While helping a friend with his cows, we were getting hay out of the loft of one of those iconic barns that have been around for well more than a century.  He pointed to an out-of-place sign on the loft door for a title company.

A local bank had created the title company when it began to acquire foreclosed farms in the 1930s.  By 1960, the bank wanted out of the land ownership business and started liquidating the farms by auction.  A local businessman had bought 300 acres of this particular farm for $50,000 not knowing where he would come up with the money.

The businessman turned farmer has since passed on.  Few people would remember the title company.  The bank is long gone and not many would even remember it.  Even the landmark building that housed the bank for most of the 20^th Century is gone.

My farmer friend and I went through some powerhouse names of presidents and leaders of the bank who we had recalled from years past.

That is a good reminder that things which seem important are less significant in the scope of time.  There are many things we think are bedrock which fade away in time.  Banks.  Title companies.  Buildings.

There aren’t many things that last forever.  Decisions made as a reaction to the moment may be difficult to unravel later. But, there is a good chance those reactionary decisions eventually will require reversal. Decisions made on foundational truths rather than the situation are more solid.  You should never need to back up from a decision made on the basis of truth or foundational principle.  Perhaps we should put more effort in making the right decision the first time.

I am not sure how I weigh in on the Occupy Wall Street protest, but here is a concrete reason to be critical of corporate America.

Gannett Co. chairman and CEO Craig Dubow has resigned for health reasons.  I’m not sure whether the concern is for Dubow’s health or the company’s.

Dubow has been at the helm of the nation’s largest newspaper chain during a time of steep decline.

Print advertising has declined.  Circulation has declined.  Quality has declined.  Innovation within the company that three decades ago changed American journalism with the introduction of USA Today has been non-existent.

I can’t even begin to count the number of friends and former co-workers who have been laid off by Gannett properties in the last few years.

During Dubow’s tenure, annual revenue from print advertising plummeted from $5.2 billion to $2.7 billion and it is still falling.  During the same time period, Gannett stock crashed from around $72 to just over $10.

Here is the real problem that causes protestors to cry out: Dubow get a $37 million retirement package.  This is on top of the $1.75 million cash bonus he received in March this year after his salary doubled from 2009 to 2010.

Other Gannett top executives also received salaries above $2 million and kissing $3 million.  The received cash bonuses that would have kept many of the newspaper employees on the payroll for months to come.

Did Dubow and his posse earn the salaries and bonuses?  Under what standards?

All I know is that lots of good journalists are unemployed and the newspapers I used to rely on for a commodity called news no longer have it.

They fail on providing jobs.  They fail on providing news.  They fail on being innovative. They score on sucking money out of a once strong business operation.

And that is enough to make you want to take to the streets.

This month marks the 10^th anniversary since we went into Afghanistan in the war on terror.  (Yes, we were in Afghanistan before Iraq.)  A friend refers to it as the Forgotten War.  His story is the story of the thousands of Joes whose lives have been forever changed because of their time in Afghanistan or Iraq in the last 10 years.  This is his story.

Allan Moser, a kid from Post Falls, Idaho, first strolled into my Sunday school class in 2007.  Having entered the Army just weeks after graduating from high school, he was holding on to his sheltered upbringing and exploring the vast new world beyond Idaho.

He had always wanted to be a soldier and he was on the threshold of his dream.  It wasn’t long before Allan was loading up for Afghanistan in March 2008 and marked his 20^th birthday at some lonely, dusty and cold FOB.

At the time, the nation’s attention was turning to Iraq but the 101^st Airborne’s 4^th BCT was headed to Afghanistan.  In part, that is why Allan calls it the Forgotten War.

“People had NO idea we were still in Afghanistan,” Allan recalls.  “Everyone’s focus was on Iraq.  Some of my friends from back home asked me, ‘Why the hell are you going to Afghanistan?  I thought that war was over.’”

Allan said he and his buddies didn’t think the deployment would be as bad as it was.  “We figured it would be 15 months of making good money and working out. Boy were we wrong,” he said.

Not a day goes by that Allan doesn’t think about his time in Afghanistan and remember his comrades.  If he even thought of forgetting, some physical pain would nudge him with a reminder.

