Defeat Evil - Love Someone You Don't Like

Yet another mass shooting... this time Orlando, in my home state. And the rhetoric on my Facebook newsfeed is the same as every other time - regulate guns!! ban Muslims!! Obama sucks! And I find myself unable to get behind any of these things this time. Banning a whole group of people is unreasonable and hateful. Eliminating assault rifles seems like a great idea and may be a good step but I think to myself "People who want to kill will find a way to kill" - i.e. boxcutters and airplanes or fertilizer. After a few inspirational posts and at least one argument, I came to a realization - the only real way to stop the violence is to stop the underlying cause - evil.

Yeah, I know what some of you will say - evil? really? That's where she's going with this? Yeah - evil. For those of us who are religious, we recognize there is an actual evil in the world. For those who are not so into the metaphysical, I can boil evil down to a part of the brain that activates before aggressive behavior as this article points out - hey Science! And one day maybe scientists will even find a way to control this part of our brain but, until then, we need to fight and defeat evil however we can to stop these atrocities in our world. And that's what I want to write about. I'm thinking about blogging regularly about ways we can fight and defeat evil. Maybe this will just be one post. Maybe I'll get tired of it after a while but if I'm good, I'll keep it up and maybe help myself and others to make this a better world.


My first topic - love. Love is of course the one thing that has been said over millennia will defeat evil. But, is this too simplistic? Many would say yes but I think if we took love to its extreme, we would see a vast difference in our society.

Of course it's easy to love those we already care about: family, friends, even some coworkers and acquaintances. But, to defeat evil, we will need to go far beyond this. We will need to somehow, some way, love those we don't like. If everyone had a modicum of love for every single individual in the world, we would not kill each other or steal from each other or cheat each other, or...

Too idealistic? Probably but it's in the quest that victory over evil is attained. Too hard? Could be but Christians have been teaching this for 2000 years, Muslims since Muhammad, and Jews long before that so there must be something to it. Even the 60's Love children have been telling us for at least decades that "Love is all you need". So how do we do that? How do we actually love someone we don't even like or who hates us or wants to hurt us?

Love is an action word - it's not just a feeling. If you limit love to a feeling, it's only good for one person- you. But if you project that love outward through actions towards others then it benefits you and your target. So I say act in love toward someone you don't like, even if you're not feeling it. This is the hard part! At first it doesn't have to be something that person sees, if you're worried about backlash. Start with simply thinking nice thoughts about that person, identifying good things about them. If you're religious, say a prayer for them and especially about caring more about them.

Then, when you're ready, write something down, maybe a note you may or may not give to them, maybe just your thoughts about them - caring thoughts of course. Even if you don't do something yet that directly affects them, you will likely begin to feel a softening for them. This is the beginning of love. Sometimes it takes some time and practice but you will feel something positive for them. Ok, maybe start with an easier target if the first one you choose isn't working.

But, eventually you will see an opportunity to actually show something positive toward that person you don't like, a simple smile, a wave, a way to help them in some small way - it doesn't matter. But find something that starts to foster nicer feelings between the two of you. And then do what you can to help that to grow into a brotherly or sisterly love for that person.

Can we agree that if Omar Mateen had done this for the people in that night club (we already know he went there several times) he may have taken a different course? What if someone in that night club had done this for him - befriended him? What if each of us does this with one person at a time in our lives? Could we maybe make a difference in our life and theirs? I can't say we will prevent the next disaster with this alone but it's a start.

Love someone you don't like. And then Love someone else you don't like. This is how we start to knit ourselves together as a human race that cares about each other and fosters the one thing that can defeat evil - love!

