the game will be pretty near up.”
To the easily disheartened and the cut-and-runners, it might have seemed “the game” was indeed already “up.” After all, many of Washington’s Continental Army were wounded, sick, and demoralized. Recent losses to the British had been severe. Desertion numbers were rising, and enlistment terms were almost up. Reinforcements were poorly trained and ill-equipped. Ammunition was in short supply. The soldiers were not properly outfitted for extreme winter conditions: Clothing was spare. Many men were in rags, some “naked,” according to Washington’s own account. Most had broken shoes or no shoes at all.
THE PLAN
The mission itself, though a huge gamble, was tactically simple.
Washington, personally leading a force of just under 2,500 men, would cross the river undetected, march toward Trenton, and attack the enemy garrisoned in the town at dawn.
Two of Washington’s other commanders, Generals John Cadwalader and James Ewing, were also directed to cross: Cadwalader’s force was to cross and attack a second garrison near Bordentown. Ewing’s force was to cross and block the enemy’s escape at Trenton. Both commanders, discouraged by the weather and the river, aborted their own operations. But according to Maurice Matloff’s American Military History (the U.S. Army’s official history), “Driven by Washington’s indomitable will, the main force did cross as planned.”
Speed of movement, surprise, maneuver, violence of action, and the plan’s simplicity were all key. And fortunately, the elements all came together.
The factors in Washington’s favor were clear: The weather was so bad that no one believed the Continentals would attempt a river crossing followed by a forced march, much less at night. The Continentals were numerically – and perceived to be qualitatively – inferior to the British Army. The Hessians, mercenaries allied to the British and who were garrisoned in Trenton, had a battlefield reputation that far exceeded their actual combat prowess. And no one believed the weary Americans would want to attempt anything with anyone on Christmas.
THE CROSSING
Hours before kickoff, Washington had his officers read to the men excerpts of Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis, a portion of which reads:
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph.”
By 4:00 p.m. the force was gathered at McKonkey's Ferry, the launching point for the mission. The watchword, “Victory or death,” was given. When darkness set in, the men climbed into the boats and began easing out into the black river.
Back and forth thoughout the night and into the wee hours of the 26th, the boat crews ferried the little army, a few horses, and 18 cannon across the Delaware. The crossing was complete by 4 a.m., but two hours behind schedule, and the temperatures were plummeting. At least two men, exhausted and falling asleep in the snow, froze to death.
ATTACKING TRENTON
The next obstacle was the march toward Trenton in blinding snow, sleet, even hail; and on bloody frostbitten feet. “Keep going men, keep up with your officers,” Washington, now on horseback, urged as he rode alongside his advancing infantry.
Just before 8:00 a.m., the advance elements of the American army were spotted on the outskirts of town by a Hessian lieutenant. But by the time he was able to sound the alarm, all hell was breaking loose. Americans were rushing into Trenton with fixed bayonets. The Hessians – some still in their underwear, and nearly all with hangovers from too much Christmas Day celebrating – were attempting to form ranks, but were quickly overrun. Many fled in a panic. Hundreds surrendered. Those who resisted were shot down or run through with the bayonet. The Hessian commander, Col. Johann Rall, was desperately trying to rally his men. But he was shot from his horse, and died later that day.
One of Washington’s junior officers, Lieutenant James Monroe was leading a charge against a Hessian position in the town, when he took a musket ball in the chest and collapsed. Amazingly he survived, and would ultimately become the fifth president of the United States.
The fighting lasted about an hour. Four Americans had been killed and ten-times as many Hessians lay dead in the snow. Some 900 enemy prisoners were rounded up, along with weapons, ammunition, and other desperately needed stores. And Washington’s victorious army was soon marching back along the river road to the waiting boats and the return crossing.
WHAT IT MEANT FOR AMERICA
Days later when many enlistments were up, Washington ordered his commanders to form ranks. He then rode out before the troops, and appealed to their sense of duty as well as the criticality of their fight:
“My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than could be reasonably expected, but your country is at stake … The present is emphatically the crisis which is to decide our destiny.”
Indeed it was in December of 1776, just as it is in December of 2006.
Washington held his little army together. Many of the continentals renewed their enlistments. They then capitalized on their Trenton victory with wins over the British at Trenton (the second go ‘round) on January 2, and Princeton on January 3.
The initial Delaware crossing and the raid on Trenton was the bold, high-risk shot-in-the-arm the nearly disintegrated American army needed in late 1776. The fighting was far from over, and there would be many setbacks for the Americans before the Treaty of Paris was signed formally ending the war in 1783. But the great Christmas night raid in 1776 would forever serve as a model of how a special operation – or a conventional mission, for that matter – might be successfully conducted. There are never any guarantees for success on the battlefield; but with a little initiative and a handful of good Americans, the dynamics of war can be altered in a single night.
W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor and co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates.
