I wrote the following letter to Senator Crapo.  I can’t explain the frustration and amazement I have after reading this.

Senator Crapo,

After reading that I am very disappointed in this.

1.  How can you take money from an organization that is getting bailed out by taxpayers?

2.  By taking money from them you are condoning the actions of a bankrupt organization, taking taxpayers money and using it for political contributions?  I would seriously love to hear you justify this.

3.  How can you even comment on anything bad they are doing, when you are taking their money?

Where are the principles I heard you talk about at Senator Jorgenson’s home several years ago?  Where are the principles at all?

How can you justify these things.

You should give this money back, you know why?  It’s our money.

I’m a long time republican, I’ve voted for you several times, my office is down a few steps from yours in CDA and I’ve always considered you one of the good guys.

But this, this will move my vote to someone else and will encourage me to tell others the same thing.

It’s about principles.  I know that I would never take money like that from an organization that is taking money from the taxpayers.

It is amazing, just amazing.

Jamie Birch.

I voted for Senator Jorgenson in the last elections but not this one.  In fact, I didn’t vote for any single incumbent.  If you were already in office, well you didn’t get my vote.  Now, I like Senator Jorgenson.  I think he has done a good job for Idaho, this community and I found him to be personable and available when you need to speak with him.

I have had the great pleasure of attending an event to hear Senator Mike Crapo speak at his house as well as been his guest at several party functions.  On each occasion he has taken significant time to speak with me and hear me out, primarily on the issue of the Amazon or Affiliate Tax that so concerns my business and the industry it operates in.  So, all in all, he has been a household name in my house and we have spoken of him kindly and with great respect.  So it upsets me to see that Senator Jorgenson is blaming his loss on Phil Hart and not on the people that voted.  3,100 people didn’t vote for Steve Vick because Phil Hart said so or Rally Right said so.

From the CDA Press: “They are on an agenda to do away with what I call mainstream Republicans. We’re too moderate for them,” Jorgenson said of the 1-year-old group. “It’s something the people should be aware of and alarmed at what’s going on.”

My wife and I voted for Vito Barbieri and Steve Vick.  I’m sorry Senator Jorgenson, you didn’t get our vote this time.  It didn’t have to do with Mr. Hart or Rally Right -  I don’t even know who that group is and neither does anyone that I know who voted for these two gentlemen.  And it really didn’t have much to do with you as an individual.  You are currently in office, thus you did not get my vote.  No incumbent did and I know many people who did that, both democrats and republicans.  I also had the privilege of spending a few minutes with Vito during his campaign and felt that he and Vick shared my beliefs and values.  I also liked that Vito had never run for office, was a small business owner and just fed up with what is going on.  So am I and I can get behind a guy who feels that way and is putting his money where his mouth is.

What surprises me, annoys me, and aggravates me is that you don’t know the real reason why.  We don’t want more of the same.  We don’t want more of the same from the republicans or the democrats.  You had your shot, and now another citizen politician will have his shot.  These positions weren’t meant to be had in perpetuity.  The founders didn’t mean for you to make a living as a legislator. Serve your time and move on.

Here is a pretty funny, at least to me, sentence from a CDA Press article:

“But others in the Republican Party are concerned about the direction of the party following Tuesday’s results.”

You are damn right, they should be concerned.  Every single elected official in office should be concerned.  We aren’t voting for you anymore.  You’ve totally missed the boat here, we aren’t mad at the democrats, we are mad at all of you.

The republicans have taken the tea party movement and the general level of mistrust and anger that the American Citizens have been expressing as solely focused on Obama.  Solely focused on Democrats.  Guess what, it isn’t.  For too long, and more than the last eight years, you have abused power (this isn’t specifically to you Senator Jorgenson), grown government, passed bad legislation, misrepresented your constituents, passed laws that we in no way can fund, ignored the please of those you represent, mishandled our money like it just doesn’t matter to you.  You haven’t done anything to address our concerns about overspending and the entitlements that are coming due that we in no way can pay.  You haven’t done anything about the monetary policy that is driving us into a depression.