Quotes about Love conquering Evil:

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

- Jesus Christ

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

"All you need is Love"

― John Lennon

“I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.”
― Charles Dickens

“Cruelty and wrong are not the greatest forces in the world. There is nothing eternal in them. Only love is eternal.”
― Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael

“The actual, expanded consciousness, reality of our planet is that all of life is LOVE; our very existence is LOVE. Everything that exists is just varying degrees of this LOVE; polar absolutes do not exist. Good versus evil is pure illusion. Even the most seemingly “negative” person with ill intent is still in the spectrum of love.”
― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace

Milk cans, doorknobs and space clocks

Last weekend was an interesting convergence of changes. As my grandma started living in a new house, I was tasked with packing up and shipping what was left in her old house of my mom’s things that I acquired after her passing four years ago. At the same time, the family is also integrating into our lives belongings of my Uncle Carl who passed away last year. From each one of these life changes, I have wanted particular items to have as remembrances of people and places –my mom, Uncle Carl and my grandma’s old house. I found it interesting to think about why we want to have physical items to help us remember people and feelings of the past.

As I sorted through my mom’s things, there were several that I felt absolutely no connection to – A couple of collectible bears wearing cute outfits, some needlepoint patterns and lots of frames after I took the pictures out. I put these in the donation pile – or even the recycle pile for things not necessarily fit to donate. But, I found several things that I didn’t want to part with, including an embroidery of a lovely poem about children that I believe my mom made, a small wooden knick-knack shelf she made and gave to my grandma when she was in middle school – this was a new discovery for me - and of course the milk can. I remember when my mom brought home the milk can when I was a young kid. She set it in the hallway near the front door to keep it “for now” until she decided where she wanted to keep it permanently. There it sat the rest of the time she lived there – more than 35 years. That was my mom to a “T”. The only time it moved was when I used it to sit on when I talked on the phone as a teenager. I would move it four feet across the little hall to just inside the doorway of the kitchen, under the rotary phone that hung on the wall long after everyone else had touch-tone phones. I would sit on that milk can for hours talking to my friends and boys I knew.

Once, when Andy was in the Navy in Spain – when we were engaged and anxiously awaiting our wedding day when we would be together forever – he called me and as I was sitting on the milk can, the call got cut off. I knew he would call right back so I waited on the milk can. It took longer than I expected, probably because of the crazy phone lines on the Navy base in Rota, so I laid my head down on the kitchen counter. Being a college-kid who also worked late at night at the local Pizza Hut, I was often very tired and so as I was waiting with my head down, I fell asleep. I don’t know how long I slept – maybe 20 minutes but when I woke up, my feet were just as asleep as I was. Stupidly, I tried to walk on them to get to my bed – NEVER try to walk if your feet are asleep! Two or three steps later, my right foot buckled under and I went down in excruciating pain. It was fractured – the only bone fracture I’ve ever had. It was years before I could wear heels again for any length of time. But, I still love that milk can. How can I get rid of something that holds such memories for me? I gladly paid to ship the 35lb rusty metal monstrosity home.

Earlier, when I was talking to my grandma about the old house, she told me that my cousin Gwen said she wanted the doorknobs from the old house. These are great old antique doorknobs and when I heard the idea, I loved it and wanted one, too! So, I silently apologized to Gwen for not letting her have all of them and decided to see what I could do to get the doorknobs out of the house – maybe to share among all the grandkids. So, after I was done packing mom’s stuff, I found the little red toolbox Grandma kept in the utility room and hadn’t brought to the new house yet and worked to learn if I could remove the old knob from the living room door and replace it with a new one. After all, I didn’t want to leave the house doorknob-less. Alas, I found that removing the knob and plate was easy but because this was an antique knob with one of those big skeleton keyholes beneath it, there was a lot of hardware embedded in the wood of the door that I could not remove – at least without destroying the wood. So we are leaving it to my Uncle Larry who is much more handy with these things and visits often. He may be able to come up with a solution to our problem. But, I’m already imagining that little shelf my mom made with the doorknob on top as one of the small mementos it will house. I really hope Uncle Larry can figure it out and I’d love to be able to send a Facebook message to all my cousins announcing that we can have doorknobs if we want to remember that great old house with.

The other item I received that weekend that is of great importance to me is an item that belonged to my Uncle Carl. He passed away last year and I expressed to Grandma that I would love to have a small something from his house to remember him by. Thursday, when I arrived at her home, Grandma gave me a space clock – a desk clock that says “Nasa – Sharing Space Technology – Kennedy Space Center” below the analog face that she found in his house. Uncle Carl was a physicist and worked for Nasa on the space shuttle for most of his life. I tell more about him in another post from last year. I love Carl as I love all my uncles and to have this small piece from his life means a lot to me. I think I’ll put it on the little shelf next to the doorknob.

