And So It Begins...

The bell tolls, the ball drops and the proverbial hands of time swiftly move forward into yet another year. While certainly full, 2008 came and went in what now seems a blink of an eye. Although a blink isn’t quite what it felt like most of the time!
January 1, 2008 no one could possibly have predicted the direction of the winds that would creep upon us and sometimes bluster through our doors…literally!

There was no way to know what the future might hold as we began the year with politics and the debates in New Hampshire. While Hillary was whining about her feelings being hurt there was no way to gauge how fast and how furious the political engines were firing. When the green flag dropped and the race was on no one would suspect that in January when the last lap is signaled we would end up in overtime! It didn’t matter your political affiliation or non-affiliations you couldn’t get through the day without being bombarded with the he said she said game of the century!
And as we all gathered to hear the final address of George W, to breathe a giant sigh of relief or was it loathing, perhaps it was just a sigh to signal our ever growing antipathy for the many things beyond our control, we certainly could not have foreseen the smoke upon the horizon as the battle for the highest office in our land veered out of control!
As the democrats finally united we barely got our footing and the republican ticket sparked its own multi-media frenzy! Certainly no one saw that one coming yet we were all very relieved to see it going and taking it with it all the blue-collar ‘joes’ and Nieman-Marcus apparel. Had it not been for the late-night comedy circuit we all would have certainly lost our minds! 2012 however is yet to be determined!

As with any year, it had its share of natural disasters. 2008 set the record for Tornado deaths in a single year and the majorities were actually in a single week! As it all began on Super Tuesday, it would seem all the hot air, back and forth rhetoric between politicians created a whirlwind of atmospheric proportions! 87 Tornadoes broke out over the course of two days, killing 57 people across 4 states.
March brought a tornado to downtown Atlanta Georgia pelting the CNN center and disrupting a basketball conference game at the Georgia Dome as sections of its roof were removed. It wasn’t over as April roared in and 3 tornadoes ripped through central and southern Virginia, by the 28th of May 110 people had died in the United States due to Tornadoes!
For us here in Iowa May 25th stands out as 7 died and dozens of lives shattered as our own Parkersburg was dismantled in a matter of minutes and June brought more heartache as a Boy Scout Camp was shredded killing 4. Tornadoes continued to pelt the United States long into November ending the year with a reported total of 1,489+ and 125 deaths!
Mother Nature wasn’t satisfied and continued to grasp our attention in multiple ways, and with much advance preparation this time it wasn’t the southern states bucketing out of their kitchens; it was the north! Our own Iowa was slammed and dunked for weeks! The University of Iowa saw its architectural history at risk, Cedar Rapids couldn’t function without a boat and numerous families saw their homes by rooftop only. Yet as Iowans do, neighbor reached out to neighbor and the clean up began.

As we all sought a little escape we engrossed ourselves in the Olympic Games and for a moment felt united once again. We cheered, encouraged and embraced our country into a symbol of strength and dominance once more; then the glorious ten days came to a close and reality was standing in wait at our back door.
More madness would follow as the ever shrinking American dollar set a new standard for low! The stock market didn’t just crash it collapsed, and as the dust settled the entire country was on its feet. Our attention was commanded and the jobs of millions lay on the line. A dangerous new trend was begun as our government, guided by the hand of George W., set a new precedent and began handing out billions of dollars to the CEO’s of bankrupt corporations who refused to take a cut in their multi-million dollar a year incomes! Henry Poulson, the man entrusted with our money, started buying up stock in insurance companies and banks without any oversight or so much as a bread crumb trail to track it!

Perhaps it was our fore-fathers slapping us all upside the head for screwing up their vision of a ‘perfect union’, or it was simply Mother Nature trying in one last desperate attempt to get our attention; whatever it was it was a year the Universe itself overturned and chaos ensued in every nook and cranny of the globe!
With all the turmoil and pandemonium a year can dish out one thing remained constant and that is our Freedom! America may have lost its standing in the world, our dollar may no longer be worth the paper it is printed on and yes, our many men and women in uniform continue to be harms way, but we still have our voice and in a year when nothing seemed to be going our way, there was a light upon the horizon after all.

On August 28th 1963 Martin Luther King Jr used his voice and told the world of his dream. A dream that one day a man would be judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.
On November 4th 2008 King’s dream was realized when a record 135 million people used their one voice. It was a day when one voice became many and a people who long felt unheard rose up and rang the bells of liberty and they were heard!

As we begin 2009 so shall we begin a new chapter in our lives and in our history~ may the long and winding road ahead bring you peace~