We’ve woken up a bit haven’t we?  We’ve started to read about the constitution, we have gone back to the history books and studied about the founding of our country, what is legal and what isn’t and what YOU are SUPPOSED to be doing.  No longer are WE (democrats and republicans and libertarians) just going to listen to our party and blindly vote for you because you have an R next to your name or a D.  We are asking candidates how they feel about the constitution, how they feel about our monetary policy, what their first steps will be, what their core beliefs are and other things.  We know what we believe and what is true, but do you?

It’s been pretty interesting over the last two years.  I haven’t really enjoyed reading, um, ever.  Hated it. Maybe read three books in the years after college and till 2008.  But now, I’m plowing through a book a week and I’m not the only one.  My neighbors are reading history books.  We are all reading political philosophy books.  We are reading the actual words of our founders, not what the media or you say they wrote and said.  We are getting back to who we are as a country by reading, learning and studying.  It’s pretty amazing to be reading a book in a coffee shop and a stranger come up and start discussing the pro’s and con’s of the authors position.  The market of ideas is truly being taken back by the general population, no longer do our elected officials have a monopoly on that.  And that scares R’s as much as D’s.

It isn’t about party politics anymore.  It isn’t about which party is in power because we know that it doesn’t matter all that much.  Both parties have grown government beyond what is feasible and what we are comfortable with.  Both parties have betrayed our constitution and the will of the people.  Obama and Bush, democrats and republicans.

Vaughn Ward also lost for this reason.  Although he was a candidate, we all felt he was basically the same as all the other entrenched politicians.  He didn’t represent the average Idahoan and we felt he looked a lot more like the way things have gone then the way we want them to go.  Yes we want change, but sorry Mr. President, you haven’t brought that over either (um, didn’t you speak out against the Patriot Act, but yet removed the sunset?).

I’m also excited to see that democrats and republicans discussing issues like normal humans now.  For far too long I couldn’t even discuss these things with my sisters.  They leaned left, I ran right and so we avoided these discussions.  But I believe the American people are starting to really come together.  We are learning why we believe things not just that we do.  We are even changing our positions on some things as we become more educated (I’m much more libertarian than republican now than two years ago).

Wow, ok, I’ve said a lot.  It’s raining pretty heavily outside so there isn’t much more to do than write.

So, Senator Jorgenson – Thank you for your service to our state.  I think you’ve done an admirable job and very much appreciate what you have done.  But you didn’t lose because of Phil Hart or Rally Right, again, I still have no idea who they are.

Republican Party – It isn’t about YOU.  We aren’t happy with YOU either.  Too many of you have been in office for what seems like hundreds of years and you have done as much to hurt this country as the Democrats.  You are right to be worried.  We are going to take back this party from the inside.

Onward and upward!

(If you actually got to the end of this post, God bless you, that was a long one )

As I read that book I recalled all the things from my childhood, which was pretty blessed, and didn’t realize that many of those things were deliberate things my folks put together for us to experience.  It wasn’t “willy-nilly”.    So from there I began to create experiences and even traditions for my kids.  I created something we call Big Breakfast Saturday.  BBS is, well, breakfast.  But there is so much more.  It starts with good music on the stereo.  Both kids, now all four, sitting at the counter in the kitchen.  Dad singing and dancing and just having fun with all of them.  And then the food.  Because it is big breakfast that means we eat a lot.  That means I cook a lot.  We start out with some oatmeal or cereal, move on to pancakes or frenchtoast and usually add eggs, sausage and bacon.  I try to get us to eat as much as we can, well at least put as much as you can on a plate

My kids love BBS.  When we don’t have it, they get upset.  The boys dance around, we eat like crazy, and just have good times.

Another tradition was Big Sundae Sunday.  We don’t do that much anymore   The idea was to one day a month, or every other month, let the kids build their own sundeas.  I wish I had pictures of the huge sundaes my sons made.  Scoops and scoops of ice cream and every topping you could find.  We usually did this after lunch.  The boys would eat as much as they could, run around the house like madmen, then fall asleep wherever they crashed.  It was great.

