While you watch this think about the way these young soldiers were treated upon their return. Make a committment that it will NEVER happen again!

A great Hillary site….it will make you feel like you could actually do something. At least you will be informed.

Spend a few minutes on this website. It is all about the soldiers who
fought for this country in Vietnam. They must never be forgotten and if
you haven’t already done so, be thanked!

For those of you who are facing cancer or have a loved one with cancer and would like to correspond with Ken Metzger he can be contacted at Kenmetz222@yahoo.com

Please follow this link if you are interested in the childrens book that he has written entitled “The Potter’s Perfect Piece”

The Wedding Gift
by Melody Lee

The gift table was piled high with bright packages. Everything looked dazzling, except one bedraggled gift. Between the fancy gift bags overflowing with brilliantly colored tissue paper and the curly ribbons wrapped around shiny packages sat one misshapen box.
The paper, once sporting pure white roses, was grimy with fingerprints and wrinkled from the numerous times it had been unwrapped and rewrapped. It even looked as though it had been stomped on once or twice. On the gift tag several names were written then crossed out, and finally the name of the groom was scrawled over the others.

Inside, the present, once beautiful and pure, lay soiled, torn and broken.

Who would so carelessly place this gift upon the table waiting for the groom to open?

It Wasn’t Always This Way
Once, the gift had been perfect. Too beautiful and precious to be purchased with money, designed to not only attract the husband but also to cement the marriage, making the two one. The Father had placed one perfect gift into the hands of the bride to give to her beloved on their wedding day. He warned her to guard the gift well and not open it until He introduced her to her beloved, until He put His blessing on their wedding.

But the need to be loved, the pressure to fit in, the fear of losing out, caused the bride to open the gift and offer it to the first boy who showered her with attention. It’ll be OK, she thought. I’ll marry this one someday anyway.

But they grew apart, he moved on, she grew sad, the gift was torn, and when the next chance for a little happiness came along, she opened up the gift again and offered it. It was easier this time: The tape didn’t hold so well, the ribbon was already loose, but once again the couple grew apart, and now the gift was stained. Because of its use, the gift lost value to the bride-to-be, and she pulled it out whenever she needed diversion or to fill the empty space, and each time it grew more worn and lost more luster.

She told herself it didn’t matter. She told herself all people opened their gifts before marriage. She rationalized that it was the only way to attract a man. And though the gift brought her attention, it didn’t bring the love she desired.

After having her heart broken several times, she finally thought back on what the Father had told her. At that point, she put the gift aside and waited. One day she met her beloved, and he was everything she hoped.

What a Gift!
“I have a perfect gift for you,” he told her. “My Father gave it to me to save for our wedding night. I long to open it for you now, but it will be worth the wait.”

The bride hid her tears while he spoke, but she went weeping before her Father with her stained and battered gift.

“I’m so sorry, Father, that I gave the gift away before You chose my groom. Can You give me a new one? I don’t want to give my groom this broken gift.”

The Father smiled sadly and took the gift in His hands.

“I had a reason for my warning, but I want you to know that I will always love you. I can make you whole again, my child, but I cannot make the gift whole again. I will touch his eyes to see your gift as good, but the patches and stains will still remain.”

And so the bride put her crumpled gift on the wedding table, trusting the Father would help her husband find her gift as perfect as the one she would receive.

Our Crumpled World
We live in a society that pushes sexuality at every turn. The clothes we wear, advertisements, movies, songs and television all glorify sex as a normal part of dating. But that isn’t the way the Lord intended it to be used. He tells us to flee sexual immorality for a reason. (See 2 Corinthians 6:18.)

God gave us our sexuality to use as a wonderful wedding present to bless our marriages. When we live outside of His plan for sex we find ourselves reaping the consequences. Sometimes we’re lucky to walk away with only a broken heart and a lower self-worth; other times we become hardened or callous toward men.

You probably know more than a dozen young women who are raising children on their own, because they didn’t wait for the man God chose for them. Although your friends may never tell you, you also probably know more than a dozen young women who are reaping the physical effects of sexually transmitted infections, infertility or even life-threatening diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis C.

If you’ve made a pledge of purity, keep it!