Success is a State of Mind - - Tommy Bahama Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do. The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking their first small loss. - - Jesse Livermore The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the man of inferior emotional balance, nor for the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor. - - Jesse Livermore
A miracle Christmas for The Man Who Walked The Pali BY CHRISTY UPHAM
WEST MAUI – This will be the first “Merry” Christmas in many years for the man who walked the Pali! For him, a miracle is happening. He’s going home!
To many residents of the West Side, he was simply known as the man who walks the Pali. Regardless of the weather or the time of day, he could be spotted walking on the shoulder of the road looking intently ahead with a quick pace.
Until recently, not many people ever had an opportunity to share a conversation with him or know more about his life. He lived a life of anonymity and loneliness. One Christmas after another meant nothing to him.
His life was hard. While walking the Pali, he had been struck by cars, hit with rocks, and had bottles and other objects thrown at him. Often eating out of garbage cans and sleeping under a tarp, in a small cave for protection, or under a bridge to escape the rain, he knew there had to be something more to his life.
Many people have wondered why he walked. You see, Greg lived above the Pali for safety, because he had been robbed twice at the homeless campsites on the beaches. He walked six hours every day to get food in Lahaina or Kahului, mostly eating out of garbage cans.
Having amnesia, he could not remember his past or any details of life before the Pali. When his personal belongings were stolen from him, he was left with no form of identification to remind him of who he was.
He walked back and forth every day for years, with no idea of who he was, with one desire in his heart: to go home. But he did not even know where home was. Maui Police were able to tell him his name was Greg, and he worked hard to remember that name. Finally, he became so discouraged, he thought to himself, “What kind of life is this?”
Many people stopped and gave him rides or money, food, clothes, and even new shoes. Each person that reached out was a ray of hope for him, giving him encouragement to make it through another day on the Pali.
But Greg knew without any identification or memory, he would never be able to return to his home.
All of the options around him appeared to be hopeless. He prayed for God to help him. The answers soon came, and Christmas this year will be different!
A worker at the Salvation Army named Kuulei stopped him one day to offer a ride to town. Once back in Lahaina, she provided him with some food, clothes and medicine.
With clean clothes, he felt he could go to church – something he wanted to do for months but always felt too dirty to enter the house of God.
With his clean clothes on, he went to Calvary Chapel Westside and met Pastor Steve. He enjoyed the music, worship and sermon, then it was back to his Pali campsite.
The following week I met Greg. I had been interested in finding out about his life for quite some time and wanted to help him.
Then, not long ago, a friend planted a seed of concern in my heart for Greg as we drove past him one day. It was this past October while my boyfriend, Joe, and I were helping with a community outreach at Lahaina Baptist Church.
The Lord put on my heart to give some water to this man who walked the Pali as he walked by on the highway. I went to fill up a cup of water, pick up a Bible and turn around. Greg was already gone.
We took off running down the highway until we caught up with him. We gave Greg the water and the Bible. He reached down in his pocket and pulled out the few dollars he had to give us. We didn’t take it, of course.
After several minutes of conversation, Greg prayed with us and gave his life to Christ. We went back to the outreach with Greg for fellowship and prayer with Pastor Chris Martin. Having no place for him to sleep, we took Greg back to his campsite above the Pali. Every day we returned with food.
Several days later, a strong rainstorm hit Maui. As the heavy rains fell, thoughts of Greg flooded my mind. I worried about Greg and felt “gripped” to go help him.
I rose from the comforts of my home and began driving to find Greg. Not having any idea of where he was, I prayed, “Lord, if you want me to find him, you will have to take me to him.” I was led to the Pali and there he was, walking in the downpour, soaking wet and shivering from the cold. He later told me that although he felt he was going to die from hypothermia, he had a strong feeling to keep walking, help would come and he would have a chance to live.
Since it wasn’t safe for me to pull over right there, I went ahead a short distance and had my boyfriend, who was in the area, meet me there. Greg walked by shortly, and I called to him across the highway to come and get in the car. All he kept saying was, “I’m going to die. I’m very ill.” We took Greg to the emergency room, where he was treated.
Greg felt as though his life, by a miracle, had been saved. We got him a place to stay for the next two nights to recover and be out of the rain. God seemed to be answering his pleas for help. His life that had appeared to be hopeless for so long began to fill with hope.
The next Sunday morning, Greg returned to church to start a new life with God. Deep in his heart, he knew those hymns that were being sung and loved hearing them. He would later remember that he sang these same hymns in a Baptist Church as a child.
Many people told us they had often prayed for Greg as they passed him on the Pali. Those prayers now were being answered.
Through Lahaina Baptist Church, Greg found a temporary home. A doctor is providing for his healthcare needs without charging any fees. A Christian dentist also donated his services for an emergency visit for Greg. Friends opened their home and cared for Greg when he was recovering from tooth extraction.
The hard life of his past had brought the pains of malnutrition, but the management of vitamins and supplements were beginning to make an instant impact on his body. During the course of these treatments, Greg’s memory continued to revive, and slowly the past is becoming a reality again.
On one amazing morning, I was searching for any knowledge of Greg’s past. I uncovered information that led me to locate Greg’s family. My first contact was with Greg’s aunt in California, who gave me Greg’s mom’s location.