Allan’s small company lost two soldiers during that deployment, but the unit lost five others in subsequent deployments after Allan left the Army.  He can name them all and note the dates.  He can also tell you about the 40 wounded among the 89 soldiers in his unit.

He tells stories most Americans don’t want to hear, couldn’t bear to hear, and probably don’t need to hear.  “I’m not the same,” he says after the experience. “No one can be the same after seeing friends and comrades being torn apart and killed.”

It really doesn’t matter to Allan that people don’t understand what he did there.  “I know my family and close friends appreciate what we did, and that’s all that matters to me,” he said.

He left the Army not long after returning from Afghanistan even though he had intended to make a career of it.  He moved to Paragould, Ark., based on connections there with an Army buddy.

Allan views people differently now than when he was an 18-year-old leaving Post Falls, Idaho.  “I’m not complaining or getting anything for free,” he said.  “I live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes have to choose what bills to pay.  But, I’m not complaining about taxes, wages, or healthcare.”

The Veteran’s Administration has diagnosed Allan with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury from an IED blast that gave him a concussion and lacerations on his face.

He has a long list of prescriptions for depression, anger, and sleep disorder as well as pain meds for his back and shoulders and migraines.  The meds don’t penetrate the migraines, he said.

Allan sometimes has to decide between taking sleep meds and being able to get up early in the morning to take care of his infant daughter.  Care for his daughter wins out over personal comfort.

He doesn’t take anything for granted. “Life’s to short and you never know when you can die is my outlook,” he said.

What does he want from society?  “Nothing.  Don’t bother me and I won’t bother you.”

After 10 years in the war on terror, there are thousands of Joes just like Allan scattered all across the nation.  Even if we do forget the war, surely we won’t forget guys like Allan.  We owe them.

I had to chuckle a two different Facebook posts about fatherhood from young guys in the last few days.

One young father with a toddler lamented “nobody prepared me for how difficult it would be to discipline my son. It’s one of the toughest parts of parenting.”

Another young single man said he can’t wait to have a son and “make him exactly like me.”

I could have told the young father that discipline is more difficult that is would appear.  And, I’m pretty sure I have some definite warnings for the young man who wants to make a son in his own image.

I wouldn’t say I’m an expert at fatherhood.  In fact, I don’t know that I would give myself a passing grade.  I fell way short every step along the way.  In fact, if making mistakes creates an expert, I should be writing books about it.

I read ever fatherhood and parenting book I could get my hands on.  No matter what, I could never get a handle on the next phase of development.  I tried.  I’m pretty sure I never figured out the difference in raising a son and pushing soldiers.  Sons don’t seem to respond like soldiers no matter how hard I tried.

I have always envied fathers who seem so comfortable with.  They seem to have a natural ability.  Some guys just seem to instinctively know what to do.  They have a calm confidence.  I would place the young father mentioned above in that category.

I am leading a book study right now on Wild at Heart with a group of guys.  Our most spirited, intense and emotional discussion was when we talked about what author John Eldredge calls “the father wound.”

I was never in running for the perfect parent or the best dad.  But, truth is that none of us are perfect at it.  We need to admit that.  We need to hang together.  We need to tell young fathers how difficult discipline will be and that it gets more difficult in years to come.  We need to talk to young men about whose image they should imprint on their sons.

There is only one perfect Father.  The rest of us fall far short.  But, the perfect Father provides the only hope of getting it right.



Just like the U.S. government, Tennessee government has three branches.  Generally, states have the same system.  It’s pretty neat.  It generally works.

But, some tea drinkers in the Tennessee General Assembly want to change that.  They don’t seem to be happy with a system that separates power and function among three branches of government.  They are so hyped up on their own brand of caffeine-laced tea that they think they should control all of state government.

They have already made rumblings that they want to control how the State Attorney General and other state officers are selected.  Now, they want a hand in the review and disciplinary process for judges in the state as well.

Led by Mt. Juliet’s Sen. Mae Beavers who has an axe to grind with the judicial system, along with Cleveland’s Rep. Eric Watson, the committee wails that the judicial review system is secretive and inbred because a majority of the Court of the Judiciary.

Interesting argument.  Are Beavers and Watson aware that the state Ethics Commission formed to investigate corruption among state elected officials including members of the General Assembly is selected from names selected by the respective party caucuses?  And, perhaps they haven’t been in office long enough to figure out that there reporting of the Ethics Commission action is just as limited as that of the Court of the Judiciary.