If you made the mistake of giving up your wedding gift before your wedding night, know that God doesn’t take away the consequences of your sin, but He’s willing to make you whole again. He’ll give you a virgin heart and help you flee from temptation. God is the giver of everything good. We have to trust that He’ll make it worth the wait.

But What About . . .
If you’ve been forced to give up your virginity, know that God doesn’t hold that against you! Seek help from a professional Christian counselor or an adult in your church for the hurts that you’ve suffered and let God use them to heal you.

To get information about the Sensory Integration Conference contact Diana Henry at www.ateachabout.com or locally, Dr. Jan Tona at tona@buffalo.edu

I challenge each and every one of you to be part of the change you want to see in the world. Let’s start locally. We are fortunate we do not have to become a “minute man” and take up muskets. All we have to do is take ten minutes and vote!! Tuesday is Primary Day. On Primary Day you have a choice of the endorsed candidates, those who decide to run for themselves, or a combination of them. Saturday I had on on my radio show Dr. Satish Mohan, Supervisor of Amherst, that won his primary by 300 votes, Mary Travers-Murphy, Supervisor of Orchard Park, Steve Walters, Supervisor of Hamburg, and Kathy Balus, Supervisor of Sardinia. All four of these supervisors have been sandbagged, publicly slandered, denied access to public information and the party political operatives are trying to ensure that these types of reformers are never elected again. I asked each of these supervisors for their picks of who they would like to see sitting on their boards and here they are:

AMHERST: Republicans have three choices for the Town Board. Supervisor Dr. Satish Mohan asks that you give your votes to Dr. Barry Weinstein, Roy Wixson and Mark Klyczek. I support these three men as they are all men filled with integrity and will serve us well. He also asks for your support for Russ Stoll. You can Google any of these men to find out more about them.

ORCHARD PARK: Independence Party members have an opportunity to write in Deborah Yeomans and Anne Marie McManus. Both of these women have the backing of Mary Travers- Murphy. In a write in you must spell the name correctly AND it must be legible. Good luck!!! Petition to ballot is grass roots at its’ best!

HAMBURG: residents will have an opportunity to vote for Tom Best and Kevin Smardz in the general election in November. There is not a primary for these candidates. These are the two men that Supervisor Steve Walters would like to see elected. Please VOTE!!!!

SARDINIA: Democrats will have the opportunity to vote in the primary on Tuesday. Supervisor Kathy Balus asks that you cast a vote for Chuck Tobin and Norm Uhteg.

You the people elected these supervisors because you knew that the system was rigged against the little guy, taxes are out of control in New York State and locally and you wanted to see if this one vote, a vote for the non politician, could make a difference. It has! Orchard Park has gotten rid of an illegal practice that the government was partaking in, Amherst has a new highway contract with a single carrier for their insurance saving us $50,000 per month as well as an inequitable assessment process halted to be revised, Hamburg practices are being reviewed much to the chagrin of entrenched politicians and a new newspaper in Sardinia to get out the real news instead of the twisted news. DON’T ABANDON THESE SUPERVISORS NOW!!!!

For those of you that are Christian, Fred sent me this youtube link.
Reminded me of what it is all about! Thanks Fred!

Please send a card and forward, as you see appropriate, to those in your vet organizations, churches, local schools and scouts, relatives, etc. who would be willing to send a respectful card or message to these young heroes.
As they recover, they may be released from hospital and Brooke will forward mail.

Please send the letters to:

ATTN: (soldiers rank and name) (UNIT NOT NEEDED)
Brooke Army Medical Center, BLDG 3600
3851 Roger Brooke Drive
Ft. Sam Houston, TX 78234

Here is a list of our soldiers currently at BAMC:

Alpha Company:
CPL Atchley, Joshua B.
PFC Dunn, Michael A.
SSG Fradera, Michael A.
PFC Johnson, Benjamin L.
SSG Kirby, John R.
PFC Looney, Andrew R.
CPL Pellechia, Anthony D.
PFC Thompson, Leland R.

Bravo Company:
SSG Beaumont, Brian M.
PFC Butler, Zachary W.
PFC Edwards, Drew A.

Charlie Company:
PFC Crookston, Duncan C.
SPC Mixson, Joseph C .

Headquarters:
SPC Poulsen, Billy C.
PFC Todhunter, Andrew N.
SPC Wold, Joshua P.