But, I have been asking myself, why do we crave these things in our lives? Why do we collect these items that take up space in our homes and won’t mean anything to anyone 2 generations from now? Vienna’s grandkids won’t care if I sat on this milk can and broke my foot waiting for their great-grandfather to call from the Navy. They won’t have any memories of the house that belonged to my grandma and that I loved so dearly. And the clock will just be a clock to them – if it even still works – if Vienna even keeps it herself after I die. All these things will eventually go the way of the earth, just as we do.

I believe in the afterlife – that our spirits live on forever after we die and that we will be reunited with our loved ones who have passed on before us. I also believe that we will each have a perfect memory of all that happened to us while we were on the earth – unlike the fading and fallible memory we have now. I wonder if clinging to these things – these physical reminders – is kindof like clinging to or reaching beyond the veil that lies between this earthly life and the eternities - for the time to come when we will be with our family and friends again with a perfect beautiful memory of our lives on earth and won’t need these things anymore.

I am wondering if these things are simply for us to hold as a semblance of that joy we will have with our loved ones. Has God given us a desire for these things so that we might feel a sliver of what we will feel then and maybe have an inkling of what He has planned for us?

Well, no matter the answer to that, I love these small tokens of love, memories and life. I can’t wait to scrub, sand and paint my milkcan or hang my mom’s little shelves and on them place a doorknob, clock and other sweet mementos. I plan to cling to them until I don’t need them anymore.

My extreme leftist/righty political view

I thought I'd take a moment to try to explain my political views, which seem confusing to some. People on the right - like my hard-core republican boss- think I'm a total liberal, while people on the left- like my husband- think I'm a right-wing nutcake.

The truth is I really am extreme on both sides, depending on the issue.

Socially, I'm very conservative. I believe life begins at conception and a woman's right to choose does NOT override the baby's right to live. The baby in-utero absolutely has every right that the same baby has as soon as it emerges from the womb. As you all probably know, I was pro- prop-8, as well. Most other social issues - I'm gonna go the same way, because for me they are all spiritual issues and the rules are actually made by God, not man.

However, on the issues of government and finance, I am quite liberal. While capitalism is the way of our country, it doesn't work for everyone and those who are disadvantaged by the system must be helped so they can help themselves - not as handouts to live off the government and promote laziness, but so that they can become self-reliant and, in turn contribute to society and the less-fortunate. Some, who can never be self-reliant like the mentally handicapped should be helped on a more permanent basis - it is our responsibility as humans to care for each other this way. I also believe that government is for our benefit and if we want it to do certain things for us and the less-fortunate, we need to pay for it - taxes.

I do think the rich should pay more in taxes so the poorer people can get the help they need. I look forward to the day when I can pay more in taxes because I'm fabulously wealthy! Obviously, I have no problem with people having money - but they shouldn't hoard it and once you have enough to live comfortably - even luxuriously the rest of your life, share the rest. You don't need it and you could probably never spend it, anyway. Your kids would be better off working out their own fortunes, anyway. These ideals also come from my religious beliefs - love one another, feed my sheep and the other examples Christ set. And, I believe a rising tide really should raise all ships, not just the yachts.

So, it's not so confusing when you think about it - it's common sense to me and it fits perfectly with what I've been taught all my life. It's based on Christ and his great example. It's also based on many values coming from the left- tolerance, caring and idealism - we can be better and we absolutely should be the best we can be.

Mormons' support of Proposition 8

To all those thinking the Mormon church should be taxed, hurt or otherwise punished for its members support of Proposition 8:

1. Mormons make up less than 2% of the population of California . There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.

2. Mormon voters were less than 5% of the yes vote. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6% of the Yes vote and 2.4% of the total Proposition 8 vote.

3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.

4. The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.

5. Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.

6. The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8.

7. African Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70% of Black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.

8. The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).

9. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims - all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California . Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.

10. Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or her self. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.

11. The Church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process, to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The Church has always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.

12. Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support, and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair, and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars, and worse. The fact is, we simply did what Americans do - we spoke up, we campaigned, and we voted.


Written by a member in the Newbury Park area.

Election Post-Mortem

I find it hard to describe how I feel about life, today. I am calm, tired and at peace, I guess. Basically, I feel the lightness of me now that the weight of the campaign is off my shoulders. I can enjoy life again.

In fact, I don't even really want to write this but feel I should as a remembrance for myself. As Andy says, "It's the gift I give myself" for the future. It was a very momentous time for me and the country.

I was really enjoying the election season - two great candidates, exciting debates, public energy at the thought of really good change coming- no matter which candidate won, in my opinion. I think both John McCain and Barak Obama are very competent and smart guys. It was fun to sit back each night and watch the activities of the day from both sides and hear the commentary from the pundits.

Then, I got the assignment to run the local Yes on Prop 8 campaign (the one man one woman marriage amendment) and my entire view of the season changed. Now I had big responsibilities, that other people really didn't want, and I don't blame them a bit. I had to gather volunteers, coordinate a ton of activities, including phone calls, distributing yard signs, redistributing them daily after they'd been stolen, sign-waving rallies on street corners and a myriad of other things.

While I am very strong in my conviction on this issue, I didn't know where everyone I knew stood on it. It was not fun figuring it out since it's such a divisive issue and I do NOT like confronting people on them when there's a possibility I could get "rejected", lose a friend or even have mean words said to me. I'm actually quite sensitive and my main goal in life is for everyone to like me so this was hard for me. But, I manned-up and did what I could and slowly but surely I had a small contingency of volunteers (thanks to the help of some others who aren't as afraid as I am) and we were making calls, having phone banks, passing around email news and waving signs together.

With my group of supporters, I felt really positive and energetic. But, by myself, I still felt those pangs of fear that people I cared about would disown me. It almost happened once and I am so very grateful that we are still friends and can hopefully move past this. I did get plenty of swear words, birds shot at me and really mean words of response to things I wrote to the paper or online. Those things were easier to deal with because, for the most part, I don't know those people and will probably never have to face them.

Anyway, it is now over and regardless of the result - I am glad it is over. I am still reading a few news stories just to see what's happening and what will happen next but otherwise - I am avoiding the topic as much as possible.

Now, I want to bask. Bask in the lightness and the change that is coming to our country. I am so very excited that Barak Obama will be our President. While John McCain is truly a great man and would have made a good president, Obama is truly inspiring, to me and many others and I think that unity really is what our country needs right now. We have been so divided for so long that we must pull together to accomplish real good for ourselves and the world. I believe Obama is the one that can do that.

So, tonight I'm going to watch the news of what happened, today - who Obama is thinking about for Secretary of this or that, the implications of his election and all the positive things that we have to look forward to. We really do live in a great country where great things can happen and great people can be president. And, now I can enjoy it again.

Thank you to all those who supported me in the last 2 months - especially my wonderful husband Andy who, even though disagrees with me on this issue, stood up for me, allowed me time and space to accomplish my task and even went on a stakeout with me to protect our signs. He's the best husband ever!

My Mom's Last Gift

One of the people I wanted to write about in this blog is my mom. She died in March of last year.
I don't want to go into any detail at all about her death because at first read, it is long, depressing and extremely pointless. My mom suffered quite a bit in her last year and I hated watching her waste away without any ability to really help - being literally across the country. But, I would like to say that having the perspective I have in life - an eternal perspective that I've gained through a strong Mormon background - I know that her death and suffering were not pointless, at all.

When people wonder why bad things happen to good people, I can actually hold my mom's and my experience with her illness up as an example. I know why they happen and it's actually for a good reason. Mom spent her last year in a hospital, unable to get up, communicate or do any of the normal things we take for granted.

When she first went into the hospital, I was called back to Florida to be with her and to help with the doctors and tough decisions. I am her only child, which leaves me "responsible". My grandmother and all my uncles have way more life experience, but the final decisions as to her care were in my hands. That certainly doesn't seem fair and at the time it almost felt ridiculous. Who am I to know how to handle this stuff? I'm just a kid in comparison to the wisdom necessary for this.