Can you see how most of our traditions revolve around food   We do have a bunch of others that revolve around game night, camping and other stuff, but those are the two best

So that got me thinking.  Everyone has their own traditions, either things they grew up with as kids, or things they are doing with their families, or stuff that they want to do.  Experiences that they purposefully and deliberately set up to spend time with their families, teach thier kids something, or just develop a loving home.  And I want to hear about those!  So, I’m starting this project called Your Family Traditions.  I’m using a client of JEBCommerce, drop.io, to gather ideas and share with others.

So here is the idea:  You have traditions, experiences and things you want to share with your kids or are sharing already.  Now, you can share those with myself and others by submitting an email to yourfamilytraditions@drop.io.  But that isn’t it, you can also submit your traditions, ideas and experiences via voice mail by dialing 646-502-4097 x 27644 or via video by submitting your video to http://drop.io/hidden/4nbvwxl44smkvb/upload.

I love video and audio, so please share with us your best family traditions, childhood experiences, or just some awesome family stories at http://drop.io/yourfamilytraditions.  Just click on Add or use the links above.  Let’s build an awesome resource to raise our families better this year.  I can’t wait to watch, hear and read about all of your great traditions!

When you get to http://drop.io/yourfamilytraditions , you can subscribe via RSS or with your email address so whenever anyone adds something, you get notification via email.

And please, tell everyone you can about this project.  Tweet it, Facebook it, email your friends!

So we traveled to Sandpoint Idaho to play the bulldogs.  My son was excited to get some more playing time and actually got some time on defense, enough to put the bulldogs quarterback on his rear a few times.  Way to go son!

The Rams, his team, won without allowing a single score!

Here comes the Rams!

Final team huddle before the start of the game. It was perfect weather, just a bit colder, but good stuff. You can see my boy there towards the end with no socks, can't get him to wear socks.

It's almost crazy to see my little boy like this. But holy cow he looks like a warrior putting on his armor getting ready for some grid iron battle. Go get em son!

There he is starting the second quarter and putting someone on their back!

Here he is on the far side giving the QB some time.

#70 getting ready for the next play.

This is towards the end of the game as they were winning 27-0. They scored again here!

You can see him here on the end opening a hole!

They won the game and are now 2-0 allowing only one score in 8 quarters.  It’s actually a pretty good team and the kids are all having fun and working very hard.  Good job son.

Here are some pics from his first game.

Check him out here. He looks like a young man. He lost 12 pounds in the first two weeks and is getting to be a pretty stong kid.

Here is getting some additional instruction prior to the game from coach. They get together an hour before the game to go over the game plan and make sure they are ready to go.

We all came out to see his first game, including his biggest chearleader, his lil' sister

Here he is getting a little practice in. That's him second from the left.

Put me in coach!

My boy's here waiting for the coach, pictured to his left, to put him into his first game after two weeks of practice.

So you can't really, see but my boy is on the right side of the line, two kids over from the center. This was the play where he opened a whole big enough for a mac truck to drive through and his team got their first touchdown of the season!

Halftime!

Here he is on the kick-off return team

You can see him right there on the end in the huddle getting ready to put this game away.

My boy did pretty good for his first game ever after only two weeks of practice.  They won 24-6 pretty easily and my boy’s only words at the end of the game were: “I want more playin’ time Dad”.  Awesome!

The campground only has 7 spots, and there is really only one that is good for a big family that is tent camping.  We were the first people in the campground and chose the best spot.  We met some great people that weekend, the only other family in the whole campground, and had a great time.

The campground is free too!  Here are some pics.

Every month or so, I wish it was that frequent, I update my Linkedin, Facebook and other social networks with new contacts.  It has been about 6 months since I did this last, so on a lazy Labor Day I decided to export my contacts and update my social networks.  Maybe there is a way to do this more efficiently, but I just wanted to get it done.

It had really been a while since I did this and so I had 499 contacts in Linkedin that I hadn’t reached out to.  I was excited to reconnect with some individuals and add them to my network.  Starting a few moments after I sent my invites I received notification of lots of people accepting my invite.  Thanks to all of you for reconnecting.

One person, let’s call him Brian, chose to not only reject my invite but to let me know why.  I do appreciate knowing why they chose not to accept my invite, but the reason was upsetting.  In Linkedin you can designate an Amazon reading list.  I updated it recently with a few books I have read, The Forgotten Man and Common Sense, by Glenn Beck.  That second book was why this gentlemen chose not to accept my connection invitation.  “Any fan of Glenn Beck I have nothing in common with”.