When the similarities were pointed out to Beavers recently, she indicated that she would be willing to reform the Tennessee Ethics Commission along with the Court of Judiciary.  I have a better idea.  How about Beavers and Watson spend some time cleaning up their own houses before they try to take control of someone else’s.   If they could show that they could bring integrity to the Tennessee General Assembly, perhaps we could consider trusting them with control of another branch of government.  That should keep them busy for a while.

I have been crying “foul” on the voter ID law since it was first proposed in Tennessee.  Now, an election law expert in Washington has expressed alarm at the number of states enacting such laws.  The Tennessee law took effect July 1 this year.

In a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to an Indiana voter ID law, 250 cases of alleged voter fraud cited, only nine involved a person allegedly voting under someone else’s name.

Across the country, the situation is essentially the same.  Even where there is some evidence of voter fraud, it rarely involved someone voting under an assumed identity.   Voter fraud most often involves vote buying, ballot-box stuffing, absentee ballots, or felons voting in situations prohibited by state election laws.  Voter ID laws don’t address any of those problems.

As I pointed out previously, the local election commissioner told me that her office is getting better communication from the courts system in providing names of felons who should be removed from voter lists.  That system has its own flaws, but the voter ID law won’t help it as Sen. Bill Kitron insists it will.

Across the nation, it is clear that voter ID laws most likely will disenfranchise blacks, Hispanics, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and the poor.  Blacks of encountered poll taxes before in our history, especially in the south.  The poor also were most likely impacted by poll taxes or voter competency tests early in the last century.  Senior citizens generally have the highest percentage of voters of any age group.  Guys like Bill Kitron and his comrade Jim Tracy are convinced that anyone of Hispanic descent is an illegal alien.  As Tracy said in his single-plank campaign platform, “If we don’t stop them, they will just keep coming.”

Voting is a right that shouldn’t be unnecessarily encumbered.  When it is, there usually is a reason behind the hurdle that has noting to do with the voter’s eligibility.

Dear Phelps Family (a.k.a. Westboro Baptist Church),

You came into out city spewing hate and anger saying you are representing Jesus.  I’m pretty sure Jesus is offended.  He never acted that way.  He talked about love and said we would be known as his disciples by our love.  (John 13:35)

The only times Jesus seemed to express anger was when he was dealing with people who acted pretty much like you.  Those were the Pharisees who clung to the law, manipulated the law to their own advantage, and used it to bludgeon others rather than to show love and grace.

In your press release, you referred to soldiers as military mutts.  In our city, that offends us.  That is not what we call them.  We call them friends.  We call them brothers.  We call them neighbors.  Some call them husband.  Some call them daddy.  Some call them sons.  Some call them daughters.  But, we generally call them with respect, honor and love.

When they return home, we wrap them up in a bear hug and welcome them back.  We’ll wait in an aircraft hanger until wee hours of the morning just to wave flags and cheer as they come through the door.

We invite them to join us at our table especially on holidays when duty keeps them from being with family.  We watch out for their families while they are away.

When they come home injured, we comfort them and assist them.  When they return home in a flag-draped casket, we mourn them and show them the proper respect they deserve.  No matter how they return home, we celebrate them as heroes.

As you visit us this week, you will see us as we are.  You will see flags, banners, posters and motorcycles lined up for miles escorting funerals.  You’ll be pretty insignificant in the crowd.  That’s just how we roll in our city.

We love our soldiers.  We love our country even though it is not perfect.  We love our God.  We’re pretty sure that the God we call out to for comfort is not the same one you are referencing.  Our God calls us to share love, not spew hate.  Yeah, we really like that.

Just when I make a statement that there are no real statesmen left, Lamar Alexander jumps up to remind me he is still on the scene.

Tennessee’s senior senator has stepped down from his leadership role in the Republican Senate leadership as a move of principle over politics.  How encouraging!

Alexander is indeed a statesman and a consummate politician.  I recall my first encounter with Alexander in the summer of 1978 when he was running for Tennessee governor.  At the invitation of a brave young staff major, Alexander visited Tennessee Guard soldiers at Camp Shelby, MS.  I thought the major was committing career suicide for taking the risk and that Alexander was wasting his time making the visit.  He was strolling into political territory owned by Carl Wallace, Ned McWherter and Tom Elam, all former Guardsmen who had political rule in the western part of the state.