I was scared when I took that first long flight home - scared of what she'd look and be like, what would happen while I was there and the great unknown. But, I had one thing going for me. I had the distinct thought that this would be one of the most important educational experiences of my life and I had a choice. I could either wallow in the overwhelming depths of despair that I felt or I could face the next few days or weeks as the learning experience it was and grow with it. On that flight, I chose to stay faithful, make the decisions and handle the situation the best I could - for my mom, my grandma and for myself. I have never regretted that decision because anytime I began to feel overwhelmed again, I could remember why I was doing all this. And, I knew that at the end of it, I would be a better stronger person than I was then -and I was right.

What I didn't know at that point was that not only would I be in FL that first time for 3 weeks with no resolution to my mom's situation but also that it would be a full year and more before I was through the muck of that time - before my mom would be through the muck of her experience only to be released in her passing. She spent that year without the ability to speak because of being on a respirator or write because of her weakness. Though we could talk to her, she had no way of telling us her feelings or what she was going through. She was alone in her thoughts. My uncle often said that she was having her own experience in her own spiritual world, wrestling with God in her own way. And, she was ever-so-patient in that trial.

In March of 2007, came the culmination of all that effort, waiting, fighting and learning - she was alone and unconscious when she passed and I heard via a phone call late at night after having made the last decision of her life - not to have the doctors resuscitate her if she went into another code-red. Had I recognized that they meant it could happen that night, I might have asked them to keep her alive until I got there. But, all that really would have done was eased my own guilt for not being there with her- it wouldn't have made it easier for her. To this day, I'm not sure I did the right thing on that last decision but I think that she had lingered long enough and didn't need to wait any longer. One day, I'll see her again and ask.

Anyway, the great things began to happen after her passing. It's funny how the deepest sadness really can be the most cleansing. I learned that I really appreciate mourning. So many folks don't like funerals or can't handle death but I now understand why we go through those steps and I actually felt honored to be able to give my mom that time of mourning, planning the funeral, preparing a tribute to her and performing the ordinances we all perform for our loved ones.

One of the things we Mormons do for those that pass is to dress them in the special temple clothes for their burial so that they are ready for the resurrection. I've never done this before and it was a bit shocking, very solemn and actually quite beautiful. We consider it the last service we can do for them and I was so honored to be able to participate. It was me, my grandma and 2 other ladies from my mom's ward and we dressed her in the funeral home. It was a very spiritual experience and one which I wouldn't mind doing again. You feel very close to the person you're serving and close to God and the spirit world. In a world like ours where everything is so base and profane, it is wonderful to have things like this to remind us of who we really are and where we come from.

I spent several days planning the funeral and writing an obituary for my mom. The obit in the paper only turned out to be a very few lines - any more would have cost more than we could afford but I used what I wrote on the program for the funeral which I created. I also spent time at the funeral home, picking out her casket and organizing the service and paying for these things (a rant on the death industry is surely in the future of this blog). I also put together a table of pictures and items from her life, including a life-sized color drawing of Goliath that she made several years ago. I was happy to do all of these things to honor my mom and it brought me some joy in that time.

The funeral itself was one of the most beautiful services I have ever been to. I had my uncle Rick do the eulogy. I felt he was the right one because although he and my mom didn't agree on much, he is the only Priesthood holder in the immediate family and I wanted his authority in that spot of the program. My daughter played a gorgeous piano piece by Beethoven that was perfect. I was so overcome with emotion while she played and so filled with the spirit. We then had folks come up and share their feelings and stories about my mom and it was amazing to hear how everyone else was dealing with the situation and to hear things I'd never heard about her.

The most powerful was shared by a man who was the High Priest group leader in her ward. In his role, he felt he had a responsibility to visit my mom occasionally. So, he did about once a month while she was there. None of us in the family knew he was visiting and since my mom couldn't communicate - though she was awake and aware most of the time, she had never been able to tell us, either. He said in his remarks that though he couldn't talk with mom much, he spent time with her and was amazed by the great amount of patience she had in her situation. Patience was a common theme in the service and in her life. He said that he had learned something about patience and dealing with trials from visiting my mom and that he was a better person for having done that. This was what really made me think about why these bad things happen to good people.

