November 3rd, 1930.

29 years before I was born, Donald Fredrick Howard was born in Maine.  The 2nd son and third of four children to my grandparents whom I never met because they both passed away before I was born.

In 1998, he passed away after a short battle with cancer.  He was 67 at the time.

In those 37 years that he was my Dad, he had his principles.  And just like the rest of us, he made his mistakes.  But he is remembered more for the impact on the lives of those who knew him.

He was patriotic.  He served in the Navy.  He took me to parades on Memorial Day and the 4th of July and passed along a respect for those who served and for the country that they served.

I’m not sure what he would say exactly if he saw the mess we are in today.

I know that he would be disgusted by the self-serving, lying politicians that are either in office right now, or who want to be in office.

And I echo those sentiments.

I realize that there are plenty of sincere people wanting to serve as elected officials.  But it’s hard to know who is who sometimes.

All we want is truth with a minimum of distortion.

Different points of view are fine, different solutions are fine, but the spin on the truth that occurs on all levels of politics from my city to my country and around the world…

Please stop.

Next week we will have elections in my city for Mayor and other city and county offices.

The sad fact is that so many people who have the power to elect the office holders for the next four years know very little about the candidates, what the role of each office has, and how it all fits together.  It is the political advertising, and to a lesser extent, debates and commentary that will persuade the voters to select one candidate over another.

I’ve only done slightly better.  I have done a decent job of paying attention to all of my choices for Mayor and have spoken with 2 of the 3 who will be on the ballot next week.

I do my best to listen to as many sides of an issue as I can find and look for nuggets of truth.

There are two other notable birthdays later this month.  On November 16th my friend Ron turns 70.  He is surprised to have lived this long as he has now outlived his parents.

The day before, November 15th, my son Jon will be celebrating his 27th birthday, which I find hard to believe.

The future for me, my kids and their kids is in all of our hands. Each of us has an impact on others.

Seek truth in your lives for everyone’s sake.

 (Picture was taken when I was 7 years old with my Dad)