I also thought there wasn’t much chance of a Republican grabbing the Tennessee governor’s residence.   That had happened only once at that time since the Great Depression.  By the end of the week, as I watched Alexander make himself at home in the barracks with a West Tennessee infantry battalion rather than in the VIP quarters, I realize he was a master campaigner.  When he took the oath of office that cold January day in 1979 on Legislative Plaza, I correctly predicted he would be the state’s first governor to serve two consecutive terms.  He proved to be one of the state’s best governors ranking alongside Ned McWherter.

With that historical backdrop, we find Alexander now more than 30 years later being unconventional in the interest of doing what is right.  Alexander believes he can be more influential as a consensus builder that preaching the party line.  At a time when politics at the national and state level are becoming more stridently polarized, it is encouraging to see a statesman move for consensus to solve problems rather than increasing the rhetoric for party position and power.

Lamar Alexander – a true statesman.  Perhaps he could mentor a new class of leadership.

Rarely are legislative issues black and white or cut and dried.  They most often involve a lot of gray areas.  That is why old politicians – you know, the real statesmen in days of old – often said that making legislation was like making sausage:  the process is always messy but the results are good.

Too often, lawmakers today want to deal in absolutes.  They don’t want to take the time to work through the issues.  They want to find the hot button and go with it.

Tennessee’s Seventh District U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn has gotten her panties all in a wad over government raids on Gibson Guitar factories, warehouses and offices in Nashville and Memphis.  That indeed is a complex issue and I won’t even begin to attempt to sort it out.

The problem for the darling Ms. Blackburn is that she voted for legislation on which the raids were based.  No wait, she voted against it.  But, then she voted for it.  She was against it before she was for it.  Oh my goodness, what is a hardliner to do!

It seems that Ms. Blackburn first opposed the 2008 bill.  Then, she sided with the majority in overriding a veto by then-President George W. Bush.  I know it is hard to believe that she voted against the W.  But, she did vote with the majority.

That law, which W tried to veto and Congress, with Blackburn voting in the majority, pushed through expanded the trade law, which Gibson is suspected of violating.  I know, that involves an expansion of government and Blackburn was in favor of it.  It is difficult to understand.

Blackburn didn’t protest the expansion of the trade law when she first opposed the legislation.  Instead, she focused on the “special interest giveaway that further expands the federal deficit” through large farm subsidies.

The difficulty that faces Ms. Blackburn is that there are multiple issues involved in legislation.  You can’t evaluate everything against your list of hot buttons.  Sometimes you actually have to read the proposal.  Sometime you have to get back in your district and talk to people – you know, the folks that vote and work and pay taxes.

Maybe Ms. Blackburn could have talked with Gibson executives before she voted for the legislation not after they were raided.  But, that would not have been an opportunity to make headlines.  And, that sounds too much like making sausage.  It is just too much work for a poor little ole congresswoman.

I have decried the logic of the voter ID law since it was first proposed in the General Assembly.  A conversation with our county election commissioner this week provided real people details to the concerns I have expressed.

I, and many others, have expressed concern that the elderly will be the most likely disenfranchised by the voter ID law.  I didn’t realize how significant of a problem that really is.

The election commissioner pointed out to me that some of the assisted living centers schedule times to bus residents to the election commission for early voting.  Many of those residents have voted faithfully since long before I was born.  They or their husbands fought in World War II.  They certainly earned the right to vote.

But now, they have to have a photo ID to prove they have that right.  While you and I may find several photo IDs in our billfold, they aren’t so likely to have one.

Because a photo is not required on a driver’s license after age 60 and many of these residents would have allowed their driver’s license to expire years ago, they don’t have one and haven’t had for 20 or 30 years.

These are the people disenfranchised by the voter photo ID bill, not the thousands of convicted felons that Bill Kitron insists are voting illegally.  Kitron has failed to show any significant evidence of rampant voter fraud in Tennessee and he has yet to show how the voter photo ID bill will solve this paper tiger problem.  Instead, he has disenfranchised the strongest voting block with his misplaced fear mongering.   Again, it is opportunistic politics and not real government.