If my mom, had not gone through this experience, she never would have had the opportunity to learn and grow in that spiritual world that we can never comprehend. I would never have had the opportunity to deal with these doctors, lawyers, decisions and most importantly emotions that I'd never dealt with before. I certainly am a stronger person than I was before then. My grandma would never have had to learn whatever lessons were hers to learn. And, even this man had an opportunity to grow because of my mom's situation. All these people, her brothers, her friends, my husband and daughter and more that I don't even know of have all become a little bit stronger - a little bit better because my mom went through that.

That is what this life is all about. We have these terrible awful experiences so that we can wrestle with them, so that we can try to figure out what we need to learn from them, so that we can prepare for even more life lessons to come - and ultimately, so that we can prepare for what comes next - after this life. I am ultimately very grateful for the experience I had to go through. I'm even joyful about it now that it's over and I can see the stronger person I am - braver now to take on new challenges I never would have thought about before and much more appreciative of my wonderful mom who sacrificed most of her life to raise me and teach me. In her sickness and death I learned even more from her and for that I'll always be grateful to her and to God.

So, when something horrible is happening in your life - think about what you can learn from it and how it's going to make you a better person after you're through it. It's all for our good. It's all for our learning and it's all because we have a God, a Father above who loves us as we love our own children. He hates to see us suffer but allows those things to happen because He knows what He wants us to be on the other side and knows how to get us there. Have faith in Him and in the trials we experience.

Mr. Smith goes to Washington

My husband, Andy (of Woodland Shopper's Paradise) has been on me to start my own blog for a while. But, until now, I haven't really found anything inspiring enough to write about. Today I saw "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" for the first time. I don't know why I have never seen this movie before but I found it and its main character, Jefferson Smith, to be just about the most inspiring thing I have seen for a long time. Well, at least since my experience with the Seagate Eco Challenge in February.

As many of you already know, Mr. Smith is a small town boys' ranch leader who suddenly gets swept off to D.C. as a state senator. Green and deeply patriotic, his first day in the capital city was awe inspiring for him and, like a child at his first day at Disney World, Smith was entranced by the history, the words etched in stone and the figures of great men who shaped our country into the precious nation of freedom that it is. Watching Smith, I remembered the feelings I've had in our nation's capital and wished that everyone could be as hopeful, innocent and even naive as he was.

Jefferson Smith soon gets engulfed in the nasty politics of greedy men and tries his best to stay optimistic. He believes in our country and in the process of getting things done for the people so he goes to work to make things better. When he is finally overwhelmed by those trying to destroy him, he almost gives up. But, just then, a recently jaded but now hopeful colleague convinces him to keep going - knowing that he's the only one who can defeat the evil influences destroying the promise of America.

With her help, he returns to fight his battle, stronger than ever - and fight he does. He never gives up. I won't spoil the end for you but suffice it to say, he is truly inspirational.



There are few characters or even real people that embody the ideals that I believe make a person great and to which I aspire. Jefferson Smith is one of those - truly optimistic, courageous and idealistic against all odds. Idealists have been derided as silly, naive and not realistic. They are told that things won't change so don't bother. But, Mr. Smith proves that there are things worth fighting for, even if it is a lost cause - in fact, they are the things most worth fighting for according to him.

Most importantly, Mr. Smith embodies integrity. He knows exactly what he believes and lives by that which he believes. Integrity, to me is one of the most important qualifications to being a good human being and watching Mr. Smith shows me a great modern day example of that.

I am one of those who has always known that the world and its people can be better - much better. We have the capacity and we should be fighting for that no matter what the odds. I have met many who think I am too much of a Pollyanna and I have always been happy with that label. Yes, I'm a Pollyanna. Yes, I believe that the world can and should be better and we as members of the human race have the ultimate responsibility for making it better. And, yes I believe that no matter how lost a cause looks, if it's the right thing to do, it's worth fighting for. Most importantly, I try to have integrity. I try to know and act upon what I truly believe.

Mr. Smith, thank you for reminding me and inspiring me again to fight for the little guy, the lost cause - for what I believe. I won't forget.