I then phoned his mom, who later wrote about that moment when she first heard her missing son had been found: “When the telephone rang at 11:00 the morning of November 14th, a voice at the other end of the line said, ’Hello, is this Betty? My name is Christy. I’m calling from Maui. We have found your son.’ It was a like a gigantic thunderclap, a bomb exploding. A thought flashed through my head: Dead or alive? The story unraveled through Christy’s faraway voice. I was stunned. My missing son was alive. I sensed my life would never again be the same. All I could say was, ’Wait a minute. Wow! This is big!’ ”
Greg’s mom was a missionary in Africa at the time Greg “disappeared” 13 years ago. She never stopped praying for God to watch over her son and to bring him back. She told me Greg had three children, two stepchildren and three grandchildren.
Within days, Greg was reunited with his mother over the telephone, as well as with his aunt, brother and one of his sons.
I learned that Greg is a talented artist. Greg is a humble, respectful man with a warm heart who cares about other people. He prays daily now for others that the Lord puts on his heart, including a man named Pat who has leukemia.
This incredible story is not yet over. When his health is fully restored, Greg’s desire is to go home and be close to his family. Currently, we are in the process of helping Greg obtain his identification card. Once he receives his card, he will be able to fly home.
Though Greg’s “new life” began two months ago, he will still be dependent on others for some time, to help him meet his needs such as funds for food, clothing, medical costs and a transitional home.
Many who have called out for God’s help in the past know He answers, and that it is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). God has proven to be faithful in answering Greg’s prayers. Greg is no longer homeless and hopeless. He has a life again with friends and family and a future.
And the story continues. If you would like to help in the costs of Greg’s needs during the remainder of this amazing story, please contact Christy Upham at 662-0831 or e-mail cupham2@yahoo.com. As this story continues to unfold, keep looking for updates and the wonderful conclusion.
God may have used all of us to change Greg’s life, but He used Greg to change our hearts.
Greg speaks often of the people who stopped to give him a ride, money or food. He wishes to give thanks first to God, then to the Salvation Army, Lahaina Baptist Church and the many people who have stopped to help him over the years. He remembers you! You were a ray of hope during a dark time in his life.
Among those who have shown interest in Greg’s progress are Banana Republic & friends. They have adopted him for Christmas! They are determined to see that this Christmas is special for him. His first “Merry” Christmas in many years!
If you would like to be a part of this Christmas celebration or to attend Greg’s Going Home celebration, please call 662-0831 or e-mail me at cupham2@yahoo.com.
(Pastor Chris Martin and Bill Brown contributed to this story.)
Success is a State of Mind - - Tommy Bahama Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do. The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking their first small loss. - - Jesse Livermore The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the man of inferior emotional balance, nor for the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor. - - Jesse Livermore
Success is a State of Mind - - Tommy Bahama Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do. The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking their first small loss. - - Jesse Livermore The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the man of inferior emotional balance, nor for the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor. - - Jesse Livermore
All I have to say is DUH!!!! How freaking dumb just is the US public? Everyone I see everyday is so freaking ignorant of the facts. I know people doubted this so I am glad this study was done. Too bad the dangerous left ignores facts and instead prefers the continued failure policies of "what feels right."
Fewer Chronically Uninsured
How accurate is the number? A study by scholars at Johns Hopkins University and the Urban Institute argues that the actual number of those who lack insurance because they cannot afford it is closer to 24.9 million.
The problem with the 46 million figure, the report's authors say, is that the Census Bureau simply counts those with no insurance at the time of the survey. That doesn't mean they lack access to insurance or are likely to go without coverage for prolonged periods.
Democratic representatives of key congressional committees covering health care did not respond to IBD's request for comment.
The study was conducted by Lisa Dubay, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins; John Holahan, director of health policy for the Urban Institute; and Allison Cook, an Urban Institute researcher. It was published in the journal Health Affairs.
"We found that 24.7% of the uninsured are eligible for public health insurance programs, 55.7% are in the 'need assistance' category and 19.6% are likely to be able to afford coverage on their own," the study said.
So just over half of the 46 million lack coverage because none is available to them either via government programs or their employer, and they can't afford it on their own.
That's consistent with other studies of the uninsured. In 2003, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that 21 million to 31 million people were uninsured for all of 1998, the most recent year for which reliable comparative data are available.
Success is a State of Mind - - Tommy Bahama Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do. The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking their first small loss. - - Jesse Livermore The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the man of inferior emotional balance, nor for the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor. - - Jesse Livermore
Ok, everyone, it is time to start getting ready for the real deal.
It is still not finished (obviously) but you can now register and get access to the gold area for free during the first week or so. I can not remember what I was told but here it is. Get used to it. This site will no longer be free as of Jan. 1st.
Ok, everyone, it is time to start getting ready for the real deal.
It is still not finished (obviously) but you can now register and get access to the gold area for free during the first week or so. I can not remember what I was told but here it is. Get used to it. This site will no longer be free as of Jan. 1st.
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