My first reaction was to dismiss it and move on.  But then I thought that this was the exact thing that is happening with the country.  We are so focused on hating the other side of any political issue that we demonize them, both the repubs and the dems do this very effectively.  So I chose not to participate in that.  I sent, what I hoped was a professional and “reaching over the aisle” type of email.  I’ll let you decide if it was snarky or not:

Brian,

I contacted you not because of any shared or potentially shared political beliefs, I tend to leave them out of my business relationships, but because we worked together in some capacity in your capacity at (website removed). I believe that is your site, or that you are associated with.

Do you only work with those that share your political beliefs? Not that I do or I don’t. I don’t wish or intend to get into a political debate, but I do know that I work with and share friendships with many people who wouldn’t read a Glenn Beck book and know that I would, but somehow those relationships still work

I hope you have a wonderful day and reconsider my invite. It is our commonalities that bring us together, not our differences. Have a wonderful evening and a great week!

I meant it as a friendly email to point out that we don’t have to agree politically, but since we actually worked together, me as an affiliate manager, he as an affiliate, there was definitely a reason for us to connect.  Oh well.

Brian, if you are reading this, I bet you and I have a lot in common.  Hey, I’m in Sales and Marketing and so are you.  I’m in ecommerce, and so are you.  I have managed vendor relationships in the past, and your profile indicates you do to.  I bet you are a pretty cool guy, and ya know what, my wife thinks I am 

I honestly do have close relationships with people who have vastly different views.  They know where I stand, I know where they stand and at times the only debates that I have that really matter are with those individuals.  Our commonalities bring us together and our differences make the sum of our parts way better then the parts themselves.  I cherish those relationships.  We’ve stopped doing that.  We can’t just hang around with people who share every belief we do, how boring is that.

Jamie

From their blog, Exploring Holand:

“Sanfilippo Syndrome is a recessive autosomal genetic disease.  Children with Sanfilippo Syndrome are missing an essential enzyme needed to breakdown and dispose of long sugar chains in the body called mucopolysaccharides. also known as GAGs.  Because these sugar chains cannot be broken down and disposed of they accumulate in the cells causing progressive damage.  Babies and young children with Sanfilippo Syndrome appear normal, but symptoms begin to appear with age as more and GAGs build up in the cells of the body.  There are 3 stages to the disease. Stage 1 the child begins to lag behind peers and begins to display difficult behaviors.  Stage 2 the child losing his/her language, becomes hyperactive, chews on everything, and has sleeping difficulties.  Stage 3 the child slows down, becomes dependant for all mobility and loses the ability to chew/swallow.  There is no treatment or cure for Sanfilippo.  Life expectancy varies.  Waverly and Oliver have the most agressive type of Sanfilippo.”

When we found out what they were facing, we just couldn’t believe it.  I think it’s the only time my wife and I openly whept for someone else’s hardship.  And I mean whept.  I couldn’t imagine watching my kids slowly deteriorate before my eyes.  Even writing this the tears flow.  They have such a long road ahead of them.  I live about as far away from them as you can get and still live in the US, so there isn’t much I can do to help them where they are, but, their friends and my sister started up www.AHundredForAHome.com.

What is A Hundred For A Home?  “A Hundred for a Home is a campaign aiming to gather 4,000 friends who will donate $100 each in order to help the McNeil family with the purchase of a house, necessary home modifications, and out-of-pocket medical expenses.

We want to minimize their financial burden, allowing them to enjoy the short time they have with Waverly and Oliver. (Of course donations less or greater than $100 are greatly appreciated!)“

I’m sure you can imagine, well at least get an idea of what they are going through.  Now add on top of that the financial burden of equipping their house with needed changes, constant doctors and specialists and all the other expenses that come with this desease.  It’s overwhelming.  But we all can help.  I love my cousin and her famly dearly and would be incredibly honored, appreciative and in your debt if you were able to help them in thier journey.

Thank you and God bless – Jamie

To donate – http://ahundredforahome.com/